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More than a third of the money allocated in the first year of the Prime Minister’s flagship numeracy program went unused and was returned to the Treasury, research shows.
The multiplication program aims to improve the maths skills of adults across the country, a personal priority for Rishi Sunak.
The £560m scheme, launched two years ago while the Prime Minister was still chancellor, aims to tackle what he calls the “tragic” problem of low numeracy skill levels, while also creating a “high-wage, high-skills” economy. part of the goal. , the high-productivity economy of the future”.
But of the £81m of course funding provided to local authorities in England in 2022, £30m will be returned to the Treasury. The funds are provided in annual tranches, and Treasury rules mean unused funds cannot be carried forward to the next year. Some districts returned the vast majority of funds.
Skills experts and local leaders say regions don’t have enough time to launch the program’s first year before the money must be returned.
Lucy Nethsingha, the Lib Dem leader of Cambridgeshire County Council, said the authority had just six months to get the scheme up and running.
“Universities and other providers are unable to enroll students within this time frame,” she added. Cambridgeshire had to return a third of the money.
According to Freedom of Information responses obtained by local government researcher Jack Shaw, nine in 10 local authorities returned at least some of their funding after the first year.
The Greater Manchester Combined Authority refunded 69% of the funding and said the Department for Education did not approve proposals for the scheme until “the second half of 2022, meaning recruitment and rollout of the scheme cannot proceed” until the fourth quarter.
It added that the scheme was currently “well underway” and included funding for community groups “to help those furthest from the labor market and provide support to those who live and work here”.
David Hughes, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, which represents further education colleges in the UK, said the failure to use Multiply funding in the first year was “disappointing but not surprising” as it was “short-term, Disposable”. Funding that local authorities have struggled to absorb”.
He said funding should be provided directly to universities over three years “to build demand, work with other local institutions and ensure the capacity of specialist teachers and support staff to be able to deliver the numeracy transformation we all want to see in the adult population” .
Xiao agreed that the clawback highlighted the government’s “short-termist” approach.
“This is the exact opposite of the platform the Prime Minister has set out this week,” he said of the Conservative Party conference, whose slogan this year is “making long-term decisions for a brighter future.”
A government spokesman said most areas had set up “innovative adult numeracy courses” in Multiply’s first year, with 44,000 people starting the new course.
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