A New Curriculum for

Difficult Times
Project Report

Simon Beer
2013

Working for more and different adult learners

NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, England and
Wales). A company limited by guarantee registered no. 2603322 and
registered charity no. 1002775,
Registered address: 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE, UK

Working for more and different adult learners

NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, England and
Wales). A company limited by guarantee registered no. 2603322 and
registered charity no. 1002775,
Registered address: 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE, UK

Table of Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Background to the project

Difficult Times
The projects
Localism neighbourhood working
Social value other council services, wider benefits
Curriculum design partners, learners, employers
Conclusions
Further reading

4
6
7
10
13
16
19
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1. Background
From summer 2011 to spring 2012, HOLEX and NIACE mounted a strategic dialogue:
a series of co-ordinated workshops, seminars and events for the Adult Community
Learning (ACL) sector; the dialogue drew on the Learning and Skills Improvement
Service (LSIS) work with RSA 2020 Public Services Hub1.The dialogue led to the
development of five key propositions, one of which was that the sector must design a
new curriculum for challenging times. The work focusing on A New Curriculum For
Difficult Times was predicated on the assumption that in difficult times learning and
skills provision will have to become more locally driven. Additionally, participants also
emphasised that difficult times require diversifying funding sources; targeting money
more effectively and designing services with and around the needs of communities.
As a result, LSIS commissioned 6 action research projects taking a different approach to
developing a curriculum for difficult times. The funding was available to local authority
providers, Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) or third sector providers, Specially
Designated Institutions (SDIs) and colleges with a strong Adult and Community Learning
(ACL) remit.
Each project was asked to address at least two of three themes: new approaches to
curriculum design, social value and localism.
The six projects were mentored through the action research process by NIACE and
HOLEX support. A steering group was also put in place, containing individuals with a
service design record from outside of the sector, to ensure outsider thinking was part of
the design process.
Aims
The aims of the New Curriculum for Difficult Times project were:

To provide facilitated opportunities for providers to develop new curriculum

approaches to difficult times through action research projects and a co-ordinated
dialogue and analysis of the challenges they face

To capture, problematise and share the approaches developed

To provide materials, case studies, analysis and guidance for the sector

To capture and feedback any implications from the work for LSIS services

http://2020psh.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/The-Further-Education-and-Skills-Sector-in-2020.pdf

Methodology
Whilst each project was able to define and approach the challenge in their own way,
projects were asked to consider how they might work through the following stages 2:

Defining the community and difficult times issues and problems to be addressed
and the ideas to be tested

Testing the validity / viability /demand for alternative service/curriculum options

Refining and developing the idea, once the validity /viability of an option has been
tested

Testing components of the service in more detail

Ending with a refined and tested service proposition

The rationale for these project stages was to ensure at least as strong a focus on the
process projects go through to develop new curriculum approaches, as on the
curriculum offer produced by the work.

These stages are taken from Prototyping in Public Services (NESTA, November 2011)

2. Difficult Times
In 2008 the queues of anxious customers outside branches of Northern Rock signalled
the start of a new economic era one of financial crisis, recession, fragile consumer
investor and market confidence and deficit reduction. Food banks have opened across
the country and there is evidence of a rising number of people sleeping rough. On
television and in the press, adverts for payday loans abound. For the first time, more
people in poverty are in working households than workless households, excluding
pensioners3. But its also true to say that this is not a static group. People move in and
out of work, remaining benefit dependent as they struggle to improve their lives. Cyclical
unemployment and youth unemployment are real problems in many areas. One in six
people, almost five million, have claimed Jobseekers Allowance in the past two years.
Compared with 2008, working families say they need a third more to make ends meet
a combination of cuts to tax credits, prices racing above inflation and stagnant wages
means the increasing cost of essentials, such as childcare and travel, ensure that wages
are quickly eaten up.
The public sector landscape has shifted dramatically since 2008. Budgets for Further
Education have been cut by 25% and local authorities across the UK face
unprecedented budgetary pressure. Analysis of the patterns of spending cuts show
greater cuts in the more deprived authorities, compared with the most affluent. Local
authorities warn that they have already made billions of pounds of efficiency savings and
that the current trajectory of funding is unsustainable.
In this climate, both councils and ACL providers increasingly recognise the need to
rethink services and do things differently. They need a clear analysis of how the
communities they serve are shaped and challenged by the reality of these difficult times.
They must focus consistently, creatively and credibly on the contribution that learning
and skills can make to getting things done and making things better at a local level. The
interventions and projects outlined in this report set out to do just that.

