Early Years and Family Support: Evidence, Need and Impact

Inspiring Communities provides free, face-to-face early years and family support for parents and carers with children aged newborn to five across Stirling communities affected by poverty, isolation and wider inequality. Our work reaches families across Raploch, Plean, Cowie, Cornton, Fallin, St Ninians, Bannockburn, Cambusbarron and wider Stirling, including communities and datazones within the most deprived 20% nationally using the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation.

Our work aligns with Stirling’s Children’s Services Plan 2023–2026, which identifies child poverty, family wellbeing, mental health and emotional wellbeing, and helping children and young people reach their potential as key priorities. Public Health Scotland’s early child development statistics show that developmental concerns are more common among children living in the most deprived areas, reinforcing the need for early, preventative, relationship-based support.

The families we support are predominantly experiencing low income and overlapping pressures, including single-parent household pressures, young parenthood, caring responsibilities, food insecurity, reduced income during maternity or family transition, transport barriers, digital exclusion and social isolation. Our support is free at the point of delivery, reducing cost and stigma as barriers to participation.

Our early years and family support includes Stay and Play, parent and toddler support, Twinkle Stars, baby massage, Inspiring Senses, Messy Mondays, family learning, school and library-based family activity, practical hardship support and trusted signposting. We work alongside schools, nurseries, health visitors, Stirling Council Family Support Teams, libraries and community partners, complementing specialist early years, health, education and family support services.

In 2025 to 2026, our National Lottery Community Connections programme delivered 253 sessions to 1,717 individuals across Raploch, Fallin, Plean and Cowie. Reported outcomes included 1,121 people experiencing decreased social isolation, 833 reporting improved family cohesion, 777 improving formal or informal skills, and 504 reporting increased wellbeing and resilience. Early years and family learning formed a significant part of this delivery, including Stay and Play in Plean and Cowie, school-based Stay and Play at East Plean Primary and Cowie Primary, Inspiring Senses in Cornton, Raploch and Cowie, and Messy Mondays across community settings.

Across the Scottish Government Investing in Communities Fund period from April 2023 to March 2026, we delivered 200 weekly parent and toddler support sessions and 305 family learning sessions. Our monitoring records activity type, date, location, new and returning participation, parental age where provided, and participant information where appropriate. This allows us to analyse early years reach by programme, community, age profile, family circumstances and referral route. We are also mapping participant postcode information against SIMD where available.

In 2025 to 2026, the Corra Foundation Household Hardship Fund enabled us to distribute direct support to over 100 families and individuals through more than 160 separate awards. All awards were linked to early years, family support, school partnership or trusted community routes, including Stay and Play, Inspiring Senses, Messy Mondays, schools and partner referrals.

The strongest areas of demand for hardship support were Stirling/Stirling Town, Raploch, Cowie and Plean. The most common presenting needs were food insecurity, children’s clothing and shoes, essential household items, reduced household income, ill health, child illness and travel to essential services. This work showed that practical support, delivered through trusted relationships, can reduce pressure on families and help them remain connected to wider early years and community support. This approach will continue through our Ashworth Charitable Trust award, supporting voucher-based assistance for families over a three-year period.

Our early years work contributes most directly to children’s social and emotional development. We support this through parent–child bonding, responsive caregiving, shared play, routine, confidence, peer connection, early communication and access to trusted local support. Baby massage and Inspiring Senses support focused parent–child interaction, while Stay and Play, Twinkle Stars and parent and toddler sessions support shared play, communication, routine and social connection.

Our approach is informed by recognised early years policy and practice, including Getting it right for every child, Realising the Ambition: Being Me, Scotland’s Play Vision Statement and Action Plan 2025–2030, trauma-informed practice, attachment-informed approaches, responsive caregiving and play-based learning.

Early years support works best when families can access it early, locally, without cost and without stigma. Inspiring Communities provides trusted community-based support that strengthens family confidence, reduces isolation, supports positive parent–child relationships, responds to practical hardship and helps families access wider support when needed.