The way mothers, fathers and other caregivers nurture and support babies and toddlers in their early years is among the most decisive factors for healthy child development.

Many caregivers across the globe succeed in providing babies and toddlers with a good start in life. But many also need additional resources or support to be able to consistently provide young children with the types of early environments that foster healthy development. For economically disadvantaged parents and caregivers, efforts to stretch their money and care for young children can take an extra toll on their own well-being. Services may be unclear, inappropriate, inaccessible, or non-existent. Additionally, seeking public support can be stigmatising.

A growing body of research shows that parents and other caregivers’ well-being is an essential part of babies’ and toddlers’ healthy development.

Parents+ combines early years-focused coaching activities for parents and other caregivers – using insights from behavioural science to improve impact – with at least one other service designed to meet a child’s and/or her parents’ basic needs. This joint provision could occur within government-led services, or in conjunction with civil society partners. We advocate for this combination because we believe that the bundling of services is a cost-effective way to achieve impact at scale in the early years.

We seek to engage with policymakers, civil society and other stakeholders to build policy structures that support all babies, toddlers and caregivers, together with key programmes directed at specific vulnerable populations.