Frank Cottrell-Boyce meets BookTrust early years partners
Published on: 15 January 2025
Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce met with BookTrust Early Years partners to learn how the Reading Rights campaign can reinforce their vital work to get families reading together.
Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce recently joined a meeting with BookTrust's Early Years Partnership Advisory Group (EYPAG). It was a chance for Frank to hear from more than 30 senior Early Years professionals that BookTrust partners with.
Frank wanted to learn about the work that's happening on the front line to get children exposed to books and stories from an early age, the challenges the Early Years sector is facing, and what opportunities there are for change.
BookTrust invited members to bring along examples of their practice that brings to life the transformational benefits of sharing stories for the families they work with. Here's how the conversation went...
Positive impact: "We're shifting the power towards families and what they need"
BookTrust partners from local authorities' Early Years and Library teams told Frank about the huge variety of pathways and approaches they take to prevent families from missing out on the chance to share stories together.
Initiatives like family breakfast clubs, festivals, programmes that support prisoners to read with their children during visits, programmes aimed specifically at building dads' confidence to read to their children, co-designed community projects, library outreach projects, speech and language campaigns, and QR codes families can scan for regular tips and support in sharing stories were all examples of best practice that shone through.
Several BookTrust partners shared how they are supporting local asylum seekers and refugees to read in their native language – with one-to-home home visits with an interpreter to model shared reading and gift BookTrust dual language books.
Members voiced an urgent need to promote shared reading at the earliest possible stage – and there was a clear appetite for some kind of shared reading offer in the antenatal space, encouraging parents to read to their unborn child.
They also highlighted the importance of finding creative, practical ways to collaborate across different settings that families access and incorporate books into existing Early Years services for them. One member said: "We found that when books were added alongside activities, children handled and interacted with books up to eight times more than they would if books were only offered in a 'book corner'."
Challenges: "Our families and practitioners have lost confidence"
BookTrust partners told Frank that a huge barrier they face in supporting families to read together is parents and carers' low levels of confidence when comes to engaging with books.
In addition, the pressures of family life, working patterns and the cost-of-living crisis – forcing many parents to take on additional jobs – require practitioners to be mindful and flexible in the shared reading support they offer families. For many families right now "buying a book is the lowest on their list of what they can afford".
The recruitment and retention crisis of the Early Years sector was also highlighted as a barrier. Members said losing skilled staff is having an impact on the trusted relationships early years settings are able to build with families, which is vital for advocating the importance of developing a regular reading habit.
Some BookTrust Partners also said they'd seen a loss in confidence and expertise amongst practitioners when it comes to storytelling with families, particularly since Covid-19.
Hopes for the future: "We need to bear in mind where families actually are, so we can build relationships and model how to read together"
Frank asked members where they saw opportunities for positive change. What needs to happen to make sure sharing stories in the Early Years is protected and valued as a core part of childcare?
Some members felt there's an opportunity for clearer, more consistent, inspiring messaging for families – in a variety of languages – on the holistic benefits of sharing stories, and how it can truly enhance a whole family's social, emotional and mental wellbeing. Others said it would be brilliant to prioritise approaches that support modelling and coaching parents and carers with book-sharing skills (including during the antenatal stage).
A need for greater levels of recognition and funding for the daily work of Early Years professionals to promote shared reading were discussed. This is especially pressing given that practitioners' interactions and conversations with families can be game-changing for tackling parents and carers' limiting beliefs about reading.
Finally, a key opportunity identified by members was to focus on promoting reading as a pleasurable activity (as opposed to reading purely for literacy or academic progress).
The Early Years sector does incredible work in introducing families to the pure fun and joy of sharing books together. Members felt there's a real need to amplify the importance of reading together for fun when children mature to school-age, so families continue to access the life-changing benefits long after a child's early years.
- In January 2025, Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce is hosting a Reading Rights Summit – find out more here
Waterstones Children's Laureate: Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Frank Cottrell-Boyce is the Waterstones Children's Laureate for 2024-26.
The role of Children's Laureate is awarded once every two years to an eminent writer or illustrator of children's books to celebrate outstanding achievement in their field. Find out what Frank's been up to.