Final Report: Four Key Phases

We have identified four policy phases, characterised by shifting power between different agencies. We can detect connections between the developments in the field described to us and broader political and cultural changes, national and international. For example, debates and conflicts about the marketisation and vocationalisation of education are key moments of change which are detected in the multiple responses described by our informants.

Mid 1970s: Literacy Campaign led by a coalition of voluntary agencies with a powerful media partner, the BBC. Advocacy by individual members of the government successfully exploited an interest in adult education for disadvantaged adults, opened up by the publication of the Russell Report in 1973 and £1 million was released to set up a national resource agency and to increase LEA provision (Fowler, 1988). LEAs and the adult education establishment, including the National Institute of Adult Education were enrolled in the campaign along with thousands of volunteer tutors and adult learners who began to work in 1:1 home tuition, or in small groups with paid part-time teachers. By 1976 15,000 adults were receiving tuition across England and Wales.

1980s: Provision developed substantially, supported by Local Education Authority Adult Education Services and voluntary organizations, with leadership, training and development funding from a national agency (Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Agency, ALBSU, later the Basic Skills Agency, BSA). In 1980 the field was expanded to include numeracy and became known as Adult Basic Education. In 1984, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) was added to ALBSU’s remit and an uneasy relationship developed. ESOL had different origins stretching back into the 1960s. It drew on a different set of funding arrangements via the Home Office “ Section 11” funding and a more specialised and better organized professional group. ALBSU’s role as a central voice, presenting a public image of the field both to government and the general public was crucial in providing coherence to the expanding field of ALLN and was uncontested on the national scene. By 1985 ALBSU estimated 110,000 adults to be receiving tuition and programmes were drawing on additional funding from the Manpower Services Commission (MSC) and the European Social Fund.

1989 – 1998: Depletion of LEA funding and control, statutory status of ALLN through a more formalized further education (FE) system, dependent on funding through a national funding body. Although the 1988 Education Reform Act was arguably the most important piece of educational legislation during this period, it was the 1992 F/HE Act that most affected the future shape of ALLN. ALBSU seized the opportunity to get basic skills (already designated as an area of provision in its own right) included in Schedule 2, to make it eligible for funding within the array of vocational courses included in FE Colleges. This changed the statutory status of ABE. It became a mandatory form of provision with a new scope and goals. ALLN was no longer open-ended and community-focussed, but subjected to a funding regime that stressed vocational outcomes and required formal audit. In 1995-6 ALBSU reported that 319,402 people were receiving tuition in England, two thirds of whom were studying in the FE sector.

1998- present: Development of Skills for Life policy: New government strategy unit created, £1.5 billion of government money is committed. Literacy and numeracy, including adult literacy, move to a pivotal position in discourses about human resources development and social inclusion. Basic skills are claimed to be crucial for employment, personal, family, citizenship and community participation (UNESCO, 1997; BSA, 1999;OECD, 1997, 2000). A new funding agency for post-school education and training, the Learning Skills Council, is created; local Strategic Partnerships are encouraged to develop collaboration as a way of overcoming the competitive approach created under the previous funding regime. Core curricula for literacy, numeracy and ESOL, standards, a national test and new qualifications for learners and tutors are introduced in England. Targets are set to reach 750,000 adults by 2004.