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Brought to Book

04 Oct 2009 | Danuta Kean

British book schemes are in the vanguard of attempts to promote social inclusion. Danuta Kean finds out why

In a year that has witnessed some of the most harrowing cases ever involving socially excluded families, images of "feral" children roaming through towns and villages causing havoc are a familiar trope of UK tabloids. Usually stories are accompanied by headlines demanding children be locked up alongside their "inadequate" parents. It's a grim image.

Thankfully it is a view not shared in the book trade, where a handful of charities realise that if they can get that 10-year-old reading, they can help unlock a box of pain and find a child capable of making a valid contribution to society.

"All the research shows that a love of books enables you to live a richer life in every way," says Rosemary Clarke, director of Bookstart, the book gifting programmes at the charity Booktrust – a true British success story that has now been exported to 30 countries.

"Reading makes you more tolerant, improves your communication skills, and provides you with all sorts of things that will make a much better society," she adds.

Clarke quotes the 2008 report Reading Changes Lives from the National Literacy Trust. It revealed reading for pleasure to be of wide social benefit. Not only are those who read less likely to be divorced, but they are less likely to smoke and be unemployed.

Reading promotes empathy, understanding and helps readers deal with issues that may feel too big to talk about. For a 10-year-old in a chaotic family, it can provide a more constructive means of escape than roaming the streets at night and causing trouble.

This is not glib middle class rhetoric. Statistical evidence that backs using books to promote social inclusion in disaffected communities is supported by strong anecdotal evidence.

For instance in Bolton HeadSpace, a project that partners libraries and local authorities with young people, has had an "extraordinary" impact, says Miranda McKearney, director of The Reading Agency, which coordinates the programme.

"The Bolton HeadSpace has been really inspiring," says McKearney, who visited the project recently. "It is based in a 95% Muslim ward. When I visited, I was shown around by Shaheen, who has turned into a proselytiser for libraries." Shaheen is just one young person among 3,500 encouraged by HeadSpace to take ownership of their library service through ideas and action.

In Bolton, Shaheen and friends introduced floor walkers who banish any feelings of intimidation young newcomers may feel by showing them the stock and how to use the service. For those not willing to cross the library threshold, local activities seek to draw them in and ensure they are not left outside.

"Shaheen has now become a Saturday assistant," McKearney says with pride. "What has also been very good about this scheme is that it has encouraged parents to get involved," she adds.

The teenage enthusiast is not the only one reengaged with an under-used community resource. HeadSpace  is now operating within 14 public libraries. If The Reading Agency gets its way, volunteers will reap further rewards: it will be counted towards an accredited scheme such as the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which can help employment prospects.

The response of parents from groups, such as Roma and settled immigrant communities, deemed hard to reach is one of the unintended consequences of book and literacy projects aimed at social inclusion.

The network of libraries available in even the most deprived communities provides a natural base from which to reach out to those whose feelings of exclusion may be compounded by low literacy levels and poor social provision – it is no surprise that the gradual erosion of the national youth club network has coincided with a rise in teenage gangs.

"Very often things happen in this work that you aren't necessarily expecting," McKearney says. "We had the same with the Chatterbooks initiative we ran which is aimed at widening children's reading horizons. We found that reading had a positive effect on the confidence and esteem of the children involved."

These positive gains through reading for pleasure are one reason why the British government has pledged £26m to continue supporting Booktrust's free books scheme Bookstart, which is aimed at babies, toddlers, and five-and 11-year-old children. It holds its second National Bookstart day on 9th October, which will include the scheme's first venture into YouTube with a competition based on the theme of My Favourite Rhyme.

Government funding for Bookstart represents only 20% of the Bookgifting programme. The rest comes from commercial bodies, including publishers and companies such as the manufacturer Crayola. The universal nature of the book gifting programmes is vital to sponsors who see it as a way of reaching the widest possible group of people, says Louise Chadwick, National Development Manager for Inclusion and Family Learning at Booktrust.

Elaine McQuade, managing director of Scholastic Children's Books and chair of the Publishers Association Children's Group, says for book publishers the scheme appeals not just because of its reach, but because it acts as an antidote to the dry literacy-orientated reading within the National Curriculum.

"We love the fact that we are encouraging readers in the true sense of the word, people who read for pleasure and will take that into the rest of their life," she says. As to the cost, she adds: "We don't make a loss out of doing this. It is also a way to promote authors and books. A sensible publisher is going to put forward books that are part of a trilogy or series or that will help bring children to a particular author."

Chadwick adds the universal nature of the book gifting programme doesn't just appeal to commercial backers. It ensures that no recipients feel stigmatised, and that children within "culturally impoverished" families who can afford books but choose not to buy them are reached.

Among Chadwick's projects has been work with the Family Intervention Project. These involve families on the very edge, usually under ASBOs and facing eviction from their homes due to anti-social behaviour.

Though she would never claim books beat ASBOs, she quotes a 2002 OECD report, Reading for Change, which showed that across OECD membership countries reading for pleasure was vital to a child's future success within society.

"One of the problems I come across is that people say we should focus on literacy rather than reading for pleasure, but unless people want to pick up a book to read and enjoy, they are not going to practice their literacy skills and get better," Chadwick explains.

