Guaranteed funding urged to build trust in ‘Start for Life’ service

A support programme for babies and their families in England must have a guaranteed minimum level of long-term funding, a watchdogs’ reviewhassaid.

The Start for Life programme offers services including health visits, parenting courses, infant feeding, and speech and language support.

But local authority leaders have reported “multiple challenges” with using short-term funding and have raised concerns they might have to cut much-needed services because of the inability to plan for the longer term, a joint review said.

Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reviewed how the programme, which had its funding announced in October 2021, is working in six areas.

Among their recommendations, they said the Government should “commit to a minimum level of long-term funding for this programme nationally”, allowing local areas “to establish services and help to build parents’ trust in Start for Life provision”.

They added: “It would also allow time to gather evidence and ensure that properly trained staff are retained.”

Their review found local area leaders felt short-term funding prevented them from planning provision for longer periods of time and “were concerned that they might have to cut services that families have come to rely on”.

The Government has made £300m available over three years to establish the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, covering 75 local authority areas.

The CQC and Ofsted called for the programme to be made available and promoted to all families nationally “to remove any stigma associated with accessing services and to ensure that all babies get the best start in life”.

They said parents did not always know what services were available and that in some areas, family hubs were seen as places for “troubled families”, which the watchdogs said meant opportunities to provide support were sometimes lost.

Yvette Stanley, Ofsted’s 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.”

The review covered services in Northumberland, Sunderland, County Durham, Hull, Torbay and the Isle of Wight.