Background

The National Literacy Trust's commitment to improving literacy in the home was established with the Family Reading Campaign, which has now concluded. The campaign was supported by a network of organisations and local authorities, who came together to share good practice on promoting reading in the home. 

In 2007 this network of partners agreed that the most effective and sustainable way to do this was to develop a flexible national model which could be adopted by local authorities. 

During the 2008 National Year of Reading, every local authority in England committed to a focus on literacy and the development of local partnerships to engage audiences. From 2009 to 2011 the National Literacy Trust was funded by the Department for Education to run the pilot project, Partners in Literacy. The project built on and progressed the work of the Family Reading Campaign and the 2008 National Year of Reading. 

To develop Partners in Literacy, a strategic coordinator was funded in each pilot authority. The long-term goal was to increase the numbers of families promoting early language development, speaking, listening, reading, and writing in the home. Read the final report, Local authorities improving life chances: A review of a new approach to raising literacy levels