New funding has been announced by the Welsh Government to provide 10,000 free books to children living in Wales’ most disadvantaged regions.
Wrexham Assembly Member Lesley Griffiths has backed the decision that will see children living in ‘Flying Start’ areas benefiting from the books to help with continued learning at home.
The books are costing £100,000 and will be available from this month.
The Flying Start scheme aims to ensure children in Wales’ most deprived communities have the right start in life. It offers parents free quality childcare for 2-3 year olds, parenting support, an enhanced health visitor service and help for early language development.
Recently, the Welsh Government also announced a £279 million expansion of the scheme and official statistics revealed almost 900 children in Wrexham benefited from the services last year.
After this latest announcement, local AM Lesley Griffiths said:
“Every child, no matter what their background, deserves to have the right start and same opportunities in life as others.”
“Flying Start aims to make a decisive difference to the lives of children under the age of four and their families in the most deprived communities across Wales.”
“A key part of Flying Start is developing a child’s language and these extra books will help highlight to parents the importance of reading with their children to improve early language development.”
“Hundreds of children in Wrexham are already benefiting from the scheme’s services and with the programme continuing to expand, I trust even more people in the region will ultimately gain from Flying Start.”
