Start for Life published offer
Your Baby's Best Start: Sandwell’s Start for Life Published Offer!
The journey from pregnancy to your child's second birthday, also known as the first 1,001 days, lays the foundations for their whole life. We know parenting can be wonderful, but also challenging and overwhelming at times.
Sandwell Family Hubs work in partnership with local services to provide support, in one easy-to-access place. Otherwise known as: Your Start for Life Offer!
This offer is your go-to guide for all the services available, ensuring you and your baby get the help you need, right when you need it.
What is the Start for Life Offer?
Think of it as your single, trusted source of information and support for you, your baby, and your family, covering the time from conception until your child is two years old.
Our goal is simple: to make sure every parent and carer has access to the expert advice and warm, welcoming support necessary to give their baby the best start in life.
What Support Can You Access?
Your local Start for Life Offer, delivered through our Family Hubs, brings together a wide range of services, including:
- Antenatal and Postnatal Care: Seamless support from your midwifery and health visiting teams.
- Infant Feeding Support: Expert advice on breastfeeding and introducing solid foods (weaning).
- Perinatal Mental Health: Support for parents' emotional and mental wellbeing during and after pregnancy.
- Parent-Infant Relationships: Guidance and groups to help you bond and build a strong attachment with your baby.
- Early Language and Development: Tips, activities, and groups to support your child’s early communication and learning at home.
- Parenting Groups: Evidence-based programmes to build your confidence and skills as a parent.
- Practical Family Support: Connections to wider help with things like housing, finance, and employment advice.
Start for Life Published Offer
The Start for Life published offer provides parents and caregivers with a series of helpful, informative magazines at key stages of their parenting journey. These resources are designed to deliver essential information when it's most relevant.
- The first is 'Bump to Baby', received during antenatal care, which covers the period from pregnancy through to birth.
- Next is 'Ready Steady Baby', given by the health visitor, guiding parents through the baby's crucial first year of life.
- The 'Being a Parent', is aimed at parents or carers wanting to know more information on programmes for parents.
- Finally, 'Ready Steady Learn' is provided by a health visitor or Community Nursery Nurse during the child's 2.5 to 3-year check, focusing on early learning and development.
Each magazine contains key, useful information to support families during these important developmental times.
Click on our magazine pages to read/download our latest issues!
Connect with Your Local Family Hub
Our Family Hubs are the welcoming heart of the Start for Life Offer, a place to meet other parents, access professional services, and join in activities.
Find your nearest Family Hub and check their timetable of activities and drop-ins: Click Here
Need to talk? You can call our Family Hub team directly. Click here for contact details
Your 1,001 critical days matter. We're here to support you every step of the way.