Adult and Continuing Education (Hansard, 17 December 1979)

§ Mr. Mark Carlisle

I have, in consultation with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales, been considering carefully the recommendations of the first annual report of the Adult Literacy Unit, which was set up under the aegis of the National Institute for Adult Education to provide a focus for work in literacy. I have also looked closely at the recommendations of the Advisory Council for Adult and Continuing Education. The council was commissioned to report on the best way of building on the adult literacy campaign in order to create and implement a coherent strategy for the basic education of adults, including continued provision for adult literacy. I have16W concluded that the Adult Literacy Unit has done valuable work in stimulating and supporting developments in adult literacy and that the need for some central support for innovative work in this field has by no means ceased.

I also recognise the need for provision to continue to be made locally for the wide range of skills and knowledge, identified in the council's report, without which it is difficult for people to play a proper part in society generally and in the community in which they live. The speed and nature of its development and the priority accorded to it is, however, a matter which must be determined mainly in the light of local needs and resources.

There is a need for some co-ordination of the support made available by central departments and agencies for work locally in this field, in order to secure the effective deployment of resources, but I do not feel that it is necessary to establish for this purpose the autonomous and separate development board recommended by the council. venues of communication already exist between these bodies which can be more appropriately built upon.

I am not able to provide central support to encourage, focus and guide developments across the whole of the field described in the council's report. I attach particular priority rather to work designed to improve the standards of adult proficiency in those basic skills, in areas such as literacy, numeracy, communication and coping, for those for whom English is a first or a second language, without which people are impeded from applying or being considered for employment. Since work of this type arises from and complements the provision made for literacy, which will continue to play a central role, I consider it appropriate to build on the expertise of the Adult Literacy Unit by developing from that core, again within the National Institute of Adult Education, a unit with a wider remit, covering not only literacy but the other related basic skills.

I am pleased to announce that outline agreement has been reached with the local authority associations and NIAE for the development of such a unit. This will not only act as a focus for work in adult literacy and other basic skills, providing guidance materials and some help in training staff, but will also continue to be 17W able to commission special projects in the local authority sector and to assist some innovatory work by voluntary bodies engaged in this area. As a general principle, however, I would expect local voluntary organisations to look to local sources of finance for support.

I expect this literacy and basic skills unit to function in the first instance for three years, after which its future will be reviewed in the light of identified needs and available resources. Subject to parliamentary approval, the Government plan to make funds of about£½million available to the unit in its first year, sufficient to continue support for adult literacy at broadly the present level and to begin to support work in the wider range of associated basic skills. The balance and level of funding for the following two years will be settled later.