We are really excited to be part of this partnership between the James Lind Alliance and the University of Oxford. The Developing Child UK Priority Setting Partnership (PSP) is part of the James Lind Alliance (JLA), which brings patients, carers, and health and care professionals together to agree the most important unanswered questions about health and wellbeing.

Run by members of the Supporting Early Minds Research Network at the University of Oxford and the Institute of Health Visiting, this PSP will work with parents, carers, wider family members and practitioners to identify research priorities for community interventions that support the social and emotional development of babies, toddlers and pre-school children. By ensuring that everyone’s voice is heard equally, the project will identify the top 10 priorities that reflect the shared needs of families and practitioners, guiding funders and researchers towards studies that can make a real difference to young children’s lives.

Watch this video to find out more about the JLA PSP process:

About this Priority Setting Partnership

We will be looking for input to help shape the future of research, shaping community interventions to improve the social and emotional development of babies, toddlers and pre-school children and their families in the United Kingdom.

The Project

The aim of The Developing Child UK PSP is to identify the unanswered questions about community interventions focused on:

• the social and emotional development of babies, toddlers and pre-school children;
• the workforce and the services that provide them from patients, carer and clinical perspectives;
• and then to agree collaboratively a prioritised list of areas in which research is urgently needed going forward.

We will work with parents and caregivers of babies and children under five years of age, practitioners, commissioners, policy makers and researchers in the community, including settings, to identify uncertainties and improve the Social and Emotional Development of Babies, Toddlers and Pre-school children and their Families in the United Kingdom. The scope of this project will include perspectives from parents and carers.

This timeline shows the project plan. The PSP was established in May 2025 and we expect to publish our Top 10 Priorities for research in June 2026.

Opportunities to be involved include:

• Initial consultation survey – this is your chance to share the questions that matter most to you about how community services can best support the social and emotional development of babies, toddlers and pre-school children.
  • This survey is now open – please complete it here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DevelopingChild
• Initial prioritisation survey (launch anticipated March/April 2026) – this will invite you to help rank and prioritise the questions collected in the first survey, so that together we can identify which should be taken forward into the Top 10 list of research priorities.

Watch a short video of Kieran Anders, from Dad Matters, on the reasons to help shape future research in the initial consultation survey:

 

The Project Team

Project Leads:

• Professor Jane Barlow, Professor of Evidence Based Intervention and Policy Evaluation, University of Oxford
• Dr Michael Fanner, Senior Researcher, Department of Social Policy and Intervention, University of Oxford
• Dr Sharin Baldwin, Senior Health Visitor Research Lead, Institute of Health Visiting
• Vicky Gilroy, Director of Innovation and Research, Institute of Health Visiting
• Dr Louisa Clifford-Taylor, Health Visitor Research Associate, Institute of Health Visiting

Our JLA Adviser:

• Dr Jo Watson, Independent Consultant and JLA Adviser

Steering Group members:

The Steering Group comprises:

• Parent and caregiver representatives (Action for Children, Dad Matters, Kids, LGBT Mummies, NHS Race and Health Observatory, Oxford Parent-Infant Project, Sirona Care and Health, The For Baby’s Sake Trust)
• Practitioners
• Researchers

Project Partners:

A range of organisations are involved in this project and their role is to promote the project within their networks, memberships and staff. We appreciate the support we have received from a diverse range of voluntary bodies, charities, academics, NHS Trusts and local authorities.

 

More Information

For more information on The Developing Child UK Priority Setting Partnership (PSP), please contact [email protected]