Thursday 9th June 2005

The Basic Skills Agency is pleased to announce the appointment of Toni Schiavone as Executive Director: Wales. Toni will succeed Rhiannedd Pratley, who is retiring, in the summer.

Toni will lead our work in Wales, particularly overseeing the implementation of the National Basic Skills Strategy for Wales on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.

Toni was formerly Assistant Director: Wales at the Agency and before joining us was an adviser and schools inspector with the CYNNAL LEA advisory service in North West Wales.

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Notes to Editors

1. The first phase of the National Basic Skills Strategy for Wales was launched in April 2001. The Basic Skills Agency has been overseeing the implementation of the National Strategy on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.

2. Words Talk - Numbers Count the second phase of the all-age National Basic Skills strategy for Wales was launched in April 2005. The Basic Skills Agency has been awarded the contract to oversee the implementation of the Strategy for the next three years.

3. The Strategy aims to provide a coherent approach to raising standards of literacy and numeracy in children, young people and adults. It involves a number of specific measures and partnership with a range of organisations.

4. The Basic Skills Agency is the national development agency for literacy and numeracy in England and Wales. We are funded primary by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and the Welsh Assembly Government. Our mission is to contribute to raising standards of basic skills in England and Wales. Our aims are to develop approaches that most effectively improve standards of basic skills and disseminate good practice. Our Patron is HRH The Princess Royal, the Chairman is Garry Hawkes CBE, and the Director of the Basic Skills Agency is Alan Wells OBE.

5. We define basic skills as ‘the ability to read, write, and speak in English or Welsh and use mathematics at a level necessary to function and progress at work and in society in general’.

6. Research conducted by BMRB revealed that on average 25% of adults in Wales have low literacy levels and 50% have low numeracy levels.

7. For further information please contact Rhian Hortin or Dilys Alam at the Basic Skills Agency on 020 7440 7788 or email rhianh@basic-skills.co.uk or dilysa@basic-skills.co.uk. For out of hours media enquiries please call 07799 643972.