Overview
Introduction
The Adult and Community Learning Fund (ACLF) was announced in 1998 and was designed to reach out to new sectors of the community which lie outside the reach of traditional educational organisations. The ACLF had an original budget of £20 million from 1998 to 2002, which was used to support some 400 projects. The Fund was then extended under Round Six to fund a further 187 projects for up to two years from April 2002, bringing the total budget to £30 million.
This document presents a summary of research designed to evaluate the ACLF. A key aim of the research was to examine the impact of the ACLF on the organisations involved, the individuals taking part in learning activities, and the communities which the Fund was designed to serve. The research was commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), working in partnership with the managing agents, the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and the Basic Skills Agency (BSA). It was carried out by the Institute for Employment Studies with assistance from Employment Research. The study took place between October 2001 and March 2002.
Key findings
The key findings illustrate the impact the ACLF had on providers, practitioners, partners and participants in attempting to widen participation in adult learning:
- ACLF-funded projects worked with a wide range of project participants including individuals with learning difficulties or disabilities, ethnic minority learners, older people, mental health service users and drug/alcohol abusers. Twenty per cent of projects reached 200 or more learners and all projects were successful at reaching hard-to-reach learners.
- The ACLF has been successful in encouraging new partnerships and in particular partnerships between the community and voluntary sectors and mainstream providers.
- Community and voluntary sector organisations were the most likely to be leading an ACLF-funded project, with mainstream providers (eg local education authorities and further education colleges) more likely to be involved as partners.
- Around 66 per cent of projects included some provision for supporting those with basic skills needs, and 80 per cent of projects aimed to use new techniques in order to reach new learners. Outreach work and workshops were popular delivery techniques and half of projects offered courses leading to a qualification.
- Projects were particularly positive about the impact they had made on softer outcomes (eg the levels of confidence among learners, the increase in self-esteem and attitudes to learning).
- Receipt of ACLF funding resulted in capacity building within the organisations involved, their staff and volunteers, including better local partnerships and future collaborations.
- As a result of ACLF funding, organisations felt that they had increased their knowledge of the needs of local communities and individuals and that they were better able to reach new learners.
- The importance of offering adequate support to learners (eg childcare, transport costs, access to IT equipment) was highlighted.
- Projects' abilities to demonstrate harder outcomes (eg number of participants gaining qualifications or entering employment) were related to longer duration and larger grants.
- Over three quarters of projects were continuing their work in some way after the ACLF funding had ceased. However, funding uncertainty was identified as a source of difficulty.
- The nature of support offered to projects by the managing organisations, BSA and NIACE, was well received.
Background
The ACLF was established by the Department for Education and Employment with a wide range of aims designed to promote community-based learning activities. In order to achieve these aims, the Fund sought to commission projects which were innovative (eg introducing new approaches or contexts), sustainable (meeting long-term unmet needs) and which built effective partnerships (in order to add value to existing provision or to the activities of new providers).
The ACLF was unique in terms of how it was managed. NIACE and BSA were each responsible for commissioning and managing the projects. ACLF-funded projects were allocated a named contact at one or other of these organisations who then provided ongoing support and monitored the progress of the projects as their activities took place.
Research and methodology
The data presented in this summary is based on three research strands. Data was collected using:
- A trawl of 50 project files containing the monitoring information submitted to NIACE or BSA.
- A survey of 197 projects targeted at lead providers (representing around 50 per cent of the projects under way at the time of the research).
- Case studies with six ACLF projects which involved qualitative face-to-face interviews with lead organisations, partners and participants.
