1 Year Anniversary of the launch of the Best Start for Life

Today marks the one year anniversary of the launch of the Best Start for Life: the Vision for the 1001 Critical Days. 

The 25th March 2021 was a landmark day for all those who understand the vital importance of giving every baby the best start for life.  

The Prime Minister and I launched the Vision at the Monkey Puzzle Nursery in Greenford, London. We then held an online event, supported by the Centre for Social Justice, which heard from a wide range of people, including Jo Churchill MP, Minister for Public Health, Professor Jane Barlow, and the former Children’s Commissioner, Anne Longfield.  Across government and the public, academic and charitable sectors, there is strong support for the Vision.

Over this year, the Start for Life team has been working hard to roll out the Vision’s 6 Action Areas and its 29 individual recommendations. 

We have visited ‘virtually’ a wide range of local authorities including Essex, Cornwall, Devon, Stoke and West Northamptonshire and worked closely with the Local Government Association. The lifting of COVID restrictions has meant we have been able to visit local areas in person, with excellent visits to Bexley, West Sussex and Blackpool.  Listening to parents and carers as well as early years professionals has been vital in developing best practice principles for every aspect of the Best Start for Life.

I launched a weekly 20 minute 1001 Critical Days podcast in July 2021, with episodes featuring new parents, midwives, politicians and many experts on early development and attachment theory.  

The Start for Life team work closely with the charitable and voluntary sector, including Action for Children, the Parent Infant Foundation, Maternal Mental Health Alliance, Best Beginnings, Home Start, the Institute for Health Visitors and The Royal Foundation. The work that they all do is vital, and I have found their advice and insight invaluable, as well as that of the Children's Commissioner, Dame Rachel D'Souza. 

A major milestone was October’s Spending Review, where the Start for Life was prioritised with new funding of £500 million over three years. The new funding announced (for England only, as it is a devolved matter) will provide £82 million for 75 selected upper-tier local authorities to develop their Family Hub network, £50 million for Parenting Programmes, £10 million for the Start for Life offer, £50 million for breastfeeding support, £100 million for infant and perinatal mental health, £10 million for workforce pilots and £200 million uplift for the Supporting Families programme – totalling new funding of £500 million over three years.

This financial package will enable many more parents and carers to have access to the support and services that they need in a joined up, non stigmatising way.  I believe it is the beginning of an amazing transformation of the way we help every family to give their baby the best start for life.

Just as we need to level up economic opportunity across the country, we must also focus on where it all begins - that critical period of human life from conception to the age of two.