Talking with your Toddler Libraries Project In St Helens Borough Council

The government is aiming for 75% of children to be “ready to learn” when they enter Key Stage 1 at the age of 5 and yet only 67% of children achieved a good level of development at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage in 2022/23.  Pillar 3 of The Local Government Association’s ‘Vision for Children and Young People’ recognises the importance not only of high quality, affordable early education and childcare but also the critical role of parents* and the home learning environment. 

Acknowledging that some parents are reluctant to make use of the offers available in Family Hubs or other centres, the Local Government Association provided funding to Speech and Language UK to upskill librarians in eight Local Authorities across the country to offer ‘Talking with your Toddler’ video information sessions to parents.  These light touch interventions would give parents useful strategies to support their children’s early language development.  The ‘Talking with your Toddler Libraries Project’, as it became known, ran from September 2025 until the end of March 2026. 

This case study focusses on St Helens Borough Council, one of the library services included in the project.   It is based in an area of high economic and social deprivation in the north of England.   Around 43% of residents live in the top 20% most deprived areas in the country.  Key issues include low employment, poor health outcomes and the long-term impacts of industrial decline.

St Helens has recently undergone a restructure resulting in a reduction of library services across the region, with only 7 libraries remaining, compared to a total of 14 in 2017 and 13 in 2022/23. As part of this restructure a new ‘Outreach Team’ was created.  Four ‘Outreach Officers’ were appointed under the direction of a ‘Senior Library Outreach Officer’ (SLO).  Each of the outreach officers also have the responsibility for managing either one or two libraries and each branch has a small team of staff, including library assistants and a supervisor.  The Local Authority also provides a ‘School’s Library Service’, ‘Home Delivery Service’, an ‘Arts in Library Service’ and an ‘Archives Service’.

The SLO was interested in the project as she felt it ideally suited the way the outreach team work.   She had been looking for new and innovative ways of working which would develop the service and was also keen to support programmes that were not dependent on delivery within a library building but could be ‘taken on the road.’  The ‘Talking with your Toddler Libraries Project’ appeared to offer all these opportunities.

As part of the project, St Helens were provided with an Advisor from Speech and Language UK to provide some light touch support.  This consisted of monthly Team meetings to discuss how the project was going as well as providing a regular contact for any issues that might arise during the project. The Library Service were asked to complete monthly data returns to show which video information sessions had been delivered and how many parents attended.  They were also asked to attend a Focus Group at the end of the project from which Speech and Language UK could gather feedback about the project. 

In total, seven library staff were trained to deliver ‘Talking with your Toddler’ sessions by Speech and Language UK.  This included all four outreach officers, two library supervisors and the senior library outreach officer.  These videos are filmed versions of Speech and Language UK’s ‘live' webinars for parents which have been recorded so that library staff can play them in a group setting. 

There are five video information sessions with the following themes: 

1. Symbolic noises and first words 

2. Using everyday routines to support speech, language and communication skills 

3. Sharing books to develop speech, language and communication skills 

4. Using songs and rhymes to develop speech, language and communication skills 

5. Talking more than one language 

Each video uses the same structure and the three strategies of ‘repetition’, ‘matching’ and ‘turn taking’, so that parents become familiar with how they can put the tips into practice. There are specific pause points where staff can stop the video and engage parents in conversation about what they have been watching. Training included guidance on how to set up and run the Talking with your Toddler sessions and also a brief overview to support their understanding of language development.  The library service was provided with a licence to use the resources for one year after completion of the project.

The training was very well received with 100% of attendees who completed the feedback survey form saying that the training had prepared them to deliver the programme and that they felt more confident in using a range of strategies to help children and young people develop speech, language and communication skills.  Furthermore, staff said that they knew more about how children and young people develop their speech, language and communication skills and that they would change their practice accordingly (see table below). One attendee said that they would ‘use the three strategies of repeating, matching and turn taking in other parts of their role within the library’; another said that the training had equipped them to ‘support parents in a wider offer’ and that the training had ‘encouraged them to use new techniques and delivery styles when working with parents’.  The SLO particularly liked the fact that the training was ‘concise’, the resources were ‘readily accessible’ and that the trainer was ‘knowledgeable’ and ‘experienced’.

