New research calls for Scotland to take the opportunity to strengthen support for babies and their families during pregnancy and the earliest months of life

Findings of new research published today (8 October) by CELCIS, the Centre for Excellence for Children’s Care and Protection, for the Scottish Government, highlight the need for more consistency, coordination and better access to the range of support and services parents need during pregnancy and early infancy, and identify opportunities to improve planning and service delivery in Scotland during this critical period for children and their families.

These findings are detailed in a new report - Mapping Support and Services in Pregnancy in Scotland - which combines a national review of community-based early help, family support, health and other services available to families during pregnancy and early infancy in Scotland, with insights from practitioners.

The Scottish Government commissioned CELCIS to map the support and services in place across Scotland during pregnancy and into the first months of a baby’s life to develop an increased understanding of the universal, additional and targeted support offered; how this support is delivered; and to gain an insight from the workforce on what works well and the challenges experienced locally. 

The research included looking at what was known about the delivery of effective pre- and post-birth services in Scotland and further afield, local evaluations and the feedback available from parents in Scotland on their experiences of support and services, a survey of Scotland’s 30 Children’s Services Planning Partnerships, helping to facilitate local workshops in six of these Partnerships, with Nesta, the research and innovation foundation, and a focus group with island Children’s Services Planning Partnerships.

The critical importance of support in the preconception, pregnancy and the post-birth periods in providing babies with the best start in life was confirmed through this new research. It found that there are a range of effective services and approaches to support pregnant women and families and children in the early phases of their lives, highlighting that:

• Locally-based, multi-agency approaches are felt to be particularly effective, supporting early identification of concerns, stronger information-sharing, and coordinated, outcomes-focused planning that keeps babies, parents and families at the centre of support, close to home;
• Investment in workforce capacity, retention and wellbeing is critical to delivering effective services, as a stable, supported workforce enables stronger relationships with families and more consistent support;
• Children’s Services Planning Partnerships see a need for frameworks to improve and uphold the wellbeing of children and their families that more explicitly support unborn children and parents during pregnancy;
• Support for families is delivered through complex local funding and governance arrangements involving health, social work, education and third sector organisations, reflecting both strong collaboration and significant local variation in service provision, across almost 600 local services; and
• Further investment in midwifery support - a critical core component of early help - is needed alongside greater consistency in the Safeguarding Midwife role or similar specialist healthcare professionals within maternity services who help support vulnerable pregnant women and their unborn babies.

Taken together, this evidence emphasises a need for:

• Renewed cross-government commitment which focuses on pregnancy and very young babies and builds on the foundations already in place;
• Getting it Right for Every Child, as the national approach to improving the wellbeing of children and young people, to be extended to include the unborn child; and for
• Local areas to offer support to parents which is responsive to their individual needs and circumstances, and in the best interests of their children, to help them access the universal, additional and specialist support they need more easily from pregnancy through to the early years.

Jane Scott, Head of Early Help and Protection at CELCIS said:

“Our new research highlights opportunities to strengthen prevention and early help for babies and families in Scotland. Delivering lasting improvements will require a focus on what the evidence tells us about successful implementation including sustained investment, strong local leadership, effective multi-agency collaboration, better use of data, and meaningful engagement with parents, families and communities to shape how support is designed and delivered.

“Together, these foundations can support the development of a comprehensive early help offer in Scotland, aiming to ensure that families can access the right support at the right time across universal, additional and targeted services.”

Alongside this research Nesta, the research and innovation foundation, set out to develop a clearer understanding of the support currently available during the first years of a baby’s life and to identify practical opportunities to transition Scotland’s early childhood system towards a more preventative, consistent and integrated model. The report of this work, published in September, can be found here. 

Nesta also commissioned Isos Partnership to undertake research on the integration of early years education and care with support to families in England and Scotland. The report was published in June and can be found here. 

A free webinar, Getting it right from the start: Strengthening early help for families from pregnancy through early childhood, will be held at 12:00 today, Thursday 8 October 2026, to explore these findings and more, with speakers from CELCIS, Nesta, ISOS Partnership, local children’s services and CYPIC.

Mapping Support and Services in Pregnancy in Scotland report