Story Explorers evaluation
Explore our 2024–25 evaluation report and find out how Story Explorers helps strengthen reading habits and relationships.
Key findings
Story Explorers can help strengthen both reading habits and relationships which is important because simple, consistent relational experiences help to build children’s sense of permanence, safety and belonging.
- When shared reading is interactive and mutually enjoyable, children are more motivated to seek it out, caregivers find it more rewarding, and families read together more often.
- Shared reading also provides an ideal context for warmth, responsiveness and consistency – the behavioural foundations of strong, supportive relationships.
The design of Story Explorers supports these outcomes.
- It provides novelty which sparks curiosity, shared exploration and sustained interest.
- It supports families to include shared reading in daily routines which helps families create more moments of closeness.
- It supports children’s sense of ownership and agency which encourages their active participation.
Download the full report
In the report you will find:
- Key findings from our evaluation
- In depth insights into how the programme makes a difference
- Case studies from customers and families
- Children’s views on the programme and how shared reading makes them feel
Partner case studies
Practitioners share their thoughts on how they’ve used Story Explorers to engage families and the difference it has made.
Bath and North East Somerset (BANES) Alternate Care Team
Through the work of the Alternate Care Team, 14 kinship care families with children aged 2–4 took part in Story Explorers, using subscriptions fully funded as part of a programme of work for the DfE National Kinship Care Strategy. Within BANES, each kinship care family is allocated a worker who has regular touch points with the family. This is a great opportunity to find out how the families are using the kits and gain valuable insights while promoting and encouraging families to use the resources.
Story Explorers is a really lovely opportunity to offer our carers. It provides tangible support that is fun and engaging, while actively promoting attachment and connection. It’s refreshing to be able to offer something beyond advice and guidance, as carers don’t often receive practical resources they can use at home. While we run activities and support groups, this directly supports the carer–child relationship in everyday family life, making it a truly valuable and ready-to use resource.
Cat Reeves, Deputy Team Manager, Family Placement Team
National Fostering Group
National Fostering Group provides Story Explorers to families across 11 of its agencies. Their Head of Impact ensures practitioners are as much a part of the programme as the families. The monthly home delivery model means it’s easy to set up. In some agencies practitioners have created WhatsApp groups for carers to share photos, ideas and encouragement (around a third of foster carers being highly engaged in the group in one agency), while others use monthly supervision sessions to check in and see how the programme is going.
Giving them that time, that one-to-one time, it’s really helping with the bonding and giving them something that they can both focus on together – this fun.
Family Support Worker, National Fostering Group
Contact us
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You can contact us by emailing [email protected]
Discover more
Story Explorers is an evidence-informed programme for early years children in adoptive, foster and kinship families. Working with key partners including Adoption Focus, Kinship and The Fostering Network, the programme was co-designed with almost 100 parents, carers, and children with lived experience. The programme supports families to build strong bonds and feelings of attachment by developing a sense of comfort, stability and belonging through joyful story sharing at home.
Families taking part receive six monthly kits, delivered directly to their home, each containing books and practical resources that equip carers with meaningful and practical tools to support a nurturing home environment.
For practitioners, Story Explorers provides a resource that can be embedded within their practice, providing a consistent homebased activity that strengthens family stability and supports positive outcomes for children.
Our programme logic model explains this in more detail.
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A book subscription service for ages 1–4 that embeds sharing stories at home to strengthen bonding and attachment for foster, kinship and adoptive families.