1999/2000
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Chair's Statement

	It gives me great pleasure to introduce this report which shows the very positive impact of the work of the Core Skills Development Partnership within and beyond Birmingham. Not only is the Partnership continuing to exceed all the milestones and targets set by government but it is doing so in ways that add to the wider strategic developments within Birmingham. The Partnership's work has consolidated it's local and national recognition and others are regularly referred to the Partnership as an example of best practice. The relationship with the Basic Skills Agency has enabled us to keep up with and contribute to a range of national developments around adult basic skills. The Partnership is now supporting work across all phases and sectors of education and training. Some of this work takes broader developments and ensures that these are implemented faster, deeper, better, or more widely across Birmingham. The volume and extent of the work means that this is adding up to a whole-city approach to core skills enhancement - something that is unique on this scale nationally (and probably internationally).		The Partnership's annual business planning model has proved flexible enough to enable us to absorb and build on very rapid change at a national level in a way that has kept us at the cutting edge of development. There are now clear strategies within partners for boosting literacy and numeracy levels at primary and secondary levels; building basic/key skills into programmes to bridge young people into employability; and work with employers. Strategies are emerging within the voluntary sector; around the use of ICT to support basic skills, and within new sectors such as health and housing. The challenge for the Partnership over the coming years is to further embed our work across agencies and to consolidate the substantial gains already being made. This will need to be done in the context of continuing rapid national developments and an evermore complex set of local developments. Within this complexity the Partnership will need to maintain its clarity of approach so that the improvements made in Birmingham in the area of literacy and numeracy are maintained and extended. Jane Slowey