Case Study - Bookstart Sheffield

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Background
Strategic Alliances
Bookstart delivery in Sheffield
Library Based Work
Outreach Work
Specific Work with Dads
Links with Family Learning
Summary
Visits to specific groups or events

1. Background

1.1 Sheffield was one of the first Library Services in the country to roll out the Bookstart Scheme in 1999 under the sponsorship of Sainsbury's Millennium Project and the work has flourished since then. The appointment of an Early Years Librarian in 2003 has cemented the role of Bookstart within a wider strategy to promote early learning and partnership working to support the delivery of the Every Child Matters outcomes.

1.2 Promoting reading with men, dads and boys is part of the Library Service’s active approach to widen the reach of library services to people who are not active library users. All librarians have a generic role and develop expertise in working with all groups of library users. The Library Service provides good and proactive universal services to children and parents through community based library services and actively targets hard to reach and excluded groups of parents through outreach work and close partnership working.

2. Strategic Alliances

2.1 Bookstart objectives are incorporated into the Children and Young People's Plan and in the business plans of key partners. The Early Years Librarian actively develops strategic alliances within council services and with key partners from other public and private sector organisations.

3. Bookstart Delivery in Sheffield

3.1 When Bookstart was launched in Sheffield it was decided that Sheffield. Bookstart and Books for Babies should have a strong identity and its own publicity. It was agreed that readily recognisable high quality images should reflect multicultural communities and men's roles in supporting children’s learning. As a result an artist was commissioned to produce a range of images that are used widely and have been successful in promoting Bookstart and Books for Babies as a local brand which incorporates National branding.

3.2 It was also decided that a strategy should be developed so that parents are repeatedly exposed to the scheme throughout a child’s early years. Parents receive their first publicity from the Birth Registrar’s office when they register their baby and through the Parent held record book. This partnership also leads to the registration of all new babies on the Bookstart Data Base. Health visitors back up the Bookstart message at their initial visits and a subsequent visit at nine months. They take demonstration packs to show parents and give each parent a voucher to collect their Bookstart packs from the library. Each baby is sent an attractive card on their first two birthdays inviting them to come to the library and reminding them to collect their Bookstart pack. This communication strategy is backed by city wide publicity in settings that parents attend and by partners. The system works well for parents that are motivated to collect their Bookstart packs from the library. The Bookstart Data Base allows the Early Years Librarian to identify families who have not collected their packs and targeted work is undertaken directly and through partners to ensure every child receives their Bookstart gifts.

4. Library Based Work

4.1 The Early Years Librarian supports community libraries in developing services for pre-school children. All libraries run “Baby Times” sessions and library staff are in close contact with Sure Start centres and other local groups.

4.2 Considerable investment is made by the Library Service in training and developing library staff to create an inclusive and welcoming atmosphere in libraries. The Early Years Librarian has regular briefing sessions with all library staff and delivers training for the “Children’s Champions” at each library. An attractive resource manual has been produced for library staff and 32 different themed resource boxes are available which include session plans and all the books, toys and other resources for running sessions in the library. The Library Services success in attracting more male staff and staff who speak community languages has been significant in increasing library usage by men.

5. Outreach Work

5.1 Outreach work in localities has been the most successful way of engaging hard to reach families. There is no mainstream funding for this work and the extent of outreach work that can be undertaken is dependent upon attracting external funding. The outreach workers are able to build strong local partnerships with Children's Centres, Health Visitors and baby clinics, early years and community groups. The focus of the outreach workers is to engage families with library services and Bookstart and Books for Babies in the settings where they are comfortable and regularly attend. The following are examples of the work undertaken by outreach workers in areas of high deprivation:

By running regular Baby Time sessions at Baby Clinics the outreach workers makes contact with parents and promote the importance of sharing books, songs and rhymes with babies. Dads often attend the clinic with mothers particularly in the early months of the baby’s lives and this enables outreach workers to engage with the dads in these informal sessions.
Outreach workers have been involved with a Family Learning tutor in producing a C.D. of songs in community languages which is used by the families at home.
Children's Centres in the city proactively encourage dad’s involvement in activities and several run dads groups. Outreach work is undertaken with these groups by attending sessions to lead story, songs and rhyme sessions and to informally talk to dads about sharing books and encouraging them to attend library sessions on Family Learning courses.
Outreach workers are engaging dads at groups at a drug rehabilitation project working with both parents. Similar support is offered to social workers working with groups of families threatened with eviction and parenting groups run by health visitors, social services and voluntary sector organisations.
Northern Refugee workers run conversation classes in the city for newly arrived families and generally both parents attend. Outreach workers regularly attend these sessions and take groups of parents on library visits.
Close partnership working with a health visitor for travelling families ensures that Bookstart packs are delivered on traveller sites.
Attendance at high profile city wide events and local community events extends the Bookstart reach and provides opportunities to target dads when promoting Bookstart packs, library services and Family Learning.

