2025 – Celebrating success and progress for babies

As 2025 comes to a close, we’re celebrating how our work at the Parent-Infant Foundation is continuing to make a difference for babies, families, and professionals.  

The number of specialised parent-infant relationship teams and services grew again this year. There are now 51 parent-infant teams across the UK, as well as numerous smaller services in development.  Our expertise now also reaches dozens of local authorities and health boards across the UK, providing hands-on support to design and help build up parent-infant teams and services.  

Earlier this year, we also strengthened the evidence base with two new research reports: ‘Maternal Attachment and Child Outcomes’ and ‘Who is Holding the Baby?’ The first broke new ground and estimated that supporting parent-infant relationships could deliver at least £900m benefit each year. The second surveyed parent-infant teams across the UK and discovered they are supporting between 4-6% of babies estimated to need specialist support. 

While we welcomed the Government’s commitment to its newly named Best Start in Life programme and Best Start Family Hubs, details remain unclear. We’re working hard lobbying MPs and policymakers to ensure that they understand how important this support is for the earliest years and for the babies and families facing the most challenges. 

Our biggest success this year was securing over £1million of National Lottery Community Funding to support the creation of a National Parent-Infant Relationship Framework. This was the result of months of consultation and collaboration. The four-year programme gives us the opportunity to set the gold standard for parent-infant services across England. We were delighted to launch the start of the work on the programme in October. The first phase of work is now underway, and we are very excited to work with partners to achieve meaningful change for babies, families and communities. 

Through our work as secretariat to the First 1001 Days Movement and APPG on Babies (Pregnancy to Age 2), our campaigning has continued with strength this year. We were pleased to see Government publish a new Best Start in Life Strategy in July and confirm continuation of the Start for Life programme. The Movement responded to government consultations on parental leave and pay and flagged the importance of supporting fathers in their response to the government’s consultation on men’s health. In the November budget, The First 1001 Days Movement was delighted by the Government’s decision to abolish the two-child limit. Alongside other partners in the sector, The Movement had called for it to be scrapped in the Manifesto for Babies. In Scotland and Wales, we deepened our policy engagement, supported new service models, and contributed to national strategies, such as the Welsh Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. 

Keith Reed, Chief Executive of the Parent-Infant Foundation said: 

“It has been exciting to witness the progress that has been made in championing the needs of babies and their families this year, and to see the growing recognition of the importance of early relationships. But there is still so much to do to make sure that babies are not left behind.  

“A huge thanks to all the brilliant, specialised teams and services who work tirelessly to support babies and families, despite challenges and uncertainty. Thanks also to our partners, supporters and funders for helping us achieve great things in 2025 – we look forward to continuing working with you and helping babies have the very best start in life as we go into 2026.” 

To see more highlights from the last financial year (1 April 2024 – 31 March 2025) you can view our annual report here.