Who we are
Early years is a specialist area for NCB. We develop research, policy, programmes and campaigns to tackle specific issues such as early literacy and mental health, equipping partners to improve outcomes for children.
One of the five ‘A Better Start’ partnerships established by the National Lottery Community Fund, the Lambeth Early Action Partnership (LEAP) delivered a better childhood for local families and provided insight to shape wider changes in policy and practice.
In addition to developing and designing a programme of shared learning across all partnerships, NCB was the accountable body for the LEAP programme and hosted it within the NCB family from 2015 until 2025.
LEAP's primary aims were to:
- Give thousands of children aged 0-3 years a better start in Coldharbour, Stockwell, Tulse Hill, and Vassall.
- Use LEAP’s learning and evidence to positively influence early years services across Lambeth and beyond.
LEAP aimed to do this by demonstrating how children’s life chances can be improved through a combination of enhanced early years investment and from knitting local services together through a multi-agency partnership.
What we do
LEAP services supported families at every step through pregnancy and the early stages of a child’s life.
Given that many different aspects of children’s development are related, we worked across three strands encompassing children’s:
- diet and nutrition,
- social and emotional well-being,
- communication and language.
These strands are important because services focused on just one of these strands could be undermined by challenges from one of the other strands (for instance, a child’s poor emotional well-being could impact on their language and communication). Working simultaneously across all three strands gave us a greater chance of making a positive and lasting impact on children and families.