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Select Committee · Health and Social Care Committee

The First 1000 Days: a renewed focus

Status: Open Opened: 21 Mar 2025 18 recommendations 8 conclusions 1 report

The first 1000 days of life, from conception to age two, are widely recognised as a critical period for child development, shaping long-term health, well-being, and life outcomes.The previous Committee examined this period in its 2019 First 1000 days of life inquiryconsidering national strategy, current spending and barriers to investment and local provision. Since then, … Show more

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Reports

1 report
Title HC No. Published Items Response
5th Report - First 1000 days: a renewed focus HC 802 22 Jan 2026 26 Responded

Recommendations & Conclusions

4 items
2 Recommendation 5th Report - First 1000 days: a renewed… Accepted in Part

Set out plans to expand Family Hubs with sustained funding and issue guidance for 0-2 services.

We call on the Government to set out plans to further expand the network of Family Hubs to provide access to a Hub every community. This plan must be supported by sustained and ringfenced funding. Previous research on the benefits of the Sure Start Programme clearly set out the long-term … Read more

Government response AI summary
The government commits over £200 million over three years to strengthen the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) offer in Best Start Family Hubs and sets an ambition for 70% of hubs to be located in the 30% most deprived areas. However, it does not …
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Department of Health and Social Care
9 Recommendation 5th Report - First 1000 days: a renewed… Accepted in Part

Create plan to rebuild health visitor workforce and recruit at least 1000 additional staff.

The Government must create a specific plan to rebuild the health visitor workforce in its forthcoming NHS Long Term Workforce Plan. This plan must be informed by safe staffing tools to ensure that health visitors have a manageable workload. As an initial step, we call on the Government to immediately … Read more

Government response AI summary
The government confirmed the 10 Year Workforce Plan will include a phased delivery roadmap for health visiting services to address workforce pressures. However, they rejected committing to recruiting a specific number of new health visitors, stating it would not be responsible to fix precise workforce …
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Department of Health and Social Care
14 Recommendation 5th Report - First 1000 days: a renewed… Accepted in Part

Create sustainable children's health workforce with specific recruitment targets in the NHS Plan.

The Government must take the opportunity presented by the forthcoming NHS 10 Year Workforce Plan to create a sustainable and well-resourced children’s health workforce. While we understand the Government’s desire for the workforce plan to go beyond numbers, a plan that does not set out a clear, achievable and funded … Read more

Government response AI summary
The government states the 10-Year Workforce Plan will provide a sustainable approach with a phased delivery roadmap for relevant staff groups, including actions across recruitment, training, and retention. However, it rejects setting precise workforce numbers or specific recruitment targets a decade into the future, deeming …
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Department of Health and Social Care
23 Recommendation 5th Report - First 1000 days: a renewed… Accepted in Part

Produce plans for disaggregated children's outcome data and introduce separate waiting time reports for under-twos.

We recommend that the Government work with all NHS and early-years settings to produce plans for greater disaggregated data concerning service delivery and outcomes for children. This should include data broken down by age group, as well as ethnicity, disability, socioeconomic status, access to services, and other categories that will … Read more

Government response AI summary
The government stated work is underway to collect record-level demographic data for community services. However, they rejected publishing separate national reports on waiting times for children under two, though the data will be extractable, and noted no current plans for further national disaggregation of WLMDS …
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Department of Health and Social Care

Oral evidence sessions

4 sessions
Date Witnesses
3 Sep 2025 Ashley Dalton MP · Department of Health and Social Care, Liz Ketch · Department of Health and Social Care, Susie Owen · Department for Education View ↗
2 Jul 2025 Anna Bird · Disabled Children's Partnership, Dr Amit Aggarwal · Medical Affairs and Strategic Partnerships, Dr Claire Fuller · NHS England, Dr Doug Simkiss · Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Dr Helen Skirrow · Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London, Dr Helen Stewart · The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Dr Sally Payne · Royal College of Occupational Therapists, Jane Harris · Speech and Language UK, Janet Cooper · Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists View ↗
4 Jun 2025 Alison Morton · Institute of Health Visiting, Dr Christine Farquharson · Institute for Fiscal Studies, Rachel Roberts · Hull City Council, Rukshana Kapasi · Barnardos View ↗
7 May 2025 Professor Sir Michael Marmot · University College London (UCL), Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom DBE · Early Years Healthy Development Review View ↗

Who gave evidence

18 witnesses
WitnessOrganisationSessions
Alison Morton · CEO Institute of Health Visiting 1
Anna Bird · Chair Disabled Children's Partnership 1
Ashley Dalton MP · Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Public… Department of Health and Social Care 1
Dr Amit Aggarwal · Executive Director Medical Affairs and Strategic Partnerships 1
Dr Christine Farquharson · Associate Director Institute for Fiscal Studies 1
Dr Claire Fuller · National Medical Director NHS England 1
Dr Doug Simkiss · Chair of the British Association for Community Pa… Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 1
Dr Helen Skirrow · Clinical Research Fellow Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Imperial College London 1
Dr Helen Stewart · Officer for Health Improvement The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health 1
Dr Sally Payne · Professional Adviser for Children, Young People a… Royal College of Occupational Therapists 1
Jane Harris · CEO Speech and Language UK 1
Janet Cooper · Expert Adviser Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists 1
Liz Ketch · Director for Early Years, Children & Families Department of Health and Social Care 1
Professor Sir Michael Marmot · Director of the Institute of Health Equity and Pr… University College London (UCL) 1
Rachel Roberts · Strategic Lead for Early Help and Prevention, Chi… Hull City Council 1
Rt Hon Dame Andrea Leadsom DBE · Chair Early Years Healthy Development Review 1
Rukshana Kapasi · Director of Health Barnardos 1
Susie Owen · Director of Early Years, Childcare, Families and … Department for Education 1

Correspondence

3 letters
DateDirectionTitle
28 Apr 2026 — Correspondence from Minister Hodgson - First 1000 Days Response
15 Oct 2025 — Correspondence from Minister Dalton re First 1000 days evidence session
2 Jul 2025 — Correspondence from Minister Daby re the First 1000 Days