According to the GOV.UK publication issued on 21 April 2026, the new grant determination letters confirm funding for the period from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027. The package covers non-ring-fenced Adult Skills Fund payments, non-ring-fenced Skills Bootcamps payments, and Free Courses for Jobs funding delivered on both ring-fenced and non-ring-fenced terms, with transfers made to local authorities under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003. (gov.uk) The publication also sits within a wider administrative change. GOV.UK's collection page states that responsibility for the collection moved to the Department for Work and Pensions on 1 April 2026, while the Adult Skills Fund replaced the adult education budget in August 2024. (gov.uk)
The 2026 release names 13 strategic authorities for devolved ASF administration: Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Cornwall, Devon and Torbay, East Midlands, Greater Lincolnshire, Hull and East Yorkshire, Lancashire, Surrey, Tees Valley, Warwickshire, West of England, and York and North Yorkshire. In the main ASF letter, the department states that Mayoral Strategic Authorities receive Adult Skills Fund core funding plus Free Courses for Jobs and Skills Bootcamps through the same non-ring-fenced route, while Foundation Strategic Authorities receive core ASF there and other streams through separate agreements. (gov.uk) That split follows the government's revised devolution structure. The English Devolution White Paper says Mayoral Strategic Authorities are authorities with an elected mayor, while Foundation Strategic Authorities sit at a lower tier of devolution and can include non-mayoral combined authorities or, in some cases, designated single councils. (gov.uk)
Policy Wire calculations from Annex A put the 13-authority package at about £232.0 million on a 2026-27 financial-year basis and about £272.9 million on an academic-year basis. East Midlands receives the largest financial-year total at £59.0 million, followed by Tees Valley at £35.6 million, Lancashire at £27.3 million and West of England at £20.8 million, while Buckinghamshire and Warwickshire sit at £3.8 million and £4.6 million respectively. (gov.uk) This matters because the publication is not just a procedural notice. It sets the cash envelope that devolved authorities will use to commission adult learning, local skills provision and associated employment support over the next delivery cycle. (gov.uk)
The same annex shows that core Adult Skills Fund funding accounts for about £203.8 million of the financial-year total across the named areas, again by Policy Wire calculation. Published Skills Bootcamps allocations for the listed mayoral authorities amount to about £16.35 million, with West of England receiving £4.22 million and Tees Valley £2.69 million. (gov.uk) For the six foundation areas that receive a separate Free Courses for Jobs letter, the ring-fenced financial-year allocations total about £4.89 million. Lancashire receives the largest share at £2.27 million, followed by Cornwall at £852,077, while Buckinghamshire, Surrey and Warwickshire each receive less than £600,000. (gov.uk)
One practical point in the letters is the difference between financial-year and academic-year treatment. The grant tables set out both FY 2026-27 and AY 2026-27 values, and the note beneath the table states that the FY 2027-28 payment will also include an amount from AY 2027-28, to be confirmed in a separate section 31 letter in January 2027. For colleges, training providers and finance teams, that means the annual cash figure published for April 2026 to March 2027 is not the same thing as the full budget envelope for delivery across the 2026-27 academic year. (gov.uk) The gap is material in some areas. Lancashire is shown at £27.28 million for the 2026-27 financial year but £41.16 million for the 2026-27 academic year, while Devon and Torbay moves from £8.06 million to £12.22 million and Surrey from £7.39 million to £11.16 million once April to July 2027 is counted. (gov.uk)
The separate Free Courses for Jobs letter also makes the policy distinction plain. For foundation areas, that funding remains ring-fenced and subject to specific conditions, whereas the main ASF letter states that Skills Bootcamps funding is only non-ring-fenced for Mayoral Strategic Authorities and that their adult skills transfer can cover core ASF, Free Courses for Jobs and Skills Bootcamps together. In practical terms, mayoral areas receive broader local discretion, while foundation areas still receive part of the adult skills offer through tighter programme conditions. (gov.uk) That aligns with the wider devolution policy. The White Paper states that government would remove ringfences from Skills Bootcamps and Free Courses for Jobs for Mayoral Strategic Authorities and create consolidated funding pots for non-apprenticeship adult skills from the next spending review period. (gov.uk)
There is also a structural point behind who appears in this release. MHCLG's integrated settlements criteria say Greater London, Greater Manchester, Liverpool City Region, North East, South Yorkshire, West Midlands and West Yorkshire are eligible for integrated settlements from 2026-27 onwards, and the official functional responsibilities paper states that those settlements cover all non-apprenticeship adult skills funding and functions. Taken together, that strongly indicates several larger mayoral areas are no longer shown in this S31 publication because their adult skills funding is moving into wider integrated settlement arrangements. (gov.uk) DfE guidance says devolution is intended to let local areas shape adult education around local skills gaps and provide services that reflect local need, but it also recognises added complexity for providers working across more than one commissioner. Against that background, the immediate value of the 2026 letters is operational certainty: the main ASF letter states that payments will be made by mid-April 2026 and that authorities must work within the English Devolution Accountability Framework, the National Local Growth Assurance Framework and the relevant memoranda of understanding. (gov.uk)