Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to improve reading standards.

In 2018, the Department launched the English Hubs Programme to spread best practice in the teaching of reading, with a focus on phonics, early language development and reading for pleasure. Since its launch, the Department has concentrated over £40 million of funding in this programme to improve the teaching of reading. The English Hubs are currently delivering intensive support to over 1,000 partner schools, reaching approximately 50,000 pupils in Reception and Year 1.

These schools contain an above average proportion of free school meal pupils, who are over represented in the programme, along with those schools underperforming in phonics.

In 2021, the Department published non-statutory guidance, The Reading Framework, aimed at improving the teaching of the foundations of reading in primary schools, by defining pedagogy and best practice.

These form part of a supportive package of measures which also includes an updated list of validated phonics programmes, and a new National Professional Qualification for Leading Literacy, as well as the funding for the purchase of phonics programmes.

To help schools measure progress, the Government introduced a statutory phonics screening check in 2012 for pupils at the end of Year 1. By 2022, 87% of 7 year olds met this standard, which is a significant predictor of later reading comprehension performance.