The National Literacy Trust announces new three-year strategy with emphasis on early-years literacy

The National Literacy Trust has announced its new three-year strategy, which prioritises tackling inequalities and influencing policy change, while also seeking to build confidence in literacy skills and help professionals improve literacy provision. 

The new strategy also emphasises literacy in the early years, building on the Trust’s Libraries for Primaries campaign, which aims to ensure that primary schools across the UK have libraries or dedicated library spaces. It is also in line with the charity’s Early Words Matter campaign, which seeks to empower families to grow the literacy skills of children from a young age. 

“Technology is changing what it means to be literate,” said Jonathan Douglas, the c.e.o. of the charity. “Long periods out of school during the pandemic and the closure of many early years settings has had a serious impact on the early speech, language and communication development of babies and toddlers from disadvantaged communities. Child poverty is rising at the fastest rate in a decade, and we know that child poverty leads to low literacy.” 

Douglas highlighted the importance of partnerships, and said that the support of the industry is “needed now more than ever”. 

The strategy for 2024-27 focuses on delivering “information and support directly to the people who need it most”, targeting parents, schools and the criminal justice system. It also prioritises support for librarians and teachers, aiming to offer them training and free resources, and seeks to ensure that literacy is a priority for national and local government education policy.

The charity also aims to establish 20 Literacy Hubs by 2027, targeting areas that are most affected by poverty and problems with literacy. As part of this, locals teams will work with communities, bringing together a range of organisations to improve literacy levels. 

There are broadly three areas of change in the strategy, which the Trust has identified to be “Literacy to Grow”, “Literary to Learn” and “Literacy to Thrive”. The first of these refers to the idea that every child needs to start school with language and communication skills that will enable them to learn, while the second change suggests that young people should leave school with literacy skills, regardless of their postcode. The final priority shift suggests that everyone who leaves the criminal justice system should have improved literary skills, which will help them in their lives. 

“What the National Literacy Trust has achieved in the past 30 years to help drive social mobility and tackle regional inequality is quite remarkable and the mission is still as critical and powerful as ever,” said Joanna Prior, chair of the charity. “As the literacy landscape changes, we need a new, bold and ambitious strategy that will shape the Trust’s work and deliver even more impact in the coming years.”