Last week my colleague Heidi Alexander, MP for Lewisham East, initiated a debate in parliament on the future funding for ESOL. She was joined by mostly Labour MPs, most of us representing seats in some of our largest cities, in constituencies with a high degree of ethnic and cultural diversity. All of us who took part in the debate expressed concern at the consequences of new restrictions to the funding regime. 

In future, only those on so-called active benefits will be funded, with ESOL classes entirely focused on helping people move into work. No one would quarrel with the intention to support people to learn English to improve their employment prospects, but there are so many reasons why it makes sense to broaden provision, which the government’s brushed aside. 

In my constituency, as in most areas with a high number of people needing to learn English, it’s mostly women who’ll miss out. They’re less likely to be seeking employment immediately, but it’s a false economy not to support them to develop their language skills. Women from minority backgrounds who are unable to communicate in English will be increasingly isolated. 

That will have a knock-on effect on their children, for it’s women who mostly deal with health services, the school, and are at the heart of children’s learning and development. Enabling those women to improve their language skills will ensure they are best able to support their children’s development. 

It’s women too who provide much familial care for the elderly and infirm – again, their ability to negotiate and communicate with health and social care services will be restricted by their lack of language skills. 

Women are the backbone of community and voluntary activity – language skills support them to fulfil this function too. 

And many will at some point undertake some paid employment, but without the ability to speak, read and write good English, they’re destined to remain in poor quality, poorly remunerated, often exploitative jobs. 

Contrary to what ministers appear to think, the losers from their policy are not young people coming from overseas to learn English here in dodgy colleges and then disappear. The majority who need to learn English are permanently settled in the UK. Good community relations and community cohesion, not to mention family stability, require that those who are to remain here become competent and fluent in English. Indeed, those who apply for citizenship will be required to demonstrate such competence, yet there will be no support to enable them to achieve it. 

Colleges are dismayed at the government’s decision, unable to make up the shortfall in funding, aware that many potential students won’t be able to fund themselves, and likely to be forced to close classes as a result. Yet a small tweak in the funding regime would have enabled them to design fee structures so as to secure access for many of these who now won’t be entitled to support.                                                     

So here is one more example of the government’s sort term thinking about cuts. The long-term costs will surely outweigh the short-term savings, and the potential future gains from modest levels of investment now will be sacrificed. Much has been achieved to improve the planning and delivery of ESOL courses in recent years, and while this wasn’t perfect, efforts were made to put sustainable funding in place. Now, thanks to the government’s policies, flexibility and certainty of funding will be lost, provision reduced, and the effects will be discriminatory, damaging and long-lasting.  

Photo: Tim Arnold