We’ve recently published our 2025 impact report, reflecting on a year of progress, learning and collaboration across Shannon Trust. It highlights the difference our programmes made to the people we support through reading and numeracy, and the steps we took to strengthen and expand our work.
In 2025, 142,185 learning sessions took place, and 11,380 learners engaged with one or both of our programmes. Behind these numbers are thousands of individual stories of people gaining confidence, building skills and making positive changes in their lives.
Our report details how we continued working towards our three strategic goals in 2025:
1. To increase the number of people in prisons who finish our reading programmes
In 2022 we reached about 10% of people in prisons. We believe this is now up to 15%, showing encouraging progress, though there is still more to do. In 2025, 5,029 new learners joined our reading programme, and 4,841 Turning Pages reading manuals were completed.
We continue to build on our successful model of paid prison-based facilitators, and in 2025 we introduced eight reading support specialists and reading strategy coordinators. These new members of Shannon Trust’s team will give specialist support to people who aren’t yet ready to work with our volunteer mentors, and help prisons oversee their reading strategies (something all prisons in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are now required to have).
In 2025 we also commenced trialling the use of Turning Pages Digital, our online learning tool in prisons. This started in HMP Ashfield, also the first prison to host our dedicated Shannon Trust library service, and has been a great success. We will continue this work in 2026, and we’re confident Turning Pages Digital will help us reach more learners in prisons, as well as build digital inclusion and employability skills.
2. To grow the availability of our programmes in the community
Over the years, we’ve seen learners who are released partway through their Shannon Trust programmes lose momentum in their literacy and numeracy development. We’ve also realised that some of our mentors want to carry on working with us, offering the one-to-one support to others that becomes such a meaningful part of their prison lives.
We want to make sure those learners and mentors who want to stay involved after release can do so, and with clear pathways for this. We also want the community-based support Shannon Trust offers to maintain that peer-based lived experience, which is so valuable to the work we do in prisons. The mentor-learner relationship, as well as providing learning support, offers a chance for connection and friendship, which is as important once people are released from prison.
Throughout 2025, we worked with several community-based partner organisations who used our Turning Pages Digital programme. We have over 250 active learners, and have plans to do more in this space.
Alongside this, we’ve worked with prisons to develop a pool of mentors who are keen to stay involved with Shannon Trust after their release. So far, we have close to 40 people ready to join this group.
While there is more for us to do in our community work to best support learners, I firmly believe 2025 saw the building of solid foundations for how we operate in this space.
3. To test new ideas to address other basic skills gaps, scaling what works
Ministry of Justice data published last year shows that almost three-quarters of initial maths assessments and two-thirds of English assessments taken by people in prison result in an entry-level score. This confirms the ongoing need for literacy and numeracy support.
In 2025 we launched a second edition of our Count Me In numeracy manuals which build on feedback from our learners, mentors and facilitators. We also prioritised the development and testing of an interactive digital version of Count Me In, with our partner Yalla. Like Turning Pages Digital, this will give learners chance to work either with a coach or independently, and we plan to launch Count Me In Digital later this year.
Some learners find digital tools more helpful and engaging than physical books and manuals, and we want to be able to offer choice so people have what works best for them. One learner at HMP Ashfield who used Turning Page Digital said: “It makes me think in a more interactive way than with books. I like the smiley faces and the trophies because they’re motivating and make me want to keep learning.”
Shannon Trust is entering an exciting new phase. We have recently welcomed new trustees to our board, are searching for our next Chair, and will be launching a new organisational strategy later this year.
As we look ahead, I want to celebrate the achievements of 2025 and the dedication of everyone who made them possible – our staff, volunteers, mentors, partners and learners.
Together, we continue to work towards a future where more people can experience the positive impact of learning.
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