What did parents actually ask for from Best Start in Life

Nathan Hodson · September 2026

Nearly every Best Star Local Plan has a consultation section. Across England, the parent quotes converge on five asks that have little to do with programme content. This invaluable input often left opportunities for shaping the delivery going forward.

Producing Best Start Local Plans, councils conducted a burst of consultation and the results are fascinating. Hillingdon surveyed 498 parents; Lambeth had 920 responses; Blackburn with Darwen 180 expectant and new parents; Bristol “nearly 100 families”; Nottinghamshire says over a thousand parents shaped its hub offer; Brent spoke to more than 400 people. The plans quote what they heard. Put those quotes side by side and something striking emerges: parents were rarely asking for a different parenting course. They were asking for help now, at a time they can manage, without recounting their life story again, without being judged, in without travelling somewhere new. Five asks. Here they are, with the councils that recorded them — and the councils that did something about it.

1. “Now, not in eight weeks”

Wirral heard it most clearly: “Parents frequently reach crisis points needing immediate answers, yet structured programmes lack accessibility and timeliness.” Its response is written into the plan as a principle — “prioritise one-off workshops and short sessions over long-term multi-week programmes, matching parental preferences” — with a named focus on sleep, screen time, behaviour and routines. Newcastle’s families said the same in other words: “Parents often find it difficult to make a confident commitment to programmes and courses that are too lengthy.”

Local Authorities responses involved removing the referral process. Kent runs “Talking Walk In” speech and language sessions in hubs with no referral. Camden puts psychologists in hubs “without the need for referrals”. Rochdale: “Support will be available without unnecessary assessment or delay” and “Diagnosis will never be the only route to support.” Hertfordshire: “Families do not need a diagnosis to get help.” Wokingham’s speech and language enquiry line resolves 44% of calls without a referral; its waiting list fell from 25 to 9 in a quarter. Blackpool’s families said something subtler: they “understand waiting lists but support whilst they wait and regular communication with key professionals would ensure they have support whilst they wait”.

2. “Not between nine and five”

Bexley’s survey annex says “traditional 9 to 5 hours do not fit working parents’ schedules.” Warwickshire names “working families unable to access service provision during the working day” as a priority group. Redcar and Cleveland lists “inflexible working-parent hours and anxiety about attending groups”. Responses: Croydon extends beyond nine to five; Swindon commits to “evening/weekend delivery and onsite childcare”; Waltham Forest to “out-of-hours/weekend/home visit/virtual delivery”; Stockton to home-learning sessions in nurseries with “alternative time slots for working families”; Norfolk to “flexible parenting and relationship programmes at times and locations that suit families, including evenings, weekends”; Luton promises that “the online offer will enable out of hours support and will be codesigned with parents” and that “attending a hub service will be no more complex than joining a library or a club”.

3. “Tell my story once”

This phrase appears, near-verbatim, in at least seven plans — Barking and Dagenham, Wiltshire, City of London, Kent, Coventry, Newham and Cambridgeshire. Kent adds the reason: “Families value relational continuity – ‘one person’ who knows their story.” Hampshire heard that “being signposted to multiple services can feel overwhelming” and that families want “warm introductions”. A Brent parent asked for pathways “ensuring families are guided rather than passed between services”. The responses that count are structural: Kent and Sandwell’s integrated two-year review, Cambridgeshire’s Early Support Pathway with direct referral “to reduce repeated stories”, Lewisham’s navigators and Family Plans, and Peterborough’s “Play Passport+” that lets families “share their journey without having to repeat their story more than once”.

4. “Don’t judge me”

Bexley again: “stigma and fear of judgement… involvement of social care.” Redcar and Cleveland: parents who “fear judgment as a ‘bad mother’”. Brighton and Hove: “We are sometimes lonely and find asking for help hard.” Slough records that “some services experienced as service-led rather than family-led”. And a Stockton parent, on what works: “The Family Hub is somewhere you can ask questions and get accurate support without feeling judged, that really matters.”

Lewisham made a decision on the back of this: “parenting programmes and sessions offered within Family Hubs should be universal, to reduce any stigma.” Brent is writing a communications plan “to reduce stigma around parenting programmes” with bespoke invitations for vulnerable families. Westminster and Kensington and Chelsea run two hubs through a school and a nursery because families are “wary of services being collocated with Council Children’s Services”.

5. “Something I can find”

A Brent parent: “the online services could be improved… it’s not easy to navigate.” Portsmouth’s families reported “Difficulty navigating digital platforms and booking systems”. Barnet’s families described “dependence upon word-of-mouth for finding out about available support”. Cambridgeshire admits: “Not all digital offers are currently fully developed and can require parents to access multiple points to find similar information.” Blackpool’s families were blunt: “the family hub webpage is un-inviting and the timetable online is not easy to navigate or understand.” Merton’s asked for “clearer booking processes”. Cheshire West and Chester distils the whole theme — “Families rarely say they need more services. What they need is: clarity about where to go; support that feels welcoming; consistent messages; services that talk to each other” — and adds: “Families should not need insider knowledge to find support.” Responses range from Barnet’s digital communications plan to Warrington’s single front door.

Did anything change?

The truth is it is not always clear how the surveys fed into the plans. Most plans record something along the lines of these five topics and then describe the same structure as before: a menu of multi-week programmes, delivered in hubs, in office hours. This is because surveys only get us so far and families don’t necessarily expect to have to invent policy themselves: Bristol’s families asked for “less surveying, more action.” In my clinical role as a CAMHS doctor, I don’t just prescribe the medication that the patient asks for; I understand the patient’s symptoms, diagnose the problem, and offer a plan to solve the root cause. Likewise, these consultations provide a picture of symptoms – pain points for parents – but the role of Local Authority leaders is to select interventions to address those.

No surprise to readers, I think that our Pause app is a great solution for these five problems. Immediately available, 24/7 answers, storing family details, private without stigma, easy to get started. In surveys, parents tend not to ask for “a parenting coach on an app” (although some do). But it is our job to take their priorities seriously and collaborate on solutions to address them. Whether that involves an app or not.