Thematic Summary: Excluded/Disadvantaged Groups

Impact Forums

Thematic summary: Excluded/Disadvantaged groups

1. Key policy drivers – in country

Country / Information
Wales / Separate document prepared by Welsh Assembly Government outlining policy drivers;excluded groups is a key issue in Wales. Funding to support post-compulsory learning is being cut due to reductions in grant from Westminster and the necessity to prioritise mandatory requirements in Wales.
N Ireland / Mental health, homelessness, offending and learning disabilities were the key policy areas addressed by the presenters at the Impact Forum. However, representatives of women’s development groups contributed to the agenda too.
England / Health, homelessness, young people who are not in education, employment or training – traineeships and apprenticeships policies are key country drivers.
Scotland / The Scottish Government’s Statement of Ambition, 2014 embraces issues of wider impact of adult learning; Education Scotland will put measures in place to help support the development of practice but long way to go re sharing these. (Ref paper 4)

2. Participation and engagement

Country / Information
Wales / Initiatives described in the I F meeting included engaging and supporting participation through: a)Communities First work with people from black and minority ethnic groups who engaged in learning for employability with strong links to the health and social care sector; strong data collected on partnerships and impact for individuals, employers and communities; b) Communities For Work, a Welsh Assembly Government initiative working with JCP, advisors, mentors and some informal learning with adults and NEETS (European funding); c) Individual testimony of ALW award winner on what engaged her – and many others – in learning and their learning journeys; d) Unlocking Welsh Potential with WCVA and year 10-11 pupils to prevent them becoming NEET; e) work packages from NIACE, the NC for EAAL on supporting progression, work with disadvantaged adults and on employability for young unemployed adults.
N Ireland / Projects described in the meeting focused on engagement and participation by considering the ‘barriers’ or issues which might prevent such participation. These were identified in a summative way, from the experience of the group as not new issues, but those which are traditionally associated with people who feel that ‘learning is for other people’. The frustration is that we know what works to engage these people; they are all participating in something which motivates them and which has a purpose for them, in either addressing a personal issue (eg confidence-building; addressing homelessness) or engaging in practical activities which might lead to employment. They are not necessarily motivated by qualifications. The NIACE annual Participation Survey includes N Ireland; it could be worth extrapolating data from this to inform the participation agenda.
England / The workshop on capturing wider impact of adult learning (part of the Impact Forum, England) provided examples of participation and engagement eg a public housing estate in Rochdale where offending and drugs and alcohol abuse were a concern; Community Learning and Health Foundation focus on engagement and participation through eg healthy eating, and early years; WEA’s evidence of impact on some of the most disadvantaged groups and communities; Northern College’s analysis of the disadvantaged groups with whom it works and the impact on their lives. An example of the NC EAAL work with young people and employability which engaged young adults as researchers to determine what employers look for in young employees, led to publications and a web-site: The challenges are to use the sort of approaches identified, in extended ways – many of them do not use traditional approaches to providing learning.
Scotland / Focus in meeting on examples/cases: unemployed men engaged in employability and enterprise skills through conservation work in N Argyll, established through a social enterprise approach; 3 approaches in Edinburgh to engaging people after offending: Shine supports women; Passport supports males 21 +with IAG, training and work experience; Transition offers learning for adults recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Impact identified progression to FE and Access to Industry. (Ref paper 5) Older people in Inverclyde – health and well-being through small groups and co-production and active volunteers. (Ref paper 6)

3. Wider outcomes processes

Country / Information
Wales / No specific processes identified but data gathered by all those organisations and agencies presenting at the I Forum reported wider impact outcomes from their participants. Case studies used widely; Adult Learners’ Week Inspiring learning example; Communities First work with BM and E groups on employability tracks destinations, employment and further learning; Welsh Water examines impact on retention in employment in ‘hard to fill’ posts, team work and flexibility in responding to changes in the workplace.
Unlocking potential work with year 10 and 11 pupils, to try to prevent them becoming NEET captures impact such as, re-engagement with schooling; behaviour; attitude etc
N Ireland / Individual organisations gather data on the impact of their work with individuals and groups; this is rarely gathered for more strategic purposes or for advocacy purposes. It’s often used when bidding for funds. There’s a feeling that even when the evidence is presented their voices are not heard. Individual organisations gather data on the impact of their work with individuals and groups; this is rarely gathered for more strategic purposes or for advocacy purposes. It’s often used when bidding for funds. There’s a feeling that even when the evidence is presented their voices are not heard. It is possible that the Inspiring Impact Initiative and the ARC resource facility generated by the 2 Universities might be useful in generating evidence.
England / The workshop focused strongly on processes; these are written up as separate, critiqued snapshots from very different approaches. All of them identified how they were adding value through learning, for groups from disadvantaged backgrounds. These are in addition to the examples and case studies produced by the NC EAAL work on the Citizens’ Curriculum, Young People and Employability Skills and work on Family Learning.
Scotland / NIACE Wider Outcomes tool shared; Impact of Adult Learning in the Voluntary Sector tool being refreshed; How Good is our Third Sector Organisation (HGIOTO) process being piloted as a way of gathering impact data.

4. Evidence of impact on other policy areas eg health, housing, crime, citizenship, environment

Country / Information
Wales / See the examples in item 2 above; clear wider evidence of wider impact.
N Ireland / Most of the work of voluntary sector organisations is driven by ‘other policy’ areas such as homelessness, ex-offenders, recovering from substance mis-use, mental health etc They see learning with adults as a vital aspect of achieving their wider purposes, as do the individual participants.
England / See above; the case studies/examples cited identified a range of wider impacts on individuals and in different policy areas, including heatlh, crime, citizenship, families, young unemployed adults et al.
Scotland / See item 2 – health, drugs and alcohol policies, crime and older people.

