Agenda item

Cabinet APPROVED the Literacy Strategy.

Councillor Andrew Curtin, Cabinet Member for Culture, Towns and Communities, introduced the report.

The Strategy before Cabinet set out how the Council and partners would improve Literacy levels in the borough and included an Action Plan that identifies the priority actions for the next three years.

The Strategy would be critical in delivering the overarching objective of the Council’s Living Ambition which was to deliver a better quality of life for residents in the Borough.

This Literacy Strategy and associated action plan focussed on the following groups:

§  Early Years (0-4 Years)

§  Children 5-11 Years

§  Young People 11-19 Years

§  Adults with Low Literacy

The Cabinet Member emphasised that the ambition and eventual scope of the Strategy would be wider than the above target groups. It would, in due course, engage additional partners in order to address specific needs and future priorities.

Reasons for the decision:

To establish a Vision, Strategy and Action Plan to help better co-ordinate and deliver Literacy work in Havering.

Other options considered:

The option of not developing a Literacy strategy was ruled out as the development of literacy skills was crucial to the development of individuals and communities in Havering.

A number of Members present commended the Cabinet Member for his work on developing the Literacy Strategy. The Cabinet Member, following a query, stressed that the Strategy had not come about as a result of a government directive, but was a local initiative designed to raise standards of literacy in the Borough.

Cabinet APPROVED the Literacy Strategy.