The video information sessions were delivered by the outreach team in a Children’s Centre located in one of the most disadvantaged areas in the Borough.  This area was chosen, not only due to the high levels of social and economic deprivation, but because it no longer had a library building. Delivering the sessions here ensured that families in the locality were still receiving library services, albeit in a more ‘creative’ way.   

The Children’s Centre were keen to work in partnership with the outreach team and provided a room, with all the necessary IT equipment and access to the internet. In addition, they facilitated a creche, which was funded by the YMCA.  

Between January and the end of March 2026, all five video information sessions were delivered in the Children’s Centre.  Three of the trained outreach officers delivered one session whilst the fourth outreach officer delivered two.  The SLO made the decision to deliver the video information sessions in this way so that they would be in a better position to review the materials at the end of the project. They would also be in a better position to be able to decide which videos to use moving forwards. The SLO also decided to deliver an additional session in one of the library buildings to gauge how this might work.  Unfortunately, the family who had booked on had to cancel beforehand and so this session did not take place.  

The number of parents attending each session was between 3 and 4.  The majority of these attended every session, with a total of 16 parental attendances altogether.  The ages of their children ranged from 1 to 15 months.  Although parents did make use of the creche facilities, one or two children remained with their parent/s during the session.   However, having one or two children in the session did not detract from delivery.  Attendees ranged from grandparents, to couples, to individual parents.  One couple spoke English as an additional language and were particularly interested in the ‘Talking more than one language’ video. 

The sessions were advertised as widely as possible across the borough. Information was shared with families via Family Hub teams, and with the help of Speech and Language UK, a digital poster was created.  The poster was shared on social media sites, displayed on notice boards in libraries, pre-schools and nurseries.  Most of the parents who attended the sessions responded to the information posted on social media. There was also one referral from the 0-19 Team.  Bookings were managed by the SLO. 

The outreach officers enjoyed delivering the video information sessions and their feedback was very positive.  Despite some minor internal IT challenges, sessions ran as expected.  One outreach officer made the following comment;

‘I really enjoyed delivering the books sessions. I thought the content was relevant and great examples shown with Dear Zoo and Shark in the Park (timeless favourites!)

I had these books to hand as examples, plus some other stock, and it worked really well being able to demo the book alongside the resources. It works well as a standalone module as well.  I found the training good.’

Another outreach officer, who delivered the ‘Talking more than one language’ video information session said that he had found it very worthwhile.  He had one family attend who spoke more than one language, and they had found it both informative and helpful.  The outreach officer was unable to answer all the questions he was asked but felt confident to signpost the family to appropriate services/websites.

The project was not without its challenges, but these were few and easily resolved. 

One challenge, experienced by two members of the outreach team, was that they were unable to access one of the videos.  This turned out to be an internal IT issue requiring a request for access to the video to be ‘unblocked’.  One of the video information sessions had to be cancelled due to this issue.  However, the parents were offered an alternative session which they were able to attend.

The second challenge was around booking rooms in the Children’s Centre.  The SLO found it difficult to book rooms far enough in advance.  However, she did comment that this would not be an issue if using a room in a library building.

What made the Project work?

