Giving every child the best start in life

The government's strategy for improving child development and meeting the ambition that 75% of 5-year-olds in England have a good level of development by 2028.

Last updated: 7th April

The Giving every child the best start in life strategy, published on 7th July 2025, is an ambitious framework, setting out the government's vision to bring together early years and family support services, putting children's earliest years at the centre of opportunities to improve their life chances.  

The strategy has three overarching priorities:  

  1. Better support for families: Building crucial family services by providing high-quality support to parents, babies and children during the period from pregnancy to age five.  
  2. More accessible early education and childcare: Making it easier and more affordable for children to access early education and childcare, including enabling more eligible working parents to access funded childcare:
  3. Improving quality in early years: Improving the quality of education that children receive in early years settings by strengthening training, support and professional development of the early years workforce.  

In Staffordshire, we have developed a local plan to support implementation and development of the Best Start in Life programme with our partners.