Bookstart funding to stop in England from April 2011

[Campaspe]

I've posted this in chat, but guess it really belongs here.

www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/?p =777

Hope this link works. It advises that from April 2011, all funding for Bookstart will stop, but this applies in England only. See the Booktrust website for more details.

I am so angry at this short-sighted decision and the fact that is applies to England only. How can I campaign to get this changed? Anything that promotes reading and education for children in this way helps to create a more just and equal society. HOw can we not afford to support literacy in this way????

Those who are up in arms, why not make a donation to the charity?

I think bookstart is a good idea, but needs to be targetted to those who actually need it. Like others, we have some books x3 and we have plenty of books so the state doesn't need to fund them for us, kind though that is. We don't claim them, the've been given to the children directly from nursery/HV.

Just to add and to divert from the main subject a little. Regarding encouraging children to read - here is an idea...

Get rid of those bloody Kipper books - you know, Biff, Chip, Kipper and Floppy the dog. And while we are at it, most of the other ones on offer at school. They are the most uninspiring, politically correct pile of crap ever to be printed. I was looking through one to help with homework and within pages I had put it down it was such mindless rot!

I swear my dts hated them with a vengeance, they hate what is given to them at school currently and as such the teachers assume they don't like to read. Then they get home and hit the Roald Dahl, their "fact" books and the such.

I couldn't work out which of the several posts between altv's posts the second one was aimed at.

As Bookstart began in 1992, but had no govt subsidy in England until 2004, then much of it's achievements (however you rate them) are not dependent on public finance. If the intention is to return to the situaion before 2004, then I don't see an inherent problem. Cutting the subsidy abruptly could however have caused severe problems. The new arrangement (whatever it is) might provide the necessary time for Bookstart re-organise itself and return to it's pre-2004 position. But I think we shall have to wait until the new arrangements are announced in detail to see.

don't see the point of this scheme where we live anyway - the schools all have libraries - don't they everywhere? Plus, if we couldn't afford to buy books there's always the local public library (at the moment anyway). its just a waste of public money.

i thought it was good to axe it
waste of dosh
Give the books to those who will still get child benefit

When I was offered the Bookstart pack for my second child, I thanked the hv very much, but said that I really didn't need yet another copy of whatever book it was (I write children's books myself, so we are not short of the things in our house). I felt that, if there were books available, they should be given to people who don't have any. The hv told me that if I didn't accept it, it would be flagged up to the SS - who could draw the conclusion that I was an unsupportive parent who was not sufficiently concerned about their child's education.

So I duly accepted them and took them straight to the charity shop.

I think Pixel is right: Bookstart is just an expensive sticking plaster.

I remember when dd was presented with her last bookstart pack; a pirates chest which consisted of a huge cardboard box filled with leaflets, crayola crayons and two thin books. I did think at the time it was a shameful waste of money, most of it went in the recycling bin. The books were lovely; the wasteful packaging etc not

My dd came home with that pirate chest thing too. What a waste of a charity's/governments money.

I am a prolific reader, one of the best things about parenthood has been sharing books with my children. My eldest now is 11 and is a discerning reader which delights me.

I like choosing their books for them, relevant to their interests, ages, and needs.

I think about childrens literature with a balance of instruction (like morality stories eg Little Women) and fun (eg Harry Potter)

We don't ban Enid Blyton but we talk through some of the readings (have avoided the sexualisation of children's names so far. Dick. Fanny)

I have lived hand to mouth at times with my eldest daughter but would not have accepted the Bookstart pack. I prefer to choose my own books and especially now they are not that expensive really.

If you used the library and found a book that your child adored, maybe at some point (Christmas/birthday) you could get it for them.

Different people have different priorities, the readers will always read.

I think dd got books from this a couple of times, total waste of money(although have to say she was pleased..as she loves books) but she has a cupboard full of them, you can buy books so cheap now, imo they should be better targeted.

I wonder how big the schem was before it got govt funding? If it has broadened out since 2004 the funding requirements maybe considerably more than previously.

I used to enjoy taking Ds to Bookstart story time at the library.

