‘Fundamentally wrong’: Greater Lincolnshire leaders approve ESOL cuts

Plans to cut funding for English language lessons aimed at migrants have been approved in Greater Lincolnshire – despite fears it will harm community integration.

At a budget meeting on Wednesday, Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Authority agreed to scrap English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses from 2027 and develop a literacy programme instead.

The council’s Reform mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns aims to redirect the £1 million ESOL adult skills fund cash towards the literacy qualification to “help more adults into paid employment”.

Meanwhile, her skills lead, North Lincolnshire council leader Rob Waltham, claimed ESOL classes create “segregation” as learners are separated from other groups due to the “origin of their birth” or “their colour”.

The Tory politician added it was more inclusive “to make sure we don’t segregate people” and ensure public adult education funding is spent “on the right people”.

The funding rules were approved ahead of the combined authority taking control of its £17-19 million adult skills fund budget in September.

Jenkyns, backed by a group of Reform and Conservative local council leaders, also voted to re-introduce a rule that learners must have been resident in the region for three years before they can apply for council-subsidised courses.

The Reform mayor called the decision “a really exciting moment” for the estimated 200,000 residents who lack a level 2 qualification, and claimed leaders from other areas were interested in the development.

She said: “What I’d like to see is, next month, we get the business community, we get FE and HE in the room, we get the private providers and Ofqual as well, and we design an amazing literacy qualification that’s linked to economic outcomes.

“I’d love our county to be that beacon of light for these people, where other counties follow suit, and we’ve already had other counties and combined authorities watching the space and contacting us.”

The funding vote followed a public consultation that attracted 375 responses, with 73 per cent saying they disagreed or strongly disagreed with cuts to ESOL funding.

In 2023-24, about £1 million was spent on delivering the language courses for 1,427 Greater Lincolnshire residents. 

‘Using migrants as a political football’

Four district council leaders opposed the ESOL cut, with North Kesteven District Council leader Richard Wright arguing it was “fundamentally wrong”.

He said ESOL helped women from patriarchal societies, such as Afghanistan, who were “legitimately here”.

Wright, a Conservative, added: “If we want people to integrate into society, if we want to actually have people contribute to GB PLC to pay their taxes, to get employment, they need to be able to speak English.

“So to say that after a year we will stop the ESOL, to me is fundamentally wrong – there’s a case for ESOL, there’s a case for literacy, but one doesn’t replace the other.”

Naomi Tweddle, leader of Labour-run City of Lincoln Council, warned the impacts could be “far more wide reaching than are anticipated”.

And Nick Worth, Tory leader of South Holland District Council, said Jenkyns “clearly hadn’t listened” to the message delivered by the public consultation, but the mayor shot back that the number of responses was “very small”.

University and College Union general secretary Jo Grady said: “This decision to cut ESOL funding is an attack on community cohesion and integration that will cause serious harm across Lincolnshire.

“This cut must be stopped and adult education in Lincolnshire must be fully funded.

“It is yet another example of Reform using migrants as a political football to inflame division and hatred; on the one hand, Nigel Farage complains about hearing foreign languages spoken in public, yet on the other, a Reform mayor is stopping migrants accessing the very courses that will enable them to speak English.”