Universal Reading Offer Aiming for consistency, quality, efficiency Strategic partnerships, Future-ready ‘Think innovatively, acting collaboratively and managing creatively to ensure the sustainability and future development of our services’

Why Read? To stretch our imagination To encourage us to think differently To develop empathy and shared understanding To make sense of the world To escape, feel good and dream To learn For pleasure To develop the skill and expertise

What do we Want? A literate and confident society Communities which are resilient, empowered and prosperous Families that are connected, healthy and happy Individuals that are confident, independent and engaged Individuals with amazing imaginations, empathy and understanding of others Children who read for pleasure!

Where are we now? 1 in 4 children cannot read well by the age of % of adults in the UK “score at the lowest level of proficiency in literacy costing the UK £81 billion a year in lost earnings and increased welfare spending” “32% of the adult population don’t read for pleasure” The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PPIRLS 7 ) 2006 showed that reading for pleasure is a more powerful factor in life achievement than socio- economic background

The Universal Reading Offer The Universal Reading Offer is a gateway to partnerships, resources, programmes and activity. In 2016 Libraries will: – Be embedded within a national reading campaign – Part of a working group committed to promoting and encouraging reading for pleasure. – Able to raise the profile of libraries against local and national priorities – Demonstrate how we extend reach and engage wider audiences.

The opportunities ahead 2016 is the BBC Get Reading campaign. 3 key spikes: ‘Shakespeare’, ‘Roald Dahl’ and ‘The Books that made…’ 22 nd Oct – 5/6 Nov – Get Reading weekend – two weeks of activity culminating in 5/6 Nov – To be featured across all BBC channels and media SCL, ASCEL and TRA are part of the ROGO coalition and leading the reading for pleasure strand of that work Arts Council England is beginning to look at how we can promote this area of work more effectively Reading Offer team are beginning to develop a training and development proposition

Neil Gaiman- TRA Lecture (October 2014) ‘I was once in New York, and I listened to a talk about private prisons. Prisons need to plan future growth- how many cells are they going to need? How many prisoners are there going to be 15 years from now. And they had found that they could predict it very easily, using a simple algorithm, based on what percentage of 10 and 11 year olds could not read at the time of planning’