Basic Skills Community Fund

Project Status: Completed

The Basic Skills Community Fund was a dedicated fund established by the then DfEE as part of the implementation of the Moser report, A Fresh Start (1999). The Fund was jointly administered by the Basic Skills Agency (BSA) and NIACE. 

The Fund encouraged Lifelong Learning Partnerships (LLPs) to work with local voluntary and community groups to promote and build capacity for basic skills in the community. Through this collaboration, new networks were established in many communities. This was a pilot project. All those involved looked at innovative ways in which to encourage people with basic skills needs to become involved. Many projects were experimental, and this led to some exciting learning opportunities. As part of the capacity building, the Fund also encouraged the training and development of mentors (sometimes called "community champions"; "barefoot workers"; "literacy helpers" etc). The aim of the Fund was to try and reach new basic skills learners who had perhaps not been reached through more conventional means.

The Fund supported nearly 200 projects across every region in Britain. All the projects taking part in the Basic Skills Community Fund were completed by March 2001.

There were three strands to the fund, strands, A, B and C. For more information on what was required under each strand please see below:

Strand A
This strand was designed to enable capacity to be built within the local community. It also helped in the development of specific aspects of the Local Action Plan that each LLP needed to produce.

Strand B
This strand was about basic skills delivery and different models of provision. Each model looked at different methods of delivering community based basic skills provision.

Strand C
This strand provided community groups with ICT equipment, such as laptops, scanners, digital cameras etc to be used in relation to basic skills work. This strand also provided 2 candidates from each project to attend a training day and take part in an online course specifically designed for basic skills in the community. This online course also provided some reading and authoring resources that could be used on the equipment purchased.

Project Evaluation

All the projects taking part in the basic Skills Community Fund were evaluated. The evaluators were nationally recognised basic skills specialists with experience and knowledge of community based work. The role of the evaluators was a key part in the success of this Fund. Their role was not just one of evaluating what work had been done, but looking at what could be done in the future, what other support the projects might need and identifying additional resources that they could call on. For many projects that this was a benefit and helped them draw down other sources of funding.

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