The Chancellor Rishi Sunak delivered his Spending Review statement today. ScreenSkills will look for further details on measures relevant to skills and training in the screen industries including the following:
Department of Work and Pensions
- the new three-year-long £2.9 billion Restart programme to provide intensive and tailored support to over 1 million unemployed people and help them find work
- work search support measures announced in the Plan for Jobs
- £1.6 billion for Kickstart extension in 2021-22 (will ensure funding for more than 250,000 Kickstart jobs)
Department for Education
- investment in further education to ensure that core funding for 16- to 19-year-olds is maintained in real terms per learner, rising in line with demographic growth
- continue delivering opportunities for lifelong learning, helping those who want or need to reskill to do so at any stage of their life or career
- confirm changes to support employers offering apprenticeships by delivering further improvements to the system (see below)
Apprenticeships
- £2.5 billion of funding for apprenticeships and further improvements for employers:
- from August 2021, employers who pay the Apprenticeship Levy will be able to transfer unspent levy funds in bulk to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with a new pledge function
- unspent levy funds will still expire after 24 months
- the government will also introduce, from August 2021, a new online service to match levy payers with SMEs that share their business priorities
- from April 2021 allowing employers in construction, followed by health and social care, to front-load training for certain apprenticeship standards. The government will explore whether this offer can also be made available in other sectors
- during 2021-22, the government will test approaches to supporting apprenticeships in industries with more flexible working patterns, including consideration of how best to support apprenticeship training agencies
- incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice introduced in the Plan for Jobs will be extended to 31 March 2021.
Other screen-related measures in the Spending Review include the announcement of a new £7 million Global Screen Fund to replace the Creative Europe programme.