The chosen authors - some of them multi-millionaires - quite legitimately benefit from the free distribution of their books. Other books by these chosen authors will be sought out, given a higher profile in bookshops, promoted by sales forces etc. The potential spin off is huge. So why cannot the wealthier authors freely forgo their royalties instead of just a percentage? This will still leave them as overall beneficiaries of the charitable distribution of their books.

And if the authors who benefit both from the boost of sales, and from their raised profiles would support the decent training of teachers and promote understanding of how struggling readers learn to read, then billions would be saved in expensive, illogical 'catch-up' programmes. The money saved could be chanelled into decent libraries in schools, visits from authors, poets, story-tellers, provision of musical instruments, setting up drama groups - the list is endless.

Instead, many children's authors continue to aggressively promote wantom waste, or stand silently by while 20%+ of children fail because they are so confused by the mix of methods, lack of attention and time for acquisition of skills which are essential for their reading development.

Well said Allchildren.
Sums up the whole sorry mess exactly.

Yep ours is going.

Quite right, allchildren.

I understand where people are coming from when they says its easier and less costly to offer something like Bookstart to everyone instead of means-testing it. The issue with that is that it is only easier and less costly if you adopt the "scattergun" or in this case "dump a bag of books" approach. Which then misses the target group and defeats the purpose.

I worked in the civil service till very recently. In my dept we funded plenty of programmes like Bookstart - nice ideas, but would need greater targetting and more direct work with target groups to really achieve their outcomes. The thing is, yes this one is only £13 million, but the govt is currently funding hundreds, if not thousands of programmes which are "nice ideas and only 13 million each". Most of them are at least 80% ineffective because of the scattergun approach. It all adds up.

Terrible news! Bookstart is a beacon of light and should be a source of pride.

Give them a library card instead! Far more useful and a lot cheaper. I was shocked to find out how few of the kids I teach don't even know where the library is. They were all given a book token and half of them just threw them in the bin. Libraries all the way!!

Libraries (if they are still around) won't help the child who has parents who won't take them there. Book tokens don't help children whose parents never visit book shops. Bookstart won't help children whose parents never read.

I'm not sure what the answer is but however much money we throw at the problem it is more to do with attitudes to reading than how many books we own.

Exactly - mrz you put it much better than I did, was trying to say that. I don't know what the answer is either, but while I'm sure lots of children appreciate them and they are useful to some, I don't see the point in giving books to people who don't need/want them.

as a teacher of Y7 in a fairly affluent area, it is my experience that the books are (with very few exceptions) very well loved and read and talked about by almost all the children.
it is a wonderful opportunity to share the experience of reading and sharing books.

With respect I think Booked Up (the Y7 version) is slightly different - children get a choice of book (ok from a list) whereas the younger children (catch them young!) are given the same book no choice. By Y7 most children can read the book themselves without relying on a disinterested parents.

Bookstart is so patronsising, and as a volunteer in a charity shop, we see hundreds (literally, not figuratively) of the bookstart books donated every week.

If parents are interested in reading to their DC, they can get books for free at a library, or next-to-nothing at a charity shop.

When I tried to turn down the bookstart pack for DC4 ( as we have all the childrens books we need already) I was told by my HV that it would mean my name was flagged as a "parent to keep an eye on". Flagged on what grounds and kept an eye on by whom, weren't specified.

Also, there are really excessive amounts of pamphlets and packaging along with the books.

Give out a library card, and give the funding to libraries instead.

CHeckmate, you're the second person to say that on this thread ("parent to keep an eye on").

I find that so revolting that I think it is time to say "Stick it up your arse" to the people so insistent on pushing this fake charity for their own purposes.

Nasty bunch, they don't deserve a penny of our taxes.

Libraries all the way.

we got our toddler bundle when we signed up to the local library (so LO was obv being read to) so not sure how that's supposed to work??

its a good idea but I think there are too many books in the bundle, one or two books lovingly read (because kids always pick the SAME ONE even if you have 200 anyway don't they?) is going to do more for reading than 10 unloved un-read books strewn about the place?

anyway we did not need them. We like them, we love books but have loads of books already plus we're members of 2 libraries.

It was a good idea but too much money was thrown at it, less would have done IMO. In an ideal world we would keep this but there are more vital services being cut so this is the kind of thing that needs to go unfortunately

Saving libraries is soo much more important than this!