The policies the Government sets out within this White Paper amount to a significant investment in our future. In themselves, they will have a major impact on individual opportunities.

They build on existing policies and initiatives to address and overcome specific barriers to realising people''s potential. They will help us continue to build a fairer and strong society and a prosperous nation.

While some will have an immediate effect, the full benefits of many of these policies will become apparent over the longer term, as the children that gain from them today reach adulthood.

But as well as including a number of specific steps, this White Paper is also a statement of intent. It sets out a strategy for future changes and an approach to longer-term developments.

It underlines the Government''s determination that, as well as helping people through the present global downturn, they prepare our country to benefit from the new jobs, industries and markets that the doubling of the world economy will deliver over the next two decades. This will require them to step up their efforts to harness the talents of all, which, in turn, will help accelerate social mobility further.

The long-term goals are clear: they want to prepare the UK to grasp new opportunities in the global economy and enable every individual to realise their potential, no matter what their background. These are the goals they will use to guide our future thinking and measure our success.

On 26th November 2007, Work and Pensions Secretary Peter Hain MP and Universities, Innovation and Skills Secretary John Denham MP announced plans to work together to make sure people get the training they need to get into work and get on at work.

They include helping benefit customers identify the skills they need and providing the right training to make sure they can move from benefits to work and get ongoing training to progress in work. The reform programme is based on five core principles:

• A stronger framework of rights and responsibilities
• A personalised, responsive and more effective approach
• Not just jobs, but jobs that pay and offer retention and progression
• Partnership – the private, public and third sectors working together
• Targeting areas of high worklessness by devolving and empowering communities

This is the LSC's first Disability Equality Scheme and describes how they will meet their statutory duties to promote equality of opportunity and avoid discrimination as set out in the Disability Discrimination Acts 1995 and 2005, and the Duty to Promote Disability Equality Statutory Code of Practice 2006. The scheme will be effective from 4th December 2006.

From 1st April 2007, this will be fully incorporated, with any necessary updating, into their Single Equality Scheme, alongside their Race Equality and Gender Equality Schemes.

The Commission for Disabled Staff in Lifelong Learning initially met in March 2007 and will run until January 2008. Publicly available papers and reports from the commission will be regularly available for upload.

Officially launched on Wednesday 9th May 2007, this Commission will examine the recruitment, training, deployment and career progression of disabled staff in lifelong learning in England and Wales.

It is led by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and is chaired by Leisha Fullick, Pro Director at the Institute of Education, University of London. The Commission has members from across the lifelong learning sector, including the DfES, the LSC, unions and other representatives from higher, further and adult education.

Evidence will also be collected and reviewed from disabled staff, senior managers and HR departments, training providers, professional and advocacy organisations and government. This evidence will help identify improvements needed, acknowledge the impacts disabled staff have and the achievements of learners as a result of disabled staff and examine the position of disabled staff in the wider policy context.

Recommendations will be made to policy makers, funders, employers and training providers. Guides on recruitment, retention and achievements of disabled staff will also be produced.

Anyone interested in submitting evidence to the Commission of Disabled Staff in Lifelong Learning can do so in a number of accessible formats including online.

This document publishes the results of a survey conducted by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) in 2006 to gather qualitative and quantitative data on changes in education and training provision for adults with learning disabilities. It also looks at the local impact on learners of changes in policy and funding priorities as well as the quality of courses available.

This document will be of interest to providers, local authorities, learning disability partnership boards and local partnerships involved in the provision of education, training and/or care to adults with learning disabilities.

This document is the national strategy for LSC funded provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities across the FE system: 2006/07 to 2009/10

In November 2005, the LSC published the findings and recommendations of the strategic review of it's planning and funding of provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities across the FE system, Through Inclusion to Excellence. The overarching recommendation of the report was that, in order to take forward its vision, the LSC should develop a national strategy for the delivery of this provision across the FE system.

The document responds to that recommendation and is the first LSC strategy for the planning and funding of provision for learners with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The strategy is the blueprint for LSC thinking and reiterates the organisation's intention to ensure that all of the 40 recommendations made in Through Inclusion to Excellence are fully explored and met.

The strategy is informed by, and central to, the LSC's agenda for change, other wider learning and skills agendas and cross government agendas relating to individuals with disabilities.

Following the extensive consultation last year and the subsequent publication of the agenda for change prospectus, the LSC invited the Voluntary and Community Sector VCS to a road show (18/10/06) that reported on the progress and outlined the next stages of this programme.

For those who could not attend, this is the presentation given by Rob Wye, Director of Strategy Communications. The subject relates to the LSC priorities and the production of plans for 2007/08.

London is often seen as a city of young people, but almost 16 per cent of the city's population – nearly 1.2 million people – are aged 60 or over, and almost a quarter of a million people are aged over 80.

Valuing Older People, the Mayor's Older People's Strategy, aims to challenge stereotyping of older people and provide a framework to develop a city in which older Londoners have the support they need to lead active, healthy and independent lives.

The Mayor said: 'It is time to challenge negative perceptions about older people to make sure that their contribution to society and the economy is properly valued. Eleven per cent of older Londoners are still in employment, they provide £500 million worth of free care for their grandchildren, and over two hundred thousand people aged over sixty do voluntary work in the wider community.