Effective support for families is vital in improving child development and outcomes.
We are pleased to publish Scaffolding support and prioritising family voices for child development: Learning from the third annual report for the evaluation of A Better Start.
The report is the third in our briefing series that draws together messages for practice from the national evaluation of A Better Start.
The briefing draws together key messages for early years practitioners and parents/carers from the third annual report. The focus is to share learning on ways of working with families to improve the life chances of babies and toddlers.
Through a ten year, £215 million programme set up by The National Lottery Community Fund, five A Better Start (ABS) partnerships (in Blackpool, Bradford, Lambeth, Nottingham, and Southend) were funded (2015 – 2025) with the aim of supporting families in giving babies and young children (0-4 years) the best possible start in life.
Working with local parents, the ABS partnerships developed and tested ways to improve children’s diet and nutrition, social and emotional development, and speech, language, and communication. The work of the programme is grounded in scientific evidence and research. ABS is place-based and enabling systems change, aiming to improve how organisations work together and with families towards preventative working that responds to and addresses issues early in children’s lives.
The national evaluation of ABS will produce its final report in Spring 2026. The evaluation team is led by the National Centre for Social Research with partners at University of Sussex, Research in Practice and the National Children’s Bureau, and RSM, which rebranded in 2025 as Fortia Insight. Findings from the evaluation were shared as they emerged to provide evidence to support ABS grant holders to improve delivery outcomes throughout the lifetime of the programme and to enable The National Lottery Community Fund to confidently present evidence to inform policy and practice initiatives in early childhood develop.
Inclusive and ‘scaffolded’ support
A key aspect of the ABS programme has been ensuring the programme reflects the wants and needs of families. Building positive relationships with families, exploring ways to involve them and working collaboratively has been crucial to achieving this goal.
The third annual report emphasised the ways in which ABS provision ‘scaffolded’ families with targeted and timely support while they developed new skills and capabilities. Here, Vygotsky’s (1978) metaphor of ‘scaffolding’ is used to highlight how diverse forms of encouragement and support underpin the development of new skills and capabilities.
The briefing shares examples of families describing how barriers to access had been overcome with active outreach and support from ABS staff. Examples included the one-to-one support of family mentors or outreach workers and practical help, such as providing transport to activities. Common features outlined in the briefing are that support is pro-active and adaptive to families’ dynamic circumstances, enabling their involvement with both ABS and with wider networks of support.
A significant example is in relation to the critical role of ABS provision in response to family poverty. This includes examples of ABS workers helping families to secure welfare entitlements, as well as ABS provision of affordable healthy food schemes, and examples of direct resourcing such as the gift of an air fryer to a family in need.
Reflective questions throughout the briefing prompt professionals to draw on the learning from ABS in growing their links with local networks of support and building inclusive provision for families.
For further learning from A Better Start, see the project page at National Children's Bureau (NCB). From December 2025, the NCB team are publishing four Insight Reports, bringing together ten years of learning from across the five A Better Start partnerships. This first report is on school readiness is now available.
