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One of the most influential education reports to be published during Labour's 13 years in government was undoubtedly Claus Moser's, A Fresh Start: improving literacy and numeracy. Published in February 1999, it revealed the stark fact that roughly one in five adults – perhaps as many as 7 million people – were functionally illiterate or innumerate.

The report provided a clarion call for a new approach to the teaching of basic skills to adults that for decades had been underfunded and often marginalised. It proposed a new national strategy to tackle what it called a "shocking state of affairs".

In 2001, Labour launched an ambitious new strategy, Skills for Life, with the aim of improving the basic skill levels of 2.25 million adults by the end of the decade. Over the next seven years, £5bn was invested and thousands of teachers were taken on to teach literacy, numeracy and English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL).

The results have been impressive. By 2008, more than 2.8 million adults had gained a qualification in basic skills, enabling Labour to claim it had reached its target two years early. By that time, the former government had set its sights higher, with the 2006 Leitch review – Prosperity for all in the global economy – setting a new objective for 95% of adults to achieve the basic skills of functional literacy and numeracy by 2020. Achieving such a goal would mean reducing the number of adults struggling with basic literacy and numeracy from the current level, thought to be around 5 million, to fewer than 2 million by the end of the decade.

Despite these successes, the coalition government has ordered a review of literacy and numeracy skills provision to determine a new course for basic skills teaching over the next decade. Feeding into this policymaking process will be the reports of two inquiries led by Niace. The first, on adult numeracy, reported in March. It recommends a seven-point plan for improving adult numeracy that includes a new way of measuring how well adults use maths in everyday life to manage bills, make decisions about credit and estimate time. It also calls for adults with the poorest numeracy skills to be given priority.

"The main reason people do not go to adult education classes is that they tend to be scared because many of them have had negative experiences of maths lessons at school," says Niace programme manager Sue Southwood.

"We need to make sure that when they go into a classroom they are taught differently. A lot of adults see numeracy as trigonometry and algebra and think it is very difficult. We need to make numeracy relevant, not some abstract subject that's no use to them. We need to give them the skills to work out the best mobile phone package, make decisions about renting and buying property, budget for food and their electricity and gas bills.

"The other key thing is that teaching must be focused on developing conceptual understanding. Adults need to understand what they are doing when they use maths and why they are doing it. It's not just about doing a series of worksheets about fractions and getting the right answer. If you have got a recipe that is based on four people and you are cooking a meal for three you need to be able to use fractions to work out how much you need."

The second Niace-led inquiry is looking at adult and youth literacy provision. Chaired by the former Conservative education minister Lord Boswell, it is due to report in September to coincide with International Literacy Day 2011. One of its emerging findings is that the Skills for Life strategy, while successfully reaching "the lowest hanging fruit" – adults ready to study for qualifications – is not doing enough to persuade, encourage and support potential learners to engage in learning.

Weaknesses in the current strategy identified by the inquiry team include an over-emphasis on qualifications that often fail to match learners' needs and aspirations. Not enough is being done to reach those people whose literacy levels are least well developed.

While there are concerns about future funding in the light of the coalition's commitment to reduce the national deficit, many basic skills practitioners accept that it is time for a review of the Skills for Life approach.

"The facts speak for themselves. There are still many millions of people in this country who still have very poor literacy and numeracy and do not have the skills they need to perform in the 21st century," says Carol Taylor, Niace's director of development and research.

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assistant: Adult learning lessons for modern life