The Family Reading Campaign is working to ensure that the benefits of reading in the home, and strategies to support parents, are incorporated into the planning and activity of a wide range of sectors.

• Case studies from a range of sectors

Download Can you help the Family Reading Campaign make every home a reading home? Find out how your organisation can get involved

• National and key family literacy initiatives (from the NLT website)
• Local family literacy initiatives focusing on reading

Below shows how the campaign is being integrated into the activities of national organisations.

Access for All Families, which is run by NIACE (National Institute for Continuing Adult Education)as part of the Skills for Life Pathfinder for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities, has a strand which is linked to access to Literacy Language and Numeracy for all families, including those with learning difficulties and/or disabilities. The result of the pathfinder is a set of guidance documents on different strands - including the family one. The findings of the pathfinder are being distributed via 3 events across the country in March 2006.

For more information visit www.niace.org.uk

Adult learners' Week, run by NIACE (National Institute for Continuing Adult Education), has a specific category called the Family Learning Award, where families who are learning together are given recognition of the efforts they are making - last year it was awarded to a refugee family. This award offers opportunities to distribute leaflets, information etc about family reading.

At the same event, there is a category called the Open Door award which is designed for anyone returning to learning to be nominated for an award; family learning can also be included in this.

For more information visit www.niace.org.uk

BBC Reading and Writing (RaW) is the BBC's biggest ever campaign that aims to help adults across the UK read and write better. RaW is for everyone but there is a special focus on families. If you have kids and you'd like to help them read better, or you'd like to read them better stories, RaW can help.

In line with the focus on families RaW have produced a family storytelling pack. The pack is free and can be ordered from the RaW helpline - 0800 0150 950.

Adults and children are also able to access information, quizzes and much more on their mobiles.

More on RaW from the main NLT site.

For more information visit www.bbc.co.uk/raw/campaign.

The Basic Skills Agency

The Basic Skills Agency provides a wide range of excellent resources to support family reading including a focus on involving grandparents. Many of their free resources are outlined on the pdf below:

Basic Skills Agency family reading resources

In addition, the BCA provides the following free resources:

1. Phonics for families – a short booklet that explains what phonics is, how it’s taught and how families can help at home

2. Phonics for families teachers guide – by Kay Hiatt, a whiteboard presentation with notes, poster, letter of invitation all building on the Rose Review, for schools to deliver a short workshop session or series of sessions, on [phonics – linked with 1 above

3. Count on me – similar to 200 ways to say well done, but for numeracy

4. Talk to Me! – a good practice guide and accompanying interactive whiteboard show, by Sue Palmer, for schools to work with families and help to support them in talking to young children

5. BSA Learning with Grandparents suite – many resources including a good practice guide, DVD, postcard pack, jargon-busting ABC of what goes on in primary schools, and a report of a national project the BSA funded

6. Language and Play and Number and Play storytelling books

7. Talking Numbers – aimed at Y3/4 numeracy and includes booklets for families to help them support children at home.

For more information visit www.basic-skills.co.uk.

Phase 3 of the programme has just started, and aims to broaden the influence of the scheme on the whole family, and on patterns of behaviour when offenders leave prison - with the public library as a bridge between 'inside' and 'outside'. During Phase 3, which is being funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, it will promote family reading through

• enabling prisoners to read to their children through shared recordings
• developing training for library and prison staff on how this work can be supported and extended
• working on piloting strategies to ensure that reading support continues on prisoners' release
  

For more information visit www.readingagency.org.uk.

Blokes on Board is a Read On Write Away! and NRC Reading Champions project that is being piloted in the Erewash community in Derbyshire. It is hoped to engage all the schools in the local extended school cluster within the School Reading Champions/ Reading Champion Dads schemes and use this as a springboard to reach out into the local community and involve local men and boys in building a community that values reading. If the pilot is successful, this could form the basis of a model that other extended school clusters could follow. It is intended to badge this work with the Family Reading Campaign logo.

Bookstart was set up by the charity Booktrust, in 1992. It is the first national children's book-giving programme in the world. At a child's nine-month health check or through an alternative health or library services contact, parents can receive a Bookstart pack: 'Bookstart for Babies'. It includes a free board book for their baby, reading advice and recommendations from Booktrust and information on how to join the library. Informal library events - rhyme time or story time - can also be offered. As part of the 2004 spending review, Bookstart has been expanded. Every child in the country can now receive free books and a library card to encourage reading from an early age. In addition to 'Bookstart for Babies'. At eighteen months, children can now receive 'Bookstart Plus' a satchel style bag, containing two books, scribble pad and crayons, a booklist for toddlers and a library invitation. 'My Bookstart Treasure Box' is for 3 year olds and comprises a hidden compartment for small toys or books and includes two books, a children's activity book, a scribble pad and coloured crayons - to encourage early writing. Booktrust anticipate that the expansion of the scheme will see 4,500,000 packs given out in total: 1.7 million of Bookstart to babies; 1.4 million of Bookstart Plus and 1.4 million of Bookstart Treasure Chest. This will enable parents and their children to build up a home library as they receive free books.

