reduction in cooperation between LEAs and voluntary and community organisations. The Act did increase opportunities for adults to learn, particularly in formal learning institutions, provided the courses studied met formal vocational objectives, but just as significant was its effective demotion of a wide range of adult learning, in terms of both funding and status. There was a growing separation between courses approved by the state – qualification or credit-bearing courses – and courses organised locally, through local authorities, with low status and no funding. It prompted a flight to FEFC budgets in all things – French for Beginners became French Level 1, for example – so that funding could be secured. It was the start of a process whereby adult education services gradually lost touch with informal, self-organised learning.


Turning point
 NIACE’s campaigning and advocacy work in response to the 1991 White Paper and subsequent Act proved, in a number of ways, an important turning point for the Institute. It had provided clear leadership and advice in the debate, secured some important political allies and demonstrated its independence of government, placing the wider benefits of adult learning firmly on the public policy agenda. Leisha Fullick, writing in Remaking Adult Learning (Institute of Education/NIACE, 2011), recalls that NIACE, for the first time, had articulated the principles that would shape much of its future policy and advocacy activity:


First, the campaign was careful not to take a wholly oppositional stance. It publicly recognised that the Act represented a step change in the status of adult learning ... By concentrating on two key principles – the value of all kinds of learning and the importance of having different kinds of learning publicly funded – NIACE was able to win over important sectoral interests who stood to gain from the Act.


Secondly, NIACE worked to maintain a positive dialogue with government. Alan [Tuckett] positioned NIACE as a neutral advocate for adult learners within the democratically agreed policy framework. He was scrupulous about informing the government in advance of the issues on which the organisation was going to take a public stand. He developed an effective review process with officials which minimised areas of conflict and kept dialogue going with politicians. This open and non- conflictual style was appealing to politicians of all parties and kept the door to government open to NIACE for the next 20 years.


But NIACE, under Alan Tuckett, was not only about briefing and advocacy. When Tuckett launched Adults Learning as a successor to the quarterly Adult Education in 1989, it was ‘a statement of the intention to reach out actively to a widening constituency’, Judith Summers recalls. In 1992 he further made good his intention by organising the first UK Adult Learners’ Week – a festival of learning to celebrate the achievements of learners and encourage others to try learning for themselves – in spite of opposition from some NIACE members and a far from celebratory political climate. Martin Yarnit, who formulated the original proposal for NIACE to coordinate ‘a series of events at local, regional and national level, culminating in a major national conference of learners, teachers and providers’, joined Alan Tuckett on a small working group, that also included Ursula Howard and Naomi Sargant, as well as providers, broadcasters and NIACE Cymru, to develop an event that would celebrate learning in all its forms. The first Week, held in March 1992, was somewhat overshadowed by the government’s decision to call a general election. It might have been entirely drowned out had it not been for the elaborate preparations already made by the broadcasters. Collaboration of this sort was to be a key contributor to the Week’s success in the years to come, as Martin Yarnit explains:


The 14 ITV regions set up selection panels and each made five awards to a total of 70 individuals. The following year came the introduction of the national group learners’ awards, and then year by year further awards were added by sponsoring bodies such as the

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