Through our work as Learning Partner for the Mercers’ Early Years Special Initiative*, we’ve been speaking with early years charities. Many of them have mentioned the 2026 National Year of Reading and its links to their work to inspire a love of books, support family reading, and build early literacy skills. In this blog, I reflect on the National Year of Reading and how we read at SQW.
What the National Year of Reading is all about…
The National Year of Reading is a UK‑wide campaign led by the Department for Education in partnership with the National Literacy Trust. The campaign aims to tackle the declining levels of reading for pleasure among both children and adults, and to reconnect people with reading as a joyful, relevant part of everyday life.
The campaign encourages people of all ages to ‘Go All In’ on their passions, whether that’s sport, music, gaming, food, comedy, sci-fi or anything else. Its message is “whatever you’re into, read into it”.
Across the guidance published so far on the ‘Go All In’ webpage for early years settings, schools, workplaces and various community settings, several cross-cutting themes stand out:
- Reading is enjoyable: Reading is positioned as fun and enriching, rather than a chore.
- Reading takes many forms: From fiction and non‑fiction to picture books, magazines, graphic novels and digital content like audiobooks and podcasts, all reading counts.
- Everyone can be a reader: Whether a toddler, teenager or adult, the goal is to inspire reading at every stage of life. The campaign specifically recognises persistent inequalities in who reads for pleasure, and seeks to close these gaps.
Interestingly, the National Year of Reading includes a focus on what happens in the workplace. It encourages employers to support staff in making time for reading and to embed reading into organisational cultures.
… and why this matters at SQW
As an avid reader myself, the National Year of Reading caught my attention and I was inspired to share a bit about how reading is part of our work at SQW.
Reading is at the core of our project work, but it is also something we engage in outside of this to make what we do more interesting and meaningful. By exploring research reports, strategies, and policy announcements, we get a clearer understanding of the context shaping our work now and in the future. This is embedded in SQW’s culture. Each week kicks off with a Monday Morning News Bulletin featuring policy developments and the latest reports and, in our team meetings, colleagues take turns presenting on a policy area or announcement they find interesting. These are small but meaningful ways we use reading, and learning, to enrich our everyday work.
We also write blogs, host our Insight for Impact Podcast, and share our published reports on our website (many of which include infographics that summarise findings in an engaging way). This helps wider audiences read into and engage with our work.
In the spirit of the campaign, I thought I’d also share what I’ve been reading recently:
- The Department for Education’s Best Start in Life Strategy. This is the government’s latest strategy to improve child development and ensure all children have the support they need from pregnancy through to age five. I’ve been reading this to better contextualise our work as Learning Partner for Phase 2 of the Mercers’ Company’s Early Years Special Initiative.
- The Independent Commission on Social Mobility’s report, Perceptions of social mobility in the UK (2025). Social mobility is connected to the policy areas that I work in, and I’ve been reading this report which explores how people across the country understand and experience social mobility. It shows that people often place more value on stability and quality of life than on income or occupational status. This feels especially relevant to SQW’s work around employment and place, and how these shape people’s opportunities and experiences.
- The Youth Futures Foundation’s latest update on trends in young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), alongside the government’s most recent announcement of the New Deal for Young People. I’ve been reading these to better understand the wider context of our current work evaluating a Youth Guarantee trailblazer, one of eight pilots launched by the government to test new ways of supporting young people into education, employment and training.
- The 2026 World Happiness Report. The chapter on adolescent life satisfaction and social media use caught my attention, having worked on projects relating to youth and wellbeing.
This Easter Bank Holiday weekend, I’m looking forward to getting stuck into some personal reading. I’m currently reading Flesh by David Szalay, the winner of this year’s Booker Prize, and I’m really enjoying it so far!
My recent reading has taken many forms - from fiction books in my spare time to policy updates and research reports linked to my work. In the spirit of the National Year of Reading, I’ve ‘Gone All In’ on the things I enjoy and the topics that are relevant to my work. Whether it’s reading for pleasure or reading to stay connected to the issues and policies at the heart our projects at SQW, reading shapes how I think, learn and approach my everyday life.
I’d love to hear what you’ve been reading recently too. Please share your recommendations in the comments or get in touch.
*SQW is proud to be the Learning Partner for Phase 2 of The Mercers’ Company’s Early Years Special Initiative. The Initiative, funded by The Charity of Sir Richard Whittington for which The Mercers’ Company is Corporate Trustee, supports early years organisations to deliver programmes in London to improve children’s numeracy, literacy, language development, and overall school readiness.
As Learning Partner, SQW facilitates learning and knowledge exchange across two cohorts of grantees, supporting them through Action Learning Sets, Learning Seminars, and thematic deep‑dives to help grantees reflect on and refine their delivery.