At Northwood Family Hub in Kirkby, in the borough of Knowsley, a safari-themed rhyme and story time is happening, with a special guest appearance from BookTrust’s Reading Rights Ambassador and children’s author, Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
Reading Rights in Knowsley: ‘We’ve forgotten to imagine what better looks like. Better looks like this’
How can community storytelling help boost people’s confidence in sharing books? In Knowsley, BookTrust is working with trusted partners and local families to explore this as part of the Reading Rights campaign to make reading a universal right for all children under 7 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Find out more about Reading RightsAfter singing, a story from Frank, and plenty of “stomping”, families also spend time sharing their views on what could happen locally to make sharing stories feel more accessible to people in Knowsley.
The session is part of the Reading Rights campaign from BookTrust and Frank Cottrell-Boyce, to ensure being read to from birth isn’t an invisible privilege, but a universal part of childhood so every child can access the benefits.
“We need reading to be accessible for everybody,” says Nicola Parker, Family Hubs Transformation Manager at Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council. “We want families to come in here and feel like their confidence is boosted when they walk out of these sessions.”
Integrating Reading Rights into Primary Care
Mike Merriman has worked as a GP in Kirkby for the past 25 years. “Events like today mean you can sit down and interact with families and just listen to what they have to say,” he says. “Then, when we come to develop messaging and services to encourage shared reading, they are more likely to feel familiar to families, and therefore to bring change.”
In 2025, he attended the Reading Rights Summit in Liverpool, an experience he describes as “mind-blowing”.
“I work in an area that unfortunately has low educational attainment and low reading ages,“ Mike says. “Those things have a big impact on health and life inequalities.
At the Reading Rights summit, I listened to the thinking behind BookTrust and Frank’s initiatives, and I felt I had a responsibility to act. I got in touch with BookTrust about the role my partners and I could play.
Mike Merriman
“We have an opportunity to bring reading into the healthcare space. For example, I do a weekly baby clinic in Kirkby, and 95% of our mums here go through that clinic – so we have a captive audience.
“I felt we could play a role in encouraging and evangelising the joy and benefits of reading, and work with partners here in Knowsley to see if we could increase these opportunities for families.”
Why group storytelling matters to communities
The session in the Northwood Family Hub gives BookTrust the opportunity to hear directly from families and practitioners and to support the development of a new group storytelling programme that can take place in trusted community settings where families feel most comfortable.
Julie Hayward, BookTrust’s Director of Partnerships, says: “We would like to create a blueprint for how this can be successful across other areas. If we can identify things that work that are centred on local needs, but that are also adaptable, we can deepen BookTrust’s impact for children and families.”
It is clear how the trusted relationships families hold with Northwood Family Hub staff are having a positive impact, both on children and their caregivers who come here to share stories as a group.
My daughter thinks it’s a second home here. She loves all the staff and has interacted with so many children. Her confidence has just grown.
Kristen, Mum
Jay says: “My son loves reading stories at home, but that all started here. Now, he’ll look at three or four books at bedtime. It’s bringing him along loads, he’s really advanced for his age. The proof’s in the pudding.”
Frank Cottrell-Boyce reflects on the power of group storytelling to not only support children on their reading journeys, but to bring communities together. “You couldn’t come out of here without feeling optimistic,” he says. “In times like this, we’ve forgotten to imagine what better looks like. Better looks like this.
“Parenting can be so isolating. And here are these young mums, chatting away to each other, sharing life hacks, empowering each other. And the story is that magic charm that brings all that together and makes it happen.”
‘Making every contact count’ with local partners in Knowsley
Together, BookTrust and GP Mike Merriman assembled a task force dedicated to dialling up shared reading for families in Knowsley – known as the Knowsley Reading Rights Pathway. “With the help of BookTrust, we worked with health visitors, midwives, doctors in primary care, the council, the library service and children’s services to come together and form a project group,” says Mike.
Sofia Cairns, BookTrust’s Strategic Development and Partnerships Manager, says: “Thanks to Mike’s connections here in Kirkby and BookTrust’s network of partners, we’ve created this group of local practitioners. We’ve discussed 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 about sharing books into these moments, without creating new infrastructure, but capitalising on what is there already.”
The Knowsley Reading Rights Pathway is also shaping new resources and practitioner training from BookTrust to support best practice in talking about books and delivering storytelling experiences for families.
“The aim is for professionals to feel confident having conversations about shared reading with families, and to signpost to support from services in the area,” says Sofia. “We’ve also been meeting with families in Knowsley, including the Northwood Mums coffee morning group, 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.”
We wouldn’t be able to collaborate with these groups of people had we not had Mike and Nicola’s influence and trust in the community. Building those relationships is invaluable for helping BookTrust do this work.
Sofia Cairns, BookTrust’s Strategic Development and Partnerships Manager
Mike Merriman says: “This project with BookTrust has generated real excitement in the borough. We’ve now mapped out what we think the problems are, and we’ve started to bring solutions.
“Those solutions are around messaging, around training for healthcare professionals, and around making every contact with families count.”