Our History
The first national Agency was set up in 1975 as part of the then Government's response to a high profile adult literacy campaign. The Agency - called the Adult Literacy Resource Agency (ALRA) - was set up initially for one year. It was extended for a further two years.
In 1978 the then Labour Government decided to review the future of what it called 'adult basic education'. In the interim, it established a smaller national unit, The Adult Literacy Unit (ALU) for two years (1978-80).
The Government changed in 1979 and in 1980 the then Conservative Government established the Adult Literacy and Basic Skills Unit (ALBSU) initially for three years.
ALBSU was eventually extended for a further two years to 1985 and then continued without a 'fixed term' on the basis of a three-year 'rolling programme'.
All three of these agencies were established as autonomous units of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE). Initially this was because it saved having to set up a new agency or Non-Department Public Body. Thus, none of these units had a separate legal status.
In 1990 a review of the legal status of ALBSU was undertaken. Largely this was because of lack of clarity about the status of ALBSU, ultimate responsibility and the accountability of the Chairman. The Secretary of State decided that ALBSU should have a specific and separate legal status and the Agency was established as a Company Limited by Guarantee and a Registered Charity in 1991.
A review of ALBSU was undertaken in 1994-5. The Agency undertook considerable consultation and made a number of proposals to the then DfEE (now the DfES) and the Welsh Office.
The main outcome was that the remit of the Agency was extended to allow it to undertake work with schools and children (before 1995 ALBSU only worked with adults, although family literacy programmes did involve young children) and the name was changed to the Basic Skills Agency.
In 2000 the Agency underwent another review, carried out by Peter Thorpe at the DfEE. The general conclusions were positive, and the Agency continued as a 'birth to grave' agency, funded by the government but independent of it.
In July 2007 the Basic Skills Agency merged with the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE), working in Alliance with Tribal. The resulting Alliance for Lifelong Learning forms the country's leading concentration of expertise in the field of literacy, language and numeracy across all age ranges.
The BSA's work in Wales has been assimilated into the Welsh Assembly Government in line with Assembly policy with NIACE, working with Tribal, contracted to support that work.
