Plans to cut funding for English language lessons to avoid alleged “segregation” have been approved in Greater Lincolnshire, amid concerns about the “serious harm” the policy could cause on local community integration.
At a budget meeting today (February 25), politicians leading Greater Lincolnshire Combined County Council agreed to scrap English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) courses from 2027 and begin developing a local literacy programme.
The combined authority’s Reform mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns wants to redirect the £1 million in public funding spent via the adult skills fund on these courses towards a new literacy qualification that will “help more adults into paid employment”.
Her skills lead, local Conservative council leader Rob Waltham, claimed ESOL classes create “segregation” because learners are separated from other groups because of the “origin of their birth” or “their colour”.
He added that it is inclusive “to make sure we don’t segregate people” and ensure that public adult education funding is spent “on the right people” in the county.
The funding rules were approved ahead of the combined authority taking control of its £17-19 million adult skills fund budget next September.
Jenkyns and a group of local Reform and Conservative council leaders voted to “end funding” for ESOL in 2027, to help design a new literacy qualification to help adults into employment, and to re-introduce a three-year residency rule for learners to receive a subsidised courses from August this year.
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 are interested in the development.
She added: “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.”
It followed a public consultation that attracted 375 responses, with 73 per cent saying they disagreed or strongly disagreed with cutting 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’
However, the plans were unsuccessfully opposed by four district council leaders, with one calling the move to cut English language lessons “fundamentally wrong”.
North Kesteven District Council leader Richard Wright argued that ESOL courses can help women from patriarchal societies such as Afghanistan who are “legitimately here”.
He added: “Literacy is a problem, and it needs dealing with one way, but so does ESOL.
“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, and quite often there’s not, and quite often there’s no other way of doing that.
“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.”
Lincoln City Council leader Naomi Tweddle warned that the impacts could be “far more wide reaching than are anticipated”.
Nick Worth, leader of South Holland District Council, said Jenkyns “clearly hadn’t listened” to the consultation considering the proportion of people that opposed the policy, 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 enflame 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.”
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