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Reading Recovery Programme

I shall come on to that, although I have seen a range of projects in children’s centres, and it seems that more and more are being developed, so I do not agree entirely with the hon. Lady that we shall see a reduction. Rather, there will be a greater level of support through children’s centres, but I shall come to that in a few moments. We know that early access to high-quality care and education has a positive effect on educational achievement. We shall focus on closing the achievement gap between those children and others. Repeated studies show that bright children from poorer households begin to fall behind less able children from more affluent backgrounds from as early an age as just 22 months. At that young age, such children have already become less likely to succeed at school and more likely to become unemployed, and therefore in wider need of support from society but, paradoxically, less able to access it. We have invested £20 billion in early years and child care, so that there are now more than 1.25 million child care places. We have met our target early to open 1,000 Sure Start children’s centres, providing vital support to the parents of 800,000 children throughout the country. There are now 3,000 extended schools, offering wrap-around child care from eight in the morning until six in the evening, and in some cases for longer periods. That is a pretty good demonstration of our commitment. That investment is being rolled out to an extent never seen before in this country, to every community. Every hon. Member here will have noted new children’s centres opening in their constituencies, at an average rage of around six for every constituency by the end of the decade. We shall expand that to half of all primary schools by 2008, with the extended schools, and to all schools by 2010. That is quite a multi-billion pound commitment. The literacy and numeracy strategies, the primary framework and the early years foundation stage are all about getting it right first time, from the earliest age. For some children, intervention will always be necessary. We recognise that we need systems in place that offer second and third chances, by identifying when a child is falling behind and stepping in with extra help to put them back on track for success. As my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham, North outlined, reading recovery is an early literacy intervention that offers another chance to those hardest to reach children. The programme is directed at those who are the lowest achievers in reading in their class, regardless of any other kinds of problems. It aims to return them to the average levels for their age in a relatively short period of time. Reading recovery has been around for some time and we have supported it throughout that period. That is why we are pleased to support the ““Every Child a Reader”” project, which is expanding the availability of reading recovery and exploring the wider use of the skilled literacy experts who deliver it. ““Every Child a Reader”” is placing specialist literacy teachers who are trained in reading recovery into schools to support those children who are most at risk of not learning to read. The three-year project is supported and funded in partnership with charitable trusts and the business sector. We are contributing £4.55 million to ““Every Child a Reader”” over three years. I heard what my hon. Friend said about his offer to contribute locally in Nottingham, which I am sure will be heard through the airwaves. Helping more children to learn to read is one of the surest ways of making a real difference to their lives. By re-engaging existing reading recovery teachers and training new ones, we are creating a powerful resource in our primary schools. Those teachers are providing invaluable support to children with significant literacy difficulties. Our involvement in ““Every Child a Reader”” offers us the opportunity to harness the expertise of reading recovery teachers. It will enable us to explore the potential for those teachers to support tailored literacy teaching more broadly within a school, with an impact beyond those children who receive intensive one-to-one support. ““Every Child a Reader”” will also provide us with valuable information about how intensive early literacy support can be provided in the future. If we want all children to succeed in life, we must ensure that they can all read well. An evaluation report of the first year of ““Every Child a Reader”” is published next week and I look forward to reading it, as I know my hon. Friend does too. In some respects it would perhaps have been nice to have this debate just after that report, but I look forward to reading it and taking the issue from there. My hon. Friend has invited Ministers along to that event next week, and I hope that the Department will consider the invitation favourably. I congratulate him on securing this worthwhile debate, which has helped to highlight some of the important work that is taking place out there.