What the Best Start in Life programme is and the Bristol Best Start in Life Plan.
Best Start in Life
Best Start in Life is the national programme to improve child development from pregnancy to reception. Every council must publish a local plan online and keep it updated. It sets out how we'll strengthen support for families and enhance early education so that more children achieve a good level of development by the end of their reception year.
Bristol Best Start in Life Plan
pdf The Bristol Best Start in Life Plan(3.62 MB) for giving babies and young children the best start in life sets out how we'll work with local partners to improve early child development, reduce inequalities and increase the number of children ready for school by 2028.
It sets out our ambition to ensure that as services we work collaboratively to ensure that all children in Bristol thrive.
Our ambitions
We have five key ambitions to turn Bristol's Best Start vision into clear and measurable priorities. These are that:
- children thrive and meet their health and learning potential
- schools, families, and communities are “ready together”
- families get the support they need, when they need it, not only when problems grow
- inequalities reduce across Bristol
- families can access the childcare and early learning opportunities they need
Our overall target
By the end of the 2027 to 28 academic year, Bristol aims for at least 77.4% of children to achieve a Good Level of Development (GLD), with children receiving Free School Meals benefitting at least equally, so that at least 58.9% also meet this benchmark.
The GLD is the standard way of finding out if a child has reached the expected early learning goals at the end of reception. It includes assessing a child's physical development, communication and language, and literacy and maths learning.
It is an important measure of whether a child is getting the best start, but it is not the only one. Wherever possible, we will measure a range of ways to show how we're helping children, families and communities to get better outcomes across the city.
Our focus
Our focus will be to:
- connect services to join up support for families, creating clear pathways for services from pregnancy to school
- improve access to childcare and early education, including inclusive options for children with special educational needs and disabilities
- work in partnership with families and services to break the link between poverty and child outcomes in the early years.
Find support
If you are a parent or carer, visit the Bristol Family Hubs website for online resources, local groups, parenting courses and health visiting information.