A children’s literacy charity has opened its doors on a Queen’s Park estate to inspire more children to read.

Doorstep Library Network has launched its home-reading support programme out of the Queens Park Children’s Centre in the Mozart Estate. Aimed at young children living in disadvantaged areas, the charity’s expansion will benefit around 40 families and 96 children with weekly one-on-one home reading, lending library and support to the parents.

The aim of the programme is to instil a love of reading outside school, to improve literacy, education and life chances.

Volunteers take books into homes and encourage pre-primary and primary school aged children to read with them and to them.

This year, more than 12,000 books have been borrowed and read through Doorstep.

Katie Bareham, Doorstep director said the programme has been so successful since its launch in Hammersmith and Fulham that they chose to expand the service. She added: “More children stand to benefit from individual reading sessions with our trained volunteers. By bringing books and the joy of reading directly into these homes, we’re breaking the link between poverty and illiteracy, we’re inspiring both children and parents to embrace reading and the life transforming effect it has.”

The charity said it picked the Mozart Estate as the area is in the top 10 per cent most deprived in England for overall multiple deprivation and contains the highest proportion of children living in income deprived households.