Lead: The UK government’s Post‑16 Education & Skills White Paper puts inflation‑linked increases to home tuition and maintenance support back on the table while attaching those rises to performance assessments under an updated Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF). Authors and sector leaders flagged the paper as a structural shift toward employer‑driven, skills‑focused post‑16 provision. What happened: The White Paper reintroduces regular, inflation‑linked tuition increases conditioned on institutional quality metrics and outlines stronger employer‑provider collaboration and a push for specialised local provision. University professional staff and policy leads are being asked to align data systems for progression and employability to new accountability expectations. Who’s involved: The Department for Education authored the White Paper; Martin Lowe (University of Central Lancashire) and Liam Conway (Hugh Baird College) have already briefed sector professionals on operational impacts including changes to TEF expectations. Why it matters: Institutions will face new compliance and planning demands; fee policy is no longer a simple indexation decision but will be bound to demonstrable outcomes. Clarification: TEF is the UK’s Teaching Excellence Framework used to assess teaching quality and outcomes across higher education providers.