Partnership fully transformed into a 'networked function' March 2008 Birmingham's strong commitment to a partnership drive on levels of literacy, language and numercy, accross all major agencies, has been clear since the Core Skills Development Partnership was formally established in 1996. Read Article

Where has all Birmingham's investments got us to? November 2007 Over the ten years 1996 to 2006 substantial energy and resources were put behind developments in language, literacy and numeracy across Birmingham as a whole. Read Article

Learning and Skills push on adult numeracy August 2007 The Learning and Skills Council in the region has formulated it's development framework to 2010. This outlines the priority strands, and mechanisms, for substantially lifting levels of adult literacy, language and numeracy across the region. Read Article

Quotes from the past year: Birmingham as ‘exemplar’ and ‘benchmark’ January 2007 The work in Birmingham has been very positively referred to, both nationally and internationally, during 2006. Read Article

Skills for Life Strategy shows positive impact November 2006 In 2006 a resurvey of adult literacy and numeracy abilities across Birmingham offered direct comparisons with previously established 2001 baselines. Read Article

Partnership's work linked to learning communities October 2006 On a number of occasions recently the work of organisations in Birmingham has got national recognition for the linking of adult basic skills development with social inclusion, neighbourhood renewal and community activity. Read Article

Major Organisations reshape planning for Basic Skills May 2006 Over the past year the major organisations with responsibilities for learning have been reshaping their different functions in order to ensure further progress in securing better outcomes for residents of Birmingham Read Article

Partnership Manager gains M.B.E for work December 2005 In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for 2005 the Partnership Manager, Geoff Bateson, was awarded the MBE for his work supporting literacy across Birmingham and adult literacy across the West Midlands. Read Article

Links to renewal of neighbourhoods September 2005 From its beginning the Partnership has demonstrated that improving the underlying levels of basic skills can (if undertaken structurally across the city-wide system) contribute to regeneration of communities. Read Article

Update - Partnership's work becomes embedded in mainstream planning May 2005 The original intention behind the Partnership was that key education and training agencies across Birmingham would work much more closely together in an attempt to double literacy/numeracy skills levels across all age groups of people in the city Read Article

Progress on 10 year aspirations March 2005 In the partnership’s development paper ‘The next push forward: Literacy, language and numeracy developments to 2010’ ten strategic objectives were expanded to show the work still needed to be done. Read Article

Update - Regional role strengthened for Partnership December 2004 The original intention behind the Partnership was that key education and training agencies across Birmingham would work much more closely together in an attempt to double literacy/numeracy skills levels across all age groups of people in the city Read Article

Partnership takes on regional, national and international roles February 2004 The Core Skills Development Partnership was established to make a real difference to language, literacy and numeracy levels across Birmingham. The success of this is clear to see. Read Article

Adult Basic Skills Review points the way forward August 2003 A substantial review of all aspects of adult basic skills. Read Article

Has it been worth it? August 2003 Results in Birmingham have improved faster than the national rate... Read Article

The Story So Far... August 2003 If we are half way there, then the next seven years will require.... Read Article

The Next Push Forward June 2003 Towards literacy, language and numeracy developments to 2010. Read Article

Moving ESOL Forward May 2003 2002/3 was a year when adult basic skills providers focused on ESOL Read Article

Lessons from the literacy/numeracy pathfinder March 2003 Read Article

The Story So Far... Jan 2003 In December 2002 the Board received a report on the proposals for continuation of development activity Read Article

Review of 'Vision' and 'Development Framework' Oct 2002 The ‘distance still to be travelled’ to achieve the 2004 planned position was established which... Read Article

June 2002 Vision in our Sights? We have tested how far, and how quickly, the various elements of the strategy can be put in place within all parts of a complex urban system. Read Article

Levels of Adult Basic Skills... June 2002 Progress Check There are times for simplifying an argument, and there are times for staying alert to the complexity of social developments Read Article

November 2001 Progress Check There is now, in November 2001, a need to take stock of this rapidly moving position, as a basis for springboarding into the future... Read Article

November 2001 Birmingham City Council, one of the Partnership’s key members, recognised that other future developments will increasingly be carried forward through a range of partnership arrangements. Read Article

November 2001. There is no doubt about the relentless improvement in language, literacy and numeracy levels amongst pre-school and primary age children across Birmingham. Read Article

September 2001 The aim of partners, at the establishment of the Partnership, was to achieve a whole city shift in literacy and numeracy levels. Read Article

April 2001 It's easy to be distracted by trying to pin down fluid definitions. Read Article

April 2001 There is a long term commitment, from all of our partners, to work towards making Birmingham a self-sustaining literate and numerate city. Read Article

April 2001 Agencies in Birmingham sign up for a whole-city approach. Read Article

April 2001 A national strategy for tackling the 'social disgrace' of levels of adult basic skills was launched on 1st March 2001. Read Article

August 2000 During its first two years this Partnership was obviously able to bring about some quick changes, have some easy ‘hits’, and get people excited and thinking in new ways... Read Article

August 2000 Having achieved much in the first three years, the fourth year of our activity saw significant increases in the numbers of people and organisations worked with Read Article

October 1999 Members of the development team have been approached to write articles, to contribute to a book, or be part of national conferences. In other cases, activities we support have won awards or have been built into national models.... Read Article

October 1999 The quality of this Partnership's working has been highlighted in a national review of contributions to lifelong learning, undertaken on behalf of the Department for Education and Employment... Read Article

November 1998 The Basic Skills Agency’s national conference, in London on 10th November 1998, featured the Birmingham Core Skills Development Partnership as an example of good practice. The audience of 250 key representatives... Read Article

November 1998 On 13 October 1998 the Partnership held its first dissemination conference. This was targeted at more than a hundred staff from partnership organisations in Birmingham and had three key aims... Read Article

November 1998 Birmingham’s school children have made impressive improvements, exceeding the national gains in English and Maths at a number of levels. Maths levels of 7 year olds has now caught up with the national average... Read Article

September 1997 A strong feature of the past year has been a commitment to ongoing consultation and communication to ensure that everyone gets the same information and that organisations are kept involved in appropriate ways... Read Article