There was a recognition, in 1995, that progress toward major educational, training and social aims was being undermined by widespread low levels of literacy and numeracy across all age groups within Birmingham.

The major education and training bodies in the city agreed to establish a partnership way of working that would:

• move beyond short-term, disconnected projects
• take a whole city, strategic approach
• change ways of working to produce lasting effects
• operate an annual business planning process for developments.

‘Whole city’ in the context of Birmingham means:

• 1 million people
• developments in 47 libraries; 23 day nurseries; 27 nurseries; 328 primary schools; 77 secondary schools; 29 special schools
• work with more than 100,000 parents
• work with all children in public care
• work with all training providers
• targeting more than 300 voluntary and community groups

The partners have reached a stage where developments over the past 2-3 years are impacting on more than 30% of the population of the city.

The current educational transitions into adulthood for people likely to have lower levels of literacy and numeracy are:

• direct employment in jobs where there may be less access to ongoing training. (The puzzle to be solved here is: How do you get large numbers of employers in small companies to see the benefits of work related training, including work related key/basic skills?)
• through the support of the increasing numbers of personal advisers/mentors. (The puzzle to be solved here is: What is the role of such staff in relation to ensuring that young people get their literacy/numeracy needs met? What skills do we expect these staff to have? – to be able to recognise basic skills; to be able to assess these needs? To be able to produce learning plans? To meet the needs?)
• via main structural programmes – New Deals; Modern Apprenticeships; pre vocational training; etc. (The puzzle to be solved here is: Are all young people coming through such opportunities, emerging fully literate and numerate? If not, what are the enhancements needed at the various stages of these programmes?)

The scale of the adult basic skills issue in Birmingham is large. Around 20% of the adult population (141,400 adults) do not have the skills necessary to match with continued effectiveness at work, or genuine participation in social processes, or to give educational support to others etc.

We are now getting much better data on areas of need; on numbers in different groups (offenders; public sector employees; young people; homeless people; parents; adults in disadvantaged communities; unemployed; benefit claimants; low skill employees etc); on the numbers in a wider variety of programmes etc. This means that we can plan more clearly the developments that are needed if main programmes and providers are to have real impact on the numbers of adults with low levels of basic skills.

A consistent menu of development activity is emerging:

• training all ‘front-line’ staff (reception staff; staff in public offices; health staff etc)
• training of people with a brokerage role (e.g. business advisers; personal advisers; guidance workers)
• training key intermediaries (trade union co-ordinators; probation staff; work supervisors etc)
• improved, appropriate methods of assessment (quick screening; detailed assessment of skills at different levels)
• customising materials and training to different contexts (work sectors; housing; family; regeneration etc)
• using ICT to bolster basic skills (laptops in community settings; CD-ROM and web-based learning; access to appropriate software etc)
• providing reliable and appropriate resources (resource boxes of ‘approved’ materials out into lots of settings)
• assistance in meeting quality standards
• assistance with basic skills planning

The progress being made in taking a coherent, partnership approach to adult basic skills is being nationally recognised. Birmingham is a pathfinder area for the new national Adult Basic Skills Strategy launched on 1st March 2001. This keeps the city at the forefront of developments in this area of work.

Throughout these developments we have tried to unravel the elements that make things work (and those that are distractions); we have tried to share insights from one sector across other areas of development; we have gone for large scale, systemic change rather than endless projects or adhoc pilots. The aim is still to build up consistent ‘layers’ of service and to ensure guaranteed standards of service. We have attempted the difficult job of balancing strategic approaches; ensuring relevance and flexibility; making rapid progress on broad fronts; and a search for insights as part of Birmingham being a learning city.

Birmingham is leading the way in this transformation of cities through literacy/numeracy developments – but still has much to do.