Small Talk is a behaviour change campaign designed by the National Literacy Trust in partnership with the Department for Education. The campaign encourages parents to engage in behaviours which are known to create a positive home learning environment (HLE). This evaluation highlights the need and the effect of the Small Talk behaviour change campaign in the two target areas of Peterborough and Swindon. It uses survey data from a national sample and compares it to data collected in these two specific local areas. In these target areas, fewer parents say that they engage in positive HLE behaviours, such as chatting, playing and reading, regularly compared with parents at the national level. However, parents who have been exposed to the Small Talk campaign messages either through the website or by attending an event were more likely to engage in some of these positive behaviours on a daily basis compared with those who couldn't remember hearing about the campaign. This suggests that the campaign has been to some extent effective in closing the gap in the quality of the home learning environment for these areas in need. This report is the first step in an ongoing evaluation of the campaign, and provides details on the methods used and the future steps that will be taken to assess the effectiveness of the approach.