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This page outlines what the National Literacy Trust's Talk
To Your Baby campaign will entail - although the finer details
will be subject to the outcomes of the current development
year.
The early language campaign will aim to convince current
and prospective parents and carers of their capacity and responsibility
to provide rich language support to their children. It will
be premised on the belief that all parents wish to do the
best for their children, but that frequently they lack the
confidence, or knowledge, to implement powerful parenting
practices.
For example:
- listening actively and talking to their children, as
often as possible, and in a wide range of contexts
- singing with children and playing rhyming games
- sharing books and joining the library.
The campaign will also work to promote the related importance
of adult literacy and learning.
The campaign will communicate these messages in a variety
of ways including via media partners - radio, television and
relevant publications. Critically the initiative will be built
around a long-term communications strategy and not a short-term
blitz on the issue. We recognise that it will be difficult
to deliver a sustained involvement of the media but this will
be crucial and will be one of the defining features of the
campaign.
The Trust can bring together the mix of professional, governmental,
business, voluntary sector and media involvements that will
be needed to harness new resources and energy, maintain momentum,
and create a sustained popular profile for this issue. In
essence the campaign will perform a catalysing function.
The Trust will, amongst other things:
1. Establish a pilot group, and then service and
support a broadly-based national advisory group which will
be composed of representation, it is hoped, from :
- early years practitioners in day care, education, health
and voluntary sectors
- Department for Education and Skills
- Sure Start
- early years organisations
- Bookstart
- research
- Business in The Community
- communications, marketing and public relations
- the media
- local government
- parenting organisations
- volunteering organisations
- adult education and lifelong learning organisations
- Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
- funders.
2. Use our connections to engage a wide range of partners
in the campaign - utilising their expertise and engaging their
commitment to promote the issues within their 'fields of influence'.
The methodology of the campaign will require the creation
of many champions/leaders of the initiative, who will further
the goals of the campaign and communicate evolving best practices
within their professional and geographical communities. They
will be supported networkers for change.
3. Conduct a national audit, and create a database
of promising practices for supporting parents. Through the
internet, newsletters and other means, we will disseminate
best practices and promising ideas to ensure that, where appropriate,
benefits can be obtained from reduced development times.
4. Promote the issues and good practice by articles
in a wide range of publications and broadcast media.
5. Facilitate regional networks for multi-disciplinary
support and sharing of good practices.
6. Lobby for strategically-judged best use of existing
and new resources
7. Provide a support and advisory facility to strengthen
the work in this area of all current and potential contributors
8. Provide a systemic analysis to further the success
of the campaign;
- coordinate activity to maximise the benefits of collaboration
and the strengths inherent in an organised national campaign
- work to ensure that 'the whole is greater than the sum
of the parts'
- assess gaps in activity
- and respond to both the developmental and restraining
factors in order to maximise the self-sustaining growth
of the initiative.
Amongst other things the campaign will work to:
- maintain a regular stream of magazine and newspaper articles
about parental 'good practice' and successful institutional
support to parents/carers
- promote the message via TV and radio coverage - national
and local
- encourage occasional but continuing supportive images/storylines
in TV soaps
- persuade other influential partners to increase and sustain
their promotion of the issues - libraries, youth services,
employers, trade unions
- profile the parenting of celebrity and non-celebrity
'role models'
- create specific webpages and a database for sharing institutional
good practice for supporting parents
- encourage funders to support small innovative pilots
that could lead to improved support practices
- encourage an increase in high quality institutional support
to parents and carers across a wide range of sectors - through
information provision, conferences and training sessions
- establish annual regional meetings of interested cross-sectoral
partners, to exchange good practices of institutional, media
and wider partnership working, and to review the implementation
of the campaign
- ensure that the basic messages about parenting for language
and literacy are communicated to positive effect through
the secondary school curriculum and youth services work.
Specific targets will be determined during the first six
months of the campaign. The overall objectives are:
Objective 1:
- increase the number of children who on entering the Foundation
Stage, are judged to have age-related linguistic competence
- reduce the number of children who are experiencing some
forms of 'non-medical' language delay
Objective 2:
- raise the profile of the 'basics' of early language support
amongst parents, so that x% extra per year are confident
and motivated to provide language rich support on a regular
basis
- increase the number of parents who utilise supportive
provision
- increase the number of parents who engage in their own
learning
The early language campaign will be established to last,
subject of course to regular review, for ten years. It will
be a unique harnessing and integration of the involvements
of the following sectors, underpinned by a systems approach:
- political
- professional/institutional
- community development
- volunteering/voluntary sectors
- media/marketing/advertising/public relations
- business
The campaign will aim to systematically engage the following
national contributors:
| Sure Start |
Professional bodies - CPHVA, RCN, NAHT |
| Government departments |
Bookstart |
| Local Government Association |
Community Education Development Centre |
| Qualifications and Curriculum Authority |
Workers' Educational Association |
| Basic Skills Agency |
Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals |
| National Institute for Adult Continuing Education |
Confederation of British Industry |
| National Children's Bureau |
Business in the Community |
| Early years organisations |
Trades Union Congress |
| Family and parenting organisations |
National Council for Voluntary Organisations |
| National Reading Campaign |
Media |
| Connexions |
Training providers |
| Learning and Skills Council |
Marketing and public relations expertise |
Regionally and locally:
| Regional development agencies |
Housing providers |
| Local authorities |
Youth services |
| Health authorities |
Chambers of commerce |
| Early years development and childcare partnerships |
Retailers |
| Sure Start |
Education business partnerships |
| Local learning and skills councils |
Transport providers |
| Early years institutions |
Voluntary sector organisations |
| Schools |
Faith groups |
| Further education institutions |
Newspapers and broadcast media |
| Community education |
Football clubs etc |
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