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Case study: Local ESOL coordination in Camden and Islington

Camen and Islington ESOL Advice Service

The Matrix-accredited Camden and Islington ESOL Advice Service (EAS) maps English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provisions across and beyond both boroughs, targeting the hardest to reach learners to match ESOL supply with demand.

The service was set up with £530,000 funding from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government's Controlling Migration Fund (2018 to 2020). The bid was supported directly by the local Councillor and drew lessons from Hackney ESOL Advice Service model (2010 to 2017).

Since its launch, the EAS has registered nearly 6,500 cases.

Helping residents access suitable ESOL provision

The EAS's mission is to help every learner who would like to access suitable English language provision to find a course, so that they can take the next step in their lives without being held back by language barriers.

As a gateway skill for accessing services, gaining employment and participating fully in their communities, ESOL is vital for the approximately 330,000 adult Londoners who are unable to speak English well or at all. Over 6,353 Camden residents of working age speak little or no English, and over three quarters of this group are unemployed.

Addressing issues in the ESOL landscape

The ESOL landscape is notoriously complex and can be difficult for even professionals to navigate, leading to a host of avoidable socioeconomic problems including social isolation, unemployment and underemployment.

Challenges for providers and learners within the ESOL system include:

  • funding streams that can be incompatible with need on the ground
  • potential learners actively seeking learning opportunities but being placed on waiting lists which can be demotivating
  • oversubscription on some courses where demand exceeds supply (for example on pre-entry courses) and undersubscription on others
  • barriers to access for dormant learners, many of whom have lived in the UK for 10 years or more without having accessed formal ESOL
  • barriers to access for new cohorts created as a result of national and global crises (e.g. Afghan and Ukrainian families following the evacuation of Kabul and war in Ukraine respectively)
  • the absence of ‘big picture’ data which results in decisions based on very local data points and/or anecdotal evidence.

Feedback on the EAS

Without continued funding we would have to revert to the previous system where all learners approach individual providers. This would mean many learners completing assessments and being held on waiting lists with more than one provider... Intelligence gathered through the centralised database would not be available to plan provision effectively and progression pathways would be less clear.
Anne Crisp, Newham ESOL Exchange

Working with community partners

By building a comprehensive network of stakeholders from large providers to community groups, children’s centres to Jobcentre Plus (JCPs), the service both maps provision and identifies the hardest to reach learners. 

Trained advisors assess a learner’s level, eligibility and needs (e.g. crèche) and match them to existing provision, using the bespoke website and database for matching learners to courses. The website was an invaluable Information, Advice and Guidance (IAG) tool in enabling the EAS to pivot to fully online delivery during national lockdowns when registrations almost doubled.

Using data to identify and fill gaps

Where provision does not exist, the EAS works closely with providers, local community centres, JCPs and even schools to set up bespoke classes.

For example, when a large cohort of learners housed in a hotel were found to be ineligible for existing local, mainstream ESOL provision, the EAS collaborated with a local university to set up onsite bespoke classes enabling residents to prepare for integration into life in the UK.

In addition, when large numbers of Ukrainians began arriving in the city due to the war in Ukraine, the EAS was able to share with policymakers data on both their English language needs, and barriers to access.

Impact

Since its launch in January 2018, the Camden and Islington ESOL Advice Service has registered almost 1,000 learners per year. These learners would not have used other means of accessing ESOL.

On average, two thirds of EAS users are unemployed when they first access the service (in some years, this goes as high as 73%). 85% of the remaining third are on a low income. Of those who engage with the EAS, 100% are offered suitable ESOL provision even if this takes several months and in some cases years.

The Camden and Islington EAS has been supporting other boroughs and cities to set up similar services and train them to use the bespoke website and database developed by the service to match learners with suitable provision and retain them within one joined up network. Funding has been secured until the end of March 2026.

For further information, email ESOL Advice Service Manager, Shao-Lan Yuen, at [email protected].

Resources

Some of the resourced produced by the service to date can be found below:

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