Source JRF, 2012

3. The Projects
The six projects chosen each addressed different aspects of curriculum development,
led by local need. Some were focused on the need to generate new curriculum content
against identified gaps; some were focused on finding the learning needs within local
non-learning projects or contexts. Others were focused on new ways to reach learners
and work within neighbourhoods. Full reports from each project are available as
annexes, so this section provides a brief introduction to each project, setting out their
aims and possibly key actions taken.
Difficult Times. Debt in Birmingham
(Birmingham City Council Adult Education Service: BAES)
The UKs second city, Birmingham, is the capital of the West Midlands region and the
major driver of the regional economy. Following national trends, Birminghams economy
has undergone significant change over the past three decades with the service sector
replacing manufacturing as the principal source of employment.
The project in Birmingham set out to engage with those third sector partners and
community groups who deliver advice and guidance to learners from vulnerable
communities. It aimed to develop two units of curriculum around benefit advice,
household budgeting and lifestyle transition, including a focus on people in low-paid
employment to help them develop the skills for sustainable employment. The project
involved establishing a debt curriculum in conjunction with 3rd sector organisations. At
the centre of the project was the relationship between the adult learning service in
Birmingham (BAES) and the BEST network of third sector community organisations.
Difficult Times.Unemployment and Multiple Disadvantage in South London
(Hexagon Housing Trust)
The Moving Forward with Recognition project run by the Hexagon Housing
Association aimed to develop a new curriculum and means of recognising the
attitudes, skills and knowledge individuals gain through active involvement in their
communities.
Hexagon identified a need for people who are involved in communities, as activists,
volunteers, paid workers, officers in statutory agencies, to have the skills to develop
communities; to increase the resilience of communities to survive against the current
economic situation and the withdrawal of the welfare state especially upon the most
vulnerable. Changes to the benefits system are pushing people to take any kind of
work in order to try and survive and yet their expertise within community activities is
not being used effectively in their search for employment.
The work was undertaken in partnership with developers, providers, residents and
housing associations, through revision of existing learning materials and systems for
recognition. Activity has centred on a Made for You programme; designed to give
people accredited recognition for their community development work at Levels 1-3.

A new partnership has been developed between ACL/ HE/FE/ Local Authority and
Housing Association sectors. Mentors have been recruited to support community
workers, to a total of five hours per worker.
Difficult Times. Rural Poverty in Herefordshire
(Herefordshire County Council)
In Tudorville, a small community experiencing high levels of rural poverty, an old
youth centre had recently been the subject of community asset transfer. The
intention was to ensure the centre be managed by local representatives of that
community. Within the community of Tudorville, there was no experience of local
learning opportunities, or of a focus for articulating its needs.
The Tudorville Community Building project focused on the learning needs raised by
the community asset transfer of the Tudorville Community Building and its
development as a centre, managed by and for the local community. The project
began with the need to engage and consult with the local community on how best to
use the centre, in an area with few or no extant local learning opportunities. The
project set about identifying and supporting a group of local leaders to run the centre
and developing their capacity to do so. The project also worked with the community
to articulate and develop learning solutions to meet its local needs. It has done this
through collaboration with a third sector partner (HVOSS) already active and trusted
locally.
Difficult Times. Disengagement and Poverty in Hull
(Hull City Council)
The City of Hull has high rates of people claiming benefits, with 8.3% of the
population claiming Job Seekers Allowance and the number of applicants per job
vacancy at 12.8 people per vacancy which is the highest of all the cities in England.
The Creating a Local Curriculum with the Community project in Hull set out to utilise
the market segmentation data gathered by Hull City Council to help design a
curriculum to meet the needs of the people living in North Bransholme, the area of
the city with the lowest level of engagement in community learning. The project
explored how market segmentation information collected by the local authority can
be used to map the local area and inform engagement and marketing activity around
learning. Along with messages received through face-to-face engagement activity,
the service used customer insight information to maximise the impact of community
learning, planning, marketing and delivery.
The project focused on the North Bransholme area, where there are hard to reach
learners in an isolated part of the city. Enrolments in community learning compared
to other areas of the city are lowest here.

