Around 850,000 people in England and Wales are ‘non-proficient’ in English according to the 2011 census. Adults with poor levels of English language skills can struggle to access education, find work, participate in their communities or support their children’s learning. This limits their life chances as well as making community cohesion more difficult and increasing demands on other public services.

We want all adults who could benefit from improving their English to have opportunities to do so. This would benefit them and their families, but also our economy, society and other public services.

Our work includes building the evidence of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) potential to have positive impacts on people’s health, employment, education and participation in communities.

In Wales, we are working to secure more integrated, coherent and effective learning opportunities in ESOL, and developing effective practice in the delivery of ESOL, focussing on approaches that secure progression and positive outcomes at national, regional, local and neighbourhood level.

Working with the Welsh Government and the Welsh Local Government Association we co-ordinate a forum for practitioners across Wales to share practice and develop solutions for better delivery of informal and formal delivery of ESOL and the development of resources.

The forum meets quarterly and includes an annual Development Day for staff to gain insights into the latest research, thinking and developments from across the sector.