0 to 5

• Our partners already are involved in establishing a better start for babies. There is now a ‘Baby Charter’ (via the Early Years Development & Childcare Partnership). This is issued to parents at the registration of the child’s birth and lists ‘services’ one should expect. The Congratulations booklet (via Leisure & Culture) contains vouchers to encourage parents of new children to join in range of activities.
• This Partnership has established, city wide, support through Bookstart. Through this parents get a motivational pack at the baby’s 9 month health check. This encourages use of books, awareness of print and encourages use of library services.
• There is a language assessment at the 9 month health check. This starts to record progress in the parent held health record – the ‘Red Book’. Common messages have been developed re ‘language’ development/talking. There are being built into common leaflets and audio tapes to go in all early years settings.
• Books are being increasingly put into day nurseries. All to have good stock, well displayed – with ‘Leading to Reading’ videos and other support materials for families
• Books and maths equipment is increasingly being put into private and community nurseries – linked to pre OFSTED visits/post OFSTED action plans.

• Many Playgroups/stay & play/Homestart etc have had some resources to support the development of language, number, reading etc
• We are engaging large numbers of parents in all day nurseries – via the Education Service’s Inspire programme
• Literacy/numeracy training done with staff in nurseries and schools, around good practice re literacy/numeracy developments in the Foundation years
• ICT to support literacy/numeracy – digital cameras, scanners, software, interactive whiteboards – are now in every nursery school
• The Education Service’s Flying Start service has been established in a range of community venues – health centres; hostels; refuges etc, to support families in child management and booksharing. These venues are increasingly able to offer book loans etc. Research will be done on ‘what works’.
• All Libraries have improved their 0-5 work, through better stock and facilities, linked to increasing numbers worked with.

• Language development in children 0-4, in families where English is not substantially spoken at home
• Specific instances around deaf/partially sighted children; deaf/partially sighted parents
• ‘catch up’ boosters to groups before entering school provision

5 to 11

• All staff in LEA schools have been trained in the new curriculum framework; the literacy hour/the numeracy hour etc
• Support has been given to sharing expertise between schools through teacher visits/lead teachers/network activity
• There has been some specific focus on boys and literacy; ICT and literacy ‘projects’
• Consultants have gone in to support underachieving schools by helping with planning, or resources or doing demonstration lessons etc
• There are more than 1,000 new reading volunteers from the community and from businesses. The range of volunteering support has widened to include writing and ‘e-pals’. These are beginning to be offered as part of a consistent ‘menu’ of volunteering opportunities, through the Education-Business consortium.
• Language/maths co-ordinators’ have been supported by in depth 10 day courses
• Huge numbers of parents are now engaged with their children’s learning and school through the Inspire programme. That is targeting all schools and settings
• Family literacy/numeracy, via the Education Service, is now in around 25% of schools using a school led model - unlocking adult basic skills needs and boosting children’s attainment at school.
• Keeping Up with Children, via the Education Service involves work with parents re curriculum topics in schools and community groups
• Library family research days are being developed. These are library led, information handling sessions
• We have strengthened the use of ICT to support literacy/numeracy – via Integrated Learning System/Anywhere Anytime Learning; Birmingham Grid for Learning content etc
• We have strengthened the literacy/numeracy resources used on school visits to museums; environmental centres; Botanical Gardens, and residential centres

• Large numbers of schools have attained, or are working towards, the Primary Basic Skills Agency Quality Mark as a tool for bringing all their literacy and numeracy elements together at school level
• Books, resources, ICT, writer visits etc have all been integrated into partners’ work with Children’s Homes
• ‘Maths and Words at Work’ have led to embedding a structured literacy/numeracy focus into company links with pupils
• We have helped develop the large scale production of Big Books linking literacy and the world of work – pupils visit companies and produce a large, laminated book based on their insights
• We have supported the development of a Bookflood service, which has led a range of organisations to make creative use of large inputs of high quality books over a short time.
• There is homework support via libraries – in nearly every library with high quality stock; resources; staff; ICT; writing and word processing facilities etc.
• Young people have been encouraged in writing, through a range of activities – putting writing on the web; author visits; boosting their opportunities for creative writing; supporting teachers to develop their own writing skills
• Literacy and numeracy activities have been introduced in Easter holiday/after school booster classes
• A number of activities are now bridging the gap to secondary: Literacy/numeracy summer schools now take place in 50 secondary schools - ‘Moving On Up’ curriculum modules are used in 180 schools primary and on entry into secondary schools

