Many of the Partnership's activities have recently received widespread recognition. 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.

The Birmingham Reading Volunteer activity was shortlisted for the final 3 of the national "Libraries Change Lives" award. This gave the activity an award of £1000 and much publicity nationwide. The BookStart initiative, started in Birmingham and strongly supported by this Partnership, has received funding from Sainsbury's to go nationwide.

The Partnership's work in developing family literacy and the work with disadvantaged adults has been included in a round-up of best practice in the use of external funding to support lifelong learning; and in a national report on best practice in family literacy.At a Further Education Development Agency event "Good Practice in ESOL" the Birmingham Initial Assessment Toolkit was one of four activities highlighted nationally. The Open and Flexible Learning with adults has also been showcased at national conferences and attracted much acclaim.

A number of the school-focused developments that began with Partnership support have now been built into the widely available Government support to all schools through its Standards Fund. This incorporation of our developments into wider strategies is a satisfying validation of our work and ensures that our resources continue to be used to move forward and focus on the next developmental steps.

The DfEE News of 25/03/99 reported that the Education and Employment Secretary, David Blunkett, welcomed the key national report "A Fresh Start: Basic Skills for Adults". As part of his response to the report David Blunkett stated that "partnerships such as Birmingham's Core Skills Partnership demonstrate how coherent provision in literacy, numeracy and IT can help people of all ages".