The Greater London Authority (GLA) commissioned Learning and Work Institute to undertake a mapping exercise of social prescribing to adult education to improve Londoners’ mental health. This report focuses on how social prescribing to adult education works in London, the challenges faced and ways to improve it. The Learning the way to improve mental health and wellbeing guide accompanies the Social prescribing into adult education in London research. This guide aims to bring health and social care services and adult education providers closer together and is both for managers and practitioners who provide social prescribing and who provide adult education.

In September 2023, Learning and Work was commissioned by the GLA to conduct research into the impact of the rising cost of living on London’s adult education landscape. GLA data shows that in 2023, 17% of Londoners were ‘struggling financially’, and another 30% were ‘just about managing’. Increased inflation also impacted the cost of doing business for London’s skills providers and Further Education (FE) workforce. This report and the summary report are based upon a survey, depth interviews and focus groups with learners, providers, and third sector organisations that provide and campaign for people on low incomes. The fieldwork took place between November 2023 and March 2024. The research provides an account of the impact of the rising cost of living on London’s FE sector.

The Greater London Authority’s responses to national government consultations relating to adult education, skills, and employment provision.

The Greater London Authority’s responses to national government consultations relating to adult education, skills, and employment provision.

The Greater London Authority’s responses to national government consultations relating to adult education, skills, and employment provision.

From 1 August 2019, the Secretary of State for Education delegated responsibility for the commissioning, delivery, and management of London’s Adult Education Budget (AEB) to the Mayor of London. In early 2020, the AEB Mayoral Board agreed that AEB programme data should be published following the Department for Education’s Further Education and Skills data publication and in line with the UK Code of Practice for Official Statistics (which the Greater London Authority has signed up to on a voluntary basis). This GLA AEB data publication provides information on adult (aged 19+) GLA-funded Further Education, comprising Education and training and Community learning (excluding apprenticeships, traineeships, advanced learner loans, the offender learning and skills service, and education and training services funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency). The accompanying note assists in interpreting the statistics and highlights some key points and data limitations. The accompanying technical document provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality and explains the methodology used in producing the data. Wherever in-year data is used, it presents provisional, reported to date figures. These are updated in subsequent data returns, and should not be considered the final record of provision in that time period. The data in this release should be treated as Experimental Statistics as the methodologies used to produce them are still in their developmental phase.

The GLA commissioned IFF Research to conduct an independent evaluation of the first year of AEB delivery after delegation of the AEB to the Mayor in 2019. The evaluation findings were “largely very positive”, with IFF concluding that “the delegation of the AEB has worked effectively in its first year, for the majority of providers who receive funding from it“.