Advancing reading in the early years in Leicester through Family Hubs, Library Service and BookTrust collaboration

This case study outlines how Leicester City Council – including the Library Service and Family Hubs teams – are working together using BookTrust resources to promote early reading among families facing barriers to support. Families receive Bookstart packs, modelling of shared reading, and activity ideas to use at home via sessions in libraries and Family Hubs, alongside home visits by Family Support Workers. Through promoting consistent reading messages and improving access for EAL families, the programme is helping to build caregiver confidence, strengthen community links, increase library use and deepen families’ understanding of the role of reading in child development.

Bookstart Coordinators and Development Workers at the Library Service in Leicester are responsible for finding suitable pathways for BookTrust’s Bookstart packs to be gifted to families in the city who will benefit from them the most. As a result, these colleagues have focused on reaching children on Leicester’s Priority Support List, with referrals from professionals in the Early Help Team, Children’s Services, health services, schools and more.

Some of the barriers to reaching these families include:

• Physical barriers to accessing gifting settings and support services, as well as low caregiver confidence to attend.
• Families not being willing to accept support and provision, whether due to a lack of trust or fear of judgment.
• Reading not being seen as a priority by caregivers.
• Language barriers, with a high percentage of EAL families in Leicester meaning some do not understand how to access services easily.

Library staff considered how they could best overcome these barriers and decided to take a joint approach to engaging families by partnering with local Family Hubs. Impactful gifting could then be done through sessions run by library staff at libraries and Family Hubs, as well as visits to the home carried out by the Family Support team.

Some of the key objectives of this programme are to:

• Communicate the benefits of reading to caregivers. In many cases, caregivers know they should read with their children but don’t always know why it is important.
• Embed reading and literacy across Family Hubs to reach as many children as possible and ensure consistent messaging across touchpoints.
• Provide a welcoming environment for parents and caregivers so that they feel able to connect with professionals and therefore more likely to listen to key reading messages and engage with reading.
• Provide examples of play ideas that can be used with the Toddler and Preschooler packs so that families can replicate them in the Home Learning Environment, aiding language and reading development beyond the session.
• Champion BookTrust’s messages about the benefits of reading.

How did you go about setting the project up/getting it running and getting people on board with it?

A key aspect of the project set-up was adopting a joined-up approach to reaching families through sessions delivered at Family Hubs and libraries, alongside direct engagement through home visits carried out by Family Support Workers.

By building on existing Family Hub sessions, such as Stay and Plays, the programme has been able to reach families who are already accessing other forms of support in a familiar and trusted setting.

Sessions have also been delivered in libraries, which may be more convenient to access for certain families than their local Family Hub. This has also helped to position libraries as welcoming community spaces and encouraged families to make greater use of them in the future.

The project also recognised the need to reach families who were not already engaging with Family Hubs or libraries and who may face barriers to accessing support. For this reason, Family Support Workers visit families in their homes, take Bookstart packs with them, and model ways to use the resources. This provides an important first step in engaging families who may not otherwise attend centres or use local services.

This joint approach has helped to ensure consistent early reading messages are communicated across services.

One example of this approach took place at a Family Hub in Leicester in April 2026. An existing Stay and Play session was led by library staff, with a particular focus on the benefits of reading in the early years. Activities were themed around the 2025–26 Bookstart books; for example, a toy picnic was set up to mirror the story in Zeki Goes to the Park, and a colouring activity was provided to go alongside Colours with a Ladybird.

BookTrust Storytime books were read aloud by staff later in the session, providing an important opportunity to model shared reading techniques. Families were then gifted Bookstart packs, including dual-language books where appropriate, along with activity ideas to help them continue engaging with the books at home.

This work has had numerous positive health, wellbeing and social impacts, including:

• Improved learning and development in children accessing the groups and resources.
• More families accessing their local library.
• Increased caregiver confidence to leave the house, visit children’s centres and connect with other parents and carers in their community.
• A stronger sense of community by bringing local families together and creating space for peer interaction and support.
• Consistent, universal early reading messages across services (including health visitors, early years settings, schools, Children’s Services and support teams).

What have you learnt as a result of the programme?

A key learning from this work has been to re-frame its measures of success. Instead of working to the question ‘Has this family received a Bookstart pack?’ and focusing on numbers of packs gifted, practitioners evaluate success based on families understanding the meaning behind the gifting and considering the impact of having books in the home, particularly for families who may not have access to their own books otherwise.

The Bookstart Development Worker also works hard to make the pack meaningful and see it as more than just a pack. Families can take play ideas and songs and rhymes and bring the packs alive that way. This also helps to cross language barriers by visually being able to see how books and stories can trigger ideas and imagination through play rather than solely in a written format. 

When running projects of this nature, it is vital to consider the target audience and their specific needs and priorities. In certain Leicester communities, for instance, English is not the primary language spoken at home by many caregivers. Nevertheless, these caregivers often prioritise their children’s development of English, recognising its importance for educational attainment and school readiness. Practitioners in Leicester work to highlight the advantages of bilingualism and multilingualism to caregivers, demonstrating how reading in a child’s first language can also contribute positively to their development of English literacy skills. In support of this, Dual Language books from BookTrust are provided to encourage literacy growth across languages and to enhance the enjoyment of shared reading experiences.

Where families possess limited or no English literacy, it is important to connect with them in alternative ways. This can involve providing accessible and high-quality resources in their first language, such as dual language books, or using audio/visual methods like videos for those who do not have any literacy skills. Building confidence and trust with these families is essential and communicating with them in a way that is accessible for them is a key step towards this

How effective has the project been? Is it likely to continue going forward in addressing its initial objectives?

Feedback from parents who attend the sessions is very positive and families overwhelmingly praise the packs and their importance in their child’s reading journey. They love how the packs are brought to life through fun and engaging activities, and it means they are more likely to continue to read with their children and engage with settings such as children’s centres and libraries throughout the early years of their children’s lives and beyond. The very high percentage of EAL families in Leicester means the dual language books are vital in helping families read both in their home language and in English and the sessions provide an important role in distributing them effectively.

Going forward, practitioners want to focus on highlighting the full range of benefits reading brings in more detail to ensure parents understand that in addition to improving speech and language development and literacy skills, shared reading can improve children’s cognitive ability, develop their empathy and creativity, build bonds between caregivers and children, and allow for better social mobility.