Although the progressive learners succeeded in placing race on the Parliamentary agenda in 1968, their ambitions for the shape of British institutions were not realized in the eventual legislation. From their perspective, political compromises negotiated with skeptics had spawned relatively inefficient and unsatisfactory race institutions. Yet, the anti-immigrant tenor of the late 1960s and early 1970s undercut any steps toward more activist race policies. It took the return of Roy Jenkins to the Home Office under the new 1974 Labour government to jump-start the efforts of progressives. Once the Home Secretary announced the government's openness to revising race policies, progressives threw their weight into the political arena, building momentum towards new institutions of the type they favored.

If the shape of the 1965 and 1968 laws was determined in large part by a political balancing act, negotiations over the 1976 legislation were dominated by the progressive learners. They made significant changes on the basis of “feedback” learning from the problems that arose through the functioning of the 1968 act. In particular, British institutions turned away from a pure conciliation model in the realm of access racism. Although administrative bodies remained a central element of British institutions (and were in fact strengthened), individuals were no longer obliged to undergo administrative conciliation procedures that many deemed slow and inefficient. Instead, the 1976 act permitted victims of discrimination direct access to civil courts or industrial tribunals.