Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) helps to improve children’s life chances
FNP is an intensive, targeted intervention which has been shown to improve vulnerable children’s development, their readiness to learn at school, and their early educational attainment: factors which are known to influence improved health, wellbeing and economic outcomes for people in the long term.
In a study about FNP in England, positive effects observed at Key Stage 1 show particular benefit for:
- Boys,
- The children of very young mothers (aged under 16 in pregnancy), and
- Children born to mothers who were not in education or employment (in pregnancy).
Public health investment in FNP can help give the best start in life to the children of young, first time parents, whose development usually falls far below their peers in the general population.
What does it cost to fund an FNP team in a local area?
The costs to a local authority are the salaries and operational costs of an FNP staff team to deliver the service. As a minimum, this is typically a supervisor, a team of at least four nurses and a quality support officer, who provides administrative and data system support.
As well as delivering the FNP programme to vulnerable first-time young parents, nurse practitioners commonly:
- Share valuable learning with wider maternity and early years workforce colleagues and can train others;
- Provide supervision and expertise in working with very young, vulnerable parents; and
- Lead on vulnerable parent pathways within their local area.
FNP supervisors are senior managers in their local systems.
National infrastructure to support local FNP teams
The FNP National Unit, based in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities within the Department for Health and Social Care, provides FNP training, materials, ongoing clinical support, data system, quality assurance and improvement at no additional cost to local authorities. The Department for Health and Social Care supports local authorities to deliver the programme by funding licence costs in England.