Advocating an Integrated Approach to Child Poverty and Best Start In Life
21 January 2026
December 2025 saw the Government releasing their ‘Our Children, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty’ Strategy’ which recognises the impact that child poverty can have upon a child’s future, including the risk of poor health and lower educational attainment.
Evidence underpinning the strategy shows that sustained increases in household income have a positive causal impact on children’s outcomes, including school readiness, health, and long-term economic prospects. This reinforces what many practitioners already see on the ground: early intervention and financial stability matter.
The strategy highlights three core approaches to tackling child poverty:
🔹 Boosting family income through childcare funding, wages, employment support, and welfare
🔹 Reducing the cost of essentials such as housing, food, and holiday provision
🔹 Strengthening local support, including delivery through Best Start in Life Family Hubs (p17).
We strongly advocate for the integration of measures to address child poverty when developing local Best Start in Life implementation plans, in line with recommendations by the National Children’s Bureau.
To be effective, this must include:
✔️ Inclusion of the voices of families experiencing poverty when developing Best Start in Life implementation plans
✔️ Strong partnership working across family hubs, housing, employment, welfare, health, and education
✔️ A focus on improving access to services and initiatives that mitigate the impacts of poverty alongside universal early years provision
The coinciding release of the Child Poverty Strategy and Best Start in Life Strategy provides a significant opportunity to take integrated approach to support children and families – through the delivery of direct child development initiatives as well addressing the wider determinants of children’s health and wellbeing, recognising both are needed to truly reduce health and social inequalities.
Further information about Better Start Bradford
Better Start Bradford is a 10-year programme (2015-2025) funded by The National Lottery Community Fund to help children in Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton get the best start in life. We have provided more than 22 projects for pregnant women and families with children aged under four, to improve children’s social and emotional development, communication and language development and nutrition.
Our Child, Our Future: Tackling Child Poverty https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/696646bc99fbdc498faecd98/child-poverty-strategy.pdf
From policy to implementation: (NCB) How to deliver on the ambitions of the Best Start in Life strategy https://www.ncb.org.uk/sites/default/files/uploads/files/NCB%20early%20years%20policy%20briefing%20-%20From%20Policy%20to%20Implementation_0.pdf
Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/686bd62a10d550c668de3be7/Giving_every_child_the_best_start_in_life.pdf
You may also like to look at...
From 2015 to 2025 we delivered over 20 evidence-led projects and services for expectant families and families with children aged 0-3 in Bowling and Barkerend, Bradford Moor and Little Horton. What did we find out?
Dip into our library of research and evaluation reports, articles, family and early years resources, videos, podcast episodes and more!