Children who read for pleasure achieve higher academic outcomes, experience better wellbeing and show greater long-term social mobility. Yet national and international evidence shows that enjoyment of reading among children in England is declining. Rebecca Simpson Hargreaves argues that if policymakers want to sustain literacy gains and reduce educational inequality, reading for pleasure must be recognised not as enrichment but as essential educational infrastructure.

• Children who read for pleasure regularly achieve higher attainment across subjects and show stronger wellbeing outcomes.
• Despite strong international reading test performance, the enjoyment of reading among children in England continues to decline.
• Policy should treat reading for pleasure as a core educational entitlement supported through schools, libraries, early years settings and families.

A growing gap between reading attainment and reading enjoyment

Reading is widely recognised as a foundation of educational success. Over the past decade, policy in England has prioritised early reading attainment through structured phonics instruction and national assessment. These policies have contributed to improvements in decoding outcomes and international comparisons of reading performance.

While reading for pleasure is referenced within the National Curriculum, which states that pupils should develop the habit of reading widely and often for both pleasure and information, there is comparatively little policy guidance or structural support to help schools embed it in practice.

As a result, its implementation often depends on individual schools or teachers rather than being supported as a consistent national priority. Evidence submitted to the UK Parliament Education Select Committee’s Reading for Pleasure Inquiry highlights how this gap leaves schools navigating reading engagement without consistent national support. It also suggests that improved test scores have not been matched by positive attitudes towards reading. Survey data show a steady decline in children’s enjoyment of reading and in the proportion who read daily in their free time.

Reading for pleasure is strongly associated with educational outcomes. Longitudinal research shows that children who read regularly for enjoyment make greater progress in vocabulary, writing and mathematics even when socioeconomic background is taken into account. Reading frequently exposes children to a wider range of language, ideas and knowledge than formal instruction alone can provide.

Literacy success is therefore not driven by technical reading skills alone. Children who see themselves as readers are more likely to read voluntarily, choose more challenging texts and develop stronger comprehension over time. Yet current education policy tends to prioritise what is easiest to measure, such as decoding and comprehension, rather than the motivational and cultural dimensions of reading that sustain literacy over the long term.

Reading motivation is shaped by culture, identity and access

Reading for pleasure is shaped by social and cultural contexts as well as individual ability. Children’s motivation to read is influenced by whether reading is visible, valued and socially meaningful in their environments.

In schools where teachers talk about books, read aloud regularly and create time for voluntary reading, pupils are more likely to see reading as an enjoyable and shared activity. Professional development that strengthens teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature can play an important role in building classroom reading cultures.

Access to books is equally critical. Children are more likely to read when they can choose texts that reflect their interests, cultures and identities. A wide range of formats, including graphic novels, picturebooks, poetry and audiobooks, can also increase accessibility for emerging readers and children with special educational needs. However, access to reading materials remains uneven. Many schools lack dedicated budgets for libraries or book collections, and reductions in public library provision have disproportionately affected disadvantaged communities. Children from lower-income families are also less likely to own books at home.

These disparities matter because reading for pleasure is not evenly distributed across the population. Enjoyment of reading declines with age and varies across socioeconomic background, language background and special educational needs. Children who face the greatest structural barriers to accessing books are often those who would benefit most from sustained opportunities to read for pleasure.

Reading for pleasure is a policy issue, not a classroom extra

Despite strong evidence, reading for pleasure often remains marginal in policy discussions. It is frequently framed as an optional enrichment activity or something that will naturally follow once children have mastered reading skills. In reality, reading motivation develops within social and institutional contexts. Schools, libraries, families and community organisations all contribute to children’s reading cultures.

Where these systems work together, reading becomes part of everyday life. Where they do not, opportunities to read shrink.

Improving reading engagement, therefore, requires coordinated policy action across multiple sectors. Treating reading for pleasure as a whole-system issue rather than a classroom initiative would allow policymakers to address the structural conditions that shape children’s reading lives.

Policy priorities for rebuilding reading cultures

A renewed approach to reading policy should recognise that literacy development and reading enjoyment are mutually reinforcing.

• Recognise reading for pleasure as a core literacy outcome. The Department for Education should ensure that national literacy policy explicitly includes reading enjoyment alongside decoding and comprehension. Monitoring children’s attitudes towards reading can help identify whether literacy improvements are sustainable over time.
• Invest in school libraries and book access. School libraries are vital infrastructure for reading engagement, yet provision remains inconsistent. Ring-fenced funding for school libraries and trained librarians would help ensure that all children can access diverse and high-quality reading materials regardless of where they live.
• Support teachers as reading role models. Professional development that strengthens teachers’ knowledge of children’s literature can help build classroom reading cultures and position teachers as visible reading role models.
• Strengthen links between schools, libraries and communities. Public libraries remain essential for equitable access to books and reading spaces. Partnerships between schools, libraries and family hubs can help sustain local reading cultures. Local authorities play a key role in coordinating these partnerships, providing funding and shared spaces, promoting equitable access, and supporting community outreach to ensure all families can engage with reading.
• Prioritise sustainable, reading-for-pleasure-focused approaches. Existing reading volunteer models often place financial (e.g. DBS costs) and practical burdens on schools and tend to support book-banded reading rather than reading for pleasure. Alternative initiatives could be reading dogs or intergenerational reading partnerships. Where book donation schemes are promoted, they should be structured around children’s literature expert curated lists to ensure quality and reduce workload for schools.
• Start early – The foundations for reading engagement are established well before formal schooling. Policies that support shared reading in early childhood through early years settings, health visitors and family hubs can help children develop positive reading identities from the start. Partnerships with publishers can also be useful here. If DfE establishes these partnerships, publishers could provide schools with books in government brokered partnerships.
• Develop an evidence-informed national reading policy and guidance. Clear national guidance should include curated, diverse text recommendations to support schools’ reading provision. This should be developed in collaboration with expert organisations.

A long-term investment in educational equity

Reading for pleasure is one of the strongest predictors of educational success available to policymakers. It is relatively low cost and benefits children across academic, social and emotional domains. Enjoyment of reading cannot be mandated. Instead, it develops in cultures where books are accessible, reading is socially valued, and children are given time and agency to read.

If England is serious about improving literacy and narrowing educational inequalities, reading for pleasure should be treated as a central component of education policy rather than a peripheral one.