If you look hard and are resourceful you can find places for adults to learn in Britain today. But you do have to search them out. Yet the need for a fresh commitment to easily accessible lifelong learning has never been greater. For fifteen years outside of higher education, policies have concentrated more and more resource on schools, and on the immediate learning needs of 16–18s. The impact on adult learning has been stark. Two million fewer adults (among them the poorest and least skilled) get access to publicly supported further education than in 2003.