Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what role they see for early intervention in early years education (1) during a child’s first 1001 days, and (2) below the age of 6 years.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There is strong evidence that the 1,001 days from conception to the age of two set the foundations for cognitive, emotional, and physical development. Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, families are supported during this period and beyond. Focusing on early years is a preventative measure to improve the outcomes of children of all ages. Family Hubs provide thousands of families access to the support they need to help give their child the best start in life, which includes support with infant feeding, parent-infant relationships, perinatal mental health, parenting, early language development and the home learning environment.
On 11 June, my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, set out plans for spending and public sector reforms through the Spending Review 2025. This announcement confirmed departmental budgets for 2026/27 onwards and committed that the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, working with parents to help give children the best start in life. This builds upon my right hon. Friend, the Prime Minister’s Plan for Change, published in December 2024, which outlined the ambition to give children the best start in life by strengthening and joining up family services to improve support through pregnancy and early childhood.
Asked by: Kim Johnson (Labour - Liverpool Riverside)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what policies her Department has on early intervention in early years education (a) during a child’s first 1001 days and (b) for children aged up to five.
Answered by Stephen Morgan - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
The government is committed to giving every child the best start in life by strengthening early intervention, supporting families to engage in play and communication, and enhancing the home learning environment. Our Plan for Change includes a national target for 75% of children to achieve a Good Level of Development by 2028 and increase school readiness.
There is strong evidence that the first 1,001 days, from conception to age two, are critical for a child’s cognitive, emotional and physical development. Through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, we are supporting families with joined-up services across health, education and early years. This includes support for infant feeding, perinatal mental health, parenting, early language development and the home learning environment.
As announced in last month’s Spending Review, the government will continue to invest in and expand the Family Hubs programme, ensuring more families across the country can access high quality, integrated support to give their children the best start in life.
In 2025/26, we are investing £10.7 million in home learning environment services through Family Hubs to help parents create language-rich, nurturing settings. Our Little Moments Together campaign provides free, accessible resources that encourage parents to chat, play and read with their children.
For school-age children, we continue to promote parental engagement in reading and learning at home, recognising the importance of sustained support throughout a child’s educational journey.
Asked by: Colleen Fletcher (Labour - Coventry North East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle health inequalities in (a) Coventry North East constituency, (b) Coventry, (c) the West Midlands and (d) England.
Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Policy Renewal and Development)
In the white paper ‘Levelling Up the United Kingdom’, published in February 2022, the Government set out a levelling up health mission to narrow the gap in healthy life expectancy (HLE) between local areas where it is highest and lowest by 2030, and increase HLE by five years by 2035. A range of action is being taken forward which will support progress on the health mission, including the development of a Major Conditions Strategy on which an interim report will be published in the summer.
The Office of Health Improvement and Disparities’ (OHID) regional teams work closely with Local Directors of Public Health to ensure the ring-fenced public health grant funds evidence-based activity to improve health and tackle health inequalities. The public health grant funding allocated to Coventry for 2023/24 was £23,962,345. In addition to the grant, an additional £709,229 was allocated to invest in the local authority’s drug misuse services as part of the National Drug Strategy.
Coventry is one of 75 English local authority areas receiving funding through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. This programme aims to improve outcomes for babies, children and families by improving access to local services, with a particular focus on the first 1001 days from conception to age two. This will contribute to a reduction in inequalities in health and education outcomes in Coventry, the West Midlands, and across England. Coventry is also one of the existing Targeted Lung Health Check pilots which have been rolled out to deprived areas with the highest level of lung cancer mortality.
TARGET DATE 18/07/2023
OHID’s regional team works alongside NHS England Midlands and integrated care systems to tackle healthcare inequalities embedding the Core20PLUS5 for children and adults. The approach defines a target population, the ‘Core20PLUS’, and identifies ‘5’ focus clinical areas requiring accelerated improvement. Work continues with West Midlands Combined Authority to take forward a health in all policies approach across the wider determinants of health.
Asked by: Ellie Reeves (Labour - Lewisham West and East Dulwich)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to finding by the Parent-Infant Foundation in 2019 that 42 per cent of CCGs reported local CAMHS services would not accept a referral for a child aged two and under, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that NHS CAMHS services do not turn away children under two.
Answered by Nadine Dorries
We remain committed to the aim of the NHS Long Term Plan to invest at least an extra £2.3 billion a year into mental health by 2023/24. This will see an additional 345,000 children and young people a year, including the youngest children, accessing NHS-funded mental health support by 2023/24, if they need it.
Commissioning mental health services for the youngest age groups is a local matter for clinical commission groups. However, the Government recently published it’s Early Years Review which is available at the following link:
Babies and the youngest children in England will get a better start in life following the publication of a review into reducing inequalities in the first 1,001 days of life. This includes every new parent and carer being able to access compassionate and timely mental health support if they need it. To implement this work, the Department will work with Public Health England, NHS England and NHS Improvement as well as local authorities to map out the Start for Life journey of parents and carers that captures how they experience digital, virtual and telephone-based services during the 1,001 critical days from conception to the age of 2. We will ensure parents and carers have an NHS-branded online ‘one stop shop’ to access all the information they need.