Basic skills -- including literacy, numeracy, ESOL and digital skills -- are key to support adults' life chances and the need to invest in them is increasing. Investing in higher level and technical skills is important for economic recovery and future prosperity. But a sound base of basic skills are both essential in their own right and provide people with the tools to thrive in life and work and progress on to further learning. This briefing paper analyses the evidence base on the basic skills challenge and sets out a call for action by exploring: (1) The role of basic skills; (2) Basic skills needs, participation and funding; and (3) What works for adult basic skills provision.