Independent Literacy Inquiry

• The Inquiry will give us new insights into the 'state of play' in adult and youth literacy in England and Wales particularly in relation to priority areas of need, providing the evidence for recommendations to be made to different adult and youth literacy stakeholders. It will offer an independent analysis of what has been achieved by the Skills for Life strategy over the past decade and mark the 10 year anniversary with an overview and critical appraisal of a way forward.
• It will offer information on who is not benefiting from adult literacy provision in the current context and highlight opportunities to work with and alongside them.
• It will make recommendations about different ways of working to maintain the gains made by England (and Wales) in this domain, achieve even more and to support economic recovery as well as social cohesion.
• Finally, the Inquiry will bring together experts - researchers, policy makers, practitioners and learners - and give them the chance to 'think outside of the box', delivering a set of papers covering aspects of literacy with a range of foci.

The Literacy Inquiry will focus on the following questions: 

• Where are we now? What has been achieved? What business remains unfinished and who has been left out, or served least well, by the policies and practices of the last decade
• What are the literacy demands for individuals, organisations, communities and familiesin a period of economic challenge?
• What are the literacy requirements for getting - and staying in - sustainable and meaningful employment?  How can these be met? How can we offer relevant and integrated approaches which mean that vocational and literacy skills are learnt and developed?
• What are the literacy needs of the adult population, at different stages throughout life?
• What contributions can literacy make to skills and those who are not in employment, education and training, as well as to social cohesion, community development, health and well-being?
• How can literacy be delivered most effectively with the best possible trained and resourced workforce?

 The Inquiry will gather evidence by the following processes:

• Review of research literature and policies on which to base the evidence gathering process, including international evidence
• Call for evidence via our website, our networks and partners in response to key questions.
• Short, concise contributions from identified stake holders re demands and needs for those identified in the 4 life stages.
• Short concise contributions from identified stake holders re key links between literacy and other policies and developmental areas, such as: functional skills; wider policies and different government departments; the voluntary/third sector and volunteers; numeracy, including financial literacy
• Focus groups via the regional networks/opportunities involving providers and practitioners as well as learners to address key questions.
• Expert seminars, addressing key questions, attended by stake-holders and identified experts on different perspectives eg workplace literacy; Family Literacy; literacy and people out of work (NEETS, offenders, unemployed people); literacy and civil society; measuring success and progress.

This is an independent Inquiry co-ordinated by NIACE.

Inquiry timeline:

The Inquiry was launched on International Literacy Day, September 8 2010 with a Parliamentary reception.

Call for papers - 1 September 2010

Literature review of key research and policy documents - 15 October 2010

Final report - 8 September 2011

The Inquiry's final report with recommendations will be published on International Literacy Day, 8 September 2011.

The Inquiry was launched on International Literacy Day, September 8^th 2010 with a Parliamentary reception. Learners, tutors, managers, employers and policy makers, were invited to contribute any other important questions they thought the Inquiry should be asking, by 30 September 2010.  The Inquiry is ongoing as per the timeline above.

Progress Report - December 2010 - [PDF]

The evidence generated by the Inquiry will help identify priorities for future research and development work in this field.

Jan Novitzky
Programme Director
NIACE
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
07917 585 285
jan.novitzky@niace.org.uk

21 De Montfort St,
Leicester
LE1 7GE