City of Doncaster Council has long been committed to supporting families through its network of 12 Family Hubs. With a strong focus on early intervention and prevention, and as one of the 75 local authorities that received Family Hubs and Start for Life funding, the council sought an innovative digital solution to enhance its offer further and provide accessible, high-quality parenting support to families who may not always be able to engage in in-person services.
One intervention they commissioned as part of their Family Hubs programme was EasyPeasy, an integrated digital solution for the early years designed to enhance early years development from birth to age 5, improve the home learning environment, and close the gap in school readiness. EasyPeasy is evidence-based, included in the Early Intervention Foundation Guidebook, and now partnered with local authorities in all regions of the country.
Alison Fleetwood, Service Manager for Early Intervention and Prevention at City of Doncaster Council shared how the council approached the design and delivery of their Family Hubs programme, the key challenges and opportunities they faced, and the impact of the EasyPeasy offer in their local families and communities.
The challenges faced by City of Doncaster Council
Despite Doncaster's well-established Family Hubs model—retained even after Sure Start funding cuts—the team recognised some key challenges and opportunities for innovation and improvement around their parenting support programmes:
- Engagement drop-off: While 97 percent of families with children under five were registered with the 12 Family Hubs across Doncaster, engagement rates declined when parents returned to work or faced accessibility barriers.
- Need for flexible support: Some families required support but did not meet the thresholds for intensive interventions; so finding a way to provide high-quality, evidence-based advice in a scalable way was essential.
- Desire for more data-driven decision-making: The team recognised an opportunity to improve its ability to understand parents’ specific needs and then tailor its services accordingly to meet those needs.
“We were quite conscious that there's a proportion of families who drop off in engagement, particularly when mums go back to work. They’re not necessarily at a crisis point, but they also struggle to access information in an easy way… Finding information can sometimes be a bit of a minefield for parents.” - Alison Fleetwood, Service Manager for Early Intervention and Prevention at City of Doncaster Council
The solution implemented: EasyPeasy
In response to these challenges, and seeking a partner to deliver a localised, integrated, digital service for parents and practitioners of babies and children from birth to 5, City of Doncaster Council turned to EasyPeasy and commissioned their digital solution at the beginning of 2024.
It offered families and early years teams in Doncaster a digital platform that provided accessible, engaging, and evidence-based support to inspire simple, positive interactions at home or in settings, improve family dynamics, and support child development. As part of this offer, premium access to the app was made free for their entire community and promoted via their Family Hubs centres and resources, and early years teams and settings.
“Ensuring that parenting support is flexible, accessible, and evidence-based is critical. EasyPeasy has provided an innovative way to enhance our offer.” - Alison Fleetwood, Service Manager for Early Intervention and Prevention at City of Doncaster Council
City of Doncaster Council’s dedicated app data dashboard allowed them to easily track and monitor outreach and impact, with real-time data on take-up amongst children and families, engagement with content, geographic breakdown, and numbers of reach-to-families in low-income households. The team were also able to uncover local support needs and build understanding and awareness of local services through direct feedback and satisfaction from parents and families; identifying key trends, such as high demand for information on sleep routines for babies, sharing for two-year-olds, and school readiness for older children. This data has subsequently informed targeted campaigns and service planning for the team.
“One of the biggest selling points for me was the flexibility. We didn’t want something rigid that wouldn’t work for our families. EasyPeasy understood that every local authority is different and adapted to fit our needs… The impact dashboard was a game-changer. It allows us to see what parents are looking for and shape our services accordingly.” - Alison Fleetwood, Service Manager for Early Intervention and Prevention at City of Doncaster Council
Practitioners in Doncaster also received online training, providing teams with additional guidance, best practices, and advice to achieve home learning environment outcomes and drive impact for local children and families. A broad network of health visitors, midwives, nursery staff, and family support workers were able to incorporate EasyPeasy into their work and provide trusted, evidence-based parenting content and simple, structured activities for a diverse community of families.
The impact of the programme amongst children and families in Doncaster
Since implementing the app, City of Doncaster Council has noted positive outcomes amongst local families and the instrumental insights from monitoring progress via real-time data to make informed decisions.
“We've seen really positive feedback from practitioners who use they app to reinforce key messages with families. Health visitors, nursery staff, and family support workers are all using it in their work… The data insights have been instrumental. We can now see trends, like parents of two-year-olds looking for advice on sharing, or three-year-olds on school readiness. That allows us to plan targeted support.” - Alison Fleetwood, Service Manager for Early Intervention and Prevention at City of Doncaster Council
Impact in numbers:
● Almost 10 percent of all children aged 0-5 living in Doncaster reached within 12 months
● 98 percent of parents and carers in Doncaster say they can make an important difference to their child with the app
● 87 percent of parents and carers in Doncaster say they know more about what they can do to help their child develop their speech, language, and communication skills
● 90 percent of parents and carers in Doncaster say they know more about what they can do to help their child develop their problem-solving skills
● 87 percent of parents and carers in Doncaster are using the app either weekly, several times a week, or daily
● 93 percent of parents and carers in Doncaster say they will continue to use the app with their children
"It had so many ideas, so many things I could try. And for a low income family the ideas that don't cost a thing are the best thing." – App using Parent, Doncaster
"The activities…there are so many good ones that I would never of thought of, gives me more ideas to keep a good routine." – App using Parent, Doncaster
Lessons learned by City of Doncaster Council and recommendations to other local authorities
Alison highlights some key learnings for other councils considering digital parenting support programmes and service design:
1. Secure early buy-in from partners and other teams: Engaging key partners such as health visitors, midwives, and social work teams from the outset ensures stronger uptake and integration of digital tools, as well as a strong multi-agency partnership approach.
2. Make use of multiple channels for awareness-raising: While social media has been effective, embedding the app in everyday interactions—such as health visitors placing QR codes in babies’ red books—has driven consistent engagement.
3. Timing matters: Launching initiatives at the right time for key stakeholders, such as schools, can significantly impact and engagement in the roll-out of a new service such as this.
4. Continuously monitor and adapt: The team’s regular, quarterly analysis of engagement and impact data gathered throughout the delivery of the programme has been instrumental in shaping service delivery and responding to families’ needs in real time.
“If you’re bringing in a new service like this, involve your partners early on. If they see the value, they’ll promote it to families, and uptake will be much stronger… And we’ve found that embedding the appinto our everyday processes—like health visitors adding QR codes to red books—has been really effective.” - Alison Fleetwood, Service Manager for Early Intervention and Prevention at City of Doncaster Council
Looking ahead, City of Doncaster Council is focused on sustaining, expanding, and continuously improving its digital parenting support by focusing on a number of key priorities, including strengthening engagement with educational settings to ensure more families benefit from the app, gathering deeper insights from families to further refine service delivery to meet local needs and leveraging the app’s new SEN practitioner resource feature to better support children with additional needs.
“Sustainability is key. We’ve worked hard to ensure the app isn’t just a Start for Life-funded initiative, but part of our core offer so that families can rely on it long-term… As EasyPeasy continues evolving to meet the needs of families—like adding SEN content—it remains a valuable tool for us.” - Alison Fleetwood, Service Manager for Early Intervention and Prevention at City of Doncaster Council
Find out more about EasyPeasy for Local Authorities and download a commissioning guide today!