Best Start in Life

Best Start in Life
Best Start in Life: Vision and need for change
Best Start in Life: Delivering change in York
You are here: Best Start in Life: Shared responsibility

Best Start in Life: Shared responsibility

The Best Start in Life is not a plan that belongs to 1 service or 1 organisation. It will only work if every partner plays their part in helping families feel connected, supported, and that they belong.

Families, midwives, health visitors, early years settings, childminders, schools, GPs, family support teams, specialist teams, children’s services, voluntary and community groups, Local Area Coordinators, Explore York Libraries and Archives, Family Hubs, all hold a piece of the puzzle.

Families told us clearly that what matters most is not who delivers what, but people who work together with them, focusing support around their strengths and needs.

The Best Start in Life plan asks leaders to create the conditions for collaboration, and practitioners to build the relationships that make this possible. And it holds all of us to account across sectors, neighbourhoods, and communities, to collectively be responsible for giving every child in York the best possible start in life.

The Best Start in Life plan is not just a programme of work. It is a commitment from the Raise York partnership, from communities, and from families themselves, to build an early years system rooted in connection, belonging, and trust. It recognises that the most powerful support often comes not from services, but from relationships. And it sets out how York will create the conditions for those relationships to flourish.

How we will learn whether this is making a difference

To make a real difference, the plan must make tangible changes in the lives of families. That means paying attention — not just to numbers, but to experiences. Monitoring and evaluation in York will be about learning, not judgement. It will help us understand what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to change next.

We will track the things that matter most to families: whether they feel connected, whether support feels easier to find, whether they feel they truly belong. We will listen to families regularly, through conversations, parent panels, neighbourhood groups, and the everyday interactions that happen in Family Hubs, early years settings, childminders and schools and community spaces. Their voices will sit alongside developmental data, service information, and insight from practitioners to give a rounded picture of how children and families are doing.

The Centre of Excellence will hold this learning. It will bring together evidence, lived experience, and local insight to help York understand not only how children are developing, but how families are feeling. It will help us see patterns across neighbourhoods, spot where support is working well, and identify where we need to do more. And it will make sure that learning is shared quickly and openly across the system, so that good ideas spread and challenges are tackled together.

This approach means that Best Start in Life will never be a static plan. It will evolve as families’ needs change, as communities grow, and as we learn more about what helps children thrive. Monitoring and evaluation will be our way of staying honest, staying curious, and staying committed to the families we serve.

We will update this plan to share this learning as we make progress and are able to demonstrate the difference we are making for children’s and families’ lives.