Start for Life support tools – the place for trusted NHS advice

The Better Health Start for Life campaign provides trusted NHS help and advice to parents, on the key topics of breastfeeding, introducing solid foods, the home learning environment and parent-infant relationships.  A range of hard copy and digital resources are available to you and your colleagues, and wider partners to support these messages, as well as a suite of digital support tools and websites. These are all available now and all year-round as below.

Breastfeeding
Offering support to mums and new parents through their first weeks of breastfeeding and beyond, we a have a range of “always on” resources to support the work of early years health care professionals, including:

• Off to the best start - A guide to help you start breastfeeding: a four page A5 leaflet providing parents with top tips on how to breastfeed.
• Posters: A range of ready to use and “empty belly” posters with multiple creatives.
• Social Media Toolkit: contains a range of social posts that focus on common breastfeeding questions.
• A range of other digital and print resources, including digital screens, editorial copy and more.

Introducing Solid Foods
Offering parents support and advice on introducing solid foods to their baby, we have a range of always on resources to support the work of early years health care professionals, including:

• Take-home wall chart: with helpful tips on weaning for mums, parents and carers to use at home.
• Easy Read Weaning Leaflet: An 11-page, A4 size easy read leaflet promoting introducing solid foods with helpful tips for mums, parents and carers with low literacy levels or where English is not a first language.
• A range of other digital and print resources, including posters, digital screens, editorial copy, social media toolkits and more.

Home Learning Environment
Offering support and advice to develop and improve children's language and communication skills and ultimately increase levels of school readiness in reception aged children, we have a range of always on resources to support the work of early years health care professionals, including:

• Partner Activation Pack: Activation Pack containing all the information partners need to run the 'Little Moments Together' campaign.
• Posters: A range of ready-to-use, empty belly, black and white and customisable 'Little Moments Together' posters.
• Social Media Toolkit: Home Learning Environment 'Little Moment's Together' social media toolkit.
• A range of other digital and print resources, including posters, digital screens, editorial copy, social media toolkits and more. Resources are available with a general Star for Life call to action, and a Family Hub call to action for areas with that provision.

Better Health Start for Life Parent-Infant Relationships
Offering support and advice to promote the importance and benefits of strong parent-infant relationships, and the importance of building a strong connection from pregnancy to the age of two, we have a range of always on resources to support the work of early years health care professionals, including:

• Partner Activation Pack: Pack containing all the information needed to run the 'If They Could Tell You...' parent-infant relationships campaign.
• Posters: A range of ready-to-use, empty belly, black and white and customisable 'If They Could Tell You...' posters.
• Social Media Toolkit: Home Learning Environment 'If They Could Tell You...' social media toolkit.
• A range of other digital and print resources, including posters, digital screens, editorial copy, social media toolkits and more. Resources are available with a general Star for Life call to action, and a Family Hub call to action for areas with that provision.

There are also a range of support tools available to mums, parents and carers that provide trusted NHS help and advice. Early years health care professionals can signpost their service users to these in addition to the fantastic work they do on the ground.

Start for Life website
The new look Start for Life website was updated in 2023 with updated features including:

• Updated pregnancy week by week guides
• NEW ‘baby basics’ content covering key questions of new parents ‘now your baby comes with an instruction manual’
• NEW ‘Labour and Birth’ section
• NEW Interactive ‘ready or not’ weaning quiz
• Updated easier to use recipe hub with multiple filters
• Improved in-site search function
• Refreshed mobile-optimised design throughout

Start for Life email Programme
The Start for Life email programme offers NHS trusted advice and support, tailored to the stage of a mother’s pregnancy or baby's age. The personalised emails have been created to support mums, parents and carers throughout pregnancy and parenthood. Features of the email programme include:

• Different email programmes for mums, dads, and partners, with tailored information for each.
• ​The emails can be translated into a range of different languages using the options at the top of all emails.​
• Pregnancy emails contain information on your baby’s development, changes in your body, plus tips and advice on labour and birth, finding antenatal classes, what foods to eat (and avoid) during pregnancy, exercising safely and bonding with baby.​
• Post birth emails include advice on your baby's development, breast and bottle feeding, coping with tiredness, weaning your baby onto solid foods, looking after your mental wellbeing.
• 96% of subscribers say they would recommend the Start for Life emails to new parents.

We’d love to hear how you’re using Start for Life campaigns to encourage healthier early years behaviours. You can get in touch and share your activity with us, plus photos, at partnerships@dhsc.gov.uk. Please use the same address if you have any questions or comments.

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