The Reading Rights summit – what we learned and what comes next

That’s why we brought together leaders and professionals from across the early years system at a second Reading Rights summit. 

BookTrust and Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce welcomed policymakers, system leaders, practitioners, academics, and more to hear about how place-based, multi-agency working – convened around shared reading and shared goals for children – is transforming communities, and to discuss how everyone can make a difference within their sphere of influence. 

One of the strongest threads running through the summit was the power of genuine collaboration – what Alison Morton OBE, CEO of the iHV (Institute of Health Visiting), described as the trio of need, shared vision and purpose. 

When these three elements align, partnerships become more than practical arrangements; they become engines for change. Health visiting exemplifies this beautifully, with health visitors reaching every new family home, building trusted relationships, and bringing the skill to identify and respond to what each family needs. 

Interventions like our Bookstart programme work so well in this context because they’re simple, joyful, and easy to explain – as highlighted by Anna Hartley, Executive Director of Public Health in Barnsley, in her discussion of BookTrust’s place-based partnership working with her team. 

Another key theme was the importance of inclusion and relational working, going beyond warm words to become active invitation. 

Sarah Smith, Libraries Stock and Reader Development Manager for the London Borough of Brent, shared powerful examples of what this looks like in practice, including celebrating a Brazilian festival to draw in local families who might not otherwise see the library as a place for them, and keeping doors open at the times parents are actually free. 

This commitment to flexibility and cultural curiosity makes a profound difference. It communicates something simple and vital: you belong here. 

And it widens access to the support, joy and connection that shared reading can offer, especially for families who may have felt excluded from these spaces in the past. 

Nicola dos Santos, North East Regional Advisor for National Centre for Family Hubs, also emphasised the power of relational working, which requires meeting families where they are and creating spaces where communities can genuinely see themselves represented. 

She highlighted the real opportunity for Family Hubs to sit at the heart of communities and to deliver rich, meaningful engagement with families through reading – and at the same time, helping to build community cohesion, including by reaching families through voluntary sector partners.

We also heard moving reflections on persistence, compassion and the belief that every child deserves a childhood. 

Azra Bashir, Home Learning Environment Project Worker for Barnardo’s in Birmingham, brought this to life in describing her work: the willingness to knock on doors, meet families where they are, and keep looking for and supporting that human connection that makes support possible. 

Nadia Shireen, award-winning children’s illustrator and author, echoed this sentiment powerfully: she told the room that without partners delivering books and supporting shared reading in every family, her work as a creative would be ​“meaningless”. 

Dr Mike Merriman, GP and Primary Care Network leader in Knowsley, reminded us that reading is one of the most effective tools we have to close the gap in health inequalities. 

And Dr June O’Sullivan OBE, CEO of LEYF Nurseries, built on this, powerfully capturing the stakes of the summit and of the wider Reading Rights campaign: everything to do with the early years is about social justice, because it’s about access, fairness, equity, and belonging. 

We then heard from Early Education Minister Olivia Bailey MP, in conversation with Frank Cottrell-Boyce. 

It was heartening to hear Minister Bailey’s commitment to shared reading in the early years, underpinned by her understanding that Best Start Family Hubs aren’t just about the physical location – they are about getting out to every child in the community and joining up services. The Minister also highlighted that libraries play a critical role in bringing communities together – and that often, the best thing we can do is ​‘just pick up a book’!

To close the day, attendees discussed what they had learned and been inspired by over the course of the summit, and what they were committing to taking forward in their own work. Reading Rights is a call for system change, and for everybody to put shared reading at the heart of their work, and the summit has clearly helped to cement some of these pledges. 

The discussion on how we can all help change the system won’t end just because the event has – I was impressed by the thoughtful pledges attendees made, and I’m sure we will begin to see the impact of these on children and families. 

Now, over to you – what commitment will you make today to help us make progress towards the Reading Rights vision and ensure every child has access to books and stories from their earliest days? 

Get in touch at [email protected] or share on social media using the hashtag #ReadingRights.