In 2025, Camden Council, in partnership with the NHS and Nesta, began piloting the Family Hubs Pregnancy Grant project. The pilot programme consists of two elements: a £500 cash grant given to pregnant people towards the end of their pregnancy, and proactive outreach from a Family Navigator – a specially trained council officer who can connect participants with other support available to them. The programme is targeted specifically towards low-income parents, and we use linked administrative data to identify eligible participants, without them needing to apply.

This toolkit sets out the details of Camden Council’s Family Hubs Pregnancy Grant service, including how it was designed, who it aims to serve, the change it hopes to achieve and how, and details of what is needed to deliver the service. This toolkit focuses on setting up the service and not on any ongoing work involved in delivery and monitoring.

How to use this toolkit

This toolkit is primarily for staff at local or combined authorities who may consider implementing a similar intervention. You may be interested in just the cash grant, just the Family Navigator intervention, or some other targeted outreach activities to pregnant people or new parents, made possible through data linkage. In the toolkit, we set out these elements – grant, Family Navigator, data – separately, explain the rationale behind them, and provide a checklist and resources to help you adapt and implement such a programme in your context.

The image at the foot of the page presents a visual overview of the toolkit. While we separately cover the pregnancy grant, the Family Navigator and the data flows within this toolkit, there is substantial overlap in the rationale and detail of implementation, as shown in the DIY checklist.

Please note that this toolkit is provided for information purposes only, and users rely on its content at their own discretion.