Our Scope
The Leading Great Lives Foundation delivers practical, accessible support across five core areas, ensuring that families and children have the foundations they need to thrive.
Our work focuses on the real issues that shape a child’s life chances: their early development, their additional needs, their health, their basic security, and the strength of their family network.
Across these five areas, we work hand‑in‑hand with schools, health services, local authorities, and community partners to break down barriers and enable every young person to lead a great life.
Aligned to Our Mission
Across these five areas, our scope directly reflects our mission:
Supporting families, strengthening communities so that children can thrive.
Every action we take — from dental outreach to toddler groups, from SEND guidance to community fridges —
helps create the conditions for children to lead great lives.
Early Years Support
We invest in the crucial first 1,000 days of a child’s life — from pregnancy to early childhood — ensuring that families receive the right help, at the right time.
What we do
- Ante‑natal and peri‑natal support
Working alongside midwifery teams, early years practitioners and health visitors to ensure parents feel confident, informed and supported during pregnancy and early infancy. - Family support in the early stages of life
Helping parents navigate feeding, sleep, early bonding, wellbeing and the practical challenges of early childhood. - Access to nursery and early years provision
Guidance and support for families struggling to access childcare, early education or funding entitlements. - Baby and toddler groups
Our hubs host nurturing parent–child groups that reduce isolation, provide peer community, and connect families with local services. - Pre-schools and nurseries
Working with local pre-schools and nurseries to ensure the smoothest of transitions to one of our primary schools.
This early foundation strengthens family resilience, supports school readiness, and sets the conditions for children to thrive long-term.
Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)
We help families navigate the complexities of SEND identification, support and provision — ensuring that no child or parent feels lost or alone in the process.
What we do
- Guidance for parents in the early stages of SEND concerns
Helping families recognise signs, understand pathways, and access the right support at the right time. - EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan) advice
Supporting parents through the EHCP process, offering clarity on rights, timelines and expectations. - Access to specialist provision
Linking families with trusted professionals for assessments, therapies, interventions and specialist advice. - Ongoing family support
Ensuring parents have someone to turn to as they navigate decisions affecting their child’s education, development and wellbeing.
This work ensures that families feel empowered — not overwhelmed — and that children receive the tailored support they need to flourish.
Health
Good health is fundamental to a child’s ability to learn, participate and thrive. Through our hubs and school-based initiatives, we improve access to essential health services and promote lifelong healthy habits.
What we do
- Devon School Nurse Service
Supporting families with issues such as:
• managing continence, toileting and hygiene
• emotional and physical health concerns
• healthy weight and lifestyle
School nurses play a crucial role in reducing health-related barriers to attendance and learning. - Access to dentistry & dental hygiene awareness
Through dental outreach, training of Dental Champions and partnerships with local practices, we offer:
• brushing workshops
• dental health sessions for children and parents
• onsite community dental clinics in hubs
This is especially vital for families who struggle to access dentistry. - Mental health & attendance
We work closely with practitioners to address anxiety, school avoidance, and mental health needs that directly impact attendance. Families receive early help before issues escalate.
Across our communities, these actions remove the health obstacles that prevent children from being fully present — physically, emotionally and educationally.
Food Security
No child can thrive when their basic nutritional needs are uncertain. We work to remove barriers to food access and help families build sustainable, confident relationships with food.
What we do
- Partnerships with local food banks
Ensuring families can quickly access emergency food support without stigma. - Community fridges based within our hubs
These offer free, accessible, dignified access to surplus food for anyone who needs it. - Breakfast clubs for our most vulnerable pupils
Ensuring every child starts the day with nourishment, focus and readiness to learn. - “Cook Together” strategy
A developing initiative providing:
• cooking support and skills
• access to ingredients
• shared community cooking experiences
• resources for low‑cost family meals
This empowers families to cook nutritious meals despite rising living costs.
- Partnerships with local supermarkets and Pop-Up Food Markets
Securing surplus food, funding, ingredients and ongoing collaborative support.
By tackling food poverty directly, we help families withstand the pressure of the cost‑of‑living crisis and ensure children can learn and grow without hunger.
Parent, Carer and Young People Support
Strong families create strong futures. We work to build the networks around parents, carers and young people so that every family feels able to manage challenges and plan confidently for the future.
What we do
- Citizens Advice links
Supporting families with housing, debt, benefits, crisis support and financial stability. - Multi-agency partnerships
Including the police, social care, locality teams and early help services — providing joined‑up support, as modelled in our work at the Dartmouth Hub. - School Support & Snacks initiative
Providing informal drop‑in opportunities and practical support that help families stay engaged with school life. - Attendance support
Helping families overcome barriers to regular school attendance through early intervention, guidance and practical support. - Youth provision partnerships
Connecting young people with safe, positive community activities through locality youth services, local sports clubs and hub-based sessions.
This holistic network ensures that families feel supported, not judged — and that young people have places to go, people to trust and opportunities to succeed.