Royal visit for NIACE and Leicester care home Tuesday, September 28, 2010 - 16:55

During her visit to MHA Aigburth Care Home, HRH, The Princess Royal, had the opportunity to meet residents and watch them take part in a number of learning activities; including using Skype, an art class and using a Nintendo Wii game console.

MHA Aigburth resident, Lee Williams, was thrilled to renew an acquaintance with HRH, The Princess Royal. Lee visited the Palace many years ago to take orders for Wolsey garments - made in Leicester - from the Royal family and remembers The Princess Royal when she was younger.

Lee said:

"I can remember what Her Royal Highness was wearing and the book she was reading on one of my later visits."

The learning activities at Aigburth are provided by the non-profit social enterprise, Learning for the Fourth Age (L4A), which combines one-to-one and group sessions. L4A was one of ten case studies featured within a series of resources - Enhancing informal learning in care settings - produced by NIACE as part of a project funded by the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

The project also produced a short film - Informal Adult Education in Care Settings - featuring L4A and the residents and staff of Aigburth Care Home, which powerfully illustrates the benefits of providing learning opportunities for older people in care settings. In another care home also featured in the film - Tansley Care Home in Matlock, Derbyshire - and where First Taste provide learning opportunities for residents, managers have reported a reduction of 75% in incontinence materials and a reduction of 50% in sleeping tablets and antidepressants. They have also noticed how more interactive residents are and how they are more confident when going for walks outside the home.

At NIACE's headquarters, HRH, The Princess Royal, found out about the charity's recent work with young people, literacy and numeracy and family learning. She was also briefed about the forthcoming challenges facing adult education and about policy messages emerging from NIACE's range of activities.

Carol Taylor, Director of Operations at NIACE, said:

"We welcomed the opportunity to showcase some of our work, to enable The Princess Royal to fully understand the range of work that NIACE does. As patron of the Basic Skills Agency, and now NIACE, for many years HRH has shown her commitment to the central place adult learning has in a whole range of other policy areas."

"Her view that we should encourage those who have least success to ‘see learning as part of a package rather than more of the same' chimes absolutely with the ethos and mission of NIACE. This was epitomised today by the visit to the Aigburth Care Home, where she was greeted by laughter and cheers, as residents competed with each other playing bowling on the Wii; the residents energised by learning."