Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she has taken to help ensure that parents have support to read with their children.

The government is investing over £28 million to provide targeted, intensive, evidence-based support to help parents read with their young children. This investment is being delivered through the new three-year Family Hubs programme which is being rolled out in 75 local authorities, with priority given to families that will benefit most. This is supported by online resources which provide evidence-based yet highly accessible advice and ideas for parents about literacy and early language activities for children at every stage between birth and 5 years old. These resources are available at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/learning-to-talk/learning-to-talk-0-to-6-months/.

All school pupils deserve to be taught a knowledge-rich curriculum that promotes extensive reading, both in and out of school. The National Curriculum promotes the habit of reading widely and often, for both pleasure and information. It also emphasises the importance of listening to, discussing, and reading for themselves a wide range of stories, poems, plays, and non-fiction books.

Public and school libraries play an important role in supporting parents to read with their children. In a National Literacy Trust and Chase survey conducted between December 2022 and January 2023, 80% of parents with school-aged children reported that their school had a library and nearly 30% of parents stated they were borrowing more children’s books from libraries.