5.2 This outreach work is seen as a vital element of the Bookstart scheme and through the family focus of the work the project makes contact with a large number of dads who would otherwise be unlikely to be introduced to Bookstart or Library Services.

6. Specific Work with Dads

6.1 All library staff understanding the importance of engaging men, dads and boys in their services and activity and encourages their involvement.

6.2 Last year on Father’s Day every library in the city ran activities to attract dads. These included free bacon ‘butties’, craft activities, puppet making and stories. Each dad who attended was given a free video loan and this event has led to an increase in library use by men.

6.3 This year a Premier League All Stars event was held in partnership with the Football Association which involved the players visiting libraries. It is hoped that follow up events will be delivered in the autumn.

6.4 The Early Years Librarian also runs sessions for parents of foundation stage children schools to promote reading at home, Bookstart and library services. These sessions are popular and have had dads involved.

7. Links with Family Learning

7.1 There are close links with the Learning and People team who are co-located with the Early Years Librarian. The Early Years Librarian is commissioned by Adult Learning to deliver twelve courses a year in nurseries and family centres and this generates £6000 of income for the Bookstart project.

7.2 The courses have been successful in attracting dads and are called “Babies and Toddlers Love Books”. These courses are very practical and get parents into libraries and using books and making puppets or musical instruments. This often develops their interest in doing further courses and can be a stepping stone to literacy support courses or computer courses.

7.3 Sheffield Library has just launched a new scheme called “Count Me In 1, 2, 3” with funding from the Yorkshire Bank. The scheme provides innumeracy sacks which can be borrowed from the library and courses are also provided which lead to parents making a innumeracy sack for their child.

8. Summary

The Sheffield Bookstart scheme is well integrated into the strategic planning of services to children and families in the city. A recent reorganisation of family Services has led to the formation of seven service districts with a service district manager who is charged with the responsibility of delivering integrated services in line with the aspirations of Every Child Matters. Bookstart objectives are a priority in each of these service districts and the Early Year’s librarian is focussing considerable effort in ensuring that Bookstart delivery stays high on the agenda. This effort will build on the successful strategic and operational partnerships that have been fostered and recognise that for true partnerships to work everyone must contribute to the delivery of their own and other partner’s objectives.
Sheffield Libraries have a strong tradition of providing good universal services but also targeting work with the socially excluded and hard to reach groups. Work with fathers is located within this overall approach and takes place in libraries, through partnerships with early year’s settings and schools, and through outreach work with specific groups. The extent of the outreach work that it is possible to deliver is limited by the need to attract external funding. It is hoped that the new service district arrangements will increase the opportunities to demonstrate the contribution Bookstart makes to improving children and families learning and welfare and the availability of additional funding for outreach workers who are the key in expanding work with dads and other hard to reach groups.

Visits to specific groups or events

Family Learning at Hinde House School

Hinde House school hosts a parenting courses delivered by an Adult Learning tutor. Some parents are referred by social services and are required to attend as part of an intervention plan and other parents are signposted by other professionals or agencies and attend in a voluntary capacity.

At the last course there were seven participants, two of these were dads. The course follows core materials which are adapted to the needs of the group. The Bookstart outreach worker attends the session on developing routines for babies and toddlers, talks to the parents about the Bookstart packs, the importance of stories, rhymes and songs in supporting language development and by modelling sharing books, songs and rhymes with children. The courses have been popular with parents and there are plans to develop a new course for parents on early learning.

Stubbin Community Centre - Dads Group

Firth Park First Start centre employ a male worker who runs a group for men and children at a local community centre every Thursday afternoon. Eight men and one mother attend on a regular basis and, of these, two are granddads. The Bookstart outreach worker is invited to lead part of the sessions periodically.

The dads and granddads enjoy the sessions and the wide range of activities that are available for the children. They also enjoy the social contact with other men. One granddad explained that he is the caretaker of the building and is there to unlock the building at the beginning of the session. It would never have occurred to him to attend the group if the organiser had not suggested it but now recognises the role of the group in promoting his granddaughters learning and social skills. It is good for her to have some individual time with him as she has a sibling who demands a lot of attention. It is also good for him to have somewhere organised to take her where they both benefit from the social aspects of the group.

One of the dads attends with his partner as they have a young baby and a toddler. He is building his skills and confidence in caring alone for both children and in the future will probably attend the group alone. He enjoyed the Bookstart session and his contact with SureStart sessions has made him realise the importance of reading and sharing books with his children so he now takes responsibility for reading a bedtime story to his toddler every day.

Family Learning Fun Day

This event was held in a local park and the SureStart Centre and was organised as a partnership between SureStart, Job Centre Plus and Adult Learning services.

The Bookstart outreach worker had a stall at the event and was able to issue library cards to every child that attended as well as encourage parents to attend library sessions for under 5s. The majority of attenders were mothers but in some cases both parents attended together. The Bookstart co-ordinator showed parents and children the packs and modelled how they could be used as small groups gathered around the stall.

Bookstart Dads