The Start for Life programme, which had its funding announced in
October 2021, offers a range of services, including health
visits, parenting courses, infant feeding, and speech and
language support. Family hubs bring these services together to
provide families with joined-up support.
Today's report was commissioned by the government and is based on
research visits to 6 local areas. It finds that most families
have a positive experience of Start for Life services and
highlights many examples of good practice. Families who accessed
Start for Life services said they felt more confident in feeding
their babies and had better perinatal mental health. They also
felt that their children went on to achieve better outcomes.
Across all local areas visited, there was a consistent and
ambitious vision to deliver joined-up services. Families were
overwhelmingly positive about the benefit of this approach.
Read the ‘Start for Life services:
thematic review' report.
However, while recognising the programme is still being embedded
and local authorities are at different starting points, the
report also identifies areas for improvement. For example, some
local areas need to rethink how they advertise the services on
offer, as some parents believe family hubs are only for ‘troubled
families' and are not aware of the services available to them.
The report says more support is needed to measure the impact of
Start for Life services, including a set a of shared national
outcomes, as many local areas find the current reporting
requirements too time-intensive. Local authority leaders also
outlined the challenges of short-term funding, which they feel
prevents them from planning provision for longer periods of time.
Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) have set out a number of
recommendations to improve the delivery of Start for Life
services, including:
Ensure that the Start for Life programme is made available and
promoted to all families nationally, to remove any stigma
associated with accessing the services.
The government should commit to a minimum level of long-term
funding for the programme nationally, allowing local areas to
establish services and build parents' trust in Start for Life
provision.
Central and local government should establish a common set of
national outcomes, with space for local areas to develop
additional criteria to meet local need.
Central government should review reporting requirements linked to
funding, to reduce the administrative burden on local
authorities.
Central government should support local areas to develop joint
recording systems to improve information-sharing.
Central government should support the sector to ensure there are
enough qualified, experienced health professionals working
alongside Start for Life staff when they provide health advice.
Yvette Stanley, National Director of Regulation and Social Care,
said:
The care and support a child receives in the first few years of
their life helps them thrive throughout their childhood and
beyond. Start for Life services offer families vital support to
help every child get off to the best possible start.
I'm very pleased that many families have had a positive
experience using these services. I hope this review helps local
services continue to improve the support families receive in the
first few years of their child's life.
Lucy Harte, Deputy Director for Multiagency Operations at the
CQC, said:
Local health care professionals, working alongside and with other
services can make a real difference to the way that children and
their families are supported and develop. Hearing from families
about the value of support they have received is deeply
encouraging and a testament to those caring people working in
services – the challenge now is to learn from this.
Notes to editors
- The 6 local areas included in the thematic review were:
- Northumberland
- Sunderland
- County Durham
- Hull
- Torbay
- Isle of Wight
2. The review focused on the experiences of families from a
child's conception to age 3. View the full terms of reference.
