Section 4 - Conclusions and Recommendations
4.1 Key Findings
The themes and issues addressed by the projects reviewed for this study offer a remarkably good fit with the DfEE's priorities, subject to one qualification: the disadvantaged communities within which SRB schemes are typically developed lead to an over-riding stress on tackling under-achievement. In turn, this also leads to a recognition of the interactions between social and economic circumstances, and individuals' capacity to engage in, and benefit from, learning opportunities. An implicit theme of many of these interventions therefore is the levelling of the playing field.
Few of the projects or programmes reviewed here would have proceeded in the absence of SRB resources. In consequence there is a high degree of additionality. Inevitably, given the project selection procedures, there is enormous variety in the range of objectives, activities, and scale of the case studies. Moreover, as noted earlier, in most cases projects are too young to permit judgements about outcomes and impacts and further evaluation may be beneficial in the future to inform such assessments. Nevertheless, there are some common features running through most of the projects, which offer encouraging signs both about the prospects for achieving added value, and for the ultimate sustainability of the projects and their achievements. In particular, these include:
- an emphasis on partnership development within project design;.
- in most cases an emphasis on enhancing what is already being provided through mainstream resources; and
- early attention to exit strategy and sustainability issues.
The previous Section argues that, wherever it was genuinely additional, SRB funding represented a gap in mainstream provision. Analysis of the substantive issues these projects and programmes seek to address provides some insight into partnerships' perceptions of where the mainstream, by itself, is not equipped to tackle the effective promotion of learning within disadvantaged communities.
Key Emerging Issues
- Low levels of attainment in disadvantaged communities are associated with (among other things) low levels of motivation towards, and therefore participation in, learning. This applies across the age ranges. A powerful contributory factor is the 'tradition' of unemployment, which reduces the perceived value of learning.
- In those areas where unemployment is the norm, well-structured work experience becomes critical, since young people may have limited experience of employment, even second-hand, from family or peers.
- The education and training system itself is often confusing: duplication and fragmentation (perceived, if not actual) constitute an additional barrier to participation in learning.
- For many communities, the barriers may be compounded by the lack of local provision.
- The precise nature of the barriers to learning vary among disadvantaged groups. In addition, for many groups, there are multiple barriers. Action to tackle some barriers is likely to prove ineffective, whilst others are left in place.
- Most of the areas covered by these projects display levels of basic skills substantially below the poor national averages described in Sir Claus Moser's basic skills report. This represents a major barrier to participation in vocational training (and therefore employment prospects).
- The importance of participation in post-compulsory learning is recognised by the Government. However, the priority for many regeneration partnerships is increasingly on early years interventions. In some cases, this reflects the perception that intervention at adult level is ineffective.
- Many of the schemes reflect the recognition that for many children, their difficulties with basic skills acquisition are associated with their parents' limited literacy and numeracy.
- The promotion of learning opportunities and their benefits in disadvantaged communities requires close collaboration between a diverse range of agencies.
- Involving employers in all aspects of learning development within disadvantaged communities can help overcome the 'postcode discrimination' which is often held to categorise them.
- With the increasing range of competitive bidding, there is a danger of 'initiative overload'. There are growing demands among practitioners for greater stability within main programmes.
As is discussed in Section 3, there is a range of good practice to be found in these partnerships' approach to project design and implementation. The main areas where partnerships encountered difficulties in the design or management of learning-related programmes and projects include:
- the selection of appropriate baseline measures;
- consulting with project beneficiaries in advance (i.e. talking to the customers); and
- setting targets and measuring performance.
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