The National Children’s Bureau was DfE's national delivery partner for the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs programme until 31 March 2026.
The Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs provide advice, share good practice and offer evidence-informed professional development for early years practitioners.
Discover more about the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs
A Department for Education programme launched in November 2022, the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs is supported by evidence partner the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and, until 31 March 2026, was delivered by the National Children’s Bureau (NCB).
There are currently 18 Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs (two in each of the government office regions). The Hubs provide support and advice to improve quality in early years settings by sharing good practice and offering evidence-informed professional development for early years educators.
In summer 2025, the government published its Giving every child the best start in life paper and confirmed as part of this the number of Hubs will be doubled to 36 and the programme will receive funding for an additional three years, extending until March 2029.
Read and download our Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs brochure
Each Hub is led by a group-based (school-based, private, voluntary, or independent) early years provider and support settings to adopt well-evidenced practice improvements by:
- Establishing and maintaining regional networks of cross-sector early years providers and organisations (including childminders) to support evidence-informed early years practice and knowledge sharing.
- Proactively sharing information and advice on evidence-informed approaches, for example, through newsletters, blogs and social media.
- Acting as a point of contact for bespoke advice and support for early years educators to access professional development opportunities and evidence-informed programmes.
- Working with EEF to select evidence-based programmes to fund and make available to settings.
Each Hub plays a key role in developing the types of support that they will offer to settings and providers in their area. Hub objectives are agreed locally as part of a co-produced process with the Hub, DfE and NCB, to produce a bespoke support offer for the local sector that meets the needs of early years professionals, and ultimately of children under five in the area.
Each Early Years Stronger Practice Hub supports other early years settings regionally to improve outcomes for children in their local area across the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS), but specifically focusing on areas of development identified as local priorities, including but not exclusive to: personal social and emotional development (PSED); communication and language, and early literacy and maths.
Find out more about the Early Years Stronger Practice Hubs programme at https://www.strongerpracticehubs.org.uk/