Bookstart and the cuts

[Campaspe]

Does anyone know if Bookstart has escaped unscathed? I haven't been able to find out any details yet.

What is Bookstart and who funds it? If it is funded locally for example i.e. through a council, it will be a local decision if it remains.

Bookstart is funded by an independant national charity as far as I know so will stay. . Am a HV and love giving these packs put - especially to the 2 year olds who LOVE getting a grown up book bag like their older siblings or friends who go to school.

Bookstart is run by the charity Booktrust, but it does rely on funding from the Government. It is good value for money though, for every £1 the Government gives Booktrust generates £4 worth of private funding from booksellers etc. So far there is no word on whether Bookstart will continue after March next year but as I have seen the impact Bookstart can make with families I am hoping it will continue putting books into the hands of every child in England. What better way to inspire our kids and give them a lifelong love of books and all that brings :)

To be honest, although I have found the Bookstart bags very useful, I don't know if it is really useful to give books to people like me.

I mean I have a serious book problem. I have had to disable the one click option on my Amazon account and I drag my poor children to the library at least once a week. I have been to every single library in my borough (tracking down books on their on-line system - very exciting addition to my life). I went into a period of mourning when the local Borders closed down. (Yes independent booksellers are great, but Borders never made you feel guilty if you took a huge stash of books into the cafe).

I haven't claimed the Bookstart books for a long time, but I think it could be more targeted.

If only everyone loved books as you do, merrymouse! One of the many beauties of Bookstart is that it is universal - three age appropriate packs, with two books and plenty of useful info for grown ups in each, for every child from birth to four. If anyone wants to know more, ask your health visitor or library - that's where we've had ours from. Highly recommended!

And I think even affluent families don't always know or remember how important (and enjoyable) reading to their children is. I really hope the programme isn't affected and that the govt realise that we can't afford the cost of not having literate and articulate children and the part that Bookstart plays in helping to bring this about.

Bookstart is awesome :) my mum is a librarian and I get all the packs through her - good thing too as it's not really done where I live.

It's great for me as my family adores books and places high value on education but we have no money for books. However this is one of the schemes that doesn't really reach those who are most in need of it.

Bookstart is such a great idea. Millions of children have been given books since it went national. Families are going to need it even more over the next few years as their money gets tighter and jobs are lost.

I agree it is fantastic and worthwhile etc, but I have to confess that almost every book we have received is a duplicate of one we own. I have receycled them, but perhasp there is a slightly better way of targetting books?

I love Bookstart. I think it's such a great initiative. I hope it comes out of the cuts unscathed.

Bookstart is great. Everyone benefits from being reminded to keep reading books for fun. When children find out that reading a book with a loving adult can be a warm, happy experience they begin to build a love of reading themselves.

For too many children, without Bookstart, this would not happen, either because adults don't bother to read with them or because they focus on books as tools for learning to read. Everyone should be able to hear the positive messages from Bookstart - no matter how much money they have or the education they've got, whether they share books already or whether they just didn't realise how important it was. We can all learn something from Bookstart.

I think that bookstart needs to be targetted more to those in need. Also by giving children books of pre-school age it doesn't make the adult actually read the books to the children. Doesn't free/subsidised state nursery education set about achieving similar goals? My DD's pre-school send them home with a book each day.

Bookstart is fantastic. One of the best things about it is that it isn't targetted, it's universal, it doesn't matter what your postcode is or which side of the road you live on! I know that my children are getting exactly the same as everyone else in the country and that's quite rare. We don't have much money but we don't live in a really deprived area so often don't qulify for things that other parents/children do.
We love books and after receiveing our Bookstart pack we have discovered our local library and all the Bookstart activities they do there which are also free.
I hope there aren't cuts to Bookstart or to local libraries, families need both so much :)

One of the key aspects of the Bookstart programme is that it is universal - it is available to every family in the UK, regardless of their economic background. The reason for this is that, just because a family could afford to buy books for their child, it unfortunately it doesn't mean that they do. Many families are simply not aware of the importance of sharing books with young children, and Bookstart aims to spread the message that a child is never too young to learn to love books. The Bookstart programme ensures that every child in the UK has at least 6 high-quality books in their home by the time they reach school age.

Nurseries and preschools play a huge role in promoting early book sharing, and as you say Fiddledee, many nurseries do provide books for children to enjoy at home. However, currently children receive their National Education Grant (NEG) free nursery place at 3 years old (although this will soon be lowered to 2 year olds for low-income families). But Bookstart packs are available to families from birth, and so Bookstart gives a child access to stories in those important first 3 years of life, which gives them a real headstart when they begin their nursery education.

