Social Value of Adult Learning for Children and Young People’s Services
| Title | Social Value of Adult Learning for Children and Young People’s Services |
| Author(s) | NIACE |
| Organisation | NIACE |
| Date | September 2011 |
| No. of pages | 12 |
| Key words | adult learning; adult education; family learning; social return on investment; self esteem; mental health; transport; libraries; safer neighbourhoods; crime; poverty |
| Description | This briefing paper shows a brief overview on how adult learning provides outcomes that support and add value to children and young people’s services. It contains examples gathered through case studies and through usinga Social Return on Investment approach. |
| Select quotations | “…a learning family is one where both adults and children engage in learning, share their learning, and confidence and skills increase for both, leading to raised aspirations, better attainment and strengthened family relationships. However, as with all interventions, this can be a slow process, especially when dealing with families with chaotic lives.” “The support worker for the families with complex needs in the group saves time as the one-to-one work is reinforced by the learning taking place in the group.” “The increased confidence and self-esteem which the parents gained from the family learning course led to improved mental health, with several parents reporting reduced use of both prescription medication and drugs/alcohol, and index measures showing a 63% reduction in depression and a 52% reduction in overall stress.” “The child poverty strategy recognises the importance of adult and family learning in improving outcomes for children and adults.” “At the start of the course, none of the learners recognised the fare saver requirements and offers for family travel and some could not read a bus timetable which precluded them from making economical use of public transport.All the families joined the library while on the course after they analysed the cost of buying their children comics through the holidays.” “They also valued the opportunity to talk with representatives from criminal justice services, in a safe environment, ‘on their own turf’, where power relationships were more equal than the situations in which they would normally encounter these services.” “…adult learning provides wider outcomes that are fundamental building blocks to working with families with the most need in enabling them to access other services and build resilience and self-reliance – a starting place for further learning, gaining new skills, routes out of poverty and creating a culture of learning in families.” |
| Link | http://shop.niace.org.uk/media/catalog/product/s/o/social_value_for_children_and_young_people.pdf |
