Section 1 - Substantive Policy Lessons 1.0 Introduction Almost all the projects, and the programmes of which they are a part, address a wide range of the DfEE's lifelong learning priorities. The schemes and projects selected for this study display a remarkably high degree of consensus about the priorities for promoting learning within programmes of regeneration and in disadvantaged communities. While there are many similarities between these and the Department's lifelong learning priorities as set out in The Learning Age Green Paper (CM3790) (The Stationery Office, 1998), the regeneration context leads to a distinctive emphasis. In almost every case, the priorities of the SRB partnerships reflect perceptions of under-achievement (of individuals, businesses and communities), the consequences of which include economic disadvantage, a lack of competitiveness, poverty, and often social exclusion. This leads to a local awareness of the inter-relationship between educational performance and the wider socio-economic circumstances. Observations "In areas of high deprivation, it is vital that we tackle the problems of educational low attainment and under- achievement in the round. It would be facile to pretend that poor social conditions, lack of jobs, difficult family circumstances and lack of money and therefore opportunity, do not affect a child's education. To deal with the three Rs without looking behind the child to see what the major factors causing under-attainment are, is to waste money and resources. In what we have tried to do in Speke Garston, the child has been set within the community and we have begun to harness the community systematically to the education and learning process." Former Director of Speke Garston Partnership This Section assesses the contribution of the SRB to DfEE priorities and the following discussion is structured around the key themes as they emerge from our case studies: improving access to learning - widening participation; basic and key skills development; routes and attitudes to work; improving motivation and tackling disaffection; and introducing good practice to schools.

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