Difficult Times. Unemployment in Redbridge

(Redbridge Institute of Adult Education)
Redbridge has some of the highest numbers of 16-64 year olds with no qualifications
at all. Employment rates in Redbridge at 64.9% remain below the London average.
Redbridge Job Centre Plus (JCP) report that poor English and digital exclusion are
the biggest barriers for local people gaining employment.
The project in Redbridge aimed to review and improve existing practice in designing
and delivering courses where the focus is on supporting local people to gain
employment, with a view to helping people in Redbridge get the skills for work they
need and make the transition to employment. Findings from co-design activity and
discussions with local employers and learners were used to ensure that provision
matches the needs of local employers and that appropriate strategies, learning
resources and approaches are in place to support learners to seek, gain and sustain
employment.
Difficult Times in. Bristol
(Bristol City Council)
Bristols Progress from the Street project was designed to customise and deliver a
bottom up community development course for young people to help them to identify
and address issues of local concern. The target group engaged were all aged 19-25,
unemployed and living in the Hillfields area of East Bristol; an area with high rates of
youth unemployment. Participants included young disabled people and those from
black and minority ethnic groups currently accessing a local community centre which
needed to change to meet their needs.
The project used an existing and successful My Life In community development
curriculum which has been designed to enable communities to identify and address
issues of local concern. The methodology behind this work was to engage a local
community in dialogue about local problems and support them to begin solving them.
Learning interventions and more formal course provision arise out of this process
and are brought in to enable/develop the solution focused project. An end of course
showcase event was held on March 1st at the Waterfront, Bristol and attracted
widespread local attention.

4. Localism
ACL providers both in the local authority and third sectors tend to be localised in
their outlook. Providers in the sector have a tradition of being very much in and of
the community, using locally accessible venues for provision, and engaging local
people often those most disadvantaged - through outreach. They are generally
effective at developing and maintaining productive partnerships, especially with
voluntary and community sector agencies. They have a strong track record of
addressing citizenship and cohesion agendas. A number would go as far as to say
that they are characterised by their inclusive outlook and practice, with many
adopting highly developed learner voice approaches.
The role of local authorities as public service providers and place shapers is being
transformed through initiatives such as Community Budgets, City Deals and the
prospective single pot approach of Michael Heseltine. A common intention across
these initiatives is to give localities the authority to make decisions, merge budgets
and identify local priorities.
A common response to difficult times across all six projects was an identified need to
strengthen local networks across various interest groups and engage new partners
who can share knowledge and understanding and work together. In Birmingham and
Herefordshire, the projects set out to strengthen links with the local voluntary sector.
The Hull, Bristol and Hexagon projects aimed to improve collaborative working
between learning services and housing associations. The project in Redbridge set
out to strengthen links with local employers. The projects in Bristol and Birmingham
and the Hexagon project aimed to create sustainable networks or groups. Such
infrastructure can provide a means of doing more for less in difficult times and result
in better informed and empowered local communities.
In terms of localist methodology, at least two projects saw their work as underpinned
by community development principles and approaches. The projects run by Bristol
City Council and the Hexagon Housing Association set out to apply community
development approaches to establishing a curriculum for difficult times.
Two of the six New Curriculum for Difficult Times projects (Bristol and
Herefordshire) found that learning and skills provision can contribute positively to
increase the capacity of a community to develop, run and maintain its own public
spaces. The Herefordshire project reported that learning was instrumental in making
sure that a relatively small investment by the local authority (22k via Future Jobs
fund and ESF co-financed work) was effective in transforming a community centre so
that it met local need.
Three of the projects (Hexagon, Bristol and Herefordshire) show how ACL providers
can work with people to help them make the most of the skills they have gained
through active involvement in their communities and how this can empower and

