Early Years Social Action Fund

Family Lives is one of five organisations selected to take part in the Early Years Social Action Fund, a £1 million fund from innovation foundation Nesta and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. 

We have received funding to bring the US-based Parent Child Home Program (PCHP) to the UK under license. Through this fund, 275 trained volunteers will be mobilised to support over 300 families. We will independently validate the impact of PCHP in England on children and parents, and will also learn how best to support and retain volunteer home visitors throughout.

PCHP is a well-evidence, US-based programme, focussed on working one to one with parents over a sustained period in their home environment. It addresses a range of outcomes for parents, including a child’s cognitive gains, social and emotional gains, and home environment outcomes.

PCHP has a strong evidence base of effectiveness in the US. Children on the programme are 50 per cent more likely to measure ready for kindergarten, they score 2.5 times higher on social-emotional skills assessment than their peers, and they enter school performing 10 months above their chronological age.

The Early Years Social Action Fund aims to help more children, aged four and under, to achieve their developmental milestones by backing social action programmes that support parents and primary carers. Social action is any practical activity where communities, organisations and individuals work together to improve their lives and solve the problems that are important to their communities.

The fund forms part of a series of live funds from Nesta and the Office for Civil Society to mobilise volunteers to support public services, demonstrating their reach and impact. Find out more information about The Early Years Social Action Fund.