Childcare minister's Lambeth Walk boosts REAL literacy campaign

“Every child, no matter what their background or circumstance, should experience the joy of reading widely and well”, childcare minister Caroline Dinenage said during a visit to Lambeth.

Caroline Dinenage meets staff at Brixton-based charity - Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP)

Her comment was made at the Liz Atkinson Children’s Centre in Brixton on 11 January as she met staff from the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) who were involved in the literacy project.

The early literacy project, ‘Making it REAL’ (Raising Early Achievement in Literacy), raises children’s reading ability as staff work with parents and support them as home educators.

The minister said: “Parents are key to ensuring children get the best start in life, and they need the confidence to help boost their children’s learning at home.

“That’s why it’s so great to see the success of projects like these and the enthusiasm of their parent champions”.

The literacy campaign has worked with 530 children across 80 early years settings including nurseries, primary school nursery and reception classes, pre-schools and children’s centres, linking staff with parents and sharing resources to boost parents’ confidence to develop children’s reading, writing and speaking.

The project's report on the third year of the project has revealed increases in the frequency with which children read, engage with mark making, drawing, song singing and rhymes. Children have been found to speak more clearly and were more confident to talk and used more words, as a result of the project. Parents also revealed their children were being more creative and had better fine-motor control of pens or other mark making equipment. The programme is now embedded in the eight local authorities that have been involved since the project's first year.

Caroline Dinenage said: “Thanks to our dedicated early years staff, and through projects like REAL and LEAP, we are seeing an improvement year on year in literacy standards by age five.”

LEAP (formed in 2014) is a Big Lottery funded partnership of early years organisations, that offer families in four Lambeth wards advice on parenting and childcare from the time of pregnancy until their child’s fourth birthday.

As well as the Making it REAL, programme, LEAP’s other programmes include the Parent and Infant Relationship Service (PAIRS) which strengthens, parent-child bonds and Community-based Activity and Nutrition (CAN) - designed for pregnant women with a high BMI.

Laura McFarlane, director of LEAP said: “We will continue to support and work with families and train practitioners in our three focused strands of social and emotional development, communication and language and diet and nutrition."

The minister’s visit comes one day after the Government announced investment of more than £350,000 in two childcare schemes in Lambeth, through its capital grant funding. This will allow an extension project at Clapham Manor Children’s Centre Day Care and conversion work at Hurley Pre-school in Kennington.

The DfE said this funding will help to deliver the Government’s 30 hours free childcare offer for eligible three and four-year-olds which will be rolled out this September – saving working parents in the borough around £5,000 per year.