This document presents advice from the United Kingdom's Basic Skills Agency regarding developing local action plans. The first 20% of the document defines basic skills and discusses the following action plan components: (1) an estimate of the area's need for basic skills training; (2) a target to reduce the area's estimated scale of need; (3) details of how basic skills learning will be promoted to adults; (4) a description of the range of programs to be provided; (5) information about program quality standards; (6) plans for coordination and monitoring; and (7) a cost estimate. The remaining 80% of the document consists of case studies based on three unidentified areas of England and Wales that are considered representative of the country's different areas. They illustrate possible action plans for the following areas: (1) a city with a low level of wealth creation, a preponderance of low-wage jobs, and a sizable population from minority groups; (2) a county with relatively low levels of unemployment that was characterized by rapid growth in the 1970s and 1980s and whose population is becoming increasingly multicultural; and (3) a poor rural county with a rather disperse population of 485,000, 392,000 of whom are adults. (MN)