Education & Skills
36mentions · last 12 months↓
View full analysis →Peers on this Lords Select Committee examine numeracy standards and financial capability across the UK population, from school-age children to adults in employment and retirement. The committee takes oral evidence from ministers, practitioners, education specialists, and sector representatives across multiple sessions each month. Recent inquiries have focused on the effectiveness of the government's Multiply programme and wider adult numeracy funding mechanisms, explored how numeracy gaps affect workplace productivity and military personnel readiness, and assessed current mathematics education approaches through its Maths Education Panel. The committee has also examined the relationship between poor numeracy and debt vulnerability, scrutinising how financial advisory services address mathematical deficiencies in their clients. Sessions with witnesses including Fry and Seagull explored specific dimensions of numeracy policy delivery. These investigations feed into recommendations on UK economic productivity and social welfare.
10 sessions published in the last 12 months
Click any cell in the heatmap to see the sessions held that day and the insights extracted from them.
121 insights
16 Jul 2026
The committee scrutinised the Education Minister’s approach to improving numeracy from early years through adulthood, including the devolved adult skills fund, the Multiply programme, teacher recruitment, and support for people with low confidence in maths. The Minister argued that numeracy underpins individual life chances, productivity and economic growth, defended the national legal entitlement to level 2 maths amid devolution, and said the Government is using curriculum reform, early-years interventions, FE funding and adult tailored learning to improve outcomes. She also set out that post-16 reform will include a new level 1 stepping-stone qualification for learners below GCSE grade 3, and emphasised wider financial literacy and digital skills as part of the policy mix.
02 Jul 2026
The committee scrutinised how to raise numeracy across life stages, with Rishi Sunak, the Richmond Project team, National Numeracy and Maths World UK arguing that low numeracy is a cultural, educational and economic problem. Witnesses stressed intergenerational anxiety around maths, the need for early-years and parent-engagement interventions, and the importance of stronger school foundations, including a potential numeracy check in key stage 1 and support for a ‘phonics for maths’ model. On adults, witnesses said Multiply was effective at stimulating demand and confidence, but funding and delivery rules, patchy provision and weak accreditation limit take-up; they called for clearer national strategy, employer involvement, better digital delivery and a more visible adult numeracy offer. On financial literacy, the Richmond Project highlighted the ‘big three’ concepts and said the DfE is working with them on curriculum and testing, while National Numeracy urged a focus on confidence, motivation and practical outcomes rather than abstract attainment alone.
25 Jun 2026
The committee scrutinised how numeracy affects older adults’ money management, pensions, health, digital participation and civic life, with witnesses from U3A, CHASM, Age UK and Centre for Ageing Better arguing that current advice and support are too complex, too online and too poorly targeted at over-50s. Witnesses also pressed for better use of employers, the Money and Pensions Service, midlife MOTs and community routes into learning. In the second panel, the Royal Society and Oxford academics argued that the school system still fails to deliver data literacy, confidence and practical numeracy, and called for cross-curricular teaching, earlier intervention, more maths teachers, and post-16 pathways that better fit different attainment groups. AI was presented as a useful tutoring tool, but only if it gives hints rather than answers and is paired with stronger understanding of probability and data literacy.
11 Jun 2026
The committee scrutinised how adult numeracy is now overseen across DWP, DfE and Skills England after machinery-of-government changes, including accountability for the devolved adult skills fund, cross-department coordination, and the role of statutory entitlements to level 2 maths and English. Witnesses argued that there is not a single cross-government numeracy strategy, but that numeracy is being embedded through occupational standards, apprenticeships, vocational qualifications, local skills improvement plans, and the new jobs and careers service. A major theme was what Multiply taught about adult learning: trusted community delivery, contextualised short courses, local partnerships, and avoiding formal assessment where it creates anxiety. The panel also discussed functional skills, GCSE routes, devolution, employer engagement, and the need to support disadvantaged learners, young people, SMEs, and adults with maths anxiety or dyscalculia.
04 Jun 2026
The committee scrutinised what numeracy for life requires across the lifespan: early maths foundations, parental support, post-16 catch-up, technical/vocational pathways, and the needs of learners with dyscalculia. Witnesses argued that early years provision should better reflect cognitive-science evidence, that parents need more help and confidence to support maths at home, that FE funding and a 16-to-19 premium are needed to support disadvantaged resit learners, and that dyscalculia is under-recognised and should be formally recognised by government. There was also strong evidence-based resistance to a single 'phonics for maths' model, alongside support for broader, contextualised, well-supported interventions and better-designed educational technology.
23 Apr 2026
The committee scrutinised how numeracy and broader financial capability relate to debt vulnerability, the accessibility and trustworthiness of financial information, and how debt-advice services operate across sectors. Witnesses argued numeracy is a building block of financial capability but stressed it sits within wider factors such as income, living costs, and attitudes to money. They highlighted barriers to help (fear of creditors, misinformation, fragmented information landscapes), endorsed better signposting, plain-language communications, and trusted intermediaries. Proposals included a national adult financial education programme, cross-government focus on financial resilience, improved signposting through the Money Adviser Network, and tighter regulation of online debt-advice advertising. The discussion also covered practical changes (benefit payment frequencies, pension-decumulation support, and the pensions dashboard) and calls for more coordinated collaboration across organisations to connect people to appropriate help at the right time.