Roehampton University was invited to evaluate
the Bookstart programme between September 2003 and September
2004. Some of the key findings are:
From librarians, health visitors and Bookstart
co-ordinators:
- All the professionals were supportive of the Bookstart
scheme
- where local authorities placed strong emphasis on
the pre-school child, the Bookstart partnership was
as its strongest and most innovative
- The quality of the organisation of the Bookstart scheme
and partnership varied across the three regions
- Librarians and health visitors identified the need
for training to support their effective delivery of
the packs and the Bookstart message
From parents:
- The majority of parents were responsive to the Bookstart
scheme
- Some parents needed more than the giving of a single
Bookstart book pack in order to adopt the Bookstart
philosophy of reading regularly with their young child
- The value of reading with babies and reading in the
mother tongue was rarely understood by parents who spoke
EAL, despite the translation of the Bookstart literature
into some community languages
- Regular and consistent reading to and with babies
and young children had a positive effect on young children's
literacy development
- Parents of highest performing readers engaged in a
diverse range of reading related activities
- Home based literacy routines and the value parents
placed on books had a positive impact on children's
reading
- The presence of wide-ranging reading material in the
home was a feature of children who were progressing
well in their literacy development
- The regular sharing of books in the home was not common
practice of the group of emergent nursery readers
From children:
- Children chose to read popular texts that linked to
their gender
- Quality discussion was a routine part of the book
sharing routine of the highest performing readers
- The average and the highest performing readers chose
to read voluntarily in their leisure time
- Highest performing and average reception age readers
were able to name a favourite book
- The emergent nursery age children were unable to understand
the sequential nature of a story
- A high prevalence of speech delay and a limited verbal
response to a shared text were identified in emergent
nursery readers' group.
Collins, F.M., Svensson, C. & Mahony,
P. (2005). Bookstart: Planting a seed for life. London:
Roehampton University.
For more information, see www.roehampton.ac.uk
Earlier
evaluations of Bookstart
This report presents findings from an evaluation
of a service for parents - Parent Information Point (PIP)
events, which offers single information sessions to parents
on a brief, one-off basis. This service is delivered at
school-based meetings to groups of parents with children
of similar ages, and was developed by the National Family
and Parenting Institute (NFPI). The service offered a universal
service, consisting of the provision of relevant information
at points in the family lifecycle when parents commonly
experience stress connected with key developmental transitions
that children make (e.g. transition from pre-school to school).
Events were designed to last not more than a couple of hours,
to enable parents to:
- find out about services available for them in their
local area
- speak to local service providers
- meet other parents
- learn something about and have the opportunity to
discuss child development issues and concerns
- feel more confident about parenting generally
This service did not aim to have any measurable
impact on parents' skills or children's behaviour.
This report describes the results of a one
year study by the independent Policy Research Bureau, which
was conducted during the pilot phase of PIP events. PIP
events were piloted in three areas: two northern boroughs
and one inner London borough. The pilots were delivered
in nine schools (three schools per pilot area).
Factors that led to a successful implementation
of the events included:
- Good team work between the local co-ordinator and
the schools
- A good 'introduction' to the session to inform parents
about the purpose of PIP
- The present of a 'Market Place' of local agency representatives
- Holding PIP at a range of times throughout the day
Barriers to a smooth implementation
in the pilot phase included:
- The speed at which PIP was introduced, which limited
the time and input from local areas into a central model
- It was more challenging for the pilot projects to
work with secondary schools
- In areas with high numbers of parents from minority
ethnic backgrounds it was challenging to convey information
and materials that were not translated
- Pupil-post was not ideal to publicise events as many
parents who did not attend had not head about PIP
Results from a survey showed a substantial
and significant increase in parents' self-reported:
- knowledge and awareness of family support services
- knowledge of child development issues in general
- willingness and readiness to access services
- confidence in themselves as parents
The greatest impact was found to be amongst
parents thought to be 'hard to reach' - e.g. minority groups
and parents with low incomes. However, PIP did not reach
many fathers with children in reception, but had more success
reaching fathers of pre-teenage and teenage young people.
Overall, PIP was a successful school-based
intervention, which succeeded in reading parents in 'hard
to reach' groups and which had a substantial impact on parents'
self-reported knowledge and awareness of family services,
willingness to access services and on their confidence as
parents.
Bhabra, S. & Ghate, D. (2004). Parent
Information Point: Evaluation of the pilot phase. London:
NFPI.
Further information on the PIP evaluation and a downloaded
summary of the findings are available from www.nfpi.org.
For further information on PIP in general click here
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