Francesca Stella and Meg Wishart, University of Glasgow (2026)
Scotland was once held up as the UK model for ESOL policy. This ESRC-funded report, produced with NATECLA Scotland and Migration Policy Scotland, argues that the sector is now in crisis. It traces much of that crisis to the end of the Scotland ESOL Strategy in 2020. It lands at the same time as an All Party Parliamentary Group report in England, and the two diagnoses are strikingly similar.
The evidence is recent. It comes from a survey of 122 practitioners across 28 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities, five regional focus groups, and Scottish Funding Council (SFC) enrolment data obtained through Freedom of Information. Providers also shared local waiting-list figures, and preliminary findings were tested with the sector at a workshop in June 2026.
Since 2020, ESOL has been folded into a broader Adult Learning Strategy. As of August 2026, the sector still had no long-term vision for ESOL underpinned by any policy. Ring-fenced SFC funding for local ESOL partnerships ended in 2018 and was absorbed into college budgets. The result, the authors argue, is piecemeal provision with no clear entitlement to free ESOL and no clear national oversight.
UK asylum and resettlement policy has reshaped who is in the classroom. The Afghan, Hong Kong and Ukraine schemes, plus the 2022 move to “full dispersal”, mean every Scottish council now hosts forced migrants. They are now the majority of ESOL learners in most areas. Many have experienced trauma, have literacy needs, or can be moved at short notice. The report highlights that voluntary migrants still need ESOL, but are increasingly squeezed out.
Unsurprisingly unmet need is consequently significant. 61% of respondents rated unmet need in their area as high or very high. Some examples:
Insufficient funding was the top challenge, cited by 74% of respondents, followed by waiting lists and lack of childcare. Community provision often relies on short-term Home Office resettlement money. In Aberdeen this is renewed every six months, and three-quarters of ESOL staff were therefore considered at risk. Third-sector providers fill gaps, often with volunteers rather than ESOL professionals.
The authors also comment that despite rising demand, FE ESOL enrolments fell to 15,425 in 2024-25 compared with 18,790 in 2022-23. The authors ask SFC to examine whether some colleges are deprioritising ESOL.
The report makes eight recommendations:
The findings closely reflect those published in Skills for life, work and place, the inquiry report from the APPG on Further Education and Lifelong Learning, published on 21 October – growing demand, insufficient capacity, underfunding, short term funding, and a workforce under severe pressure.
The APPG also recommend protected ESOL funding for local delivery and making ESOL provision an integral part of a national vision for adult education, with contributors also highlighting the need for faster access and more integrated ESOL and vocational pathways.
One lesson travels south. Scotland shows what can happen when ESOL is absorbed into a wider adult learning strategy without a ring-fence. The authors trace the current policy limbo to when that happened in 2020. If England makes ESOL integral to a national adult education vision, the APPG’s call for protected funding will perhaps be the safeguard that matters most.
The authors hope the findings will shape the ESOL Action Plan due to go to the Scottish Government this autumn. That makes now a key moment for the sector to engage.
The Language of Change