There are still issues concerned with:

• Finding new approaches to enable some schools to make a further leap in pupil attainment levels
• Targeting specific skills/development with particular groups of pupils; based on accurate data
• Closing the gap in attainments between different groups of pupils

11 to School leaving

• Secondary schools have access to a supported menu of interventions (which are designed for a purpose) cross referenced with better analysis of schools’ individual needs
• We have supported the implementation of National Numeracy Strategy Framework for teaching mathematics in Years 7 to 9.
• We have encouraged schools to share successful strategies to improve achievement at KS4 and GCSE results.
• We have enabled the Education Service to provide practical support and resources to help pupils who enter Year 7 at Level 3 to make rapid progress towards the national expectation for their age; and to provide professional development opportunities, e.g. in teaching and learning; the management of mathematics.
• Staff training and support sessions have enabled schools’ development of numeracy and literacy across the curriculum; improvement of pupils’ thinking skills in the context of mathematics; and enabled schools to more fully exploit the use of ICT in mathematics.
• The Education Service has been able to identify and group schools using key characteristics i.e. high/low attaining, improving/stuck, Ofsted evidence etc. and provide support according to need.
• Some additional training has been provided for Leading Maths Teachers to enhance their role and enable them to be more effective.
• We have enabled schools to access support designed to improve the skills of secondary teachers in all curriculum areas to support the development of pupil writing skills, drawing on recent research into the teaching of writing to develop professional understanding of grammar and the writing process

• Support has been put in place so that schools continue to improve the management of literacy, with each school identifying priorities and producing a clear literacy action plan as part of its school development plan. This includes an assessment of pupil progress in reading and writing, including non-fiction; and an improvement in the use and understanding of literacy assessment data so that analysis informs teaching effectively; schools have been encouraged to establish literacy targets at whole school, group and individual pupil levels
• There has been an increase in literacy links between primary and secondary schools, increasing teacher knowledge and understanding of the teaching and learning approaches and the expectations of pupil achievement operating in each phase;
• School libraries have been audited and improved
• The Bookflood service has been used by schools to target the interests of Afro Caribbean boys etc
• ICT to support literacy/numeracy is available to every school, appropriate to their needs (software; interactive white boards; Integrated Learning Systems etc)
• Secondary Basic Skills Agency Quality Mark is being increasingly used by schools
• Targeted work is taking place in schools wanting to make big jumps, pre GCSE
• Laptops are being provided to Year 10 Children in Care

There are still issues concerned with:

• Managing a step change in achievement and attainment levels of the bulk of pupils
• Clearer understanding about what works with which groups of pupils
• Balancing schools’ managing their own progress with a structured framework of interventions that are more likely to be effective
• Closing equality gaps between groups of underachieving pupils
• Lifting the levels of maths performance; strengthening the infrastructure of maths teaching and learning

Alternative 14 to 25

• The New Start network has been enhanced using Core Skills support. In other provision, such as the 14-16 Learning Gateway and the Virtual College, links have been made with the alternative curriculum planning, in order that schools and others can offer a variety of routes to success, whilst ensuring a minimum level of focus on basic skills.
• For those who have left school, but not yet made a successful transition into work, training or further education, basic skills work is being strengthened in e.g. the 16-18 Learning Gateway
• Support is available in probation hostels; work on basic skills is being carried forward via foyers/homeless organisations; and through organisations that work with young offenders
• Specific outreach work is taking place with young care-leavers, homeless, offenders, and refugees through 6 targeted outreach workers. The Central Library has its own youth worker, targeting at risk young people and encouraging use of library services
• Gallery 37 is a summer programme that works with unemployed young people and inserts key skills into arts apprenticeship/qualifications.
• The Library Service is beginning to establish outreach work on disadvantaged estates and with socially excluded groups

• As a build up to the Connexions service targeting 13-19 year old young people, training is taking place with a range of workers who will take on personal advisor roles with known young people
• Work is being done with the network of organisations to ensure a more robust system of recognition, referral, and screening of basic skills needs, leading to clearly stated learning plans and tracking of learners to ensure their learning needs are being met.
• There is improved recognition, assessment and accreditation of basic skills in New Deal for Young People (- and increasingly within other New Deals)
• There has been some key skills assessor support (at level 1 and 2) in Modern Apprenticeship; National Traineeship

