The Basic Skills Agency (BSA) has merged into NIACE, and NIACE and Tribal have formed the Alliance for Lifelong Learning

The Basic Skills Agency (BSA), is rejoining Niace. The remarriage is designed to strengthen national development support for literacy, language and numeracy work with adults, while its work in Wales is integrated into the Welsh assembly government. At the same time, Niace has formed an alliance with a consultancy, Tribal, which will take forward the BSA's work in support of literacy and numeracy in schools and early years learning. Alan Tuckett of NIACE said in an article in the Guardian "We have formed the alliance in the belief that nothing is more critical than the skill and confidence to read and write, to estimate and calculate, to make yourself understood and to make your case". The government's £600m a year Skills for Life strategy has produced real successes. But as the Leitch report recognised, the challenge ahead is more formidable still. Much of the success so far has been in literacy. Significantly less progress has been made in strengthening numeracy - yet moving up just one level (from entry level 3 to level 1) leads to a 9% productivity gain. Learners who make that leap earn on average 9% more year after year through their lives. This past year has seen what is, in effect, a cap on the expansion of provision for English for speakers of other languages, as the government struggles to contain costs. Yet Treasury assumptions about continuing flows of migrants into Britain make clear that current levels of demand, which significantly outstrip supply, will continue for the next decade and more. Meanwhile, as Ruth Kelly made clear last month, delay in access to English language learning inhibits successful integration, and leads to too many migrants settling for jobs below their capability - at a cost to their lives and to our prosperity. The strongest link between poor adult skills, poverty and poor performance by their children is experienced by adults with very low levels of literacy skills - below entry level 2. And, as research by John Bynner and Samantha Parsons shows, when adults from this group persist with developing their own literacy skills, their children thrive. Yet nothing in the current targets regime or funding arrangements focuses attention on their need for intensive programmes. Innovative uses of ICT in Skills for Life are still, at best, modest. Workplace literacy, language and numeracy need strengthening, too, whether offered separately or embedded into other training. Family literacy, financial literacy, work with older learners and with adults with learning difficulties all call for imaginative development, too. These challenges are substantial. Working together and building on our complementary skills, we are confident that the merger of the BSA into Niace and our alliance with Tribal will offer improved support for providers and policy-makers, and give new impetus to the struggle to secure literacy, language and numeracy for all. · Alan Tuckett is director of NIACE