Introduction The Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) commissioned The Learning Elements of Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) study to review the learning elements of the SRB. The research was designed to review the direct contribution and added value which the SRB is making to the Government's lifelong learning aims. Single Regeneration Budget (SRB) The Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions is responsible for the SRB which became operational in 1995/96, drawing together resources from 20 former programmes from five Government Departments. The STB is now administered by the Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in all regions except London where the Government Office will continue to administer it until the Greater London Authority is established in April 2000. The SRB provides resources to support regeneration initiatives in England carried out by local partnerships. It is for partnerships to decide their local priorities, which projects to fund and how they are implemented. Methodology This study examined 24 projects from 17 schemes, mostly drawn from the third round of the SRB (approved in 1997). The study - largely based on interviews with scheme co-ordinators, project managers and beneficiaries, rather than detailed quantitative analysis - offers some valuable messages and lessons. Project selection was designed to provide a varied rural and urban spread, by region, of DfEE priorities. The focus on Round 3 SRB schemes inevitably means that the projects are still at a relatively early stage in their life-time, and it is therefore premature to form final judgements about impact and outcomes. However, it has been possible in this study to draw out valuable indicative information. Round 3 SRB schemes were conceived, at the latest, in the first few months of this Government. Nevertheless, the learning projects address many of the issues that have subsequently emerged as government priorities - including, for example, attracting adults to post-compulsory education, promoting family learning and making the post-16 syllabus more attractive to disaffected students. The schemes reviewed here are therefore of relevance to the design and implementation of policy across a range of DfEE priorities. This report: summarises the study's key findings, focusing in particular on key themes within the Government's lifelong learning priorities; describes some of the key process lessons arising from the research, and which may be of relevance beyond the SRB; discusses the notion of added value in this context, offering some specific examples of how schemes reviewed have enhanced mainstream provision; and sets out conclusions and makes recommendations to a variety of audiences.

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