Section 3 - Securing and Measuring Added Value 3.1 Enhancing Main Programmes: Illustrations of Value Added The six types of gap set out above can all be said to lead to discrete examples of added value. i) Insufficient Resources The insufficiency of mainstream resources is in many ways the most difficult gap to bridge, since Treasury rules have never allowed the use of special funding to substitute for main programme budgets. However, there are a number of legitimate examples within the sample where the SRB has enabled the provision of some service or service enhancement that could not have been funded through mainstream provision: The Birmingham Core Skills Partnership estimated that the combined value of resources available within the city from all relevant sources (the City Council, further education, Birmingham TEC) were adequate to tackle, at the very most, a fifth of the city's literacy and numeracy demands. In this instance, one aspect of the added value lies simply in the ability to provide services on a scale commensurate with need. Some of the 'improved access' projects showed how important it is to have accessible, and above all local, facilities, to attract adults into learning. The Sowerby Bridge Forum project offers an example where there were insufficient resources available from the mainstream to establish a local community education centre; and where the 'travel-to-learn' distance to the nearest centre was a major disincentive. The added value here arises from the provision of a local facility enabling mainstream provision to reach out into the community. ii) Ineffective Targeting Ineffective targeting is one of the areas where the flexibilities of the SRB have been most successful in enhancing the impact of main programmes. There are examples of such added value in this sample. Bristol Northern Arc's outreach counselling programme has linked individuals to learning opportunities previously unconnected with them. Medway Ruler's Skills to Succeed programme (designed to increase the participation of minority ethnic communities in learning) is building links to community organisations and refugee groups, as a means of reaching its target client group. The variety of 'hooks' into learning approaches described earlier, in which reluctant learners are attracted indirectly, through their children or through offers of job interviews. Both the Barnsley Highway to Success programme, and the AZTEC Digital Learning Community use a variety of outreach techniques to attract adults to learning in information and communication technologies - concentrating particularly on those for whom 'technophobia' is a barrier. iii) Providing for Special Needs The SRB has demonstrated the value of flexible funding which can enhance or supplement mainstream provision to cater for the specific needs of particularly disadvantaged groups. The Looked After Children project provided intensive support to assist the learning of children in care. The attainment of children whose first language is not English is raised by supplementary language support, integrated within the curriculum. Speke Garston's A Quiet Place project provides counselling for children and families in stress, to support their progress in learning. iv) Uniformity of Provision The special needs measures described above often involve introducing flexibilities into national provision. There are other examples where flexibility offers added value. The Positive Intervention Links and Enrichment (PIEL) project in Co. Durham provides individualised programmes of support for children at risk of exclusion. Enhanced vocational elements are introduced into the curriculum for disaffected young people, for example under the Tyneside Challenge project. v) Scope for Experimentation Many of the projects reviewed have innovative elements, and in most cases there are plans to embed innovative good practice into the mainstream. The Birmingham Core Skills Partnership has developed new ways of working that will be incorporated across the whole of main programme provision. Bridge Warden's College in the Medway Ruler programme will be absorbed in to the University of Kent's mainstream provision. Hattersley's Co-ordinated Individual Record System, piloted through SRB, and subject to performance assessment, will become a tool used by all the relevant agencies. vi) Building Partnership The added value to be secured through programmes like SRB is as much to do with the influence it can exert on the attitudes and behaviour of main programme providers, as with more immediate outcomes for particular groups of beneficiaries. However, as this Section has shown, there are plenty of examples of these. Many of the projects have demonstrated the need for greater co-operation between agencies if the learning opportunities for disadvantaged communities are to be maximised. A major component within the added value to be observed from SRB is the stimulus of partnership and collaboration between agencies. A feature of almost all the projects, this is particularly in evidence in the case of: Looked After Children, which has brought together social workers, care workers and educationalists, who previously had little contact; Birmingham Core Skills Partnership has a critical objective to develop partnership ways of working; and Adur Industry First's project, where key local businesses are now centrally involved in the development and implementation of learning strategies for the town.

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