Council to get £2.8m to support children in their first 1,001 days
SERVICES TO BE DELIVERED THROUGH FAMILY HUBS
NORTH East Lincolnshire Council is to get £2.8 million in funding over three years to help support families with children in their first 1,001 days. The Start for Life programme is a result of a report led by Rt Hon Andrea Leadsom MP, commissioned in July 2020 by the prime minister-before-last Boris Johnson into helping each child’s vital first 1,001 days alive. This identified ways to better achieve this aim and now across the country, 75 local authorities have been chosen to receive funding.
North East Lincolnshire will get £2.8 million funding in total via the scheme, between 2022/23 and 2024/25. There will be £706,000 dished out in the current financial year, followed by £1,165,000 in 2023/24, and £983,000 in the last year. Just over nine in ten pounds spent will be on “service delivery”.
The services to be provided will be delivered through the council’s family hubs. “It’s a very good sign that we have achieved £2.8 million that will be invested in this area over the next three years,” said Cllr Margaret Cracknell.
Expectations as a result of signing up to the Start for Life programme include the provision by March 2025 of perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationship support, support for early language and home learning environment and work on infant feeding. North East Lincolnshire Council are also set to go further than minimum expected provision and are looking to make birth registration easier, via its family hubs.
Its stated aim is for all children in the local authority to grow up healthy, safe and resilient, supported to reach their full potential. This ambition and the council’s subsequent inclusion as part of the chosen 75 for the programme was described as “remarkable” by Cllr Stewart Swinburn, portfolio holder for environment and transport. Cllr Cracknell said that the delivery of support to children in their first 1,001 days and families will involve many other agencies, including speech therapists and midwifery. An action plan setting out the details of the scheme is to also be created, she added.
The Start for Life programme is also intended as a whole to contribute to reducing health and education outcome inequalities for babies, children and families. Dame Leadsom’s report published in March 2021 found that existing services offered to families with young children aged between conception and age two were “often disjointed”. The council’s implementation of the programme is expected from April 2023 onwards. Not taking up the chance to be part of the scheme was regarded as resulting in a “missed opportunity” in the report discussed by councillors. The council cabinet endorsed on Wednesday, November 16, signing up to Start for Life.