‘Give every school a budget to buy books’ – leading publisher

Martin Shipton

Literacy standards in Wales would improve if every school had a budget to buy books for its pupils, according to a leading publisher of children’s books.

Richard Tunnicliffe, who runs Rily Publications with his wife Lynda, said there remained an urgent need to enlist the help of publishers to combat poor literacy in Wales despite a £4.4m increase in the Welsh Government’s culture budget.

Mr Tunnicliffe said it remained uncertain whether extra money would be allocated from the education budget to drive forward what he sees as a badly needed literacy programme..

In January 2025 a report from the Senedd’s Culture and Sport Committee pointed out that, after a decade of cuts, Wales ranks third from bottom of European countries in terms of spending per person on recreational and sporting services and second from bottom for cultural services.

‘Under-resourced’

Delyth Jewell MS, Chair of the Committee said: “For too long, culture and sport have been treated as ‘nice to haves,’ facing relentless funding reductions that have left these sectors brittle and under-resourced.

“The recent cuts in the 2024-25 Welsh Government budget, compounded by inflation and rising costs, have had a profound impact. We must tackle this to ensure that spending per head on culture and sport becomes comparable with other nations.

“Culture and sport are vital threads in the fabric of what makes life worth living: they enrich the human experience, and not merely luxuries to be enjoyed during times of plenty.

“Without significant changes, Wales risks being left behind in cultural and sporting achievements, endangering our national character and the well-being of our communities.”

PISA comparisons

International PISA comparisons show that Wales has the worst attainment levels in reading for teenagers of all four UK nations.

Mr Tunnicliffe said: “As publishers we fall between the two stools of culture and education. The increase in the culture budget is certainly to be welcomed, but it’s very important that as well as short-term help, we are brought into a partnership with the Welsh Government that will enable them to deliver better literacy in Wales.

“It is ridiculous that in the past we have been commissioned to produce books for children, which we have done, but then the schools have not had the funding to buy them. As a result, many books that should be read are stored in warehouses.

“There is a wealth of research which shows that the best way to get children reading is to provide them with physical books that they can hold and enjoy. In my view, too much emphasis has been placed on digital and not enough on physical books.

“We have spoken to headteachers who are embarrassed and frustrated that they don’t have dedicated budgets to buy books. As a result, children are missing out on the chance to develop a love of reading.

“We are waiting to find out whether part of the education budget, which will be receiving a boost, will be used to buy books for schools.”

Funding

Mr Tunnicliffe said it was also uncertain whether specific reading programmes that had been supported for years would continue to get funding.

Last December, when the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget was published, an additional £83.5m in revenue funding was allocated to education.

Seven priorities were specified, one of which was “funding to support national support programmes to enhance teaching in literacy and numeracy” and another was “additional funding for school standards to support priorities in schools and settings through the School Standards element of the Local Authority Education Grant”.

But it remains unclear how much, if any, will be spent on books for schools.