5. Insights into social return on investment

Country / Information
Wales
N Ireland
England
Scotland

6. Policy influence: local, regional and national

Country / Information
Wales / Welsh Assembly government attendance at I Forums and contributions indicates policy interest, listening and desire to respond, within the funding constraints. Recommendation that focus should be on advocacy for the manifestos for the Assembly elections in 2016 and trying to influence future priorities. This is a common message in Wales, N Ireland and Scotland.
NIACE Cymru beginning work with the health sector which has already developed adult learning provision using its own resources
N Ireland / Funding policies in the public sector are the single greatest source of frustration; NGOs often move from initiative to initiative. The ‘invisibility’ of the third sector compounds this. Need to advocate policy impact at all levels through research, political involvement and advocacy. FALNI could begin to take on this function if it could be appropriately funded/supported.
England / The Citizens’ Curriculum work is being funded via BIS ; the outcomes could influence whether support for using such an approach is adopted/recommended more widely than the pilot phase.
Scotland / See item 8

7. Sharing of policies and practices from other UK countries

Country / Information
Wales / NIACE shared data on participation survey for 2015, including data on Wales and N Ireland indicating falls in participation in these administrations, even though participation overall is up through increases in England in particular. Also shared evidence from work of NIACE as the N C for EAAL eg work on young people and employability developed in England, Scotland and Wales but not NI; this opportunity will be developed there.
WEA England has conducted research into impact through annual surveys and a longer term impact study; this is to be developed in WEA Cymru.
Wales also looking at the work of the Recovery College in England with a view to developing work on health and learning although health services have already developed learning opportunities
N Ireland / Keen to learn about how Recovery College work is progressing in England.
Susannah Chambers from NIACE shared evidence about their work on disadvantaged groups.
Adult Learners’ Week events; borrowing ideas from England and Wales. Show-casing the work of the Live and Learn initiative, with success stories of impact will take place during the week in June 2015.
A conference to be organised in October could involve sharing practice from other UK countries.
The work from NIACE on young people and employability carried out in England, Wales and Scotland will be extended to N Ireland, working with young adults with disabilities.
England / Most of the emphasis was on NIACE England developments but such work as Employability and Young People drew on experiences in Scotland and Wales; the next phase will develop approaches in N Ireland
WEA Cymruwill begin to gather impact data which could inform work in other UK regions.
Scotland / Data gathered from across the forums should be used to progress the adult learning message to policy makers/funders in all 4 countries. England’s Wider Impact tool and NIACE’s Participation survey data shared.

8. Sharing of policies and practices from other EU countries

Country / Information
Wales / EPALE is a key vehicle for sharing policies and practices across Europe; attendance at I Forums in all administrations supported the work and encouraged sharing of case studies, reports, materials and resources
N Ireland / As above
England / As above
Scotland / As above

9. Actions and issues

Country / Information
Wales /

• Partnerships are a key to successful engagement and participation and realizing the wider outcomes of learning, beyond qualifications
• Partnerships should be properly formed and supported in order to develop trust, common purposes, joint outcomes etc and remove unnecessary competition
• How do we have a 21st century concept, approach, language and provision which does not silo adult learning, whilst retaining a funding stream which gives it an identity, supports communities of practice and recognizes the skills, qualities and abilities needed to engage and support participation in adult learning?
• Resonance with other administrations concerning frustration that excluded groups are often ‘an initiative’ rather than a long-term strategy and approach to making a difference
• Advocacy in the light of administration elections in 2016 could be on a joint agency/sector basis rather than by individual groups/organisations

N Ireland /

• As with Scotland, frustration re why much of the work with ‘excluded’ groups has to be constantly justified.
• NGOs tend to be missing from national data gathering, which focuses on public services; this is a challenge.
• Lots of innovation and creativity is evident in the third sector – but no real evidence of collective impact of the sector in relation to adult learning. This is an area for possible development
• Strong feeling that advocacy must be developed and conversations with politicians and policy makers is vital; we need a language to do this, which is understood by everyone. Advocacy must include celebration! Advocacy must also clearly link to policies, not just focus on process, if politicians are going to listen.
• We must be better at learning from others’ collaborative models and distilling the Key Success Factors in order to create transferability. Partnerships and collaboration are the only way forward.
• Spending time considering what adult learning might look like in the longer term – 5 -10 years and identifying who are the ‘key’ players and how we should influence them, could be productive and create new opportunities.
• Do we need a new language for adult learning/education? Has terminology become ‘tainted’ by concepts from the past?

England /

• Critiqued examples of working with disadvantaged groups examined; many of their approaches could be replicated in other organisations
• Key success factors distilled in the examples examined – such factors can be replicated in order to generate advocacy evidence as well as support others to adopt tried and tested successful approaches
• We know what works, have data to evidence it when working across different sectors, groups and partners; much of the success of the work depends upon initiatives rather than strategies adopted for the ‘long term’
• Third sector involvement is often a key to engagement and participation in learning amongst excluded groups
• Do we need to jointly advocate with multiple partners rather than as different sectors, agencies and organisations?

Scotland /

• Questions re why adult learning constantly justifying its work; funding can drive apart partnerships and joined up work through diverse reporting and priorities. How can we jointly, across the 4 countries, use data to further adult learning policies and practices?
• Strategic Forum on Adult Learning in Scotland might support development of data-base of case studies to provide readily accessible evidence of impact. A blog – inviting contributors – will be set up to capture impact stories. All data to be used to advocate Scottish Government’s positive encouragement of adult learning to policy-makers, organisations and funders.