Cambridgeshire County Council has yesterday (Monday, 30 March) published its Best Start in Life Delivery Plan, setting out a county-wide commitment to ensure every child grows up healthy, safe, and ready to learn, regardless of background or circumstances.
The plan details how partners across education, health, social care, and the community sector will work together to improve early childhood outcomes and reduce inequalities. It includes ambitious targets for school readiness, improved access to support, and enhanced early years provision across the county.
A key part of the plan is the creation of five Best Start Family Hubs in Cambourne, Cambridge City, Ely, Huntingdon, and Wisbech. These hubs will build on our existing successful Child and Family Centre offer and bring together health visiting, midwifery, early years support, and community services under one roof to provide practical, accessible help for families from pregnancy to age five.
Best Start in Life will be delivered across the county in response to need to ensure that those families that would benefit most from support are able to access the help they need.
The plan also outlines improvements to home learning support, evidence-based parenting programmes, speech and language services, special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) pathways, perinatal mental health, and infant feeding. A new website will ensure families can access trusted advice easily and at a time that suits them.
Cllr Edna Murphy, chair of the Children and Young People Committee at Cambridgeshire County Council said: “Our Best Start delivery plan highlights meaningful changes for families that will enable every child in Cambridgeshire to have the Best Start in Life. This links into our new strategic framework, which launches later this week, as part of making Cambridgeshire a healthy, fair and sustainable county.”
The full plan is available on our website.
