Partnership working
“Partnership approach between Libraries, Bookstart, Family Learning, Children's Centres and other early years services means there is a strategic corporate partnership in Cornwall which ensures that effective work with children and their families is not left to chance or personal relationships”Susan McCullock, Head of Young People’s Library Services, Cornwall.
“The inclusion of Bookstart objectives and targets in Children and Young People’s Plans and Local Area Agreements has acted as a lever to raise the profile of our work”A Bookstart Development Manager.
The Bookstart regional audit and case studies show how much good work is going on at the moment and there is a real enthusiasm to develop this work further. Bookstart coordinators in areas with strong local partnerships talked of a sense of common purpose and shared outcomes which lead them to act as ambassadors for each others' work. Your partners can help you to lead groups, to recruit dads and to gain access to dads already engaged in :
- Sure Start groups
- Family Learning courses
- Library services
- Health provision
- Voluntary sector groups
- Self-help and specific support groups
- BME groups
Family Reading Matters
A new National Literacy Trust magazine illustrates how a local authority can develop a coordinated strategy to support family reading. There are articles on working with health, housing, libraries, children's centres, adult learning, schools and looked-after children.
The magazine includes a DVD that focuses on how Rochdale Metropolitan Borough Council has developed and embedded its borough-wide approach. It is hoped that this will be an inspiration to local authorities and all those working to raise literacy standards, to help build coordinated local approaches to support family literacy.
- Download the magazine (PDF, 5.1Mb)
Further reading
- The benefits of partnership working
"Practitioners with backgrounds in single, traditional agencies report high levels of satisfaction with multi-agency working..." more > - Building partnership approaches
"Partnership working gives Bookstart coordinators access to dads and families..." more > - Getting the decision makers onboard
"The key decision makers responsible for approving Children and Young People's Plans are likely to be elected members and senior managers..." more >