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enable individuals when they are seeking employment. The importance of local
leadership and supporting and capturing the associated learning is a strong
message.
For many services (not just learning and skills) which are exploring service redesign
through initiatives such as City Deals or Community Budgeting, a key to success is a
move towards consultative approaches to joint problem-solving. This involves the
identification of willing localists people who may be involved in their
neighbourhoods already but who have expressed an interest in becoming more
active. The Hexagon Housing Association project aimed to give overt
acknowledgement to the skills evidenced by volunteer community activists, allowing
them to build on an established base of activism towards employability. This was
achieved by formalised standards recognition through a formal, panel-based
process. Early indications are that this has empowered the participants, and helped
bring clarity to their short/medium term aspirations.
One of the underpinning assumptions of the Hexagon project was that, for many
disadvantaged learners, attitudinal change (towards learning and employment) is a
necessary component of any learning pathway. The project suggests that the
recognition of employment skills acquired through volunteering is a sound means of
securing a change of attitude.
The Bristol City Council project demonstrates how learning can foster creative
problem-solving on the front line, demanded by localist approaches. The project
brokered a dialogue with the young unemployed in the area around about local
problems (specifically, their non-participation in learning and underuse of a local
youth centre) and mediated in their attempt to create solutions.
Recruitment for the Bristol project, which initially proved tricky, was achieved by
utilising the support of an ex-learner who was working for a housing association as a
volunteer at the youth centre. In difficult times, key change agents, whether they are
organisations or individuals, need to be valued and celebrated. New partners are
sometimes necessary to access these change agents. In this case, both the housing
association and the Council were prepared and flexible enough to work with a
trusted local change agent to change and rethink local provision.

Curriculum for Difficult Times and Localism: key messages

Importance of learning to building local leadership

Supporting and capturing the associated learning within community
activism
Role of learning in building capacity within communities to take control of
services and amenities
Role of learning in the identification and development of willing localists

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Recognition of employability skills embedded in local volunteering as a

means of securing attitudinal change towards learning and employment
Using local change agents such as housing association volunteers to
broker learning

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5. Social Value
Government guidance defines the concept of Social Value as:
about seeking to maximise the additional benefit that can be created by procuring or
commissioning goods and services, above and beyond the benefit of merely the
goods and services themselves.
Social value can be outlined as the recognition of the broader public or community
outcomes that learning can bring, such as more resilient communities, improved well
being or improved local environments. Social value approaches mean ensuring
these impacts are held to be important within the service design or commissioning
process.
The Social Value Act, which comes into force this year, will require commissioners to
at least consider social value when they are agreeing public services contracts.
Social value has therefore become a hot topic for those delivering our public
services. Local politicians also want to seize the opportunity to gain wider social
benefits from spending decisions.
For the purposes of this project, we have viewed social value primarily in terms of
the contribution learning can make to other service provision and the broader public
benefits of learning. The providers that delivered the six difficult times projects have
all established high trust relationships with neighbourhoods and communities. These
are key assets and a valuable base for which to develop social value approaches. In
difficult times trust is in itself a key added value that learning services can offer.
In Birmingham, the impetus for the project came from the voluntary sector network
(BEST) reporting more people presenting with cyclical unemployment and needing
support with key unemployment-work transition issues. As access to simple
budgeting advice is receding (due to fewer CABs and other services), the burden is
falling on the voluntary sector. The work to create a debt curriculum was therefore
in itself an attempt to create a relevant basic skills offer locally, whilst at the same
time securing social value outcomes around transition from unemployment to
employment and community resilience in difficult times.
The project in Bristol is an example of both public benefits. Participants have
received media skills training through a digital stories programme, as a way of
exploring their My Life In story. Important learning outcome of the project is the
creation of a meaningful opportunity for young people to skill and re-orient
themselves on their journey to further skills acquisition or work.
However, there were also clear social value outcomes from the project. The personal
stories have also been brought together to form a bank of testimony material on
subjects ranging from heroin addiction to child trafficking and homelessness to knife

