Child opportunity map
See it as a child and family do
Start with the child: what this journey is actually like for a child and their family, before thinking about any service.
This map is what we know: a reference to read in advance and come back to. The audit tool is where you look at your own place.
Open the child audit toolThe cradle-to-career opportunity
The journey below is what happens as children grow up. The opportunity is how a place makes the most of it.
Build support that is
Coherent educational experiencessupport makes sense across phases and settingsConnected servicesprofessionals act together, not in isolationConsistent relationshipssupport does not disappear at transition pointsWhich drives engagement
Children, families, employers and the wider community engage more. You can see it in attendance, enrichment, family engagement and take-up of services.
Which drives the five outcomes
- Achieve well academically
- Be safe and well-supported
- Be healthy, physically, mentally and emotionally
- Build strong relationships and social networks
- Develop a range of skills
The cradle-to-career journey
What happens as a child moves from cradle to career, and the milestones along the way.
Early childhood
Birth to 5
A child goes from total dependence to walking into a classroom. More brain architecture is laid down here than at any later point, and almost none of it happens anywhere a school can see.
Before a child learns anything else, they learn who is safe. Most of what shapes that happens at home, in a health visitor's front room, and in a nursery you may never have visited.
Key milestones, one per outcome
A recommended starting point, not the only measures.
Other indicators you might track: Two-year-old development check completion · take-up of funded early education at two · speech and language screening
Examples of what places have done
Bligh, Medway. Cohort 1 Accelerator partner, working on the earliest years of the pipeline. Feltham, Hounslow. The 1,001 days work, a Best Start Family Hub partnership and a warm handover into Reception.
Childhood
5 to 11
A child learns to read, then reads to learn. Families are more present in school life in these years than they will ever be again, and out-of-school experience begins to compound in ways that surface much later.
A child learns to read, and starts forming a view about whether school is a place for people like them. Families are more present now than they will ever be again.
Key milestones, one per outcome
A recommended starting point, not the only measures.
Other indicators you might track: Phonics check at Year 1 · times tables check at Year 4 · pupil wellbeing survey
Examples of what places have done
Bognor Regis, West Sussex. Twenty-five Year 12 literacy leaders work weekly with Reception, extended into the nursery by Year 9 leaders. The Phoenix Centre ran 25 activity types with 17 partners for around 650 participants in a single term. Brigshaw, Leeds. A Festival of Transition running from Year 4, a marked fall in Year 7 autumn-term suspensions over three years, Cluster Early Help supporting 216 families and 254 children in counselling.
Adolescence
11 to 16
Puberty opens a second period of heightened brain plasticity, and the move to secondary has the potential to disrupt lots of relationships a child has at once. Attendance in that first secondary year has been found to predict eventual completion better than prior attainment or family background (Allensworth and Easton, University of Chicago, 2005 and 2007).
Everything changes at once: the building, the adults, the friends, the body. A young person becomes acutely sensitive to status, respect and whether they belong.
Key milestones, one per outcome
A recommended starting point, not the only measures.
Other indicators you might track: Reading and maths standardised scores at Years 7 and 9 · average grade across GCSEs, or a level 2 vocational pass · suspensions in Year 7
Examples of what places have done
BA2gether, Bath. A multi-agency transition task group convened at local partners' request, in an area where affluence and disadvantage sit inside a single catchment. Brigshaw, Leeds. A Festival of Transition running from Year 4, a marked fall in Year 7 autumn-term suspensions over three years, Cluster Early Help supporting 216 families and 254 children in counselling.
Young adulthood
16 to 19
The stretch between results day and enrolment is the least-owned period in a young person's life, and drop-out concentrates in the first term of a new setting, often for reasons of transport, cost and food rather than academics. Of the roughly one million young people not in education, employment or training, 84% say they want work or training (Milburn review, interim report 2026).
A young person is asked to choose, often on very uneven information, and then to keep going somewhere nobody is obliged to keep them.
Key milestones, one per outcome
A recommended starting point, not the only measures.
Other indicators you might track: Local authority participation and NEET figures at 16 and 17 · destination measures at 16 and 18 · apprenticeship starts
Examples of what places have done
BS1 Alive, Bristol. Thirteen integrated programmes reaching over 300 young people, across six inner-city wards and twelve partner institutions from a children's centre to two universities. Honicknowle, Plymouth. A redesigned Stay and Play model took family engagement from low to 95%. The Burrington Community Hub delivered over 3,300 engagements and 525 meals with 27 partner organisations. Post-16 routes are being aligned to Babcock International's local recruitment.
Activities are examples drawn from Feltham and from partner places, not a required list. This is the child layer of three: Child, Cluster, Neighbourhood.