For more information visit www.bookstart.co.uk

Family learning in libraries, museums and archives is a small piece of research that NIACE has conducted into family learning in libraries, museums and archives. This could be a vehicle for distributing materials promoting family reading and for contacting agencies in the field.

For more information visit www.niace.org.uk

Families Love Libraries is part of the Love Libraries campaign to make libraries in England even better. Families Love Libraries celebrates the family power of libraries, and encourages libraries to listen to families and respond to their needs.

For more information visit www.lovelibraries.co.uk/

Football Stories is a partnership pilot programme run by Reading The Game and the BBC RaW campaign at Brentford FC, where adults (and some children) have been collecting, writing up and reading their stories about the club. BBC RaW and RTG are exploring ways of expanding this model. Following presentations to all Premier League Clubs, six have expressed an interest in running a similar model to the Brentford pilot. Meetings with these clubs are being arranged to develop the projects at each site.

For more information visit www.literacytrust.org.uk/football/RTGProjects/rawfs.html#rawfs

Got Kids? Get Reading! ™ is a Reading Agency project and book collection. Part of the Vital Link programme, this offers targeted resources for adults with literacy needs who have children under 7 years old. Initial project work showed that where libraries and children's centres used these resources as a focus for work with families - more families enjoyed reading together - more families used the library - more adults showed an interest in further learning A further book collection and promotional materials, Five Minutes, was launched in autumn 2006, providing recommended titles for Dads to share with their children and to enjoy for themselves. Both collections are the focus of the Vital Link with Parents project running in early 2007 which is funded by the DfES Skills for Life Strategy Unit. This is building on the experience of earlier projects to integrate creative reading activity into family learning provision in community settings and to establish sustainable partnerships between libraries, family learning and other agencies working with parents. For more information visit www.literacytrust.org.uk/vitallink/gotkids.html

The Grandparents Project is a National Development Project run by the Basic Skills Agency in conjunction with the Grandparents Association, Grandparents Plus and Goldsmiths University, looking at how grandparents can support their grandchildren's basic skills development, especially speaking and listening. This will be supported by a range of resources for teachers, and for grandparents, including a set of TV programmes to disseminate ways that schools encourage and use grandparents in schools.

For more information visit www.basic-skills.co.uk.

National Poetry Day, run by the Poetry Society, is an annual celebration of poetry in Britain that reaches homes, schools, libraries, workplaces and more. Each year National Poetry Day spreads the word through both a central PR campaign and through grass-roots local events. It could promote the Family Reading Campaign, in addition to linking with activities and providing a platform for Family Reading Campaign activites.

For more information visit www.poetrysociety.org.uk.

The NLT annual conference in 2006 (March 20) entitled Every Child Matters - Closing the literacy achievement gap focused on the importance of home and community approaches to literacy including family reading. The Trust is also looking for funding to develop a family literacy centre to pull together research and good practice.

Orange Chatterbooks reading groups for children aged 8-12 are run in libraries in libraries in 144 authorities. There are currently 365 active groups involving over 5000 children. In 2007 The Reading Agency, which runs the scheme, plans to engage families through

• a national libraries' film tie-in promotion to celebrate the release in February of the new film 'Charlotte's Web'
• organising major regional themed events for Chatterbooks children and their families
• developing awareness of and reading for children with disabilities, especially those with a visual and/or a hearing impairment

For more information visit www.readingagency.org.uk.

Read On - Write Away! is a community literacy initiative in Derbyshire which delivers innovative family literacy programmes that seek to engage hard-to-reach families including traveller families. It runs a range of inter-generational projects including reading volunteers/buddies and delivers Books For Babies. All of these activities fit within the scope of the Family Reading Campaign. It is also running Blokes on Board in partnership with the NRC's Reading Champions.

For more information visit www.rowa.co.uk

Reading Connects is developing a parental involvement strand to support schools in helping parents encourage reading in the home. It is planning to bring together all the key organisations concerned with developing family literacy in schools, along with leading schools in this field, to develop a toolkit of practical ideas based on good practice. This consultative conference will take place in July 2006 and the toolkits will be published in time for Family Learning Week in October 2006.

For more information visit the Family Engagement section of the Reading Connects site. www.literacytrust.org.uk/readingconnects/pracmainschoolfamily.html

Reading Champion Dads is part of the NRC's Reading Champions project, linking up with the work of schools, libraries and communities to encourage dads to be reading role models. It is currently piloting Reading Champion Dads in a range of schools to help schools engage fathers and male family members in promoting reading. The scheme will be launched in the autumn. In addition, Reading Champions is piloting Blokes on Board in partnership with ROWA!

