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Spending review 2025

As part of our recent Colleges Week celebrations, we used the government’s five missions as a framework to tell stories about all the fantastic work that colleges across the country are doing to help deliver on the government’s priorities. This followed the publication of our Mission Accepted report in December, which set out a number of case studies across each of the missions and argued that with a better system and sufficient funding, colleges stand ready to do so much more.

It was great to see colleges telling your own stories about how you deliver across the five missions during Colleges Week, sharing lots of great examples using the #LoveOurColleges hashtag across social media. As we look towards the upcoming spending review, it’s vital that as a sector, we keep highlighting the role of colleges in the delivering the missions.

While it’s well documented that public finances are tight, the recent £625m investment in training construction workers shows the government has been listening and understands the importance of skills in delivering on the missions and Plan for Change. If we are going to see similar additional investment in skills, we’ll need to continue to highlight that colleges are essential to the government’s agenda, across the five missions.

Spending review asks

  1. A coherent skills fund for growth-driving and priority sectors.
  2. Expansion in 16-18 education places and teaching capacity.
  3. Education and skills for people currently not in work.
  4. Action to improve pay and buildings.

You can view our full submission here

How you can get involved

Your work in making this case to your local MPs will continue to be key here. As a reminder, during Colleges Week we had some helpful resources to support with this, which we have updated:

  1. Make your own document highlighting how you deliver across the missions. We have this simple template, and here are some examples by Nottingham College and Heart of Worcestershire College, who have done this really well.
  2. Write to your local MP(s) asking for their support in making the case to Treasury for investment. If you have a local Labour MP, we have drafted this template letter to support you with that. If your local MP is not a Labour MP, we have a slightly amended template letter you can use.
  3. Keep sharing content on social media including examples of how you deliver on the missions and our key spending review asks. Remember to use the #LoveOurColleges hashtag and to tag your local MPs in those posts.

Social media resources

Ahead of the spending review, use the below template posts and social media assets to continue to highlight that colleges are essential to the government’s agenda, across the five missions.

(Make sure to tag @AoC_info on X, Association of Colleges on LinkedIn and @aoc-info.bsky.social on Bluesky)

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Delivering the growth we need starts with skills. That's why I'm calling on the government to back colleges in the spending review. @AoC_info/ @Association of Colleges #LoveOurColleges https://www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaigns-parliament/aoc-campaigns/spending-review-2025

Download here

Delivering the five missions starts with skills. That's why I'm calling on the government to back colleges in the spending review. @AoC_info /@Association of Colleges #LoveOurColleges https://www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaigns-parliament/aoc-campaigns/spending-review-2025

Download here

The 2025 spending review is an opportunity to invest in colleges, which are key to delivering the government’s missions and boosting local economies. We have four key asks to support college leaders to do more for communities and employers. @AoC_info /@Association of Colleges https://www.aoc.co.uk/news-campaigns-parliament/aoc-campaigns/spending-review-2025

Download here

The AoC public affairs (public_affairs@aoc.co.uk) and communications (comms@aoc.co.uk) teams are always on hand to support you with this work. Please do get in touch with us if we can help.

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