Family Learning Festival Thursday, October 21, 2010 - 10:15

NIACE has responded to recent government consultations and reviews affecting families, such as the Tickell Review of the Early Years Foundation Stage and the consultation on the Pupil Premium, and has highlighted in advance of the spending review the role of lifelong learning for strong and healthy families.

In time for the Family Learning Festival (16 - 31 October), NIACE has launched a consultation on its new initiative - the Centre for the Learning Family - to help disadvantaged families by bringing together people involved in diverse areas, to explore and develop the concept of the learning family.

The National Family Learning Network - a new website and infrastructure support for family learning organisations - has also been launched by Campaign for Learning in partnership with NIACE and ContinYou.

Over the last few years, NIACE has worked with organisations across many different agendas, to showcase the value of family learning in:

• parenting;
• raising aspirations and skills for employment;
• contributing to outcomes for children;
• developing grandparents' skills;
• cultural activities;
• developing financial capability;
• improving mental health;
• helping adults progress educationally, economically, personally and socially;
• developing adults' and children's numeracy; and
• cultivating intergenerational relations.

Karen Fairfax-Cholmeley, Senior Project Officer for Family Learning at NIACE, said:

"Our concept of the learning family, encapsulating the broad scope of outcomes that learning together as a family has, has been developed over time by collecting case studies and other evidence of the impact of family learning."

"With the approach of the Comprehensive Spending Review it is increasingly important to demonstrate how family learning contributes to the whole of society and not just for families. There are huge benefits also for the wider community not only because of the value for money that it represents; but also for the underpinning role it plays in the Big Society."

"We hope that our members and supporters will join us and the hundreds of organisations up and down the country, that will be making the case for family learning and the learning family during the biggest annual celebration of family learning."