First 1001 Days Movement – Response to the Health and Social Care Committee’s report: ‘First 1000 Days: a renewed focus’ 

We welcome the publication of the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s report, First 1000 Days: a renewed focus.  

Many of the key recommendations in the report closely reflect the priorities set out in the First 1001 Days Movement’s submission to the inquiry. These include calls for a funded national roll-out of Family Hubs, urgent action to rebuild the health visiting workforce, and stronger parent–infant mental health support. 

In the report, the Committee called on Government to support the expansion of Best Start Family Hubs with “sustained and ringfenced funding”.    

The Committee also specifically recommended a “funded plan to recruit at least 1,000 additional health visitors immediately.” 

Significantly, the Committee dedicated a whole chapter of the report to “parent-infant mental health services and early attachment services.”  This is the first time we have seen a whole chapter in a Select Committee report dedicated to the importance of parent-infant relationships.   

First 1001 Days Movement Steering Group members have individually welcomed the report. The Parent-Infant Foundation welcomed the “recognition of how important parent-infant relationships are,” whilst the Institute for Health Visiting endorsed the Committee’s “clear call for urgent action to rebuild a workforce that has been severely depleted over the past decade.”   

The Committee’s recommendations echo our fundamental belief that the first 1001 days is a critical period for babies’ wellbeing and healthy development. It is encouraging to see the Committee call for sustained funding for services, a clear workforce plan, and improved data sharing.  

We now urge the Government to act on the Committee’s recommendations and will continue to advocate for improved services for babies and their families.  

First 1001 Days Steering Group members the Parent-Infant Foundation, Institute of Health Visiting, National Children’s Bureau, Better Start (Blackpool), and Anna Freud, all made individual submissions to the Committee’s Inquiry, as did many other members of the wider First 1001 Days Movement. 

Read the Health and Social Care Select Committee’s full report here.