The lifelong loan entitlement faces “significant challenges” that could delay the planned 2025 rollout, the Department for Education’s most senior civil servant has warned.
In a recently published assessment, DfE permanent secretary Susan Acland-Hood concluded that the flagship skills reform policy represents “good value for money and is feasible to deliver”.
However, she warned that the biggest risk to the feasibility of LLE is “significant delivery challenges to meet the 2025 launch”, including several external factors outside of the department’s control.
She has consequently imposed a further assessment at full business case stage in 2024 and a re-test of the government’s accounting officer standards.
