Agree Bookstart is great - but makes me angry how stingy things have become

[Armo24]

Came across this sweet and quietly political piece about Bookstart and remembered how it used to be more generous than it is now even. Is it a sign of how we just come to expect less over the years? Isn't that quite sad?

What baby books taught me about the British state

When I think back to the world my eldest DC (17) was born into, it was so much better than things are now. Excellent support via Sure Start, money from the government to start a Child Trust Fund, and loads of free books right up until she started school from Bookstart. I’d hoped our current government would be bringing that culture back but I’m not sure they have.

It is sad that the children only get one lot now, not the two that they used to, but it's great they still get that, given the terrible cuts to anything for children under the Tory government. I'm just delighted we still get to give one pack to our children.

We still have the books my children were given and they're adults now. Wonderful scheme.

When I had my first baby back in 2009, I got a baby book from the GP. Thick book from pregnancy up until newborn stage. I read it back to front. I was a teen mum and it really helped me.

Gave birth last year and none of that stuff exists anymore. Everything is online they said But it is not the same

My youngest is a teenager now, born in the early days of the coalition government, and we've still got the Bookstart tote bag - I use it every week when I go shopping!

My oldest is in her 20s and things were so different when she was born way back in the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown days. Sure Start groups, a library in our little village that was open 6 days a week at normal times, the start of tax credits, child trust funds...

God they really fucked up the world since 2012. It is depressing. David Cameron has so much to answer for. Austerity and Brexit have the rise of populalism is horrible to see.

I loved Sure Start.
I remember it going from free, to £1 a group if you weren't in a target group
To target groups only as funding was cut.

But I did a Children's First Aid course with free creche, Stay and Plays , Messy Play, Music, gardening, group walks etc... it was all basic stuff, but so wide ranging.

Book start... I was never overly impressed with the books themselves, but I remember their excitement at getting the Preschool ones (wasn't there one in Primary as well?)

Admittedly I don't have the same experience and nostalgia, my child is 7. But is it not the parents responsibility to provide books rather than the government?

In my experience, parents who value reading will encourage reading, and those who don't, won't, whether they're given books or not.

This.

Mine are in their 20s now and I still have the Bookstart tote bag too @BoobsOnTheMoon (great name!) and the books themselves. Lovely memories of reading with both DC.
There are so many benefits of the scheme -so much more than to introduce the idea of reading and developing imagination.

@Herbisaurous whilst you are right about parents’ role in this - my understanding is that so many parents are unable to provide the basics that books are the last thing in their mind. Anecdotally I’ve been told by friends who are teachers that very many children arrive in school at age 4 having never seen or read a book and try to ‘scroll ‘ the pages like a phone …. I’m not sure whether this is exaggerated but that’s quite sad really.

Found this research https://literacytrust.org.uk/research-services/research-reports/book-ownership-in-2023/

I remember chatting with my HV when having my last 10 years ago. For me the problem is that they are giving them to everyone it’s not needs based and in times when money is tight it is potentially throwing away money. For m youngest children I got these books that a) I already had and b) as library users our kids didn’t need to be given books. I don’t know how it would be worked out but surely giving these things, and bigger and better, to people eligible for sure start or whatever makes most sense. I mean I’ve received 3 copies of the gruffalo and we already had one purchased ourselves! That’s absurd.

My eldest is mid twenties, hers came in a cardboard briefcase with books, activities, stickers. It’s very basic now. But for those of you with young children it’s worth checking if your town is signed up to imagination library, a free book every month for the first year. Also remember you can borrow books at your local library too.

So I had my first child in 1998 and my youngest last year. Yes the early 2000s were awash with money for the whole country and lots of perks for families but that was only a phase. I do feel a bit sorry for people who grew up during that time as their concept of deprivation is completely skewed. I can tell you the perks and support available to families now is still way more than it was in the 1990s, even just the provision of childcare etc is much more than it was and I say that as someone who had to reserve a nursery place for my younger when I was 12 weeks pregnant and who hasn’t been able to get my primary aged children in the afterschool club.

We’ve enjoyed and used the books we’ve received and are not eligible for any benefits, the problem in this country is that everyone is divided into on benefits and perceived as poor and all the help and perks in the world thrown at them or not on benefits and so must be rich. The reality is that some kids are swamped with gifts from friends and family and parents who are quite well off and other families are just about managing and don’t have family and friends who can afford to spoil their children. It really pisses me off when people whose children are spoilt say please just target these things to people on benefits, we don’t need our child benefit etc. I have been on benefits and I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be at the moment as. So much understandable resentment at everything only being targeted at people on benefits, I was actually much better off on benefits!!

Yes it's so sad looking back at how these things are stripped back to the bare minimum - would have expected Labour to start rebuilding some of these things that seem like the "little things" but actually mean a great deal.

Wow I didn't know about the baby book - that sounds so helpful, I could've done with that! I don't remember getting even any leaflets or anything when I had my first last year. Seems like it'd be quite an obvious and easy thing to keep that would more than pay for itself. Sad to hear the massive change since 2009 - not a long period of time in the grand scheme of things!

It's so strange how that wasn't even that long ago in the grand scheme of things and yet sounds like a different world..

Totally agree - I think people look back and think after all the recent chaos we've had that David Cameron et al were the "sensible" ones but most of what's happening now is on their shoulders.

Fascinating, thanks for sharing!

While it’s sad that this is less generous than it was, I think it would be far better for parents to get their into the habit of taking their children to the library every week.

Wow we never got the Gruffalo! But yes I suppose it's upping the targeted nature of things that the government is focusing on but I don't know, the part about having something for everyone did resonate with me in the piece. We all pay taxes etc and it seems good for society for everyone to get these kind of things out of it, if small.

Yes good point!

Give them time.

The withdrawal of preventive services that have long term gain was a feature of the Tory regime and it will take time to claw this back. And it might require higher taxes - and that does not go down well!

That would be lovely. Hard to implement though so in the meantime book start books are great.

I taught in a deprived area and we gave out the book start packs. They were literally the only books some of our children had at home.

Absolutely it would but that's getting harder to do with all the library closures. Our local library where I used to take DS (now 18) for Rhyme Time, HV checks and to look at books is now only open one full day a week. It's completely closed on Mondays and Wednesdays. It makes it much harder for parents, especially when they are working, to access