The partnership has established a number of key principles, which together with the key building blocks from the original Challenge Fund bid, form the outline of a Development Framework within which support for activity can be determined.

The context changes by year since the approval of the Challenge Fund bid, with the need for a strategic approach to core and key skills being underscored by a range of developments. Whilst the Development Framework gives a clear set of year on year developments and targets, an annually agreed business plan gives the necessary flexibility and adaptability to changing circumstances.

Each business plan describes agreed activity to carry forward one of the following strategic objectives:

	(a) Raise the baseline attainment, year on year, of children on entry to school (b) Create increased consistency of pre-school intervention across areas and communities An important focus is upon raising the baseline attainment levels of children entering school. This involves identifying common messages, establishing joint training around those messages, and the alignment of various developments. The engagement of families in early literacy and numeracy development is seen as crucial.		Raise the literacy and numeracy attainment levels at key intervention points with young people at school. Work on school improvement and raising attainment levels has suggested that there are key staff who need to be involved in the school-based development of literacy and numeracy. Accessible development opportunities will be offered to these staff. A rolling programme will be started which aims to support the use of IT in schools to underpin literacy and numeracy developments. There will also be the start of a rolling programme of developing wholeschool approaches to literacy and numeracy, ensuring that all staff and parents are working to identified development targets. Work will be undertaken to embed core skills in the 14-19 academic as well as vocational curriculum. Schools will also have the opportunity to be involved in school based development projects relating to literacy, numeracy or underpinning IT.
	Increase the key skills levels of young people out-of-school. Recognising that young people's developments occur out-of-school as much as in-school, work will be done to link the developments within the school curriculum to literacy and numeracy development activities out of school. This will be staff and parent training to support Supplementary Schools; to extend the capacity of the Library Service and the Youth Service in supporting young people's core skills developments; the development of holiday programmes; the support of a range of community based activities.		Meet the needs of specific target groups and communities. Whilst the intention is to bring about lasting change in the mainstream experiences of all people, it is recognised that there are particular needs that can be addressed short term. Meeting the needs of those who want access to information and self-assessment around their additional learning needs is usually best addressed via an interagency development plan. In particular locations the case has been made for short-term, focused development work to bring about increased coherence and wider ranges of opportunities for post-16 literacy/ numeracy.
	(a) Raise the key skills attainment levels and increase the employability of unemployed individuals through post-school education and training provision (b) Develop the key skills of employed individuals in order to enable job retention and encourage career progression Increasing the levels of attainment of vocational qualifications, in striving to meet National Targets, will be assisted by embedding key skills developments into a wide range of vocational programmes. This will require a substantial programme of curriculum, staff and organisational development. Those front-line staff who are increasingly needing to recognise and assess adults' literacy and numeracy needs will be offered training to support them in that role. The increased focus on individual learning goals requires that group teaching and individual support is augmented by an increased access to open and flexible learning. In some cases this means the extension of learning materials, in others it implies the training of staff in new ways of working. A particular focus will be the implementation of own-time training for low-skill workers; the implementation of an interagency ESOL development plan; meeting the training needs of employers; and ensuring that developments meet the needs of particular target client groups.		Provide support for employers for key skills at work. Work with cohorts of employers will ensure that their views are taken account of within the wider developments, but will also assist with the establishment of a number of employee development schemes (including the use of volunteering).
			Increase the levels of individual commitment to core skills development. The voluntary sector is increasingly engaging with the issues of core skills developments. Development funding will support planned initiatives within the voluntary sector. This will also include work to establish a strategy for volunteering.