The Times:
Letter to the Editors - Suggestions for the new education secretary
12 January 2018
A 2016 analysis by Stephen Machin and his colleagues at the London School of Economics found that the new phonics mandates were associated with only modest improvements in reading scores by the age of 5, and that those gains disappeared entirely by age 11. If Damian Hinds really wants to make a difference in schools he should instead invest money into the one activity that has been consistently proven to boost reading achievement: putting more books into the school library.
http://cep.lse.ac.uk/textonly/_NEW2014/news/Times11Jan2018_Letter.pdf