{"id":1176044,"date":"2026-08-29T20:03:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T20:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1176044\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T20:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T20:03:19","slug":"tributes-to-dolly-parton-echoed-after-impact-on-wirral-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1176044\/","title":{"rendered":"Tributes to Dolly Parton echoed after impact on Wirral children"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The council joined Dolly\u2019s Imagination Library in 2021 to help children start school with stronger language and reading skills, as well as inspire a love of reading and strengthen parent-child bonding.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The programme is available in five Wirral wards &#8211; Bidston &amp; St James, Birkenhead &amp; Tranmere, Leasowe &amp; Moreton East, Rock Ferry and Seacombe. It\u00a0supports communities where it can make the biggest difference to children&#8217;s early language, communication and reading skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p lang=\"EN-GB\">There are currently 2455 children signed up to the programme, which is delivered by Wirral Council\u2019s Family Hubs, Foundation Years Trust and Koala North West.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The impact of Dolly\u2019s Imagination Library in Wirral has been significant. The average cost of each book was \u00a32.16 per book, saving families thousands of pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Recent feedback from parents found that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>94% of children are trying to communicate more.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>94% of parents are more confident in supporting their children\u2019s communication &amp; language development.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>86% of children are accessing more resources and activities since receiving the books.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>73% of parents read books to their child daily.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Meanwhile, three out of four primary schools in the Rock Ferry and Birkenhead &amp; Tranmere wards saw an increased number of children reaching Good Levels of Development in 2024 compared to 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The council joined Dolly\u2019s Imagination Library in 2021 to help children start school with stronger language and reading&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1176045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,233162,2266,393,4884,26114,179,310355,16,15],"class_list":["post-1176044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-liverpool","tag-britain","tag-children-and-young-people","tag-education","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-libraries","tag-liverpool","tag-our-wirral","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1176044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1176044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1176045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1176044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1176044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1176044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}