Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she has considered the potential merits of providing public funding for the work of the Imagination Library.

The Imagination Library is a book gifting programme devoted to inspiring a love of reading in children. The department knows that book sharing supports the kinds of conversations between caregiver and child that promote children’s early language development.

The department is working closely with the Department of Health and Social Care to deliver a joint £300 million package to transform services for families through a new network of Family Hubs in half of the local authorities in England. This includes over £28 million to invest in evidence-based programmes which support parents to chat, play and read with their children to improve their early development, with priority given to the families that will benefit most.

This work is complemented by the Better Health Start for Life campaign, which provides online resources giving parents easy, practical tips to chat, play and read with their child. These resources are accessible at: https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/baby/learning-to-talk/learning-to-talk-0-to-6-months/.

The department has also launched a procurement round to grant fund voluntary sector organisations to support the home learning environment with a particular focus on supporting disadvantaged groups. Information on this fund is available at: https://www.find-government-grants.service.gov.uk/grants/early-years-disadvantage-vcs-grants-2023-25-1.