Impact Report 2024/25
Explore our latest impact report and find out how we are working in every community in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to get families reading.
A Bookstart Toddler and Pre-schooler session
Our mission
Our work is rooted in the belief that every child, especially those from low-income or vulnerable family backgrounds, deserves the chance to enjoy reading and all the lifelong benefits it brings. Reading is for all children. Our work focuses on children and families in greater need of our support, who stand to benefit most. Reading can help children overcome inequalities before they deepen, giving them the strongest start in life. That’s why we design our support and build our networks around these families.
Our work is deeply woven into the wider support system for children and families, enabling our partners to integrate reading support into their services. Together, we respond to local needs and reach families wherever they are, especially in communities where our support can make the greatest difference.
We support 1.4 million children and families each year
We work with over 19,200 settings across education, libraries, health, children’s social care and early help
We have a network of over 34,000 partners delivering our programmes
Understanding the impact of our interventions is central to BookTrust’s work. Our monitoring, evaluation and learning activities enable us to clearly understand our reach and impact so we know, with confidence, that we are maximising the impact of our work with children and families.
Ruthann Hughes, Director of Research and Impact at BookTrust
Key findings
In 2024/25 we set out to:
Embed reading into the early years of children in families on low incomes
We reached over half a million families with Bookstart Baby: 78% say the pack prompted them to read or share books and stories more with their baby
We reached 417,400 children aged 1 to 4 with Bookstart Toddler and Pre-schooler: 76% of families learned something new about different ways they can read and share stories with their child
2,600 libraries and an estimated 60,000 children aged 5 and under took part in BookTrust Storytime. 70% of our partners see Storytime as effective in supporting families who are new, or wouldn’t normally use the library, to have a positive experience
In Wales, 49,600 Nursery and Reception‑aged children engaged with Pori Drwy Stori. We distributed 30,100 Bookstart Early Years resources
Bring enjoyment and stability to children in adoption, foster and kinship care, through reading and sharing stories
We reached over 10,500 children in foster care or from families on low incomes with Letterbox Club: 73% of children say they are reading more after receiving Letterbox Club
We shared books and provided information and support to over 1,000 kinship carers
We launched a new pilot programme, Story Explorers, providing over 700 subscriptions to kinship, foster and adoptive families
Support schools to foster a love of reading
We reached 47,800 children with our BookTrust Represents virtual author visits
We launched Bookspark, a new programme with books and resources to help schools develop sociable reading experiences through shared reading sessions
242,700 children in Years 7 and 8 took part in Bookbuzz: 98% of teachers and librarians agree Bookbuzz supports them to encourage reading for pleasure in their school
Download the full report
In the report you will find:
- Our impact model explaining our whole-system approach to change
- Research behind our evidence-informed programmes
- Key findings from our programme evaluations
- Stories from partners and families we work with
Read our earlier reports
Impact Report 2023/24
Impact Report 2022/23
Explore more of our work
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Our strategy – Reading for a brighter future – sets out our renewed five-year vision to help more children and families build a regular reading habit and experience all the benefits that shared reading brings.
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“For too long, the life-changing benefits of children’s reading have not been taken seriously. And now – as our children face an unknown future – we risk losing a generation unless we act.” – Frank Cottrell-Boyce
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Each year we reach millions of children and families, inspiring them with our books, resources and support to get them started on their reading journeys.
Read our latest programme evaluations
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BookTrust Storytime is an exciting library experience for families, offering a fun, free, and easy way to entertain under 5s at local libraries.
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This page summarises the latest findings from our evaluation of Bookstart Toddler and Pre-schooler, our programme for children aged 1–4, supporting them to have fun reading and sharing stories with their families.
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This briefing outlines the most recent findings from our evaluation of Letterbox Club – BookTrust’s longstanding programme designed to support children from vulnerable or disadvantaged backgrounds to engage in reading and numeracy.