This is part of the Government’s Plan for Change initiative and will be open to thousands of families and children.
The support will include access to pregnancy support, advice for feeding infants, parenting classes and other measures to help parents give their children the best start in life.
Around £57m of the fund will be made available to 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation in 2025-26.
The support available to families
This will be provided through Start for Life services to families with babies, spanning from pregnancy until the age of two.
The £57m fund will include £36.5m towards improving mental health support and promoting positive early relationships between babies and caregivers.
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Some £18.5m will be used to improve infant feeding services and deliver support with breastfeeding, while £2m will ensure families can access and understand local Start for Life services and support parents and carers to give insight into the service’s design.
This is in addition to the £69m announced in the Budget for a network of family hubs, which will act as a “one-stop shop” for families to receive help with infant feeding advice, parenting classes and perinatal mental health support.
The Department of Health and Social Care and Department for Education will jointly run the family hubs and Start for Life programme. There are more than 400 family hubs in England, covering half of all upper-tier councils.
They offer services tailored to the community, including midwifery and health visits.
The Department for Education also funds parenting and Home Learning Environment programmes. These services support parents to form strong bonds with their babies and develop better home environments, which boost children’s social, emotional and cognitive development.
Families can access a range of services through the family hubs, such as information on debt, welfare, domestic abuse, nutrition and oral health.
This will be open to expectant parents or carers, a parent or carer of a child aged 0-19 – or 25 with special educational needs or a disability – or a young person up to the age of 19, or up to 25 with special educational needs or a disability.
Closing the opportunity gap
The Government said children’s early years were “crucial to their development, health and life chances”, but that despite this, more than 80% of parents said they struggled to access services.
It said this lack of support was a “barrier to development” and resulted in many children not being ready to start school, with more than a third unable to dress independently and 90% of reception teachers saying at least one child in their class was not toilet trained.
The support will set children up for the best start in life, the Government said, and help it meet its overall aim of closing the opportunity gap.
Progress of the scheme will be measured by 75% of five-year-olds reaching a good level of development in their early years foundation stage assessment by 2028.
The Government has estimated that investment in early childhood could generate £45.5bn for the national economy, as a healthy generation of children will increase the years people spend in good health as adults and improve population health.
Andrew Gwynne, minister for public health and prevention, said: “This crucial investment provides a strong foundation to deliver our commitment to raise the healthiest generation of children ever, by giving parents the support they need to ensure their baby has the best start in life.
“The first two years of a child’s life lay the building blocks for their physical and emotional wellbeing into adulthood. That’s why we are investing in early years, as part of our Plan for Change, to improve access to services in deprived areas to ensure no one is left behind.”
Janet Daby, minister for children and families, added: “Investment in these crucial services will break down barriers to opportunity, support families and get a record proportion of children ready for school.
“Through our Plan for Change, we’ll ensure tens of thousands more children are hitting key early learning goals on personal, social and physical development as well as communication, literacy and maths. That’s because children growing up in our country deserve the best start in life – nothing less.”
