Northern Ireland is expected to be the only part of the UK not to provide free books to every baby due to cuts at Stormont.
The Ministry of Education (DE) has announced that it can no longer fund the Book Start Baby programme.
Run by the Book Trust, the program provided free books and reading tips to more than 20,000 families in Northern Ireland each year.
The department had contributed £75,000 a year towards Book Start Baby’s costs.
It now faces an “extremely challenging” budget for 2023-24, which has already resulted in the end of DE funding for other programs such as free school meals, furlough payments and counseling for primary school children.
As part of the Book Start Baby scheme, each family of babies born in Northern Ireland received a book or two suitable for babies and young children.
They also received information about reading from their health visitor at each health foundation.
Last year’s books were called Zoom to the Moon and Tummy Time.
Book Trust Northern Ireland director Chris Eisenstadt told BBC News NI that Book Start Baby aims to instill a love of reading in children from an early age.
“This is a very early introduction to reading for pleasure and reading for connection,” he said.
“They are being specially delivered by health visitors in Northern Ireland.
“By being provided through this trusting relationship with the health visitor, the families who need additional support will receive additional support.”
However, the department has written to tell Book Trust that they “cannot continue to fund Book Start Baby” in 2023-24.
Mr Eisenstadt said DE funding covered more than half of the program’s annual costs and Book Trust can no longer afford to give every baby a book.
“We have a really good relationship with the department and it’s very clear that they didn’t make this decision voluntarily or lightly,” he said.
“Obviously, they’re just struggling to meet even their basic legal requirements.”
The Welsh Government funds Book Trust to run the baby program in Wales, while the Arts Council provides funding for Book Start Baby in England.
The Scottish Book Trust runs a similar bookbug scheme funded by the Scottish Government.
“Babies in Northern Ireland, the most innocent of all, will be far worse off than their counterparts in the rest of the UK,” Mr Eisenstadt said.
“It’s devastating and while I totally understand the department, it’s hard to imagine how some of these families will make up the difference.”
This was announced by a spokesman for the department
A spokesman for the Department of Education said: “In the face of significant budgetary pressures, the Department has made the difficult decision not to continue funding the BookStart program in 2023/24.”
The spokesman also said the department recognizes how disappointing the decision would be and wants to acknowledge the “positive impact” of the BookStart program.
There have been warnings that Stormont’s departments face cuts of almost 10% when the 2023-24 budget for Northern Ireland is finally released.
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