Opinion: In my view - Good start to guidance

Often we have superb health colleagues working alongside dedicated professionals in family support and early years. The new Government guidance, Maternity and Early Years: Making a good start to family life, recognises, however, that all too often, good quality work on the ground is still far from being structurally embedded in universal children's services and seeks to fill some gaps.

The guidance empowers families in a number of ways, with plans to offer more help to prepare for parenthood, and more maternity information, enabling families to make informed decisions about available resources and services. Both are ambitious but overdue.

Concise references to research in the guidance underpin the need to be the best we can be. In his recent Independent Review: Fair Society, Healthy Lives, Professor Sir Michael Marmot concluded that children's centres providing access to high-quality health reduce inequalities in early physical, emotional, cognitive, linguistic and social development. The National Evaluation of Sure Start reinforces evidence that parents in Sure Start areas have more positive parenting skills and better home learning environments for children.