The Health and Social Care Committee, which has set up the inquiry The First 1,000 Days: A renewed focus, is updating itself on the impact that family hubs and integrated care systems have had in recent years.
It follows on from the committee’s first 1,000 days inquiry in 2019, which found “significant variation in the provision of support to parents and families” during this critical time, which is known to influence life chances.
MPs on the cross-party committee are revisiting the topic in light of the Labour Government’s ‘mission’ of breaking down barriers to opportunity as part of its ‘Plan for Change’.
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The inquiry, including the evidence gathered from practitioners and families, will then inform the recommendations to government.
It will examine the barriers to delivering high-quality early years services, particularly in family hubs and through neonatal and paediatric services, and how these can be lifted.
It will also examine how funding allocations for early years services should be prioritised and how the government can most effectively tackle disparities in infant health outcomes, including those for disabled children.
In addition, it intends to consider ‘proportionate universalism’, an approach making services available to all but targeted in proportion to need.
Committee chair Layla Moran said: “If the best conditions for healthy development are missing from a child’s life in the first 1000 days, this can have significant impacts on their life chances, including their physical and mental health, their education, their work and their social and emotional wellbeing.
“Negative outcomes for children can also impact other areas of governmental responsibility, including the health service, the economy, and social stability.
“It is the importance of this short but critical time in a child’s life that is the reason why our committee has chosen to focus our attention on it in our new inquiry. We want to renew political focus on this vital period in a child’s life.”
In a blog, Moran invited stakeholders including parents, early years practitioners, professionals working in health and local government to “inform practical recommendations we make to the government on how to improve outcomes for children and give every child the best start in life”.
Submissions responding to key questions by 21 April can be made here.
