Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that schools are delivering phonics programmes.

The Schools White Paper, published in March 2022, sets out the Department’s policies to improve literacy and numeracy.

Since its launch in 2018, the English Hubs programme has provided targeted support to several thousands of schools across England. The 34 English Hubs in the programme are primary schools which are outstanding at teaching early reading. Over 1,000 schools which were underperforming in phonics have received intensive support, reaching approximately 50,000 pupils in Reception and Year 1. In addition to this, more than 5,000 schools have been supported through medium level support, which provides schools with targeted support, continuing professional development opportunities, and workshops focused on phonics and the teaching of early reading.

The Department is continuing to support and enhance mathematics teaching through the national network of 40 school led Maths Hubs, which are helping local schools improve the quality of their mathematics teaching based on best practice, covering all regions of England. This includes the £100 million Teaching for Mastery programme, which is bringing training on mastery teaching to 11,000 schools across England by 2023.

The Department published a list of approved phonics programmes in 2021 to support schools in choosing a phonics programme. This is together with the provision of £4 million additional funding in the 2021/22 academic year to eligible schools to support them in obtaining validated phonics schemes, whilst committing a further £8.7 million in the 2022/23 academic year to extend this nationwide. In 2021, the ‘Reading framework: teaching the foundations of literacy’ was published. This defines best practice for teachers and school leaders, and the introduction of specialist training to drive better literacy through a new National Professional Qualification for Leading Literacy and a new National Professional Qualification for Early Years Leadership.

Guidance has been published to support teachers in planning and prioritising the mathematics curriculum from Key Stage 1 to 3, which can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-mathematics-in-primary-schools and here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-mathematics-at-key-stage-3. This is alongside the establishment of two new support schemes through the Maths Hubs programme that will reach thousands of schools within their first year alone.

The Department will also be funding up to £180 million in the Early Years workforce, including training for Early Years practitioners to support literacy and numeracy teaching.

The Department recognises the importance of speech and language in young people’s development and has funded £17 million to deliver the Nuffield Early Language Intervention programme, which supports children in Reception with their language ability. Over two thirds of eligible mainstream primary schools are taking part in this evidence based programme, benefitting around 90,000 children who are most in need of language support. Providing support for early language is a founding aim of the English Hub programme. In January 2023, the Hubs will begin delivering a new early language support scheme to schools which has been designed by Hubs and external experts.