Paper two. What we heard: community consultation. Analysis of submissions to the Literacy Advisory Panel

The Literacy Advisory Panel is an expert group appointed by the Premier in September 2021 to create a community-wide framework to achieve a literate Tasmania. From 4 February 2022 to 25 March 2022, the Literacy Advisory Panel asked Tasmanians for feedback, ideas, and comments on how to improve literacy in the state. The purpose of this consultation was to gather information on current activities, as well as to hear the views of Tasmanians regarding what is working well, where there are gaps, and what supports need to be in place. To do this, the community were asked to respond to Paper One: Setting the Scene. The community answered with over 350 responses.

The Literacy Advisory Panel has been working to analyse the feedback it received from community consultation. Several recurring themes immediately emerged from the submissions, including: the importance of the role of families and carers in promoting and supporting learners' literacy development; supports for children and young people and their families; teacher training and education (initial and ongoing professional development); timely and affordable access and interventions to specialist services (including allied health); lack of general awareness and understanding of the breadth of services available; gap in explicit literacy support for adults; and increased funding (and access) for literacy programs and services.

This report is divided into twelve sections. Sections 2-8 reflect the framework of the six principles established by the Literacy Panel, as well as the community interest in programs. There are overlaps in the data, but in general: Section 2 addresses the early years, including findings about programs at this stage and themes related to the Foundation principle. Sections 3-7 address findings about programs in the school years and themes related to the principles of Workforce, Partnerships, Equity, and System and; Section 8 addresses the adult (post-school) years, including findings about programs at this stage. The introductory section contains information about data framework, data sources, classification, and limitations. The concluding sections contain findings about public sentiment and lived experience, and measurement. Specific implications from the findings are provided at the end of sections 2-8. Section 11 provides overall implications. Section 12 has appendices.