A MAJOR campaign has started to improve the literacy of children and young people in the Bradford district.

The National Literacy Trust and Bradford Council, together with a host of partners, has established a literacy hub in Bradford with the twin aims of driving up literacy standards and encouraging young people to read for pleasure.

The National Media Museum today played host to the unveiling of the Bradford Literacy Campaign, on the back of which an ongoing programme of events will take place across the district.

Bradford has lower than average levels of attainment in literacy among children while a large proportion of adults also have a shortfall in literacy skills which can impact on everyday living as well as in seeking employment.

At the event, Imran Hafeez, the manager of the newly-created Bradford Literacy Hub, said: "We have to combat the low levels of literacy in the Bradford district."

A short film was shown at the event which focused on work already done in schools and communities, including a literacy parade which took place in Girlington earlier this year attended by children, parents and teachers.

Clare McGread, head of programmes at the National Literacy Trust, told the assembly: "Our work is to raise literacy levels for children and young adults and we define literacy as speaking, listening, reading and writing.

"Literacy is about skills for life. It's not just about passing school exams, though of course that is important, and it's about more than employment. It's about the many people from all walks of life who don't have the literacy skills they deserve."

Michael Jameson, the strategic director of children's services at Bradford Council, stressed it was vital that literacy rates were improved.

He said: "We are desperate for high-level skills among young people to take Bradford forward. To achieve that our young people need the basics, and that means literacy."

The campaign will focus on engaging parents so that literacy begins in the home at an early age, and is encouraged throughout a young person's life.

Mr Jameson said: "We all have a responsibility to improve literacy. It is everyone's entitlement, everyone's right, everyone's expectation."

The Bradford Literacy Campaign has funding from the Esmée Fairburn Foundation, which aims to tackle social inequalities throughout the UK. Local partners include the Bradford Bulls Foundation, the Council for Mosques, Yorkshire Cricket Club and Bradford Museums and Galleries.

Author Qaisra Shahraz was on hand to speak about her own experiences, telling the audience how, when she first learned English after coming here as a small child from Pakistan, it opened up a world of literature and a lifelong love of books. And educationalist and an inspector for Ofsted, she said literacy was the "bread and butter of the skills for life".

She added: "The ability to read and write really transforms lives."

The Bradford literacy hub is the second one the National Literacy Trust has started, the first one being in Middlesbrough in 2013 and a third in Peterborough, also starting this year.

A report into the first year of the Middlesbrough hub found that 16 per cent more children and young people agreed reading was "cool" in 2013 than they did when surveyed before the hub was formed, and there was a ten per cent increase in those who saw a link between their literacy skills and their future job prospects.

For more information go to www.ourstories.org.uk.