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crime, for future use in the youth centre with subsequent groups. The group of
learners have now committed to take on and improve the functioning of the ailing
youth centre, run by the council youth service. They have secured a meeting with the
council youth service to discuss the future of the centre. A further meeting with the
learning service in the coming weeks will explore the establishment a self organised
group which will take responsibility for the centre and offer mentoring for other young
people, thus providing a sustainable social value outcome for both the project and
the youth service.
The Herefordshire project found that desire for learning is often related to benefits
and jobs. Building in opportunities for residents with low literacy and associated low
ICT skills to the centre had important learning outcomes for individuals. A further
impact has been increased ability and effort on behalf of the local community to look
for employment, manage benefits and access online local council or voluntary
services.
A Workclub has been set up to supplement Job Centre Plus activity and is run by
digital champions trained as part of the learning project and recruited from the local
community. As job searching and universal credit require more IT skills to access
online, digital champions can help people access work. This supported employment
service is new locally. One social value outcome of this is an improving
understanding on the part of local partners of the implications for Tudorsville around
introduction of Universal Credit. The council intends to build on this integration
through use of the centre as a hub; a vehicle to build more resilience and skills into
the community. The Hull project also reported information from its market
segmentation process and has provided valuable insights into how the service might
develop a welfare reform strategy.
Several projects identified social value approaches based on integration with familyfocused services. In Hull one project output already underway is the development of
priority family projects jointly targeting adult and childrens learning needs, which
has been strongly informed by information from their market segmentation work.
Both the Hull and Herefordshire cases outlined above are good examples of
upstreaming where the value of learning to communities lies in prevention of health,
social or justice interventions at later stages of negative life trajectories.
Finally, it should perhaps be said that projects only partially managed to quantify the
social value impact of their work. A project of this scale and duration was unable to
provide the tools for them to do so. However, research by NIACE4 and others has
begun to develop ways of measuring the wider social value of learning and skills, or
social return on investment (SROI). It may be worthwhile noting the main principles
of measuring the social value impact of learning:
4

Can Social Return on Investment for Adult and Community Learning be Measured? Lamb, P
(NIACE 2012)

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Involve stakeholders
Understand what changes
Value the things that matter
Only include what is material
Do not over-claim
Be transparent
Verify the result

On its own, social value is not sufficient to make the case for adult learning. But as
part of a range of evidence, it provides insight into the wider outcomes of learning
and offers a new discourse for learning providers considering difficult times.
Curriculum for Difficult Times and Social Value: key messages

Funding squeezes mean that strong links need to be forged with other areas
of council and voluntary services, to embed learning in all activities and
secure social value
Learning can be an effective way of establishing self organised groups which
in themselves represent sustainable social value outcomes for communities
Enhanced ability to seek employment, manage benefits and access online
local council or voluntary services can be important social value outcomes of
learning
Working through priority family or families in crisis agendas can be a good
way of maximising upstreamed social value outcomes
Considering how to measure social value outcomes effectively is important

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6. Curriculum Design
All six projects were asked to explore one issue of curriculum design. The areas of
curriculum design addressed were:

The impact of engagement supported by segmentation data on curriculum

design
Co-design
Curriculum models for a specific community demographic
Tutors conducting their own research as part of a curriculum design process
Role of recognition in the curriculum design process

