Researchers said: "This result justifies the policy particularly as it was relatively inexpensive compared with other initiatives such as cutting class sizes." The policy has helped to reduce inequality and in the longer term, it should improve social mobility, they added. But the researchers note that local authorities were responsible for implementation of the programme and will not be able to play a similar role after all schools are converted into academies, as is planned by the end of 2022. Professor Sandra McNally, co-author and director of the education and skills research programme at CEP, said: "Local authorities were the drivers of this policy as it was rolled out nationally. "When all schools become academies, it will not be possible to implement a policy in this way because the role of local authorities in education will either be greatly diminished or non-existent." Previous research had shown that phonics can boost children’s reading age by an average of 28 months by the time they turn seven.
A study recently published by the London School of Economics (LSE) has found that using the traditional phonics system to teach young students to read has “no measurable effect” on reading scores when the students reach the age of 11. Furthermore, a researcher concluded that the reason for this is that "most children learned to read eventually, regardless of teaching method".