Bucks Council to use extra powers for education programmes

Cabinet members voted on Tuesday to enter the next stage of an agreement struck with the previous Conservative government in March last year.

The decision follows the new Labour government’s recommitment in September to the ‘level two’ devolution deals for Bucks, and those for Surrey and Warwickshire councils.

Devolution is the transfer of powers and funding from central to local government to enable decisions to be made in the places they affect.

“One of the things we wanted to do in the level two devolution deal is improve this area of adult skills,” deputy council leader Steve Broadbent told Tuesday’s cabinet meeting.

The adult skills fund is a government-backed initiative to support learners aged 19 and over in non-devolved areas to gain skills and qualifications to help them get work or an apprenticeship.

It is currently held centrally, but the government and council plan to devolve the fund to Buckinghamshire from 2026.

This would give the council control over a £5.9 million-a-year pot to deliver primarily level two courses – GCSE and below.

Examples of the benefits of this could include providing English support for speakers of other languages or setting minimum wage contributions to help disadvantaged learners, the council said.

The council needs to outline its preparations for acceptance of the new powers to the Department for Education by May this year.

Besides the adult skills fund, the Bucks devolution deal will also give the county additional compulsory purchase powers.

These would complement the council’s existing powers to buy land and property and would help support its ‘town centre regeneration programme’.

“The additional powers would give us another tool in the box as it were,” Steve Bambrick, the council’s corporate director for planning, growth and sustainability, told the meeting.

The government has said it will provide £150,000 worth of funding for Bucks as part of the devolution arrangement, but Mr Bambrick said this was ‘not enough’ and ‘not comparable’ to other areas.

Summing up Tuesday’s decision,Councillor Broadbent added: “Because we have gone through the process to secure this level two, this is hopefully the final checks and balances to get that criteria over the line.”

The deputy leader, who was filling in for leader Martin Tett, said there was ‘lots of talk’ about local government reorganisation, which has seen other areas postpone their local elections in May 2025.

But the cabinet member stressed Bucks was a unitary authority and told the meeting that elections were ‘going ahead’ as planned on May 1.