BookStart – a waste of Government money?

In recent weeks the Government announced that it would cut its grant to BookTrust for England, then did a u-turn under public pressure. I find myself agreeing with Stephen Pollard […]

In recent weeks the Government announced that it would cut its grant to BookTrust for England, then did a u-turn under public pressure.

Although loved by parents as the outcry over cuts shows BookStart, surely a much smaller scheme focused on less active reading families would be better value for money, rather than blanketing the country in baby books. Shouldn’t tax payers be paying for targeted services for those that need them, rather than doing things what most parents will do on their own anyway.
BookTrust should go back to being an independent charity – funded by donations and small grants, rather than the Government guango it has become.
I searched out every pack for my girls, usually by going and getting it from the local library as in our area health visitor checks have vanished and the girls don’t do nursery. They are a mostly a nice add on – providing the odd book – most of which are good, although one was truly appalling.
But like most people I don’t need tax payers to be buying the odd book for my children.
The public library service is far more important in my view. At a time when local libraries are determining which hours to close to deal with budget cuts I’d rather money went to the public library service. It provides so much more than a book every year or two, a couple of nice bags, a pretty cardboard box and a few booklets. It provides thousands of fantastic books in the preschool age group, baby rhyme times, and story telling sessions etc.
I do believe there should be a scheme encouraging Parents and Babies into public libraries, and health visitors should be encouraged to promote books but I don’t think Government funded books are the best way to do this.
And there are even more vital services that just don’t exist in my area – like health visitor checks. My youngest has only had one health visitor check – the newborn one. They are so stretched in our area that her one year check was by post, received the week before her second birthday (and this was before Coalition cut backs). When vital frontline services are so stretched, can it really be right to be spending tax payers money on providing a handful of books to every child.

The other side – a Mum supports the BookStart programme.