Thurrock was one of the 75 local authorities across England to be an early adopter of the UK government’s Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. Thurrock’s Council officially signed up to the programme in 2022. Developing the Home Learning Environment (HLE) was identified for delivery as evidence shows that the quality of parent-child interactions at home is a key predictor of a child’s early language ability and future success.
Background and context
Thurrock was one of the 75 local authorities across England to be an early adopter of the UK government’s Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. Thurrock’s Council officially signed up to the programme in 2022. Developing the Home Learning Environment (HLE) was identified for delivery as evidence shows that the quality of parent-child interactions at home is a key predictor of a child’s early language ability and future success. The programmes delivered as part of the HLE offer include: WellComm; Talk Boost; Early Words Together; Making it REAL (including Train the Trainer element); and PEEP. With the range of programmes offered they aim to reinvigorate the importance of parents engagement with their child’s early learning and development and work collaboratively across the Family Hubs and education community in Thurrock. The focus is on 3-4-year-olds, but the plan is to extend the reach to 2-3-year-olds.
Chat, Pay and Grow is the Thurrock branding that encapsulates all HLE programmes and delivery for parenting, including the Start for Life website and virtual offer of BBC Tiny Happy People resources.
The challenge
There were high number of children coming into early years settings/schools with speech and language and social skills delays. In addition, the parent partnership with settings since the Covid pandemic had decreased due the associated restrictions. During this time the immense pressure on settings to focus on health and safety impacted the focus parents as first educators and parents were not engaging in settings as much as they did before the pandemic. These trends highlighted that there was a gap in early intervention in terms of education.
Staff wanted to see a change in terms of delivery of evidence based HLE interventions provided directly to families of pre-school children in the family hubs, innovating approaches to target and support families in diverse situations ensuring no family is left behind. The challenge was reaching the target group of 3-4-year-olds and their parents as Thurrock has a high take up of children accessing the funded early years education places. This was recognised by the end of the pilots (1 cycle of each programme) and discussed with partners to agree the best approach moving forward.
The solution
Local authority officers and commissioned partners decided to deliver the programmes internally via outreach to settings and schools. Free training was provided to early years practitioners and teachers to deliver the programme and ongoing support and quality assurance was offered. Local authority officers and members of the team sit on the Family Hub board and transformation group who meet regularly so continuous discussions were had with the Family Hubs lead and relevant partners on the progress and impact being made.
The impact
The following HLE programmes were delivered to 3-4-year-olds between 2022-2025
WellComm: Initially this was embedded in Family Hubs with practitioners being trained in supporting children’s speech and language development and delivering WellComm. Reach was expanded to include PVI’s across the localities. 1089 children aged 3-4 years accessed the programme. Progress is monitored by 12 weekly assessments. Impact on parents included increasing confidence to develop their own child’s speech and language development, thereby supporting intervention at the earliest stage and taking pressure off other linked services. All children made progress: 42 % of children progressed by one age band; 31 % of children progressed by two or more age bands; 12% of children progressed in outcomes rather than age bands; 15% of children completed WellComm and no further action or speech therapy is required.
Talk Boost: Talk Boost is a 10-week programme to support 3–4-year-olds who are struggling with talking and understanding words. It focuses on the foundational communication skills to ensure children can access the curriculum and make a positive start at school. This programme is delivered in small groups of 6-8 children, together with their parents, using songs and stories to boost children’s confidence that can be continued at home. 26 children took part in the programme and 92 per cent of children made progress.
Early Words Together (National Literary Trust): This is a 6-week literacy intervention to support school readiness which is delivered in the hubs by Family Hub practitioners, and some have worked in partnership with schools and settings to deliver this. A total of 71 parents/carers and 75 children have participated in a cycle of the Early Words Together 3-4 programme. According to parents after attending Early Words Together: 87 per cent of children enjoyed mark-making more; 84 per cent of children had increased the attention they pay to stories; 75 per cent of children enjoyed sharing books more and had asked to look at or read stories more at home. Parents reported higher levels of confidence in supporting their child’s early language development.
Making it REAL (including train the trainer element) : This programme is delivered to 3–4-year-old children and their families living in disadvantaged communities, to support development of early literacy. Delivered in the family hubs, PVI settings and school, it is a programme delivered over 12-18 months involving five group sessions and ten home visits. The aim of this programme was to train a wide range of practitioners to deliver this to families in their home environment with linked literacy events in settings. By focusing on the train the trainer programme, future sustainability and accessibility of the programme is being strengthened. Thurrock reached train the trainer status in 2025.
PEEP: This programme is delivered through universal stay and play sessions and targeted support to reach those children transitioning to school. It focusses on supporting all areas of learning and development with an emphasis on making the most of no cost, low-cost activities in the home. Resources are shared with families to encourage further learning and development at home linked to session themes. A new HLE practitioner was trained in September 2025 to develop the use of PEEP within existing sessions in Family Hubs and through digital communications to reach more families.
Lessons learned
- Collaboration across all partners has been key to the success of the programme within the family hubs and throughout the community, in settings and schools.
- Knowledge of local demographics, building relationships with key partners and investing in programmes that can be delivered flexibly to meet the needs of the community has been important.
- Building on what is already on offer in the local area to support the Home Learning Environment has worked well.
- Start small with a pilot in one family hub and then roll out to others.
- Prioritise key programmes and investing in people to support consistency in delivery. Recognising that having five programmes is too many.
- Talk Boost is currently a 10-week programme – feedback suggests this is too long.
- Extend the HLE programme to 2–3-year-olds to maximise impact.
Contact
Alison Picknell: School Effectiveness and Early Years Manager [email protected]
Katie Corbett – Early Education Improvement Officer [email protected]