In general terms, all six projects were exploring new ways of carrying out curriculum
design in order to move away from the historic approach where the curriculum is
run and subsequently altered in the light of learner feedback.
The data based approach used by the project in Hull to use market segmentation
information to engage learners and help design a curriculum proved successful. The
project reported that information does not always result in new insight, but it provides
a robust evidence base for assumptions previously based on anecdotal experience
or local knowledge. The Hull project also found that insights from the data led
approach into residents with no history of participation in learning led to partnership
with a local housing association to engage and develop new course provision. Pilot
provision using the information from segmentation methodology led to 100%
recruitment on the first course within a day. The data also shows that confidence is a
clear barrier for residents in North Bransholme who use other services but do not
participate in learning and the service is now exploring curriculum design imperatives
following from this.
There is a strong emphasis in the literature on co-design and the need to move from
expert mindsets towards participation mindsets. However, in practice co-design of
the curriculum is often a more nuanced construction, requiring providers to identify an
optimal place on the expert participation spectrum that helps learners or
communities articulate a local or individual curriculum need, whilst retaining an expert
element of pedagogic shaping. For our projects, co-design proved to be largely
about:

Involving learners in the design process

Involving local partners in the design process
Involving employers in the design process

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The methodology behind the Bristol project is to engage a local community in

dialogue about local problems and support them to begin solving them. Learning
interventions and more formal course provision arise out of this process and are
brought in to enable/develop the solution focused project. A strong message from
the Bristol project was that for work with young unemployed in very disadvantaged
areas, it is crucial that learners are involved in determining the content of courses.
Intensive support and creative approaches are needed to do this, however.
In Bristol, the curriculum emerges through a joint creative problem-solving activity
undertaken by the local community and facilitated by the learning professionals.
The Herefordshire project involved local partners in the curriculum design process
through a community consultation on the community asset transfer carried out with
voluntary sector partners. The consultation helped local people identify a curriculum
for the community centre that addressed issues of local concern. One finding from
the Herefordshire project was that sometimes the most appropriate and effective
tools for informing curriculum design are the simplest. The project found a simple
doorstep approach with face-to-face talking to local community worked best to
engage people. This process helped shape the centres curriculum and identified
local people who have led on the development of the centre. These community
leaders are now undertaking a community leaders course with the third sector
partner.
The Birmingham project focused on co-design with third sector partners in working
with the target learners to co-produce a curriculum for a specific demographic (in
this instance, people presenting to voluntary organisations for debt advice as a result
of transition to work or cyclical employment). Tutors and managers from the council
service (BAES) worked with people from the third sector (BEST network) to develop
curriculum intervention around debt advice. Fourteen volunteers enrolled to pilot the
first curriculum project and this early piloting activity established that initial
assumptions about what learners needed was wrong. A strong message from this
project was that managers assumptions about curriculum need have to be verified
and if necessary changed. The provision on this project was altered to make it more
employment focused. The service has noted that this type of curriculum is best
designed in future by front-line staff, not managers.
The Redbridge project explored co-design with employers. The Redbridge Institute
of Adult Education (RIAE) used project funding to enable their tutors to carry out
survey based research and dialogue with employers in order to review and refine
their employability programmes. They conducted two mini-projects: one focused on
a work sector skills academy with McDonalds (the fast-food chain) and the second
involved identification of and discussion with the managers of eight local care
homes. Both were implemented on a pilot basis allowing re-design for the next
intake, which began in March 2013. The co-design process has also highlighted
potential scope for RIAE to deliver further specific training to those working in care
home settings, in the form of Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
opportunities.

17

The Hexagon Housing Association project explored the role recognition offers in
curriculum design. The project afforded learners the opportunity to embark on a
programme of study that was practically based and reflected their experiential
learning. In the Hexagon model, the learner decides on the community activities they
undertake such as community development or advice work. Next, using National
Occupational Standards agreed between the learner and a mentor, the learner
charts the practical activities they have done and identifies the learning derived from
this. They build a portfolio which is assessed and discussed by the learner and an
assessment panel.
The scheme is learner focused, providing learners with evidence of their capabilities
for their personal and career development. The Hexagon Housing Association
project formed a loose grouping of local providers (including Community Education
Lewisham, Greenwich Community College, WEA and London Metropolitan
University) through which the further education/training needs of the participant
volunteers can be met; each provider is challenged to respond to the individual
learning plan of each participant, including creation where necessary of any bridging
programme.
Curriculum for Difficult Times and Curriculum Design: key messages

