Best Start in Life Delivery Grant funding and accountability

The Department for Education has set out clear expectations for early years funding streams and how they should be used to support system transformation. This includes the Best Start Family Hubs Delivery Grant for 2026 to 2029, which requires Cumberland Council to deliver programmes that strengthen parenting for 3 and 4 year‑old children and improve the home learning environment. These programmes must use agreed, evidence‑based interventions.

How we will develop system-level changes through strengthened partnerships

The NESTA ‘Best Start in Life Playbook’ identifies workforce capacity, workforce capabilities and wider service integration as essential enablers for system transformation. In Cumberland, we will work towards whole system improvement by developing the key enablers set out below.

System enabler 1 - Data sharing

In Cumberland, the absence of a unified data‑sharing approach affects our ability to monitor attendance, assess implementation quality and understand child outcomes. A core enabler of the Best Start in Life strategy is the development of systems that allow child‑level data to be shared across maternity, health visiting, education and Family Hub services.

Work has begun to put information‑sharing agreements in place to support this integration. This will include strengthening data‑sharing processes for children transitioning into Reception.

System enabler 2 - Strengthened integration

National guidance highlights integration as central to achieving Best Start outcomes. Through our developing Best Start Family Hub model, we are working to strengthen partnerships across health, social care, education and the voluntary, community and social enterprise (VCSE) sector.

By improving access to integrated, relationship-centred services we will ensure families receive consistent messages about early childhood development and the home learning environment. This approach will reduce barriers to support by enabling families to connect with trusted workers. It will also create more opportunities for us to hear the voices and lived experiences of families from communities that are seldom heard.

The renewed strategy also enables stronger partnerships with libraries, parks, arts organisations and community hubs, helping families access home‑learning support and guidance on child development

System enabler 3 - Workforce training and development

Cumberland experiences ongoing staffing challenges across early years services due to rurality and competition from other industries. This creates risks for the delivery of the Best Start in Life strategy. A solution‑focused working group is exploring ways to improve recruitment and retention across the early years workforce

The strategy also relies on consistent professional development across the sector. Practitioners need opportunities to upskill, particularly in relation to early years safeguarding changes, SEND reforms and trauma‑informed practice. We will work across teams to develop joint training approaches that improve consistency and quality, including shared approaches to EYFS assessment.

Cumberland has limited specialist health services for under‑fives and is not one of the 75 areas receiving Healthy Babies funding. Despite this, we will ensure that support relating to infant feeding, perinatal mental health and parent‑infant relationships is delivered through a coordinated system‑wide partnership approach, underpinned by strengthened workforce development.

Test and learning / scaling delivery

Cumberland has already taken part in a ‘test and learn’ programme linked to Transformation Fund 1 (TF1), which supported our transition to Family Hubs and generated valuable practice‑based learning. This learning has directly informed the wider development and roll‑out of Family Hubs across Cumberland.

We continue to design local pilot projects that test and refine approaches, such as CPD coaching models to improve early years outcomes in settings and schools. We will seek further opportunities and partnerships to expand and strengthen our Best Start Family Hub offer and to continue improving outcomes for children and families.