The Department of Health (DH) and the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) launched the national Skilled for Health programme on 24th January 2003.

The programme aims to improve health literacy and basic skills among specific groups with common health issues, and to build awareness among NHS staff of the links between poor basic skills and health outcomes.

By engaging people in a context that is relevant to them, individual projects will help more people to improve their literacy, numeracy and language skills and to use these skills to manage their health. Skilled for Health will help people to manage practical situations such as making an appointment with a doctor, or calculating a dosage of medicine.

Run demonstration programmes in at least eight deprived areas of the country;
Design and generate a number of health-related learning materials and assessment tools that can be replicated in different parts of the country;
Help learners gain a better understanding of their own health and how to make better use of the NHS, whilst also improving their basic skills;
Develop partnership working between health and basic skills practitioners, test new approaches, and heighten awareness of the basic skills needs of NHS users.

The programme will establish and fund a number of demonstration programmes (Thurrock project) around the country where adult literacy, numeracy and language skills will be introduced to the health arena and learning offered within a health context. This will include working with basic skills experts and NHS staff, as well as developing and testing the learning materials produced to support learners.

Eight one-year projects will be rolled out over the course of eighteen months. The aim of each project is to produce basic skills materials (learning materials) with a specific health theme, which will assist learners in improving both their basic skills and their health. These materials will be suitable for replication by other Learning and Skills Council (LSC) funded providers and health sector organisations in different parts of the country.

Thurrock Community Mothers is one of two national first wave Skilled for Health projects Thurrock Project

The programme will contribute to two national PSA targets:

To improve the basic skills of 750,000 people by 2004, and 1.5 million people by 2007

To reduce by 2010 inequalities in health outcomes by at least 10 per cent as measured by infant mortality and life expectancy at birth