Barnsley Council and BookTrust: Reading Together for a Brighter Future in The Dearne

The project integrates shared reading into public health pathways, aiming to secure the lifelong benefits of reading for children from the antenatal stage to age five. By offering training, focused on the lifelong benefits of reading, to health and community practitioners and providing physical resources, the pilot aims to address health inequalities and align with the national Best Start in Life strategy to improve long-term outcomes for children.

The project was inspired by the need to address significant social challenges in Barnsley. The Dearne area within the authority ranks within the top ten per cent of the most deprived areas in the UK, and Barnsley specifically ranks 15th lowest nationally for Education, Skills, and Training. The pilot is a key component of BookTrust’s national Reading Rights campaign, led by the Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce and which advocates for every child to have access to books and reading from their earliest years.

The primary objectives of the pilot include:

• Providing families with lifelong benefits through shared reading from the earliest years.
• Training health and community professionals to deliver messaging on the importance of early reading and to model shared reading for families.
• Increasing access to library cards and BookTrust books and support for children and families in the Dearne.
• Creating a replicable cross-sector collaborative model for other local authorities.

BookTrust is already well embedded in The Dearne through annual programme delivery. Barnsley Council employs a dedicated Bookstart Coordinator within the library service to manage delivery of the early years programmes, specifically designed to engage families living in lower income households in shared reading. Bookstart Baby, Toddler and Pre-schooler will reach a combined 3600 families this year and Bookstart Storytime is delivered in all libraries in The Dearne for families with children aged 0-5 to enjoy. 

For the pilot, to get people on board, BookTrust built on these long-standing relationships with the library service and engaged public health practitioners and health visitors alongside family hub leads and other practitioners. Through a series of regular workshops and interactions the project group was able to map existing provision for families in the Dearne and identify opportunities to incorporate messaging and resources into these touchpoints, including enhancing BookTrust’s existing provision through the Bookstart programme across the Dearne. 

Our collaborative workshops identified specific barriers to reading that families living in the Dearne face and which underpin the primary objectives. These included: 

• Low adult literacy rates and confidence in reading themselves resulting in concerns for showing their children ‘the wrong way’ to read.
• Those who do not currently access statutory provision may have distrust in the systems or stigmas attached to certain settings such as libraries. In some cases, this is a rigid generational mindset which has been passed down.
• Those accessing some statutory provision such as appointments with midwives and registrars still perceive other services as not there to support them so are unaware of the type of resources and support available.

The project group aligned on the shared primary objectives of the pilot and developed the project such that resource design and messaging aligned with existing suitable interactions with families and children in health contexts.

The project was organized into four distinct workstreams:

1. Health professional training and reading resources: Developing online modules for health visitors and midwives focusing on the benefits of shared reading from the antenatal stage, supported by a new reading resource aimed at expectant and new parents.
2. Community practitioner training and group storytelling: Empowering practitioners in nurseries, libraries, and family hubs with resources and support to create storytelling experiences.
3. Direct family access to books and resources: Increasing the provision of BookTrust’s resources across The Dearne, and aligning this provision with the auto-enrolment of children into library services.
4. Signposting and communication: Using digital and physical touchpoints to connect families to wider community support services.

While the pilot is ongoing, several key areas for potential impact have been identified including:

• Workforce development: Content for two online training modules has been finalized, focusing on early shared reading benefits. The audience for this is primarily health visitors and BookTrust aims to draw further on their expertise to develop the training offer further.
• Resource distribution: New Bookstart baby booklets aimed at expectant and new parents (and their newborns) and leaflets have been designed and distributed to encourage daily reading habits. Learning developed by BookTrust being carried out alongside aims to understand the impact both for practitioners and families.
• System leadership: The project aims to unite public health support and library offers, creating a more joined-up approach to family support.

• There are clear opportunities to incorporate messaging around the benefits of shared reading into existing health visitor touchpoints. However, capacity and competing priorities are potential barriers. Collaborating with a delivery partner such as BookTrust is a way of developing bespoke resources and support that can mitigate some of these challenges.
• A project such as this offers opportunities for intra-authority working around a set of shared themes. It has been striking to find points of overlap between different areas of practice within the local authority that otherwise may not have emerged.
• The structure of the pilot is such that other councils or partners could replicate elements of the delivery. The project shows clear potential to offer a cost-effective solution to providing greater support as it works through small changes to existing services and linking up provision. 

Activity will continue to roll out over the coming months and, by the Summer, will ultimately reach 400 additional children and families living in The Dearne:

• 100 families through delivery of a new resource suitable from the antenatal stage to newborn.
• 200 families through an increased allocation of Bookstart Toddler and Pre-schooler in new settings including schools based nurseries, childminders and family hubs.
• 100 families through delivery of Bookstart Storytime in community settings.  

Professionals working with families in the early years across The Dearne will have accessed training and will share information with families in their ongoing appointments 

Learning is ongoing and there will be a review point marking the first year of the project upon delivery of the activity above until late Spring.

A large-scale event showcasing this project alongside other pilot work around the country will take place in March, led by the Children’s Laureate. This activity aims to influence policymakers and create a platform for roll-out of this approach across a wider area.

Will Carr, [email protected] and Sofia Cairns, [email protected], BookTrust.

Laura Quinn, [email protected], Public Health Principal, Barnsley Council.

• BookTrust: Reading Rights in Barnsley – Case study overview of the project
• Bookstart Baby Booklet for Families – details of the new resource created for the project
• Barnsley Health and Wellbeing.