National roll-out of Every Child a Reader

Practicalities of the roll-out

The DCSF is planning to roll out the programme from 2008 onwards through the Primary National Strategy. In order to achieve maximum pupil entitlement and reach the target of 30,000 children per year, the majority of local authorities will need to engage in partnership or consortium arrangements with neighbouring authorities when implementing the programme for the first time or continuing the programme from the pilot phase.

In order to maximise the principle of pupil entitlement, a formula has been developed using a calculation based on each local authority’s share of the 30,000 national target group of children.  The share is 35.1% of the number of children in each authority achieving below Level 2 in Teacher Assessments of reading at the end of Key Stage One, averaged over the three years 2004 to 2006.

From 2008, information from the Foundation Stage profile, which assesses the achievements of children entering Year One, in Communication, Language and Literacy Development will be also used as a key indicator of need in each local authority and school.

Summary of roll-out
When the roll-out is fully complete in 2011 there should be capacity to support the lowest 5% of achievers in school Year 1 through Reading Recovery, and a further group of children whose needs are not so severe through lighter-touch, ‘layered’ interventions.

Practicalities underpinning the roll-out
Reading Recovery teachers in schools receive a year’s training, and ongoing professional development, from local authority-based Reading Recovery Teacher Leaders. Within the roll-out model, not every local authority will be allocated resources to support a trained Reading Recovery Teacher Leader. Many authorities do not have a sufficiently large number of children in the target group which would ensure that the Teacher Leader can work to full capacity. 

It is assumed, therefore, that the majority of local authorities will operate in consortia, although for employment and funding allocation purposes each Teacher Leader will need to be based in a named authority.  It is proposed that for reasons of size or geography, 11 of the 148 authorities operate on their own.  The remaining 137 have been provisionally assigned to one of 38 training consortia. These groupings have been designed to maximise individual pupil entitlement to support though the programme.

Ministers have committed funding over the three years from 2008/09 for the phased implementation of Every Child a Reader. The pace of implementation is constrained by the number of training places that the Reading Recovery Network of the London Institute of Education can offer for new Teacher Leaders – 20 places in 2008/09, 20 in 2009/10 and 30 in 2010/11.  Any increase in the number of training places that can be offered is dependent on expansion of the Reading Recovery National Network team of National Trainers; growth must be staged and cannot happen overnight.

The national roll-out builds on the existing pilot, as a result of which there are currently 41 Teacher Leaders in 35 local authorities either trained or in training.  The DCSF has committed to providing continued financial support for Teacher Leaders from the pilot phase in the expectation that (in the overwhelming majority of cases) they will be available to train and support teachers from other authorities in their consortium   There are also over 600 existing trained and practising Reading Recovery teachers distributed across the pilot authorities, together with a small number practising as individuals in other authorities. 

Also see: Information for local authorities