Croydon wants colleges and charities to teach every CALAT course, ending in-house adult learning for 197 staff. Cabinet decides on 14 October; consultation runs 1 to 21 November.
Croydon Council wants to stop teaching adult education courses itself and pay colleges, charities and training firms to do it instead. The plan would end the in-house model at Croydon Adult Learning and Training (CALAT), which employs 197 people.
Cabinet will be asked on Wednesday 14 October to approve the change for public consultation. The Cabinet report calls it a “fully commissioned” model. It follows an independent review by the consultancy Mime, which we reported in September.
Who works at CALAT now
The report gives the current workforce as:
- 49 permanent employees
- 4 temporary staff
- 144 sessional or casual tutors and support staff
It says the move would bring “redundancy, TUPE and pension strain costs”, but it puts no figure on them. TUPE is the law that can move staff to a new employer on their existing terms. The report says detailed legal and HR checks are still needed before any procurement starts.
Why the council says the model has to change
The council says CALAT is heading for a shortfall of about £500,000 this year. The report puts spending at £5.4m in 2026/27, against an Adult Skills Fund grant of £4.5m from the Greater London Authority and about £0.4m of other income.
Staff costs are more than 80% of the budget. Property costs doubled in two years, from £410,000 in 2023/24 to £825,000 in 2025/26.
Mime’s rapid review, published as Appendix 1, adds:
- 465 of CALAT’s 855 courses in 2024/25 ran with fewer than 10 people enrolled, against a target of 12
- Croydon spent £819 per successful learner in 2024/25, 23rd of 30 London boroughs with data (the range runs from about £365 to about £990)
- retention and achievement are below the London average
- only 5% of learners are aged 18 to 25
The review also credits the service. Its main centres are in the borough’s most deprived areas, it reaches more disadvantaged learners, and Ofsted rated it Good in 2023. “It is not feasible to continue with the current operating model,” Mime concludes.
What the council would do instead
The council would keep 20% of the grant, about £907,000, to run a commissioning and quality team. The rest would buy courses from outside providers through a framework contract.
The report sets out the split as:
| Pot | Share | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Accredited courses: ESOL, English and maths up to GCSE, digital and vocational | 43% | £1,950,731.77 |
| Council commissioning and quality team | 20% | £906,866.60 |
| Tailored community learning | 16% | £725,525.30 |
| Employment brokerage and job support | 15% | £692,919.50 |
| Learner support (childcare, digital access, hardship) | 3% | £136,035.81 |
| Reserve for pilots and new courses | 3% | £122,254.01 |
The Mayor’s introduction to the report says “this proposal is not a cut to adult learning funding.” The review also flags courses it thinks colleges already offer, naming AAT accounting qualifications, modern foreign languages, some GCSE courses and some digital courses.
Three other options were rejected:
- keep the current model, with or without savings: “not viable beyond the immediate short term”
- a hybrid, with the council still teaching community courses: the 20% overhead cap would be stretched too far
- hand the whole grant back to the Greater London Authority: Croydon would lose any say over local courses
The Strand House question
Most CALAT classes are moving this month from the Croydon Clocktower to Strand House on Zion Road, Thornton Heath. The council confirmed the move again on Thursday.
The same Cabinet meeting is also asked to agree the sale of Strand House. A separate report proposes selling it and 90 Central Parade in New Addington to Common Projects and M&G Developments. Each building would become 43 self-contained homes for young adults leaving the council’s care, leased back by the council for 25 years.
That report’s risk table lists “delays to the move out of the CCTV control room and CALAT at Strand House” as a risk that could hold the homes up. The sale cannot complete without planning permission and vacant possession. Neither report gives a date for CALAT to leave Strand House, or says where it would go.
What it means for you
If you are a CALAT learner, nothing changes this term because of this report. Courses continue, and the move to Strand House goes ahead this month.
The report sets out this timetable, subject to Cabinet’s approval on 14 October:
- 1 November: consultation opens to learners, staff, unions, providers and residents
- 21 November: consultation closes (it runs for 21 days)
- from 1 December: procurement begins, if the final decision goes ahead
The final decision would not go back to Cabinet. It would be taken by the Corporate Director of Place, in consultation with the Executive Mayor and the Cabinet Member for Finance.
The consultation is your chance to say which courses matter to you, and where they should be taught. We will link to it here when it opens.
The meeting starts at 6.30pm at the Town Hall, and the agenda and papers are online. The same meeting will discuss the draft 2027/28 budget and its 4.99% council tax rise.
Have your say