Imagination Library celebrates success, with 80,000 books handed out to children in North Lincolnshire
Around 22,500 children in North Lincolnshire have benefitted from the scheme, inspired by Dolly Parton
Last updated 23rd Nov 2022
A Dolly Parton-inspired local authority scheme to offer a free book each month to all children aged nought to five, was hailed as a success by North Lincolnshire Council’s Cabinet.
The concept of the ‘Imagination Library’ is simple – the opportunity for all children from birth to five years old to get a free book each month. In doing so, it will increase literacy skills and enable greater family reading time.
North Lincolnshire’s imagination library will celebrate ten years of existence in January. It is the only council-funded imagination library in the UK with provision for all children in a local authority area. The singer has herself praised the council organisers as “forward thinking folks”.
The imagination library idea was country singer-songwriter Dolly’s idea in 1995, motivated by her dad’s inability to read. The first books were only sent out to children living in Sevier County, Tennessee where Dolly grew up. By 2000, it was reproduced nationally in the USA, and in 2007, the idea leapfrogged also to the UK.
North Lincolnshire’s version began in 2013 and to date, has seen over 22,500 child participants and over 813,000 books distributed. Almost nine in ten, or 86 per cent, of children aged under five are registered with the imagination library in North Lincolnshire.
It is part of the Council’s Community Literacy Offer investment with a budget in 2022-23 of £334k.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) understands, however, it typically costs the council around £250k a year to run, or roughly £25 per child per year.
That is 7,170 children and a council report presented to cabinet called it “the most successful of its kind in the world”, a claim with some basis. Dollywood Foundation, the non-profit educational organisation founded by the country music legend, regularly asks the council to share its best practice with the more than 200 affiliated partners in the imagination library scheme.
Dolly, 76, said in the report marking the upcoming tenth anniversary: “The only thing more important than what we do for our children today is what we will do for them tomorrow.
"We are so fortunate to have the forward thinking folks at North Lincolnshire paving the way to teach us all how to best sustain our efforts for decades to come."
“I bet the Children’s Literacy Trust will be going strong 100 years from now, so I am making my plans to celebrate that milestone.” The Dollywood Foundation are to host a celebration event marking the tenth anniversary of North Lincolnshire’s imagination library on January 20, 2023, at Normanby Hall.
North and North East Lincolnshire Councils are signed up to Multiply, part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, which focuses on improving adult numeracy skills. Approximately £1m in funding has been given to North Lincolnshire alone to offer free maths courses for adults. There are 16 different imagination library affiliates in North East Lincolnshire offering versions of the scheme, but it is North Lincolnshire who have a wholly integrated approach.
“I can’t believe it’s ten years to be honest with you,” said Cllr Julie Reed, portfolio holder for children and families, as she introduced the report. “The amount of good it does to our children and communities is phenomenal.”
Analysis by the council has found that imagination library registered children generally outperform children who do not join the programme. At Key Stage 1, years one and two, 67 per cent of library registered children achieved in 2022 their expected level of reading. This compared to 54 per cent for children who were not signed up to the imagination library.
The difference continues to Key Stage 2, years three to six, where 61 per cent of children who had been signed up to the imagination library achieved overall reading, writing and mathematic expected standards in 2022, compared to 53 per cent for unregistered. Feedback from users has included “books are amore integral part of our daily routine” from and from one grandparent: “My granddaughter has speech and language issues and has a global development delay and getting the books has been fun and educational for her and helped with her speech”.
Cllr Reed said: “Those children who have access to this scheme clearly have better outcomes in their education”. She added it improved connection between family members too. “We want every single child in North Lincolnshire that’s eligible to be signed up to this because it’s such a wonderful scheme.”