As the House of Lords debated lifelong learning last week, a famous passage from literature went through my head: It was the best of times it was the worst of times. For nearly two hours learned and esteemed Lords and Baronesses sang the praises of adult learning, talking about its transformative positive nature in so many parts of our lives. Yet hanging over the whole debate, barely mentioned but like someone had let off a stink bomb in the chamber, was the fresh news (emerging that same afternoon) that the adult education budget would face millions of pounds of cuts from September. Back to that Dickens passage: “it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”.
Let’s at least start with the spring of hope. Lord (Jim) Knight of Weymouth had called the debate – an opportunity for the House to reflect on the social, economic and personal value of lifelong learning. Lord Knight began proceedings with an impassioned speech on the value of lifelong learning, concluding with a quote from Kofi Annan: “Knowledge is power. Information is liberating. Education is the premise of progress, in every society, in every family”.
That spirit of championing the power of learning and recognising how vital it is in our changing times imbued every single contribution. Some peers even took time to mention the WEA’s work – thank you Lord Knight, Baroness Shepard and Lord Young.
I would recommend reading the Hansard transcript or watching the Parliament TV recording (scroll towards the end of the day’s proceedings to hear this debate).
We will be following up with the Peers who spoke, to thank them for their contributions and no doubt we will be quoting some of their wise and inspiring words in the weeks to come.
Unfortunately we will be quoting them in the context of resisting – back to Dickens – that winter of despair. Lord Knight had heard the news and referred to it in his speech: “Adult education budgets are set to be slashed by the government” – running that very afternoon in FE Week. Leaking out quietly with no formal announcement, the prospect of the Mayoral Combined Authorities, who hold the education budgets, having to find around 2%-3% of “savings” (i.e. cuts) from their budgets from September. FE Week estimated the cut to adult education budgets will save the department around £30 million.
This will of course impact hardest on learners and probably in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country. I spoke to FE Week about how short sighted this move was and how further along the line the Treasury will be spending more on DWP benefits and NHS costs because of it.
In her summing up of the debate, the Minister could only say – having played back all the positive things about lifelong learning that her colleagues had raised – “We must foster adult learning through the adult skills fund—notwithstanding some of the difficult decisions that we are having to make about the funding of adult skills”.
Of course there are “difficult decisions” in the current spending round but pushing the cuts down to the regions and from there impacting on communities is not the way to go.
The news is fresh. We are just hearing from the Mayors and waiting to see if they will push back. This is the harsh downside of devolved funding – the centre still gets to set the total amount available and determine how it is spent. But that doesn’t mean that the Mayors are powerless to make a case back – what about their growth plans, what about their ambitions to support those most in need?
Last week we also submitted our paper to the Treasury today ahead of the next Spending Review, expected in the Spring – a Spring of hope? It’s not looking that way at the moment. We must continue to make the case to Treasury, to the Department for Education and to the Mayors that adult education is one of the most important and valuable assets we have. Underfunded for many years yes, but still massively impactful. There were many quotes I could have picked from the debate but let me finish with one from Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle:
“To be an informed voter, to be a parent able to help their children navigate a fast-changing world in the age of shocks, to contribute to your community as a citizen, lifelong learning is not a “nice to have”, or an add-on but an essential basis for health and survival, both individually and collectively”.
