All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy
The National Literacy Trust is proud to serve as the secretariat of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy. The APPG on Literacy was re-launched in June 2023 and is committed to building political support for literacy related issues.
The group is chaired by Christian Wakeford MP, with Alexander Stafford MP serving as Co-Chair, Justin Tomlinson MP as Vice-Chair, and Gill Furniss MP and Lord Graham Tope as Officers. Additional APPG members include Barry Sheerman MP, Dan Carden MP, Baroness Usha Prashar, and Baroness Floella Benjamin.
AGM meeting: June 2023
The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy held its AGM meeting on Tuesday 13 June 2023. We discussed our priorities for the APPG for the coming year, such as the effort to boost the number of UK primary school libraries via the Libraries for Primaries campaign. In addition, we provided members of the APPG with an update on the National Literacy Trust's early years campaign, and agreed to release a report through the APPG on what changes to government policy are needed to improve early language development.
Policy report launch: October 2023
The APPG supported this effort by putting out a Call for Evidence on early years policy, which was live from June to August 2023. The numerous submissions that were received helped to shape the content of the report, Building Firm Foundations: A Report on Early Language and Communication Policy, which was launched in Parliament on 24 October 2023.
For more information and inquiries, please contact Marc Newall (Head of Policy and Public Affairs).
Commissions and policy papers
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A report on early language and communication policy.Learn more about Building Firm Foundations (2023).
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A policy paper looking at the inter-relationship between early language and reading skills development, from the APPG on Literacy and the National Literacy Trust.Learn more about Language Unlocks Reading (2019).
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The report from the Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills in Schools revealed that just 2% of children and young people in the UK have the critical...Learn more about Commission on Fake News and the Teaching of Critical Literacy Skills in Schools.
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The literacy score is a measure of literacy vulnerability which we have developed with Experian. Together we have created constituency literacy rankings which measure literacy need...Learn more about Literacy score - mapping literacy need across England.
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We held a high-level roundtable in Parliament in May 2016 to discuss the white paper and its implications for the education sector and literacy specifically.Learn more about Education White Paper (2016).
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The Youth Literacy and Employability Commission was a joint venture between the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy and the National Literacy Trust to gather evidence and make...Learn more about Youth Literacy and Employability Commission.
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Research consistently shows boys’ reading lags behind girls. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Literacy’s Boys' Reading Commission was a joint venture with the National...Learn more about Boys’ Reading Commission (2012).
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The School Library Commission was a joint initiative between The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and the National Literacy Trust which aimed to set a national agenda...Learn more about The School Library Commission.