There are still issues concerned with:

• Aligning screening; formative assessment; individual learning plans; reviewing progress; and access to accreditation
• Recognising the expertise, and limitations, of the range of organisations within networks
• Encouraging access to nationally recognised qualifications in literacy and numeracy

Work with Employees

• There is a developing local strategy re basic skills in the workplace which has the potential to impact on large numbers of employees. At the employer level this is being carried forward through a menu that includes:
  • employer briefings
  • learning points: stand-alone pc’s with appropriate software, that can be accessed in short breaks
  • link with emerging national workforce developments
• Basic skills processes are increasingly being carried forward as part of wider company processes
  • Investors in People
  • Human Resource Plans
  • Skillscans/Training Needs Analyses
• The scale and type of basic skills need is unlocked via ‘brokers’
  • Business Link advisers being the main driver in this
  • ‘Investors in People’ advisers also play a role, as do Union learning reps and the Careers Employer team

• Basic skills responses are increasingly being contextualised
  • — there will shortly be a Birmingham and Solihull wide review/analysis of basic skills levels and future needs, within each of eight business sectors
  • — basic skills practice materials, related to common work processes are being produced as CD-ROMs by sectors
• Within the public sector, models are being found that will be effective and will work with large numbers of workers in the Health Service, in the Local Authority etc.

There are still issues concerned with:

• Reaching large numbers of employees in ways that meet real basic skills needs
• Assessing levels of literacy/numeracy skills gaps (current and estimated for near future) for growth patterns in different sectors
• Establishing a system-wide sustainable model
• Aligning company level; sector level; area level; and national developments
• Ensuring the basic skills is an element of each appropriate business support process

• Birmingham is acting as a Pathfinder for the national adult basic skills strategy (having already successfully piloted national literacy/numeracy strategies at both primary and secondary school level)
• An email update group exists, across key intermediaries, as a professional development network ensuring that key managers are kept immediately updated on local, regional and national developments
• More than 400 adult literacy/numeracy tutors have been trained in the implementation of the new adult basic skills curriculum
• This is one piece of a range of training, all of which is developing as a coherent adult basic skills staff training ladder
• New national qualifications are being introduced and we are promoting opportunities to access these; piloting on-line weekly entry to the tests as a way of accelerating large numbers towards accreditation
• We have been aligning the Quality Mark and the Common Inspection Framework etc and offering organisations a menu of support to enable more and more to be able to match expected quality standards (linked to support via organisational mentoring/’twinning’ etc)
• We are introducing more directed teaching; more intensive provision and we are exploring the use of residentials with adult basic skills learners
• Work has had to be done to ensure that the basic skill components of Information, Advice and Guidance processes work for the benefit of learners
• We are working to increase the volume of referrals/meeting needs
  • — via libraries
  • — via housing organisations
  • — via voluntary organisations
  • — via health structures
  • — via church structures
• Via Learndirect we have pushed for a boost of basic skills activity
  • — by increasing staff awareness of products/awareness of basic skills, and increasing learner support in on-line centres

• A number of national tenders have been let by the national strategy unit. These cover adult basic skills and:
  • — Neighbourhood Nurseries
  • — Assessment and Guidance
  • Volunteer/Mentor roles
  • — Materials
• We are linked into all of these broad national developments, each of which will have strong local impact.
• We have encouraged ‘self help’ activity in community groups; developing members’ skills and unlocking large numbers of volunteers and paraprofessionals
• We are working, via key partners, to boost basic skills levels of key members and officers in order to strengthen the organisational capacity of voluntary and community groups
• We have promoted the widespread use of consistent set of software – with guide to skills covered; this has gone alongside an increased use of ICT – including laptops in community settings and in family programmes

There are still issues concerned with:

• Strengthening the infrastructure to enable both effective delivery of targets, and developments of quality
• Building adult basic skills into the agendas of wider sets of organisations
• Balancing national strategic drives with area-managed strategic developments
• Increasingly bringing disparate activity within a coherent framework
• Link the basic skills improvement agenda with the neighbourhood renewal agenda

Geoff Bateson November 2001