Beatriz Torres, NCB Policy and Public Affairs Officer, reflects on a parliamentary event hosted by three All-Party Parliamentary Groups.
Allow me to set the scene...
It’s ten minutes past the start time. We have around 20 people in Committee Room 17 at the Palace of Westminster: nine speakers, nine sector colleagues, and three officials from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Education (DfE). Not a single parliamentarian in sight. The division bells from both Houses are ringing incessantly over two separate votes. The clock ticks. The anticipation is palpable...
And yet, despite these inauspicious beginnings, this turned into one of the most engaging hours of discussion on early years policy that I’ve had the pleasure of being part of.
It was a joint session between the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Children (for which NCB holds the secretariat), the APPG on Babies (run by the Parent-Infant Foundation), and the APPG on Family Hubs (run by Spurgeons).
This meant there was not one, but three parliamentarians chairing: Jess Asato MP, Tom Collins MP and Freddie van Mierlo MP, who together embraced the joined-up spirit of the discussion.
As Tom put it in his opening remarks, the question for all of us is “how do we build real, genuine collaboration?” Bringing together early years education, perinatal health, Family Hubs and child poverty under one roof felt like a fitting answer. These are themes that must be integrated not only at Westminster but in legislation, if we are serious about improving outcomes for babies, their families and carers.
The discussion that followed was every bit as powerful as the evidence that preceded it. One theme threaded through almost every contribution: dads.
What started on paper as an evidence session became something much richer. It became a space for speakers and parliamentarians alike to share their lived experience and hold a vulnerable, honest discussion on early years policy and reform.
NCB’s Claire Dunne shared findings from A Better Start - a ten-year programme backed by The National Lottery Community Fund- reminding the room that school readiness is a shared outcome and a journey from conception to reception that no child or family can achieve alone.
There were audible gasps at Middlesex University Research Fellow Kayla Halls’ finding that 27% of baby rooms in England are operating above the recommended maximum of 12 babies - with some holding as many as 30 babies.
There was quiet, rapt attention as University of York’s Dr Ruth Naughton-Doe opened with her own account of post-natal depression, the signs of distress that went unacknowledged, and the research it led her to undertake.
And the discussion that followed was every bit as powerful as the evidence that preceded it. One theme threaded through almost every contribution: dads. Lord Farmer urged that we do not lose sight of fathers in the conversation.
Freddie van Mierlo MP reflected on the gap between birth and the point at which parents can start accessing groups like Family Hubs - a lonely stretch made harder, he noted, by how difficult men can find it to open up to one another.
Ruth’s research was clear that support for fathers is too often missing altogether.
Alongside this, speakers and parliamentarians explored the 43% cut to the health visitor workforce, the need for a national framework on parent-infant relationships (with a return of £6–£10 for every £1 invested), the precarious state of the early years workforce and how Family Hubs will reach rural constituencies and avoid leaving older children behind.
Jess Asato shared her own story of relying on Sure Start during her first pregnancy, and the very different landscape she faced by the time her second child arrived.
What started as a half-empty room ended as one full of parliamentarians, officials and sector colleagues, coming together on an area of policy that is fundamental to the country’s future.
Many stayed long after the formal close, connecting ideas and looking for solutions together.
Our next APPG for Children event will be the launch of the Children’s Services Funding Alliance report in June, and we very much look forward to continuing to bring the sector together to discuss the issues that matter most for babies, children and young people.
