§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment (1) if he will list the external bodies involved in the drafting of the literacy strategy; and if he will publish details of the research work on which the(a) concept and (b) details of the literacy strategy are based; [37762]
(2) if he will list the external bodies who were consulted prior to the development of the literacy strategy. [37763]
§ Mr. Byers[holding answer 6 April 1998]: The literacy strategy is based on recommendations of the Literacy Task Force, established in may 1996 by the then Shadow Secretary of State for Education and Employment. Its membership was as follows: Professor Michael Barber (Chair), University of London Institute of Education; John Botham, Headteacher, Greenwood Junior School, Nottingham; Ken Follett, Novelist; Simon Goodenough, Chair of Governors, Queen Elizabeth Community College, Devon; Mary Gray, Retired Headteacher, Fair Furlong School Bristol; David Pitt-Watson, Deloitte & Touche; David Reynolds, Professor Education, University of Newcastle; Anne Waterhouse, Headteacher, Asmall County Primary School, Lancashire; and Diane Wright, a parent.
The Task Force drew widely on evidence of what works in this and other countries and took account of evidence from inspection reports and surveys from OFSTED. It consulted very widely before recommending 228W that the National Literacy Project offered the best model for urgently achieving the improvement in literacy needed in our schools.