We know from a wealth of academic evidence that pregnancy is a key window for children’s long-term health and development. Maternal health and stress levels during pregnancy can have long-lasting effects on a child’s development. For many families living on low income, pregnancy is a period of intense financial pressure and stress. As we heard from focus groups last year, pregnancy is also often a time where support is hard to find.

In May 2025, Camden Council, in partnership with Nesta, the NHS and Policy in Practice, launched a pilot designed to bridge this gap: the Family Hubs Pregnancy Grant. The idea is simple but powerful. We use linked administrative data to proactively identify pregnant people on low incomes and offer them a £500 unconditional cash grant. Half of the recipients (randomly selected) are also offered a warm introduction to local services through a dedicated 'family navigator'.

Our evaluation focuses on filling the evidence gaps. We already know that a cash grant during pregnancy can improve infant health. In this pilot, alongside evaluating implementation of the programme and what parents think of it, we explore whether a ‘stacked’ approach - pairing the immediate financial relief with warm, proactive outreach from a family navigator - can act as a bridge in helping families connect with the wider, long-term support available through Camden’s family hubs.

We are now roughly halfway through the pilot, and today we’ve published an interim report that sets out what we’ve learned so far. It’s still too early to draw firm conclusions about the pilot’s impact on family hub engagement. But our early data from surveys and interviews with parents, alongside administrative records, helps answer our questions around implementation and acceptability of the pilot. 

Here are three key learnings:

1. A 'proactive' approach is feasible

When we started planning this project, we didn’t know if we would be able to use administrative data to offer the grant to the families that need it most. Working with Policy in Practice to link NHS pregnancy records with council benefits data, Camden Council have successfully navigated technical and administrative hurdles. This has meant they could offer support to hundreds of parents automatically. By doing the heavy lifting behind the scenes, we’ve removed the need for parents to fill out any application forms at all. Many parents told us they were pleasantly surprised by how seamless the process felt - a sentiment we don’t hear nearly often enough when it comes to families accessing the benefits they are entitled to.

2. The grant provides a meaningful 'burden lifted'

While £500 doesn't eliminate financial stress, parents described it as a source of significant relief. Most reported spending the money exactly as expected: on 'big ticket' baby items like buggies, stocking up on essentials like nappies and clothes, or covering other costs (eg, bills, debt payments, groceries) that would otherwise have been a source of stress.

3. Personal outreach builds intention

For half of our participants, the grant is paired with a phone call from a family navigator and the offer of a family hubs tour. So far, we’ve found that those who spoke to a navigator were more likely to say they intended to visit a family hub once their baby was born, compared to those who received the grant and alongside written information about family hubs.

The pilot and evaluation are ongoing. We will analyse how the families who are part of the pilot engage with services throughout their baby’s first year, and talk to parents to understand the reasons for - or against - continued family hub engagement.  Alongside this continued work on the pilot, we are in the early stages of thinking about whether and how the programme - and the family navigator offer in particular - might be scaled. 

We expect to publish our full results in 2028, after the final babies who will be part of the pilot reach their first birthday. In the meantime, we’ve developed a toolkit for other local authorities who might be interested in implementing a similar 'cash-first' or data-led approach in their own areas.

We’d love to hear from you if you’re working on something similar or considering a pilot of your own. You can reach our team at: [email protected].