From Whitehall to the regions: the next phase of skills devolution in England

In the space of just a few days, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has set out what could become the most significant programme of education and skills reform in a generation. Following his commitment to open up technical education from the age of 14, giving young people earlier access to technical education, skills training and work experience, the Government has now announced that responsibility for 16 to 19 funding will be devolved to Mayoral Combined Authorities. Together, these reforms signal a fundamental shift towards a more place-based education system, with local leaders given greater responsibility for aligning education, skills and economic growth.

This move is entirely consistent with what metro mayors, including Burnham himself during his time as Mayor of Greater Manchester, have argued for over many years. Since 2019, mayors have successfully managed devolved adult education budgets, yet responsibility for 16 to 19 provision remained firmly in Whitehall. That division has limited the ability of combined authorities to design coherent skills pathways that connect school, technical education, employment and adult retraining.

Bringing together responsibility for 14 to 19 technical education, 16 to 19 funding and adult skills creates the opportunity to think about post-16 education as a single system rather than a series of disconnected programmes.

The implications extend well beyond further education.

For universities, this could represent the beginning of a new relationship with devolved places. If mayors become responsible for shaping local skills systems, higher education can no longer sit outside regional economic strategies. Universities will increasingly be expected to work alongside colleges, employers and strategic authorities to develop coherent progression pathways, support higher technical education, deliver modular learning and respond more directly to local labour market demand. Rather than competing with colleges for learners, institutions may find themselves collaborating around shared regional priorities, creating integrated tertiary systems that combine academic and technical routes throughout working life.

Of course, reforms of this scale bring significant challenges. Further education leaders have broadly welcomed the direction of travel while rightly urging caution over implementation. A national system serving more than a million young people cannot simply be dismantled overnight.

Independent training providers have also raised legitimate concerns. Many employers operate across multiple combined authorities. If devolution produces a patchwork of different funding rules, eligibility criteria and commissioning arrangements, businesses could face unnecessary complexity, undermining employer engagement at precisely the moment government is seeking to strengthen it.

The answer is not to retreat from devolution, but to define more clearly the respective roles of Whitehall and local government.

Central government should establish the national framework: qualifications, funding principles, quality assurance and learner entitlements. Strategic authorities should then have the flexibility to determine how those objectives are delivered locally, aligning provision with regional labour markets, industrial strategies and employer demand.

This represents an important shift in the role of the Department for Education. Rather than directly controlling delivery, its role increasingly becomes one of stewardship - maintaining standards, ensuring portability of qualifications and protecting fairness - while allowing places greater freedom to innovate.

For devolution to succeed, however, powers alone will not be enough. Combined authorities will need the capability, relationships and financial certainty to use them effectively. Multi-year funding settlements, reduced regulatory complexity and sustained capital investment will all be essential. Equally important will be the ability of mayors to convene schools, colleges, universities, employers and training providers around shared regional priorities, replacing competition with genuine collaboration.

Ultimately, this announcement reflects a much bigger shift in thinking about education and skills. England has traditionally organised policy around institutions and age groups. What is now emerging is a system organised around places and lifelong progression.

That is entirely consistent with the Lifelong Education Institute's long-standing view that education should be understood as a continuous journey rather than a sequence of disconnected stages. The opportunity now is to build genuinely integrated tertiary education systems in which schools, colleges, universities, employers and local government work together to support learning, employment and productivity throughout people's working lives.

If managed well, this could become one of the most significant structural reforms of England's education system for decades - not simply because power is moving out of Whitehall, but because responsibility for education, skills and economic growth is finally beginning to come together in the places where those outcomes are ultimately delivered.