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Getting it right for every baby – Nesta
Created: 07/10/2026News/Events Category: Children and Families
Nesta have published their new report, 'Getting it right for every baby'. In the report, they present key insights and recommendations from Nesta’s work to map current early childhood support and identify opportunities to transition towards a more preventative, integrated system across Scotland.
What's in the report?
The report highlights five key challenges in the existing landscape of support in Scotland and sets out a framework of interconnected recommendations for national and local action, organised around five key themes. The findings demonstrate that delivering impactful preventative early help requires clear, deliberate action at both the national and the local level.
The five challenges
- A strategic 'baby blind spot': policies and plans often prioritise all-age approaches or older age groups, leaving babies under-represented.
- Inconsistent and reactive service pathways: the current system prioritises immediate risk over early help, meaning many families remain unsupported until they reach a breaking point.
- Short-term and disjointed funding: funding is frequently time-limited and siloed, limiting opportunities for local areas to develop longer-term and joined-up approaches
- Workforce challenges: capacity constraints force practitioners to prioritise high-need cases over preventative care and limit collaborative planning.
- Weaknesses in data infrastructure: unlinked datasets and systems increase admin burdens and limit evidence-based planning.
Key recommendations
- Make early childhood a strategic priority.
- Ensure a consistent and accessible offer of early help is available to all families.
- Ensure funding and accountability mechanisms drive vision-aligned delivery.
- Develop workforce sustainability, capacity and collaboration.
- Create seamless data infrastructure, guidance and capacity that enables best practice.
Click here to access the summary report
Click here to access the full report
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