Here’s what each partner shared at the Reading Rights Summit in Westminster Abbey about what their communities need to help make reading and sharing stories from birth a right for every child.
As part of the Reading Rights campaign, BookTrust is working with partners to deliver three pilot projects which are deeply rooted in local areas in the Dearne Valley (South Yorkshire), Knowsley (Liverpool) and Birmingham. The campaign is led by Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce alongside BookTrust, and aims to ensure all children have access to the life changing benefits of shared reading.
These pilots are helping us further extend our learning on how to embed children’s reading across different local ecosystems, strengthen and evolve our delivery models, and share best practice across our wider network.
We want communities to champion reading in ways that feel relevant, sustainable and locally owned – building on BookTrust’s experience and expertise.
The insights we gain will help BookTrust shape the next iteration of our flexible and responsive approaches to ensure every child, regardless of circumstance, can experience the joy and benefits of reading.
Barnsley: ‘We need to understand the value of local assets’
Will Carr, Senior Partnerships Manager, BookTrust (North of England):
“Within Barnsley, which faces some specific challenges around health, the Dearne Valley is somewhere we felt we could have the most impact.
“Over the past year, our aim was to reach 400 additional children. Our partners in the area include the health visiting teams, and the collaboration has brought new relationships with key community organisations, which have helped bring us closer to families.”
Anna Hartley, Executive Director of Public Health in Barnsley:
“I’ve worked for local NHS and local government for a long time. We need to understand the value of the assets we already have locally, and really use them.
“Health visiting teams are an incredible resource. They visit families in their homes up to five times in those first years of a child’s life. I’d love to use them more.
“At the same time, health visitors are overstretched, so it’s about taking a multi-disciplinary approach. For example, our community support team [who work in tandem with health visitors] do additional work with families and they bring books and resources with them.
Up to five times: How often health visiting teams visit families in their homes in the first years of a child’s life
“I’m also a massive advocate for the local voluntary sector and libraries. I would encourage us all to look at these as local assets and really think about how we bring those together to get better outcomes.
“BookTrust have been working with us to design training modules for health visitors, as well as library and voluntary sector staff, about the importance of reading. We also created a part-time post within the health visiting team for getting reading embedded and getting everyone enthused.
“BookTrust also supported us with resources, through the development of the black and white Bookstart Booklet for newborn babies, which our health visitors absolutely love!”
Birmingham: ‘Some families think books are only for rich people’
Lisa Eldret, Senior Partnerships Manager, BookTrust (Central England):
“In the City of Birmingham, the number of families living in temporary accommodation is increasing faster than the national average. Outreach and support for these families is a key priority for the council.
“We’re aiming to strengthen and evolve relationships across the city to reach 1,000 children from families living in temporary accommodation, who face the greatest barriers to accessing reading.
“This project is designed to enhance these families’ enjoyment of reading, and their understanding of the importance of sharing stories in early childhood.
1,000: The amount of children from families living in temporary accommodation we aim to reach in Birmingham
“BookTrust has been working with Birmingham’s family hubs and library teams to provide books and resources, as well as storytelling experiences for families, paired with support for practitioners.
“Activities have been taking place at temporary accommodation sites (where families live) – many of these through relationships built through outreach work from Azra Bashir (Barnado’s) – and at family hubs. Families are also being encouraged and supported to visit BookTrust Storytime sessions at libraries in Birmingham.”
Azra Bashir, Home Learning Environment Project Worker, Temporary Accommodation, Barnardo’s:
“Families living in temporary accommodation feel very unsafe and are going through so much. Some have arrived from abroad, some are fleeing domestic violence. It can feel safest to stay within their own four walls.
“Having the BookTrust books – some of them in the families’ own languages – gave me a great opportunity to go to them and engage. I took some books and I literally went from door to door, knocking on front doors. It’s about building those relationships and befriending people.
“I’ve had conversations with families who thought books were only for the ‘elite’ or for rich people. To be able to say: ‘This is book pack is for you and your children,’ is amazing.
“To go into temporary accommodation sites week after week and see families’ confidence building, and to say: ‘See you at the story time session’ and then for that to actually happen, it’s overwhelming, and an honour to be part of.
“Barriers will be there, but it’s upon us to go and find a solution. You’ve got to have confidence in approaching people. They are scared themselves. We are sometimes viewed as just another on a long list of professionals. The way I’ve always worked is to say: ‘Let’s talk. I’m a mum too.’ Just having that empathy. And just one little book can have such a big impact.”
Knowsley: “Families need to be linked to reading support at a space where they feel safe’
Mike Merriman, GP, Millbrook Medical Centre (Kirkby, Knowsley):
“I had the privilege of going to the 2025 Reading Rights Summit in Liverpool. The summit really showed how books are complex development assets – for empathy, emotion, resilience. I thought, ‘Where do I come in?’
“As health professionals, if it isn’t our business to help people read – which is such an important thing for closing the gap on health inequality – then we’re in the wrong business.
“I’ve been running a baby clinic in Knowsley for 25 years. When a baby is born, I always say to mum and dad: ‘Are they going to be prime minister? Because they can.” But now, I follow up with: ‘If they’re going to be prime minister, they’re going to need to read.’”
“When a young single parent with their first child says: ‘I struggle to read’, if, through social prescribing, I can link that person through to a space where they feel safe, then we might move things forward.”
Sofia Cairns, Strategic Development Manager, BookTrust:
“Thanks to Mike’s connections across primary care and community services in Kirkby and our extensive partner network, we’ve created a multi-disciplinary group of practitioners to support families in the area. As a group, we’ve discussed some of the barriers to reading, learning from one another, and identifying opportunities to collaborate.
“We’ve mapped out the touchpoints the group has with families throughout a child’s early years, from antenatal to starting school. We spoke about ways we could incorporate consistent messaging into these touchpoints, without creating new infrastructure, but capitalising on what is there already.
“The aim is for professionals to feel confident in having conversations about shared reading with families, and to signpost to support from services in the area.
“We’re also in the middle of designing our community engagement storytelling sessions, which will be taking place in family hubs and nurseries over the coming weeks. We’ve also adapted BookTrust resources as a result of these workshops.
“We also continue to meet with families in Knowsley. Mike and I recently joined the Northwood Mums’ coffee morning group. We wanted to hear from them about ways they would feel inspired to read together, and we’re keeping them at the heart of this work throughout.”
How can you help?
- What commitment could 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.
- Find out more about how you can embed some of these lessons into your work with families and children by getting in touch with your BookTrust Partnerships manager or emailing us on [email protected]