Communities know what they need in difficult times but are not always able to
articulate their needs. Successful projects help with this and then build on
what is said
Providers need to find the right tools to enable employers, learners and
partners to co-design the curriculum
Co-design with learners requires intensive support and creative approaches
Data-led engagement activity can produce effective curriculum
Evidence based curriculum design is vital even when it only reinforces the
anecdotal
Sometimes the simplest approaches are the most effective
Enabling tutors to carry out their own research is an effective curriculum
design tool
Curriculum for target demographics is best co-designed by front-line workers,
not managers

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7. Conclusions
The project conclusions are formative and serve to raise debate about a new
curriculum for difficult times, not define or enshrine it. However, it is fair to say that
the difficult times experienced by local communities and addressed by our projects
shared a fair degree of commonality. Given the relatively small scale of this project,
modelling a comprehensive curriculum for difficult times was not set as a project
objective. However, it is possible to use findings from our six action research projects
to describe some of the important elements of such a curriculum:

A New Curriculum for Difficult Times should address poverty and debt

The work of the Birmingham (BAES) project in particular has raised the importance
of debt advice within any curriculum for difficult times. Other projects (Hull, Bristol,
Redbridge), provide further evidence on how individuals experiencing debt, poverty
or in-work benefit dependency can be supported to articulate their learning needs
and how curriculum can be developed accordingly.

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A New Curriculum for Difficult Times should address employment and welfare
reform

A majority of the projects explored how adult and community learning providers can
create employability-focused provision. Hexagon, Redbridge, Hull, Hereford and
Bristol also show how co-designed approaches can make the link between skills
developed through community involvement and supporting people into work. One of
the key issues emerging is how providers draw out that learning so that the individual
recognises the skills they have developed and how to work with employers to ensure
they see its value. The introduction of Universal Credit and the impact of welfare
reform has, without exception, been a consistent backdrop to all six projects.

A New Curriculum for Difficult Times should take economic geography

into account

The project in Hull used data and partnership to acquire a clearer picture of the
economic geography of North Bransholme. The service in Bristol has mapped its
provision against neighbourhood partnership areas and this has helped gain
coherent curriculum focus considerably.

A New Curriculum for Difficult Times should recognize the centrality of

network and partnership approaches

It is true that all six projects found that in difficult times, reinforcing existing networks
and engaging new local partners is imperative, in order to secure better value and
effectiveness. Several projects used network approaches to mobilise public assets
in pursuit of superior social value outcomes. At least three of our six projects have
very positive stories to tell about establishing new relationships with Housing
Associations.

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8. Further Reading
FE and Skills Sector in 2020: A Social Productivity Approach (LSIS 2011)
Prototyping in Public Services (NESTA, November 2011)
RIGHT HERE,RIGHT NOW: Taking co-production into the mainstream.
(NESTA 2010)
Communities in recession: the impact on deprived neighbourhoods (JRF 2009)
Our Role in Economic Investment (IPPR 2012)
The Challenge of Co-production (NEF 2009)
Profiting from poverty: why debt is big business in Britain (NEF 2012)
Can Social Return on Investment for Adult and Community Learning be measured?
(NIACE 2012)
Ten Reasons to Care About Economic Inequality (NEF 2011)
At Work and On a Low Income: A qualitative study of employees experiences (Work
Foundation 2010)
Why Communities Matter (Young Foundation 2010)
How can neighbourhoods be understood and defined? (Young Foundation 2010)

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Working for more and different adult learners

NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education, England and
Wales). A company limited by guarantee registered no. 2603322 and
registered charity no. 1002775,
Registered address: 21 De Montfort Street, Leicester, LE1 7GE, UK