The three discovery projects enabled the local partnerships to learn more about actions that could help to close the outcome gap for disadvantaged children in Leeds, Stockport/GMCA and York. We gained insight into a range of opportunities for increasing the effectiveness and reach of local services.

Having tried out these short-term projects in partnership and found it an effective way of working, all four partners (Nesta, York, Stockport/GMCA and Leeds) have decided to progress to a three to five year collaboration.

We are now exploring shared priorities for A Fairer Start Local, which we will tackle over the next three to five years. Some of the shared priorities we have initially identified include:

1. Increasing families’ engagement with service provision, particularly where children may be at higher risk of poor outcomes.
2. Strengthening understanding of the impact of local service provision, through improved monitoring and evaluation.
3. Improving the quality of services, such as early childhood education, parenting support and other services that support child development.
4. Reviewing the interactions between universal and targeted services and the processes by which services identify families who may need additional support.
5. Strengthening system integration to enable effective partnership working between services.
6. Supporting families with some of the wider contextual drivers of poor child outcomes, such as low income or poor housing.

Over the next three to five years the Fairer Start Local partnerships will co-design new approaches to narrow the outcome gap between children born into deprivation and their peers. We will do this with practitioners and communities and evaluate their impact on outcomes for children and their families. Where the partnerships identify promising practices and solutions, we will seek to sustain, embed and scale them up. We look forward to sharing our learning as we embark on this journey together.