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• 10Oct2011

  Literacy and social mobility: An overview of the Party Conferences

  Posted by Jonathan Douglas

  The National Literacy Trust has been on the road for the past month. Hosted by Starbucks we have taken the literacy debate to the Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative Party Conferences. At all three conferences we focused our events on the importance of literacy to social mobility.

  As well as starry panels – we welcomed the Minister for Schools, the head of the TES’s school of the year and a host of MPs – the events attracted leaders from national bodies who are passionate about literacy. In Manchester we were joined by the Vice President of the NUS and the Chief Executives of the Publishers Association, the Campaign for Learning, CILIP (the librarians’ body) and Scholastic publishers and bookfairs. 

  With such diverse participants it would be imagined that the discussions were equally disparate, but the same strong themes emerged in all discussions. There seems to be a growing political consensus that not only does literacy underpin social mobility but that it needs to be addressed with:

  • Early interventions – the basic argument of Graham Allen’s Review is accepted and appreciated;
  • Policy which promotes positive speech and language in the home;
  • A literacy curriculum which sees parents are partners in the literacy of their children.– building on Tickell’s Early Years and Foundation Stage Curriculum Review;
  • Strategies which don’t only promote skills but encourage positive attitudes to reading and writing and communicating. In particular there needs to be space in the revised curriculum for children to discover the enjoyment of reading.

  In the next few weeks the National Literacy Trust will launch an All Party Parliamentary Group to push this conversation forward and grow this emerging consensus.

  All the debates also referred to concerns for the future of libraries, and how reducing their services will impact on literacy. This is an immediate issue for which we will continue to lobby. Libraries are central to the work of the National Literacy Trust because they are an essential community asset. It is currently vital to restate this and emphasise their value as a powerful instrument of social mobility.

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