Mayors will not take control of growth and skills levy funding for apprenticeships under the government’s 16-to-19 devolution reforms, skills minister Jacqui Smith has confirmed. Ministers are preparing to hand mayors control of 16-to-19 education budgets, including funding for classroom-based qualifications in colleges. But yesterday, Smith told the House of Lords levy-funded apprenticeships for 16-to-18-year-olds would be excluded. Conservative peer Lord Willetts, a former universities minister, said there was a “tide of opinion in favour of devolving funding”, but added: “This is causing some concern.” He quoted education secretary Lucy Powell’s statement last week that “for the first time, mayors will have control of the 16-to-19 education budget”. Willetts asked whether this included “control of the expenditure of the apprenticeship levy for 16-to-18-year-olds” and classroom-based provision. Smith replied: “Obviously, we are still working on the details of that, but no, it does not extend to the growth and skills levy provision for apprenticeships for 16-to-18-year-olds. “It will cover the 16-to-19 budget as it applies, for example, to post-16 qualifications, including classroom provision in colleges.” Prime minister Andy Burnham announced the transfer of 16-to-19 funding in July. Proposals, legislation and an implementation timetable are due in a white paper alongside the autumn budget on 28 October. Democratic Unionist Party peer Lord Weir of Ballyholme warned that local authorities had been “quite inconsistent” in supporting young people at risk of becoming NEET who did not qualify for an education, health and care plan. He asked how ministers would ensure “consistent and full access to pathways” regardless of where young people lived. Smith admitted this was “one of the big challenges” of devolution. Ministers were discussing with mayors the relationship between national entitlements and local flexibility while ensuring equality of access, she said. Further levy changes possible Smith also hinted at further growth and skills levy reforms following Alan Milburn’s review of young people not in education, employment or training. Her comments came a day after an FE Week investigation examined Milburn’s suggestion that the levy should face a “root and branch” review. Conservative peer Lord Johnson of Marylebone, another former universities minister, cited a Financial Times report that Milburn was minded to recommend the levy’s abolition, and asked how the government would replace the “£4 billion or so” it raised. Smith said Johnson knew “as well as any of us that you cannot necessarily believe everything that you read in the newspapers”. But she added: “There may well be further changes to the growth and skills levy, but we have been clear that we want to pivot it to young people.” Labour peer Baroness Morris of Yardley, a former education secretary, asked how ministers would deliver mounting work experience expectations for young people aged 14 and over. She recalled the former business education partnerships, which brokered links between schools and employers. Smith said mayoral and strategic authorities would need support “to be able to broker those links locally” for T Level placements and other work experience. She described Morris’s ideas about brokerage support as “very important and something we are reflecting hard on”.