Chadwick has seen plenty of children like the 10-year-old described in the opening of this article. Reading for them is not about literacy skills either. In a book these children can find others facing similar problems or imaginative landscapes that help them escape the turmoil. In doing so they will learn to better articulate the issues that make them feel angry and excluded, and in doing that they stand a better chance not just of feeling included, but of succeeding in life.

Fact File: Books change lives
The 2008 National Literacy Trust report Reading Changes Lives: An Advocacy found that reading has a huge impact on the lives of readers from economic success to social confidence and even voting.

* 22% of men and 30% of women with literacy below entry level 2 live in nonworking households.
* Men who improve their literacy rates see their likelihood of being on state benefits reduced from 19% to 6%.
* Men and women with the poorest literacy or numeracy skills were the least likely to have voted in the 1987 and 1997 general elections.
* A modest rise in literacy level sees the likelihood of a man owning their own house rise from 40% to 78%.
* A literate family is less likely to experience divorce, as divorce rates amongst those with high literacy are low, and significantly lower than those with poor literacy.
* Individuals with good literacy are far more likely to be involved in community participation. Among those with level 2 literacy 21% of men and 29% of women actively participate in community activities.
* Literate residents also consider their communities to be much safer, than those with low literacy. Only 1% of men and women with high literacy levels reported never leaving their houses.
* High literacy levels are associated with lower drinking and smoking, as well as higher levels of good mental health. This takes pressure off the health service and public funds, and contributes to a healthier nation.
 

Workplace: Raising Awareness, Changing Perceptions
The Diversity in Publishing Network aims to make the UK publishing industry more diverse. Danuta Kean finds out more
Schemes aimed at socially excluded readers, or even just those who don't feel comfortable walking into their local specialist bookshop are vital. But if new readers from a more diverse background are to remain book buyers they need to find books that reflect their lives and not just the lives of middle class white graduates.

It is a thought at the heart of DipNet, the Diversity in Publishing Network, which was created five years ago after I wrote In Full Colour, a report for The Arts Council England and The Bookseller about diversity within UK book publishing.

The report made depressing reading.

Not only were black and minority ethnic people appallingly underrepresented in British publishing, the handful of black and Asian editors, designers, publicists and marketers working in the industry reported feelings of isolation and in some cases outright discrimination.

It was a shock for a sector that prides itself on liberal values. To be fair, the UK industry responded with admirable concern. Aided by the Arts Council's Decibel scheme to encourage diversity within the creative industries, among other initiatives introduced were traineeships aimed at the BME community and publishers, such as Penguin, increased their commitment to diversity through staff training and an editorial drive aimed at supporting writing talent in the minority ethnic communities.

DipNet's role was to help those from BME backgrounds working in the industry and to help publishers recruit a more diverse workforce.

Beyond culture, there are sound commercial reasons for encouraging a more diverse workforce. First the spending power of the BME market is estimated to be in the region of £34bn and publishing should be taking a bigger stake.

It isn't, as a survey by HarperCollins and research agency TRA in 2007 showed all to clearly.

Though 52% of those involved in the survey of reading habits among black and minority ethnic readers said they wanted genre fiction to read, books by BME authors published by the large houses tended to be aimed at literary audiences. As a result readers were forced to look to the States for crime, romance and thriller novels by more culturally diverse authors.

In the children's market, the fact that the BME population had a younger than average age and higher birth rate than the general population, appeared to have little impact on publishers' output.

Of those surveyed 45% had young children but they bought fewer books than average for their children. A reason cited was the lack of representation within children's books: black and Asian parents and children opened too many books and found no one like them staring back.

Why should diversity in the workforce matter? Because a more diverse workforce would have picked up on that disconnect earlier and addressed it.

DipNet programme manager Shelina Permalloo says the lack of diversity is not just about ethnicity. "It's more about class," she explains. Put simply, publishing's reliance on a handful of top universities, dominated by Oxbridge, for recruitment has created a profession that resembles a middle class white ghetto.

It is why on taking over the running of DipNet last year Permalloo has placed expanding recruitment beyond traditional sources at the top of her agenda.

"One of our first priorities has been to encourage people who wouldn't ordinarily have been told about publishing to think of it as a career choice," Permalloo says. "That means reaching out to under-represented groups outside the Oxbridge sphere."

Given the limited resources of publishing, DipNet is not able to add a publishing stand to the Milk Round recruitment roadshow that visits universities, but it is piloting schemes aimed away from publishers' usual stomping ground.

"We are planning a career evening at the University of East London, and will do another at Nottingham Trent University next year," she says. "These are pilots to see how effective this kind of outreach is in introducing publishing as a career to those who may not have thought of it."

Alongside widening the recruitment base for publishing, DipNet is working on a best practice charter to which publishers can sign up. The chart will crystalise commitments to diversity within the workplace. "In an ideal world we would like the employment charter to be linked to benchmarking," Permalloo says.

Those who sign up will be able to monitor their progress in recruitment, training and staff development. They will also be able to use the score, probably based on a simple traffic light system denoting excellent, good and poor standards, to recruit talent at all levels.

"Publishing is much further behind on this issue than other industries," Permalloo says. But she adds on an optimistic note: " I am really pleased with the progress it is making. One of the things DipNet is there to do is raise awareness and knowledge about this important area. We will get there."

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