The UK's services for families in the first few years of a child’s life are fragmented, under-resourced, and difficult to navigate, failing those who need them most. As a result, one-in-three parents, over 1 million families, report being unable to get the professional support they need in the early years.

Our primary challenge was to bring together expertise from families and practitioners to build a collective vision for how integrated family support services might be redesigned. This approach was rooted in creating collective ownership and consensus rather than a single organisation's view. This collaborative effort was critical because the consequences of the current system are severe, particularly for the most disadvantaged. For instance, children from lower-income families start school 4.8 months behind their peers - an attainment gap that only widens - and teachers report fewer children arriving ready to learn.

In April 2025, we worked with Nesta’s  fairer start team to involve families with young children and early childhood experts and practitioners in helping to shape a long-term vision for the design and governance of joined-up family services. 

For 54 sector experts and practitioners, we created and hosted five online deliberative workshops using the Zeitgeist platform. Participants were shown the first round results of a Delphi survey, and the deliberation was focused on exploring areas without consensus. They then completed the second round of the delphi in real-time. This data helped show where the sector could find agreement and where divergent views remain.

In parallel, for the families, we designed a series of in-person workshops which were held in three different locations around England. We created three fictional service scenarios to stimulate deliberation on questions that included: 

• who should have access to family services
• what should be available
• how they should be delivered and what they should help families to achieve? 

Each scenario was turned into a short animation to bring it to life, and incorporated into the Zeitgeist platform along with key polling and discussion questions.

Both deliberative processes proved engaging and valuable. Families rated the sessions 9.5 out of 10 for enjoyment, and 74% of the early-years expert participants agreed it was a valuable approach to shaping the future of family services. The consensus built among experts was reinforced by the lived experiences shared in the family workshops, providing a robust evidence base that has helped shape the recommendations provided in Nesta’s final report.

For example, in the expert sessions, support for centrally-governed data collection, sharing, and use rose sharply from 54.9% in the first survey round to 76.7% in the second. This was backed by families who expressed some frustration with having to “tell their story” every time they encountered a new facet of the system. This alignment provides a clear mandate for the government's work to develop a ‘unique child identifier’ and streamline data infrastructure across agencies.

Similarly, there was overwhelming expert support (89% of respondents) for a model where the government provides a menu of evidence-based programmes that local authorities can then choose from and adapt. This combined finding is reflected in the government's "Best Start in Life" strategy and its approach to family hubs, which include a defined list of core services for all families.

Additionally, expert consensus grew significantly, from 60% in round one to nearly 75% in round two, on the decision on which children and family outcomes should be determined by the central government, without local discretion. This consensus on nationally-set outcomes is reflected in the government's adoption of a school readiness target, aiming for 75% of children to reach a good level of development by 2028. 

This final report, presented to the UK government in summer 2025, utilises these examples and the wider research to present a clear recommendation for the future of integrated family services.