Too many children don’t have that “village” surrounding and nurturing them, especially those with experience of care. To really give children the best start in life – a good childhood – we must literally start at the beginning, ensuring all parents understand the importance of attachment and nurture. All too often parents who have care experience are judged more harshly, with assumptions they won’t cope and automatically assessed as risks. To change outcomes we must change mindsets and develop parenting support in a way that’s not stigmatising or only stepping in when safeguarding concerns are raised. 

Bringing together the experience of Scottish Attachment in Action, Care Visions, Early Years Scotland, and working with new and expectant parents themselves, we will create a virtual “Village” offering innovative supports via life coaching and learning opportunities readily available as part of an online community.

The Good Childhood investment will establish “ The Village” and demonstrate the value of this approach, laying solid foundations to increase reach and scale in future.

The Promise is rightly about the most vulnerable children and young people – our proposal goes to the heart of that, by investing now to give them a better future

Our co-production is due to start in March 2022, regular updates to follow.