CEY1549

 

Written evidence submitted by The National Lottery Community Fund

 

Background

  1. The National Lottery Community Fund is the largest funder of community activity in the UK. Thanks to players of the National Lottery, in the five years since 2016/17, we have awarded £3.4 billion through more than 72,000 grants, reaching every parliamentary constituency in the UK. We award large and small amounts of funding, from £250 microgrants to multi-million strategic investments.
  2. Our response to this inquiry shares key background and learning emerging from one of our strategic programmes, A Better Start (ABS), which relates to the Committee’s work on how to improve outcomes for young children. We were pleased the work of ABS was recognised throughout the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s report “First 1000 Days of Life” in 2019, with the Committee visiting the Blackpool Better Start partnership in November 2018.
  3. As a non-departmental public body (sponsored by DCMS) we are not in a position to answer the more specific questions asked by the Committee; however, you may also receive responses from the National Children’s Bureau (NCB) and our other ABS grant holders, learning and evaluation partners.

 

Early years funding: an overview of A Better Start

  1. ABS is the Fund’s largest strategic investment programme at £215 million over ten years (2015-2025). The programme was set up to promote early childhood development and focus on early intervention and prevention across three key areas: diet and nutrition; social and emotional development; and language, speech and communication.
  2. The programme funds local partnerships in five areas with longstanding concentrations of deprivation and high levels of need across England (Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham and Southend-on-Sea), supporting babies and children from conception up to the age of four. The partnerships are led by NSPCC, Early Years Alliance, National Children’s Bureau (NCB), Nottingham CityCare Partnership and Bradford Trident.
  3. The work of the programme is grounded in scientific evidence and research, on top of which partnerships develop and test new approaches, to improve existing services. The National Lottery Community Fund has commissioned a £3.9 million national evaluation led by NatCen, and partners include the University of Sussex, Research in Practice, NCB and RSM UK Consulting. In addition, The National Lottery Community Fund has commissioned a programme of shared learning and development support for ABS, working across and beyond the five partnership areas. This is led by NCB. 

 

Key features of ABS

  1. Local organisations work in partnership to transform support for families: More than 220 partner organisations and over 120 services are taking part across the five partnerships, spanning the voluntary and community sector (VCS), local authorities, early childhood and health services, academics, local community groups and parents and carers.
  2. Parents and local communities are involved in every aspect of the programme: ABS puts people in the lead, as parents and community members are involved in the design and commissioning of services, delivery and promotion of activities, project governance, and evaluation.
  3. Partnerships are reviewing and improving existing services for families: ABS has looked at services including midwifery, health visiting, childcare, children's centres and speech and language therapy. Partnerships have worked with parents, families, practitioners and decision-makers to identify and address strengths and weaknesses.
  4. Using the latest evidence, partnerships respond to local strengths and needs: Where there is a gap, partnerships have developed innovations that take account of the evidence, adapting them to fit local need. Actions have been tried out on a small scale, monitored and evaluated. Successes can then be used more widely.
  5. Introducing, adapting or improving more than 120 services and activities to support families and children: Work has ranged from support for pregnant women to develop healthy nutrition, to helping participants build good relationships with their babies and children. The choices for each area have been reviewed as partnerships gain better understanding of local need, or in collaboration with parents.

 

Case studies

  1. The following case studies are just two examples of the diverse work carried out by ABS partnerships across England. We would be very happy to organise visits for Committee members to these or other projects, to experience them in action and meet people involved in delivery or using the services.
  2. In Southend, the Communication and Language Team developed a suite of interventions called ‘Let’s Talk’. These support the development of early literacy in 0-4 year olds, and one such project is ‘Southend’s Stories’, a collaboration between ABS Southend, Southend Bookstart, Southend Libraries and Southend Association of Voluntary Services, who produced a series of videos where community members were filmed reading engaging books to promote the importance of developing early literacy skills with family and carers.
  3. In Lambeth, the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) supports parents to develop transferable skills for employment such as communication, teamwork and reliability. A group composed of parents, LEAP volunteers, Lambeth Council partners and VCS stakeholders identified areas to work on, including providing volunteering opportunities and offering support to overcome barriers. LEAP trialed several solutions, including mentoring 12 parents for 6 months through volunteering opportunities and 1-2-1 support from Lambeth’s Employment and Training Advisor.

 

Emerging findings from ABS’ national evaluation

  1. The ABS programme has four outcome areas: i) improving children’s diet and nutrition; ii) supporting children to develop social and emotional skills; iii) helping children develop their language and communication skills; and iv) systems change (i.e. changing how local health public services and the VCS work with parents to improve outcomes for children). Emerging findings from the national evaluation include:
  2. Provision of training and support to Early Years settings: Evaluation findings to-date have highlighted how important it is for ABS communication and language service deliverers to build relationships with Early Years settings and practitioners, particularly when these settings have little capacity. This enables Early Years settings staff to see the value of communication and language services, which in turn means staff take time to engage with these services.
  3. Delivering services in Early Years settings: In support of the outcome relating to diet and nutrition, one partnership’s focus upon reducing poor oral hygiene in children includes educating families on good oral hygiene practice by running a supervised toothbrushing project in Early Years settings and distributing oral health toolkits.
  4. Findings relating to systems change: Emerging findings include highlighting the importance of commissioning and policy environments, including a focus on children under the age of five, a prevention-led approach focusing on the earliest days of a child’s life (rather than responding to issues when children start school) and sharing knowledge between people to co-ordinate an approach between, and across, different services and cascading training to other teams or organisations.
  5. As the evaluation continues, the national evaluation team will publish outputs including reports, blogs, podcasts and webinars to build upon emerging findings. Detailed information about the ABS national evaluation can be found in the ABS national evaluation study protocol and the first annual podcast from October 2022.

 

January 2023