Reading Is Fundamental, UK will be encouraging its volunteer coordinators to promote RIF as an opportunity to raise the profile of reading with families and encouraging them to read more. RIF is looking to incorporate some Shared Beginnings elements within its projects e.g. book making, to demonstrate through practical activities how families can enjoy reading together. RIF's website includes Reading Tips for Parents (available in 12 community languages).

For more information visit www.RIF.org.uk.

Share Books and Talk is a joint resource developed by Talk To Your Baby and Bookstart to promote the benefits of reading from a communication/talking point of view. It is aimed at practitioners and includes the reasons why reading is good for talking, two pages of tips to be used with parents, ideas for activities that practitioners can run in settings, and sources of further information. It is a downloadable resource that will be available from the TTYB and Bookstart sites and promoted by both organisations which is branded with the Family Reading Campaign logo.

For more information visit www.literacytrust.org.uk/talktoyourbaby/Sharingbooks.html.

Slambassadors, Rise Slam, and Foyle Young Poets of the Year Award are all Poetry Society projects that directly reach young people under 18 nationwide. Mutual links with the Family Reading Campaign will provide opportunities for promotion of activities to participants and their families. The nature of these links can be determined in relation to the FRC programme of activities. Performers such as the Slambassadors or Foyle Young Poets are ideal ambassadors for reading and writing to both young people and their families.

For more information visit www.poetrysociety.org.uk.

• a new leaflet targeted at parents and carers, designed to help them help their children to take part in the challenge. This will be available in a range of languages, dependent on demand
• working with a small group of authorities to pilot models for family engagement in the Challenge
• providing family incentives for taking part in the challenge (eg fridge magnet, prizes etc.)

For more information visit www.readingagency.org.uk.

Talk to Me! is being developed by the Basic Skills Agency in conjunction with literacy specialist Sue Palmer. It includes an interactive whiteboard presentation for teachers to use with parents, encouraging speaking and listening, a Good Practice Guide with case studies, and a set of resources. It will be launched at a conference in March 2006.

For more information visit www.basic-skills.co.uk

• Materials to support the family reading aspects of the Summer Reading Challenge™
• Materials to support people working with families through prisons
• Possible development to support work with early years and families
  See www.theirreadingfutures.org.uk
  

Additional plans for children in care: the National Literacy Association is hoping to intensify its work with looked after children and their carers by:

• A programme of Reading Roadshows for carers across the country (funding application currently with the Children Young People and Families Grant programme)
• Work in Birmingham with carers via the Family Learning Programme
• Work with looked after children and their carers in Kirklees Local Authority via a local consortium of interested groups including representatives from the library, Bookstart, care homes and the Head of Service for Looked After Children's education.
  

The NLA is also working with Hornimans Play Centre in London embedding literacy in play activities and engaging parents with their children's reading.

For more information visit www.nla.org.uk.

World Book Day 2006 will be the biggest ever because not only is the more traditional side of World Book Day on track to be its most successful ever, but this year it is joined by the Quick Reads adult initiative. This is being supported by retailers like ASDA, Sainsburys, Woolworths, WH Smiths and Tesco and being publicised by organisations like the BBC, TUC, The Sun and the Premier League. NIACE is distributing the vouchers for WBD to be redeemed against the Quick Reads which should help encourage family reading. There will be some titles in March and more in May, to coincide with Adult Learners' Week (see above).

The encouragement of 'Family Reading' is not a stated aim of the World Book Day charity but the organisers hope that their activities will help to promote reading among children, young people and adults and by extension to their families. Retailers see World Book Day as a family occasion and an opportunity to encourage children and their families into bookshops. It's also good to hear from WH Smith of their enthusiasm for the launch of Quick Reads as part of their World Book Day strategy, because of World Book Day's track record in getting families into their stores.

As an extension of World Book Day's work, the new children's Laureate, Jacqueline Wilson) will be publishing a book on 4 May price £1.00 (by Random House on a not-for-profit basis). The book is aimed at encouraging parents to read aloud with their children. It may be possible to get this book badged as part of the Family Reading campaign.

For more information visit www.quickreads.org.uk

Young Parents' Projects, run by the National Youth Agency and funded by the Neighbourhood Support Fund work specifically with young parents to offer tailored ongoing support, including mentoring, accredited courses and parenting programmes, and practical support.

For more information visit www.nya.org.uk.

Youth Access - One of the National Youth Agency's partner organisations, offers signposting services that are available to parents, providing information to help them support their children in accessing local youth services.

For more information visit www.nya.org.uk.