My Lords, we know that strong literacy skills are fundamental to people’s education and employment prospects. That is why we have taken steps to improve literacy standards for people in the workforce by embedding English into our major education and work-based training programmes. We are also providing full funding for adults to access free English courses up to the equivalent level of GCSE, supporting community and workplace programmes, and working to improve the quality of English teaching for adults.

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), which was set up in 2011 through a £125 million grant from the Government, received £10 million from the Department in 2012 specifically to fund and evaluate 24 projects focused on interventions to improve the literacy of pupils who do not achieve the expected standard in English at the end of primary school.

To date, the EEF has published evaluation reports on 26 literacy-related projects. Of these, 11 involved voluntary sector organisations. Details of all of these projects and the individual evaluation reports are published on the EEF website at: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/school-themes/literacy.

The findings from evaluations of these and other EEF funded projects are incorporated into the EEF’s teaching and learning toolkit. This provides school leaders and teachers with an accessible summary of evidence from robust research studies on the impact and cost effectiveness of a range of educational interventions. This information can be used by voluntary sector organisations to inform their own approaches. The toolkit is published on the EEF website.

This Government understands the importance of strong literacy skills and makes English provision a priority for support within the adult skills system. We know that it can be difficult for adults to return to learning and to persist with their studies with the competing demands of work and daily life. That is why we are working alongside the Behavioural Insights Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge to trial a range of interventions to identify how to motivate adults to engage in learning and to keep studying once enrolled on a course.

Trial results point to a number of positive findings. For example:

• Colleges sending encouraging text messages to English and maths FE learners, see a reduction in mid-term drop-out rates and a 12% increase in students passing all their exams.
• Colleges allocating time for students to set goals and consider their personal values saw a 20% improvement in learner attendance for learners studying for Functional Skills English and maths qualifications.
• Trials with large employers, including the Co-operative (retail), the Army, Whitbread and the Manchester Chambers of Commerce, to improve the workforce literacy and numeracy skills are running over the current financial year and will report in summer/autumn 2017.

The Government is now working with the Behavioural Insights Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge to disseminate best practice from these behavioural insights trials amongst providers of basic skills courses.

This Government understands the importance of strong literacy skills and makes English provision a priority for support within the adult skills system. We fully fund, through a statutory entitlement, all adults to achieve their first English GCSE at grade C or above as well as other qualifications which help them get to that level. We also support English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) provision, in addition to DCLG’s community-based programmes and investment in Syrian refugees’ English Language training through the Syrian resettlement programme.

This provision is available for a wide range of learners including:

• Prisoners, through the Offender Learning and Skills Service;

• Learners in the community, including through Family English, Maths and Language;

• People who need ESOL;

• Trainees as part of their traineeship;

• Apprentices as part of their apprenticeship;

• Jobseekers.

To enable these learners to improve their literacy skills, we have embedded English at the heart of all our major programmes. This means:

• Learners who did not achieve a good GCSE pass in English by the age of 16 are now required to continue to study the subject post-16;

• Since 2014/15, the English requirement for Intermediate Apprenticeships has been stronger, with all apprentices who have already achieved level 1 English having to work towards level 2;

• Since 2014/15, young people undertaking a traineeship have been required to study English unless they already have level 2 qualifications in the subjects;

We have reformed GCSEs to ensure they are more stretching and provide greater assurance of core literacy skills than the old GCSEs. In line with the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee recommendation, we recognise that some people are not ready to take GCSE so we are also improving the rigour and relevance of English Functional Skills qualifications, which are taken by many students and apprentices aged 16 and over. We have commissioned the Education and Training Foundation to revise the National Literacy (and Numeracy) Standards and reform Functional Skills with the new qualifications being delivered from September 2018.

To ensure high quality provision is delivered, we have invested over £30m over the past 3 years to improve the quality of the English (and maths) workforce in further education, driving forward improvements in governance and leadership.

To ensure prisoners have the opportunity to improve their literacy skills, Government accepted in principle the recommendations of the review led by Dame Sally Coates on prison education which will include developing a new curriculum for the teaching of basic literacy in prisons.

Lastly, we are undertaking a range of research to better understand where Government investment in English has the greatest impact and delivers value for money. As recommended by the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee in their 14/15 report, Government is using behavioural insights to identify how to motivate adults to improve their English and encourage learners to keep studying once enrolled on a course. I am pleased to report that very positive trial results will be published shortly by the Behavioural Insights Team. This report includes trial findings working with the Army as a significant provider of workplace literacy training.

We have undertaken a thorough search of our records in the Department for Education and contacted the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for International Development, the Department for Business Innovation and Skills, the Department for Health and the Ministry of Justice. The list below sets out the results of this search:

The National Literacy Trust - £1,485,145

Centre for Literacy in Primary Education - £1,450

Book Trust - £34,716,302

The Reading Agency - £2,652,880

Developments in Literacy Trust UK - £249,995

The government is committed to improving literacy. We have introduced a new, more rigorous national curriculum which includes greater focus on reading. The national curriculum for English places a greater focus on reading and requires pupils to study a range of books, poems and plays to develop a life-long love of literature. Through reading and writing pupils will have an opportunity to develop intellectually, spiritually and socially, and develop a life-long love of culture.

Between September 2011 and October 2013, the Department for Education provided £23.7 million in match funding to over 14,000 primary schools, enabling them to buy systematic synthetic phonics products and training. In 2012 we introduced a phonics screening check at age 6 so that teachers can intervene early to help children catch up with their reading.

In November 2015 we announced the introduction of a year 7 resit test for pupils who did not achieve the expected standard at key stage 2 in reading or maths. Since September 2014 we have required 16-19 year olds not holding good passes in GCSE maths to continue to work towards them. This resulted in 7,500 more students aged 17 and above securing A*-C GCSE Maths last summer.

We publish analysis on English and maths attainment by students aged 16 to 18 who did not achieve A* to C by the end of key stage 4 in an annual experimental Statistical First Release. The latest release (relating to 2013/14) is attached and also available online. [1]

The next publication will provide data relating to 2014/15, the first year of the English and maths requirement.

The English and maths requirement has had a positive effect on attainment. In 2015, for 17-year-olds and over, entries in maths were up 30% while English entries rose by 23%. Last year there were over 4,000 more passes in English by students aged 17 and over and over 7,500 more maths passes.

We also monitor in-year management information returns from further education institutions. In 2014/15, 97% of 16 to 19-year-olds without GCSE A*-C English and/or maths attending an FE institution continued their study of these subjects.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/level-1-and-2-english-and-maths-16-to-18-students-2013-to-2014.