England is facing a serious literacy crisis. Last year, one child in three left primary school unable to read and write to the level expected for their age; rising to one child in two from disadvantaged backgrounds. Young people in England aged 16 to 24 have among the lowest literacy levels internationally and, what’s more, 5.1 million adults in England don’t have the reading and writing skills expected of an 11-year-old.
Not being able to read and write well can hold someone back at every stage of their life: as a child they won’t be able to do well at school, as a young adult they will be locked out of the job market, and on becoming a parent they won’t be able to support their child’s learning.
England’s literacy gap undermines the country’s economic competitiveness and sustainability. KPMG estimates that failure to master basic literacy skills costs the taxpayer £2.5 billion every year, and the CBI reports that almost a quarter of UK businesses have to provide remedial literacy training to school and college leavers who they employ because they don’t have the reading and writing skills they need to be effective at their job.
Low literacy levels also create barriers to social mobility. The attainment gap between pupils from low income families and their wealthier peers is unacceptably wide. Children in the most disadvantaged communities are half as likely to attend an outstanding school and children from the most deprived areas start primary school 19 months behind their more affluent peers. Research shows that parental involvement during a child’s earliest years is the single biggest influence on their development. However, parents of children in the poorest communities often don’t have the literacy skills needed to support their child’s learning; indeed, 35% of adults in the UK’s most disadvantaged wards lack the literacy skills expected of an 11-year-old. If this intergenerational cycle isn’t broken, we risk cutting the futures of our next generation of children short before they’ve even started.
For the past 20 years, the government has looked to address England’s widening literacy gap through national strategies, but these strategies have failed to raise literacy levels in the most deprived areas of the country. So how do we reach the children and families who are most in need of support? The answer – one community at a time.
The National Literacy Trust has worked with data experts Experian to identify the areas in England which are most at risk of literacy problems. Our analysis found that England’s literacy crisis is intensely local and deeply entrenched, highlighting that we must now move away from national strategies to more targeted, local solutions.