To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what plans his Department has to support (a) Portsmouth and (b) other local authorities in the achievement of the aims of “The Learning Revolution” White Paper. (318435)

Local authorities have a key part to play in achieving the aims of “The Learning Revolution” White Paper. During 2010-11 we will work with the Skills Funding Agency to develop new lead accountable bodies, led by local authorities, to take responsibility for funding and planning informal adult learning in order to strengthen local ownership, widen local partnerships and improve coherence between key policies at the local level.

Funding priorities for 2010-11 are set out in the “Skills Investment Strategy 2010-11”, published November 2009. In 2010-11 we will continue to invest £210 million in Adult Safeguarded Learning, reaffirming our White Paper commitments. In the 2009-10 financial year we have invested an additional £20 million in a Transformation Fund which is supporting more than 300 innovative projects to strengthen local infrastructures and widen access to learning for hard-to-reach groups. Funding is supporting two projects in Portsmouth: “Memories are made of this” and the “Portsmouth Informal Learning Project”. Portsmouth is also an eligible district for the Community Learning Champions Support Programme grants and can bid for funding to support a second round project.

To ask the Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills what role Adult Safeguarded Learning funds will play in achieving the aims of “The Learning Revolution” White Paper. (318438)

Our funding priorities are set out in the strategy document, “Skills Investment Strategy 2010-11”, published November 2009. In 2010-11, we will continue to invest £210 million in Adult Safeguarded Learning—learning for personal, family and community development. This reaffirms our commitment to implementing the vision set out in “The Learning Revolution” White Paper. A new priority will be to encourage Digital Life Skills which can often be embedded with other provision and open up a whole range of new learning opportunities to help thousands of offline adults take their first steps with computers and the internet.

We want every adult to benefit from a wide choice of learning opportunities. Informal learning can make a profound difference to people’s lives by developing family and community cohesion, improving people’s health and providing a stepping stone towards training and employment. During 2010-11 we will work with the Skills Funding Agency to develop new lead accountable bodies, led by local authorities, to strengthen local ownership, widen partnerships and improve coherence between policies at the local level.