St Helens felt that the delivery of the project had been successful, laying the foundations for future work within the borough. The SLO attributed this success to the following factors:

• The ‘Talking with your Toddler’ training fully equipped staff to deliver the video information sessions.  As a result, staff had the confidence and skill to lead sessions.  Training was made available to all members of the outreach team and library supervisors, ensuring that everyone had first hand knowledge of how to deliver the sessions and there were sufficient trained staff to do this;
• The outreach team had access to all the resources they needed to deliver the sessions. The videos and supporting resources were provided during training and easily accessible from Speech and Language UK’s Learning Centre.  Each member of the team had their own laptops and were able to log on to the network within the Children’s Centre and make use of the plasma TV screen.  Staff also had access to any extra resources, such as, information about library services, books to support the different themes and knowledge of where to signpost parents for additional support;
• Working in partnership with the Family Hubs team was considered a real strength of the project.  Through this, the outreach team were provided with a private room in which to deliver the sessions, a creche and an outlet from which the sessions could be advertised. Although not all parents made use of the creche, it did make it easier for parents to access the sessions; 
• The majority of the parents who attended the sessions came to every one.  This would strongly suggest that the parents found the sessions beneficial.   The parents had self-referred themselves on to the sessions and the SLO felt that this was part of the success in that the parents had chosen to attend rather than been referred via a service.  The one family who were referred via the 0-19 Team, did not attend;
• The ‘Talking with your Toddler’ video information sessions were ideally suited to the way the outreach team work.  The SLO recognised it would be quite challenging to deliver the sessions in a busy library building, with children present.  If they were to be delivered in the library, she would ideally choose one that has a community room set apart from the main library;
• The online monthly data returns were concise and quick and easy to complete – not onerous like some data returns;
• Having the support and advice of an Advisor from Speech and Language UK was really helpful. The Advisor was able to guide and support St Helens through the process and without this support, the challenges that arose would not have been resolved as quickly.  Help was also provided in creating the digital poster used to advertise the sessions.  The SLO said it was the first time she had had any engagement with Speech and Language UK and would be really interested in any other opportunities that might arise to work with the organisation in the future.

The ‘Talking with your Toddler Libraries Project’ was delivered over a very short period.  As such, it is difficult to fully assess the impact of the work on the parents and families involved.  However, the SLO felt that this ‘pilot’ project established a plan for delivery which could be built on in future. 

The outreach team and supervisors, who were trained, received quality CPD.  As a result, they felt upskilled and more confident, not only to deliver the sessions, but also to be able to support parents generally in the areas of communication and language development.  Asking staff to deliver the video information sessions took staff out of their comfort zone and introduced them to new ways of doing things. The SLO felt it was a credit to the team that the project had been so successful, as they had been flexible, adaptable and willing to take on this new challenge.

Parents who attended the sessions were provided with a link to complete an online parental survey on completion of each webinar.  However, none of the parents completed the survey.  The best indicator that we have of parental satisfaction with the video information sessions is the fact that the majority of the parents attended every session.  

St Helens are planning to repeat the delivery of the ‘Talking with your Toddler’ video information sessions, following a review with the outreach team.  The SLO is looking to use the outreach team to deliver all of the sessions over a five-week period, during term-time, commencing Autunm Term 2026.  The programme will then be repeated every term.  The video information sessions sit nicely alongside other programmes being delivered by the outreach team, such as, ‘Reading for Pleasure’. They will also look to extend the programme into other areas of the Borough.

In addition, the SLO is also planning to ask the library supervisors to deliver ‘one-off’ sessions in the libraries, linked to a current theme, spike days or national events, such as, World Book Day.  There would not be an expectation to deliver all the videos but ones that would complement the event taking place, e.g. ‘Sharing Books’ webinar on World Book Day. These would be planned well in advance and included in the ‘Task Planner’. 

St Helens embraced the ‘Talking with your Toddler’ project and were able to make it work in a way that suited their service delivery and local needs.  When asked, the SLO said that she would ‘definitely recommend’ the video information sessions to other library services, although she recognised that there would be some challenges to overcome for those delivering the sessions within busy, library buildings with children present.  The SLO said that it was time for libraries to ‘come out of their comfort zones and become advocates of providing innovative and creative opportunities for families to access resources and information.’  She also acknowledged that libraries are ideally situated to do this as research shows that families trust key messages delivered by people from within their own communities who they trust.

*The term ‘parent’ is used throughout this case study to denote any person who has responsibility for children.  This could include another family member, such as a grandparent or carer.