I was given bookstart the other day for one of my children. I told those who gave it, I did not need it, and gave it back. I can buy my own books or go to the library. I agree with giving the books, to those who need it, but not all kin and sundry.

"Bookstart is run by the charity Booktrust, but it does rely on funding from the Government. It is good value for money though, for every £1 the Government gives Booktrust generates £4 worth of private funding from booksellers etc."

• So we have a charity which successfully combines government funding with private money to achieve a specific benefit to society.

It sounds like a template for Cameron's Big Society to me .

Check out www.bookstart.org.uk to see the fab things they provide. It's more than just books :)

I think it will be a real shame if Bookstart goes, not only is it a scheme that includes EVERY CHILD. They also offer two fantastic special needs packs called Booktouch and Bookshine.

My child has multiple learning difficulties so while the first bookstart packs was good - we couldn't really use it like other parents and babies. Luckilly my health visitor works closely with the Bookstart Co-ordinator and she got me the two packs and they are fab! Not only do they contain useful books and a music CD, it contains invaluable advice leaflets which gave us tips and techniques to help us read and enjoy boks with our son. We also recieved a specialist booklist for finding other titles - something that nobody has given us before. In fact it's been so useful I've even taken it into my sons nursery for them to copy and try and source some of the books!

Thanks you Bookstart you really have helped my son get Bookstarted dispite his disabilities. I would be at a loss without you!

Bookstart is a fantastic scheme, but yes for families like mine (where I started building my children's library whilst they were still in utero) the money is wasted. At our local independent school, where parents are paying 10k p.a. to send their children the children were given bookstart packs ffs!
Some families definitely need it though, and other initiatives that the booktrust run such as letterbox club I cannot praise highly enough.

That said, some of my children's most favourite books have been bookstart books- they do have most excellent choosing panels!

I love Bookstart. My DS is walking around with the bag he got for his 2-3 year old development review with their books in it. He is so proud [in love emoticon].

Hi, I am a Health Visitor and absolutely love gifting Bookstart in my area, it is such a pleasure to give a pack that does not any health messages. To see a child's face light up and the parents too when they receive a pack is a just a wonderful image and I never tire of it in my job!!! I can't imagine why it would go to targetting everybody loves books. Please don't hand your Bookstart pack back, there is lots of resources and on their website are fantastic resources. I really hope the Government don't axe it!!!

Good point, gingercat12, about your DS being proud of his Bookstart bag - our library has Bookstart membership cards for under 5s and our DS loves carrying his library books home in his Bookstart bag! This is one scheme that really makes a difference

As a children's library service manager in an inner London borough, several things struck me about the anti-Bookstart comments in this thread.

"Charity shops are a good source of quality children's books". Sometimes yes, often no. I've seen lots of dreadfully illustrated, written and bound books in charity shops. Clearly the people who dumped them had taste! Also, many parents simply don't know where to start to choose books. Bookstart selected good quality, age appropriate titles.

"Spend the money on libraries, not Bookstart". The "either or" argument is a recipe to end up with neither. If anyone really thinks the government will spend the saved money on libraries instead is very naive.

"Go to the library and borrow books instead". Fine words, but many parents don't think libraries are for them. They see them as places for the middle-class (who probably have superior attitudes and downers on things like Bookstart). Bookstart promotes library use and gets many of those suspicious families into libraries.

"Well off families don't need Bookstart and so is a waste of money". OK, let's throw the baby out with the bath water (or the book).

"I've found Bookstart bags in charity shops". You find all sorts of things in charity shops. Do you abandon something just because it's abused?

"Bookstart should be targetted at the poor or uneducated". Easier said than done. I should know, I deal with distribution Bookstart in my borough. To attempt to collate data about "the needy" (however you decide to define that) and then devise a targetted gifting mechanism would probably cost more than a universal gifting approach. Also, while some poor people do read with their children, many middle-class ones don't. It's not as straightforward as some obviously think it is.

If you're a parent who buys your child books, joins the library, reads with your child, is able to selects quality age-appropriate books, then well done! But if you're not, are you robbed of pointers in the right direction just to appease the smug, self-satisfied educated middle-classes whose real agenda is not improving educational standards or concern for the nation's economy but a desire to remain an elite?

Librarian - did you actually read this thread? Or did you just assume that there would be "smug, self -satisfied, educated middle-class" posters on it. If you are quoting MN posts - then I can't find them on this thread.

A small number of posters suggested better targeting of the books. But not really in a smug way. Or do Librarians not like people talking about their own love of books?

Jackstarb - yes I did read (thanks for the helpful bold)threads. I was paraphrasing the anti-Bookstart sentiments appearing and re-appearing throughout. Having established that, I'd welcome reaction to the points I actually made