Family hubs and more support to help access quality childcare are two of the ways Staffordshire County Council is aiming to increase the proportion of youngsters achieving a good level of development in their earliest years.

In Staffordshire 70.6 per cent of children reached a good level of development by the end of the reception year (five years old) last year – and there is an aim for this figure to reach 78.9 per cent by 2028.

The county's rate is above the national average of 68.30 per cent measured in 2024.

But for children eligible for free school meals, just 50.2 per cent reached the good level of development in the same time period – below the national average of 51.5 per cent.

The Government set out its aims to improve child development in the Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life strategy, published almost a year ago.

At the latest Staffordshire County Council cabinet meeting, senior councillors were given details of work taking place locally to help children and their families.

In a report to the meeting, Councillor Nicholas Lakin, cabinet member for children and young people said: "It is essential we give our children the best start in their pre-school years so that they have every opportunity to take advantage of the first-class education offered by schools in Staffordshire.

"We are currently above the national average for early years attainment, but there is always more to be done – and these actions will move us in the right direction."

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Councillor Janet Higgins, cabinet member for education and SEND (special educational needs and disabilities), told colleagues: "We all know that if a child's development falls behind in their early years it has potential to affect the rest of their life.

"This best start strategy is here to get in early – early intervention, early help -right from when a parent is pregnant to the age of five for that child.

"We all know those are the crucial years for young people to develop. What they learn then will help them for the rest of their lives.

"Our priorities are focusing on three things – better support for families, accessible early education and childcare and quality early years provision, raising standards and supporting the workforce including the home learning environment.

"We are putting together family hubs and we have the launch of our Best Start Family Hub in East Staffordshire on 28th May.

"We will be having events around areas to speak to speak to families and children and see what they would like in their Family Hubs. We will be commissioning charities to expand on the work they are doing and increase the contracts so they can carry on doing the valuable family work they're already doing in communities.

"The other type of work we will be doing is a lot more in-house – we will be doing more support for families to access high-quality childcare and receive their full entitlement, delivered by our early help family coaches and practitioners.

"We will be doing dedicated work to support early reading, writing and learning through play through our early years service."

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Fellow cabinet members welcomed the actions. Councillor Peter Mason described the proposals as "a very good investment and a very good aim to bring children up and improve their early years development".

Deputy leader Councillor Hayley Coles said: "It's really important to help children in Staffordshire and we need to spend this money. My ask would be, if there is a business case, could we see that at some point on how early work impacts and how it prevents any further issues or costs down the line."

Councillor Higgins responded: "It's really difficult to show evidence of prevention quickly because if you've prevented something, how do you show you have? However, long term, we will have evidence through this best start strategy it will bring down escalation for more in-depth service support, the amount of young people that go into care and the amount of young people that need SEND support.

"Long-term it will have a massive positive impact, but unfortunately with this type of work, when you are working with children and young people, it won't happen overnight. We are starting to do a new change in culture – these Best Start Family Hubs are there to give families the independence they need to be able to look after their own families and not rely on the state."