Research and policy
Policy: Bookstart
23 Feb 2001
Bookstart
Bookstart, run by national charity Booktrust, was the first national baby book-giving programme in the world. Each baby in the UK is entitled to receive three Bookstart packs by the time they reach four years old.
- Bookstart Baby packs are usually delivered to families by health professionals at health contacts before the baby's first birthday.
- Bookstart+ packs are also usually delivered by health professionals at a health contact when the baby is between 18 and 30 months old.
- My Bookstart Treasure Chest is gifted to three to four-year-olds at early years settings such as nurseries and playgroups. Parents and carers can also obtain all three packs from their local library.
Funding
Central funding is provided through the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the Department for Children, Schools and Families in England. We have sponsorship support from a range of children's book publishers and booksellers and Bookstart is delivered via libraries, health professionals and early years professionals who give the packs to the parents and carers.
History of Bookstart
Bookstart began in 1992 in Birmingham with a pilot project involving 300 babies. Booktrust commissioned Prof. Barrie Wade and Dr Maggie Moore to undertake research into the effects of early book-sharing on child development. Wade and Moore found that Bookstart children began school with significant advantages and with higher attainment in all aspects of the pre-school, nine baseline assessments.
The evidence persuaded Sainsbury's PLC to sponsor Bookstart as their Millennium project in 1999 – 2000 enabling Bookstart to achieve national recognition for the first time. Following the association with Sainsbury's PLC, Bookstart was hampered by a lack of secure funding for a number of years. All this changed, however, in the July 2004 spending review when the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, announced funding to extend the Bookstart scheme to enable universal provision of free books to every child at three key stages: Bookstart baby pack for children up to 12 months, Bookstart+ aimed at toddlers and My Bookstart Treasure Chest for three to four-year-olds. This expansion represented both an unprecedented opportunity and an enormous challenge: to reach 2.1 million children and their families every year. Consultation with partners led to resounding support for the extended programme from children's publishers who contracted to support Bookstart for a further three years.
