Priorities for Improvement 22. The challenge for the twenty-first century is to ensure that all learners with learning difficulties and disabilities can gain access to appropriate learning opportunities in basic skills. There is now an entitlement to life long learning, which will enable learners to acquire new skills and maintain those already learned. Providers of basic skills education should be responsible for ensuring that learners with difficulties and/or disabilities receive opportunities comparable to other learners. 23. It is important to raise the expectations of learners, their parents and carers, and the people they meet in voluntary and statutory organisations. A disturbing number of respondents to the working group reported that many people still regard all people with learning difficulties as unable to learn and retain basic skills. Many learners have low expectations of themselves and lack confidence because of their poor previous experiences. The Government should ensure that those responsible for publicity and recruitment initiatives relating to adult basic skills take advice from organisations which understand how to promote education positively to this group of learners. 24. We were frequently told by respondents that the current publicity materials for basic skills classes did not make it clear what could be provided for people with a range of disabilities. Would a person who communicated primarily through BSL be able to learn in the class being advertised? Were people with dyspraxia catered for? Better information, which is accessible and more designed, would enable people to decide if the class was suitable and would meet their needs. 25. Closer attention should be paid to the accommodation and access requirements of learners with disabilities and health problems. There should be a steady investment in providing suitable learning venues throughout the communities in which people live. The National Bureau for Students with Disabilities (Skill) has information leaflets on appropriate standards, which could be developed into a code of good practice. This would give providers a benchmark against which to measure and improve their accommodation. 26. Co-operation between agencies can make a real difference to the achievements of the learner. At present there is not enough co-operation. To meet the needs of some of these learners the Local Learning Partnerships should include other organisations such as health and social services and community and voluntary agencies. Many of these organisations already play a significant role in encouraging learning in basic skills. They can contribute to setting and achieving the local targets for this work. 27. Accessible common standards will benefit the majority of learners and ensure that most are included. However, there will be a small minority who are unable to achieve or demonstrate competence in one or more aspects of the standards because of their cognitive, sensory or physical impairment. For these students, flexible pathways or alternative ways of demonstrating competence will enable them to continue to make progress. 28. The key to achievement is good teaching. The FEFC Inspectorate reports show that standards of teaching in colleges are generally lower for learners with disabilities and/or difficulties despite the fact that the teachers often show a high level of commitment and enthusiasm. Teaching by other agencies, such as the social services, is not routinely inspected by Ofsted or the FEFC inspectorate. Teachers and other professionals want clear quality standards against which to measure their work. They also want guidance on good practice, through which to improve their work. Inspection against the quality standards which covers all provision, should assist in identifying the good practice. Investment in training for all those involved will ensure that standards are raised. 29. Nevertheless, learners have again reminded us that cognitive and sensory impairment and physical disabilities affect individuals differently. Some learners have more than one form of learning difficulty and/or disability. Inspection evidence for colleges shows that it is attention to the specific learning needs and goals of individuals, which improves achievements. 30. All learners should have individual learning plans, and wherever possible, learners should be involved in agreeing them. Their views and expectations should be respected, because they are often the best judge of the strategies and the equipment which will be useful in their learning. Their learning plans should be drawn up in a way that enables a range of other people to contribute to their learning. Teachers and others need more guidance on good practice in drawing up, and working within, individual learning plans. Charmaine is a deafblind student who uses hand-on-hand signing, large print on the CCTV and Braille as methods of communication to enable her to learn. At her review meeting Charmaine discussed and agreed targets for communication and numeracy, which were shared with all her teachers. These targets are worked towards in all the subjects she is studying in college, including Braille, IT, BSL Stage 2 and Exploring Work. Her teacher at the aromatherapy class she attends in the nearby adult education centre is also aware of these targets. Everyone who works with Charmaine knows these targets and ensures that her learning is reinforced. Her reviews show that she is making good progress. 31. A Fresh Start rightly identified the importance of assessment. Initial assessment enables teachers and other professionals to identify the starting point for the learner. Diagnostic assessment can be used to identify learning needs and to decide the best teaching and learning strategies for the individual. Both the identification of needs and the use of appropriate teaching methods are crucial if the teaching of basic skills is to be effective. The learning needs of some learners are very complex. Teachers and other professionals want assessment tools in which they can be confident, which provide sufficient information to enable them to draw up a teaching programme to meet the learning needs of the individual and to identify the resources required to ensure that the learning is successful. They consider the current range of assessment tools to be inadequate for this purpose and see the development of these as a priority. 32. Good quality resources for teaching and learning in a range of media will increase access at all levels. The need for learning materials, which are relevant to adults, has already been identified in A Fresh Start. Many learners with learning difficulties and disabilities which affect learning will need materials to be produced in a range of media such as CD-ROM, audio and visual cassettes, interactive websites and Braille. They will also need equipment to enable them to access and use these materials. Others are dependent on technology to enable them to overcome difficulties with learning. Investment is needed for the development of appropriate software, and learning materials, and the training of all staff in the use of these resources. Elaine is a woman with severe dyslexia who left school early with no qualifications. She found reading difficult and was barely able to write. She had been taught traditionally through phonics, without success. She joined a small group for dyslexic students at her local college where she was taught to use voice recognition technology by a tutor skilled in handling this technology with dyslexic students. Using this technology the barrier to writing was removed. Feedback from the software led to improvement in spelling, punctuation and reading. She has now completed a BSc in computer technology. 33. Learners value awards highly but it is important that any accreditation of attainment in basic skills should be credible and useful. The national report of the FEFC Inspectorate National Awards for Students with Learning Difficulties has identified a number of shortcomings in the current system. The review proposed in A Fresh Start should take into account the issues raised in this report and in particular the need for guidance on what does and does not need to be accredited in the pre-entry curriculum. Better use should be made of accreditation of prior learning (APL) which submissions have shown us is still underused and which would enable some students to focus more quickly on new learning. 34. In order to improve the quality of teaching and learning of basic skills for people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities, a major priority should be improved training for teachers and support workers. Such training must encompass the specialists and the basic skills teachers who need to be familiar with good practice in order to ensure that the needs of all learners in their classes can be met. Teachers need models of good practice and guidance on the ways in which they can make use of these models.

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