SLA responds to Schools Minister's Commons debate on ‘Books in Primary Schools’

On Wednesday 24th January 2024, the House of Commons hosted a debate on 'Books in Primary Schools' in which Gill Furniss, Labour MP for Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough, asked the House to consider the availability of books in primary schools.

She stressed the importance of establishing a love of reading during children’s formative years, and highlighted the value of school libraries in achieving this:

"Library staff encourage new readers and put programmes in place to ensure that reading is for pleasure, not just for study. However, a study by Great School Libraries found that only 41% of schools in the UK with a designated library area had library staff, down from 54% in 2019. We need to reverse the trends in childhood reading by ensuring that schools have well-stocked, well-staffed libraries."

Whilst the SLA were pleased to hear the School Minister's response support of reading and the presence of books in schools, there were a few things mentioned that compelled a response from us.

Our CEO has written a letter to Damian Hinds, Minister for Schools, stressing the vital benefits of school libraries and the valuable work of school library staff, as well as welcoming a meeting to discuss the multi-faceted role staff play (based on the research from the Great School Libraries campaign and the day-to-day experiences of our members) in order to better understand where they fit into the vision of the future of education.

We are pleased to make this letter available to our SLA members in full. To view the letter, log in to your SLA account and visit our forum.

As ever, the SLA are committed to advocating for and raising the profile of school libraries and their staff, with the aim of school library provision becoming a pillar of the UK's learning and literacy agenda.