Nesta’s supporting local areas to engage parents project aims to increase the number of parents who find, start, and complete evidence-based parenting programmes by providing local authorities with practical, tested approaches to engage parents. We will design a playbook of strategies, developed with input from local authorities, to strengthen local engagement. Recognising that parents may face a range of barriers at different stages, we will identify and share a range of solutions that respond to families’ diverse needs and circumstances.

Local authorities will be able to use and adapt these approaches to boost parental engagement in programmes that improve child outcomes. The online open playbook will be grounded in robust evidence and real-world experience.

This project will provide practical, tested tactics on how to help parents find, start, and complete an evidence-based parenting programme. By sharing these tactics with local authorities through a live open playbook, we will contribute to more parents completing these programmes and implementing the learning at home. 

More children will be able to gain critical social-emotional and cognitive foundations that predict school readiness, and we will support progress toward the UK government's ambition to break down the barriers to opportunity by giving every child the best start in life.

While early childhood is critical for development and life chances, access to support services such as antenatal care, parenting help, and quality early education is often limited. Over 80% of parents report difficulty accessing these essential services, leaving many children unprepared for school. As of 2024, only 67.7% of five-year-olds reach a good level of development (GLD) in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) assessment, meaning over 194,000 children start school each year without the foundational skills they need.

The government has committed to increasing the proportion of children reaching GLD from 67.7% to 75% by 2028, which represents an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children reaching developmental goals. The plan also includes further investment in family hubs and support for home learning. However, local authorities and family hubs face persistent challenges in engaging families in evidence-based parenting programmes.

We believe it is a two-fold challenge:

1. Local authorities and family hubs across the country are facing similar barriers when trying to engage parents in evidence-based parenting programmes. Successful fixes to increase engagement developed in one area remain scattered, contextual, and untested at scale.
2. Many parents who would benefit most from evidence-based parenting programs are unaware of or do not complete them. As a result, their children (aged 2-5) may miss critical early developmental support.

While evidence-based support for parents exists, too few families find and start, and even fewer complete the programmes. To address this, we are creating an open playbook which will share insight on how to improve parental awareness of programmes, consideration of programmes, sign up and continued engagement.

To ensure that the tactics are grounded in real-world experience and delivery, we are building a collaborative community that participates in the creation and dissemination of the open playbook. The playbook will be informed by a review of existing evidence and will be supplemented with tactics that local authorities test and share over time.