Reflection on the latest Children and Families Colab

A Faith In Kids report published in 2018 estimated that 27,000 churches run early years projects, with 52% of children in England being the beneficiaries of church-led parent and toddler groups. ChurchWorks has recognised the huge opportunity for churches and faith groups to collaborate with local government through Family Hubs, hoping to further progress in this area through our Children and Families Colab launched in Autumn 2024. Our Family Hubs Toolkit outlines some of the practical steps that local authority and faith leaders might take to build partnerships, making the case for the distinct assets that faith groups can offer to Family Hub ambitions - a huge scale of existing services, trusting relationships, buildings, volunteers and person-centred values. 

One of our biggest learnings in developing the Family Hubs Toolkit and facilitating the Children and Families Colab has been that partnership depends on two-way translation. In many cases, churches and Local Authorities are unknowingly on a very similar mission - to support vulnerable children and families in their communities - but speaking different languages. Due to jargon and complex organisational structures, they can be unaware of each other’s efforts and risk duplication. 

In July 2025, the ‘Giving every Child the Best Start in Life’ policy was released. Notably, this paper identified a range of ‘Good Level of Development’ goals for 3-4 yr olds to counteract the challenges with poor school readiness being observed across the country, including toilet training, basic language and the ability to sit still and focus. As a result, ensuring that early years settings are actively developing school readiness in children became a key funding and outcome priority of Family Hubs. But how are the huge number of church-led early years settings being equipped to build school readiness in their contexts?

In our most recent Children and Families Colab (July 16th), ChurchWorks gathered leaders from Christian organisations, denominations and local churches to explore the topic of School Readiness. We were joined by Natasha Bishopp from the National Centre for Family Hubs, who unpacked some of the jargon and policy and simplified what it means to be ‘school ready’. Both Natasha and Victoria Baird from Spurgeons were keen to note that faith groups already have the ingredients, including regular contact with families in trusted, low-stigma spaces, needed to contribute to school readiness and encouraged churches to recognise their unique strengths, rather than feel overwhelmed in the face of ambitious goals!

Jo Gordon, from Daniel’s Den, offered a series of recommendations - simple and low-cost changes or additions to a church-based Parent and Toddler Group - that can help reach school readiness goals. These include:

• Having books available
• Using playdough to develop fine motor skills 
• Using ride-on toys to develop gross motor skills 
• Clear times for different activities e.g. story-time, tidy-up time to teach a sense of routine
• Story-time or singing-time to develop attention when sitting
• Different activities that will help develop new language and vocabulary e.g. dressing up corner, pretend kitchen or hairdressers shop
• Craft activities that involve different skills including cutting, sticking, tearing etc. 
• Develop numeracy skills by encouraging the children to count how many people are present each session

If you are looking for more tips and tricks to help grow school readiness in your church context, we highly recommend looking at the Gather Movement’s guide: It’s not just a Parent and Toddler group.

By making a few simple changes, we hope that church-based toddler groups can become equipped to support the children they work with to be school ready. Resourcing the church with these skills is not only vital for the development of the young people, but also necessary to being seen as legitimate and effective network-site partners for Local Authority Best Start for Life Family Hubs. In light of the huge number of children and young people who access Parent and Toddler Groups and Nurseries in church settings, resourcing local church volunteers to understand and adopt school readiness measures feels like a requirement if we are going to reach the ambitious government targets for 75% of 5-year-olds reaching a Good Level of Development by 2028. 

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