Bringing Hope, Building Futures: Tackling child poverty delivery plan 2026-2031 – annex 6: Impact of policies on child poverty

Supporting young families: investment in early child development

We will continue to prioritise the earliest years, including pre-birth, to enable more children to grow up in secure, thriving families by boosting incomes, lowering costs and strengthening preventative whole family support to build stability and long-term resilience. The measures include taking a two-generational approach, to ensure that the needs of parents as individuals and in the relationship with their child are fully considered and acted upon, alongside identifying and acting on the needs of the child. The learning from implementation of the Family Nurse Partnership programme on what works for young parents will be further embedded; identifying and addressing modifiable risk factors before, during, after and between pregnancies to improve women’s health and wellbeing, and providing earlier intervention through targeted support, to improve family functioning.

Actions included

• Strengthen role of health services in early years (Continuation) - £N/A
• Family Nurse Partnership Expansion (New) - £1.1m
• Targeted campaign to promote benefit take-up, employability and practical advice for new parents and people considering parenthood (New) - £0.5m
• Bookbug expansion (Strengthened) - £0.25m

Total investment in 2026/27 - £1.85m.

Impact of actions committed

Type of impact

The strengthened Family Nurse Partnership will directly contribute to reducing the persistence of child poverty across generations by supporting income stability, parental capability, and long-term economic outcomes to young parents.

New targeted campaign for new parents and those considering parenthood addresses child poverty indirectly, by improving financial literacy and security, and addressing employment barriers before pregnancy. This would also increase use of existing budgeting tools and resources, and appropriate referrals to relevant income maximisation pathways.

The continuation of the Bookbug will provide direct support by reducing household costs of essential items for families.

Potential size

Additional investment to extend Family Nurse Partnership to reach an additional 500 parents and babies each year (focus on young first-time mothers under 20). The existing programme is capable of reaching over 4,000 families at any one time.

Bookbug for the Home is estimated to reach an additional 25,000 families over the period of the commitment

Certainty

A wide range of evidence demonstrates the positive and long-lasting impact that direct support in early years can have for families.

For example, national and international evidence from Family Nurse Partnership evaluations show that it reduces intergenerational disadvantage creating sustainable changes in families’ life chances and living circumstances, over time.

Priority families targeted by the actions

Family Nurse Partnership is a highly targeted intervention focusing mostly on young first-time parents up to age 20, including those up to 25 who are Care Experienced. Bookbug for Home will target support to all the priority families in the Plan and work directly with low-income families to develop skills and confidence in reading which in turn can support future learning.

Tracking progress

Monitoring the impact of these interventions will be further developed for the following:

• Take-up of pregnancy related entitlements.
• Improved financial literacy and use of existing budgeting and advice tools.
• Earlier intervention to minimise risk of families entering financial crisis.
• Pathways into employment and education.
• Collection of local data to support targeted action.