• Birmingham and Solihull organisations have gained a position over recent years of being at the front edge of basic skills developments:
  • The LEA has just had its ‘whole system’ inspected by OFSTED, and was reported as being excellent at supporting schools
  • We were invited to show how the ‘Skills for Life’ adult basic skills strategy could be rapidly put in place everywhere in a complex city setting
  • The Learning and Skills Council has been awarded 1 of 6 national pilots for workplace development activity, with basic skills being a key element

• There is a national focus on young people, so there is a particular need to try to capture all that is being done and what more needs to be done re basic skills and young people (14-25), where things need to go to next, and where the tip-over points might be (i.e. where a number of factors can be brought together so that things changed forever for this client group).

Today’s focus is where 4 national policy drivers intersect with each other, like 4 national spotlights all coming together to pick out aspects of the topic. These are:

1. School standard’s agenda and the work to improve schools

• Work is being done to improve levels of literacy and numeracy in all primary schools. This has led to a dramatic rise in success levels by pupils on transfer to secondary school.
• Work is underway with all secondary schools – on a whole school basis (not disconnected projects in small numbers of schools) – with more to be done over the next few years, especially for pupils over 14.
• The belief is that the mainstream school services will ‘work’ for most young people in the near future

This is being paralleled by work to improve the quality of staff and resources etc in voluntary organisations, in colleges, in training providers etc i.e. it is all adding up to a stronger set of structures to deliver basic skills.

2. 14-19 agenda around individualisation

• there is now more emphasis of the need for a diversity of pathways, open to different individuals
• alongside this is a requirement to ensure coherence and consistency (and quality) whichever route is taken
• the system can offer a range of alternative/complementary curricula etc but these are each expected to still give people the underpinning basic skills needed
• the past 2 years have seen an expansion in the range and amount of individualised support (learning mentors, personal advisors etc), with a recognition that these have a role in assisting young people to get their basic skills needs met.

3. Focus on skills achievement at crucial Level 2/3

• We have been getting better at first steps – using a wider variety of ways to engage young people; to make contact; to move them into some initial activity
• We have been getting better at higher levels (although there is still some way to go if 50% are going to experience Higher Education)
• The question is how do we shift skills of large numbers of young people from level 1 to level 2 to level 3 skills
• And how do we ensure that all young people have underpinning generic skills? We increasingly need to analyse ‘why do some young people leave programmes without literacy/numeracy at level 2 or level 1?’
• We need to know what skills people have when they come to our organisations; what skills they need to get to where they want to reach; to construct individual learning plans to ensure that the young person gets the skills they need to get on.

4. ‘Skills for Life’ national adult basic skills strategy

• This was introduced one year ago. It applies to all 16+ learning settings; all organisations (army, prison, probation, major voluntary organisations, public employers, training providers, further education providers; etc etc etc)
• There is a new adult curriculum. All staff in Birmingham and Solihull were trained in this as rapidly as possible. There should be no provision that is not being taught by teachers skilled in delivering the new curriculum. The curriculum lists skills at 3 levels (Entry, Level 1, Level 2). There is a new national test which is becoming more and more available to everyone.
• There are national targets, and targets for the local LSC (21,000 people in Birmingham and Solihull to move up one basic skills level by 2004)
• There is thus an increased need for robust data informing organisational plans in which basic skills improvements ‘shine through’

In Summary:

These four policy drives are coming together. There is a need to focus from time to time (but especially now) on basic skills, in particular contexts, and as part of wider packages of moving young people on to success at level 2 and beyond.

A review 18 months ago showed that there was a lot of outreach; a lot of contact with key client groups; a lot of necessary support; a lot of guidance; a lot of screening and referral; and a lot of assumption that basic skills were being met elsewhere (but in practice relatively few young people having their basic sills needs substantially met)

There is a commitment from the Core Skills Development Partnership, to bring a sharpness of focus this year: What does the whole picture look like now? What are the holes? What advice can be given to LSC and Partnership (and DfES) re shifting the work with young people and basic skills on a few notches?

So the developments agreed today may help us get through that tip-over point: the point at which a combination of things move the big picture on permanently for all of the estimated 20,000 young people in Birmingham and Solihull who need to significantly improve their levels of basic skills.