A year-long reading campaign has been launched to address the dropping literacy rate around the country and overall decline in reading.

The new scheme comes from the National Literacy Trust, a literacy charity aiming to support children and young people in strengthening their literacy skills.

Alongside the department of education, they have dubbed 2026 as the “year of reading” and named their campaign ‘If you’re into it, read into it.’

The trust said: “Reading expands our world and sharpens our minds, yet fewer people are making time to read.”

The annual literacy survey in 2024 showed one in three children aged between 8-18 years old like reading in their free time, with only one in five actually spending their free time reading.

But the survey also revealed that accessibility often stands between children and reading more, with 1 in 12 children saying they don’t have books of their own to read, and one in five parents claimed they are buying fewer and fewer books for their children due to the cost of living crisis.

To combat this issue, the National Literacy Trust is dedicated to providing children more access to books through their ‘libraries for primaries campaign’, launched to provide every primary school in the UK with a library space by 2028.

The year of reading is also being adopted by several book-centred spaces around Sheffield. Sheffield Libraries will have child-friendly events taking place from January to December, from visits from local authors and illustrators to dedicated arts and crafts events.

Every few months the year of reading will see a different theme. ‘Creativity’, the first theme, will last until the end of march.

Broomhill community library is one of the libraries in Sheffield preparing to celebrate the year of reading.

Lindsey Bagles, joined the library in 2021, to then later become a trustee. Alongside a team, she oversees all governance work for the library, the gardens, and any other activities they offer at the library.

She said while they are still planning special events for the year of reading, one thing they will do is organise a “big book giveaway.”

The giveaway will also coincide with the upcoming World of Book day, set to take place on 5th of March 2026.

Ted Hunt is a session coordinator at Broomhill Library, in charge of overseeing the volunteers who run the library. He said while the library is preparing events for the year of reading and world of book day, the library already offers a wide range of events, most of which are aimed at children and supporting their local community.

Their most popular events consist of hosting children’s author to do a book signing.

Mr Hunt said: “Children are fascinated to meet the person who wrote the stories they love.”

Alongside libraries, Sheffield schools are also planning events to celebrate the year of reading, on top of their usual initiatives to encourage interest in reading.

Matty Harrison is a trainee teacher at a Sheffield secondary school. As an effort to tackle the dropping literacy rate and interest in literature, the school has allocated specific lessons for students to spend an hour or two reading a book of their choice. He said: “I think being able to read is a really crucial skill.

“I think the more able a person is to locate and consume and judge information, about the world, the more resilient they’ll be, the more resistant they’ll be to people who are trying to feed them misinformation.”