Thematic report |
The impact of family learning programmes on raising the literacy and numeracy levels of children and adults - May 2012
The report considers: how effective family learning programmes are in raising the standards of literacy/numeracy of young children; whether there is consistency in the quality of delivery of family learning programmes; what progress is made by adults in improving their own literacy/numeracy standards; what constitutes best practice in the delivery of family learning programmes; the extent to which the programmes lead to better follow-up support for those children who need it; and the extent to which the programmes provide value for money.
Recommendations
The Welsh Government should:
- revise the operation of the grant programme to incentivise learner progression from taster sessions to short engagement courses and then to longer accredited programmes;
- stipulate a minimum number of hours for taster sessions and short engagement programmes;
- require providers to set progression targets, collect data and measure outcomes;
- restrict the number of times a learner can attend taster sessions and short engagement courses in order to encourage progression;
- revise grant guidelines and claim forms to require family learning providers to return enough data to the Welsh Government that will allow benchmarking of outcomes; and
- revise the guidelines on adult participants to allow those who have skills at level 1 to join the programme, where the school has identified that their children would benefit from parental support.
Local authorities should:
- work with other partners to set recruitment targets that focus on those most in need;
- analyse recruitment data in order to set challenging recruitment targets for the future;
- collect data on the take-up rate among those children who are identified as eligible;
- monitor the progress of children who have been identified for the family programmes but who have not taken part, as well as those who have completed them;
- ensure that joint strategic planning maximises the use of all resources, including venues;
- include family programmes in CYPP plans; and
- quality assure family programmes at a strategic level.
Providers should:
- collect learner data by gender and develop a plan to address the shortfall of men participating in family programmes;
- formally assess learners’ needs on entry to all courses;
- track the attainment and progression of adult learners on courses and use this data to plan at a strategic level; and
- set targets for learner progression from taster/engagement short courses to long programmes.