Recommendation 42

The new UK Shared Prosperity Fund offers an opportunity to improve on the design and administration of European Structural Investment Funds in relation to the funding of adult skills. Cross-government working will be critical to delivering the cross-cutting agenda this funding supports. We expect the Department to take a far more proactive stance in inter-Departmental discussions on the successor funds for both the ESF and the ERDF, and to ensure that local and combined authorities feed into those discussions.