The Government has recently announced Multiply, a new 3-year £560m national programme focussed on adult numeracy. Mayoral Combined Authorities and local authorities have received a share of this funding to commission and deliver Multiply activity. Multiply delivery is intended to complement formal adult numeracy provision and can include non-formal learning activities to engage adults, including delivery in the workplace, community and family learning settings and delivery of numeracy in everyday contexts, such as financial literacy.

L&W is launching The Multiply Effective Practice Network (MEPN). The network provides a forum for all Multiply commissioners, providers and wider stakeholders with a strategic interest and expertise in adult numeracy to share experiences and learn from other areas as the Multiply programme evolves, in real time.

The MEPN aims to support Multiply commissioners and providers by:

• Providing forums to share what’s working well, and local innovation
• Sharing solutions to common challenges – in commissioning and delivering
• Supporting access to evidence-based insight into what works in adult numeracy provision

Activities throughout the year will include:

• Provider networking events linked to key themes in Multiply delivery, including expert inputs and showcasing local delivery
• A regular MEPN newsletter
• Bespoke support that can be agreed with areas who wish to invest. Support could include: local stakeholder engagement sessions, thematic evidence workshops for local providers and providing evaluation support.

The first of these events was an interactive workshop led by three MCAs sharing their key learning from commissioning Multiply. This was part of L&W’s English, Maths and ESOL conference on Tuesday 8^th November 2022. Catch up on the event here.

For more information about the network, get in touch at multiplyeffectivepractice@learningandwork.org.uk

The network is part of the RegALE (Regional capacity for Adult Learning and Education) project. RegALE aims to increase impact and sustainability of regional/local adult education organisations by setting up or reinforcing networks among them and with regional/local authorities.