Babyzone has today announced ambitious plans to operate 20 hubs across England within 24 months, following a landmark year that saw visits increase by 30% to over 61,000. As part of their report, the charity has also set out its strategic vision: expanding the network of physical hubs, advancing the Early Years research agenda, developing evidence-based early years curricula, launching the Babyzone Academy, and growing digital reach both nationally and globally.
The charity has also appointed George Looker, former Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Education, as Chief Executive Officer to lead this national scale-up.
The announcement comes as Babyzone releases its
2025 Strategy and Impact Report, revealing that 70% of families using its services come from the most disadvantaged communities, with 84% of parents reporting they use Babyzone's evidence-based techniques at home with their children.
National Recognition and Government Support
The charity's innovative model has attracted high-profile support, including visits from former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak MP and Akshata Murty, and Stephen Morgan MP, who as Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Department for Education described Babyzone as "a lifeline for families with children aged 0–5" that "embodies the vision this Government wants to achieve through our Best Start in Life strategy."
Leadership for Scale
George Looker brings unique expertise to the CEO role, having led national early years policy initiatives as Special Adviser to the Education Secretary between 2015-16, before building and scaling innovative businesses in the private sector. As a father of three children under five, he combines professional expertise with personal commitment to the mission.
"Babyzone has proven that high-quality, barrier-free early years support can transform outcomes for families," said Looker. "Our evidence shows that when you combine physical hubs, digital support, and strong partnerships, you create lasting change. We're ready to bring this model to communities across the UK and globally."
Charles Mindenhall, Co-Founder and Chair of Trustees, added: "If we solve early years, we don't just solve one of society's problems, we can solve them all. George's appointment, alongside the establishment of "Friends of Babyzone" in the U.S. positions us to deliver on this vision at scale."
International Expansion
In the United States, Friends of Babyzone has been established to build partnerships and extend the reach of Babyzone’s evidence‑based model. Its Board includes Bansi Nagji, Rebecca Griffiths and Lee Arthur.
The Babyzone Flywheel: Seven-Point Strategy for Transformational Change
At the heart of Babyzone's approach is a powerful vision: confident, knowledgeable parents and practitioners → thriving children. The 2025 Strategy and Impact Report outlines how the Babyzone Flywheel creates a self-reinforcing system where practice creates knowledge, knowledge creates confidence, and confidence creates change.
1. High-Quality Hubs: Our Living Labs – Scaling from eight to 20 hubs across England within 24 months, targeting communities with the greatest unmet need including Grimsby (opening Autumn 2025), Swansea, and Glasgow. Each hub operates as a "living laboratory" providing free, barrier-free access to evidence-based programmes, health services, and peer support.
2. Test and Refine Programmes – Inside these hubs, Babyzone develops and iterates curricula such as Everyday Maths and NEST (Name, Empathise, Self-regulate, Team-up) together with parents, practitioners, and researchers. Families' feedback and evaluation cycles drive constant improvement, ensuring everything is practical, inclusive, and evidence-based. This year alone, over 4,416 evidence-informed classes were delivered.
3. Partner Ecosystem Strengthens the Engine – Babyzone's partner network has almost doubled from 140+ to 260+ organisations, including NHS teams, local authorities, and leading charities. Every hub hosts partners who test and refine their interventions in Babyzone's high-quality environment, creating a whole-system improvement engine where health, social care, and education meet families early and collaboratively.
4. Share Freely: Digital and Open Access – Proven programmes are shared widely through the website, social media, the Baby Buddy app (2.5 million pieces of content consumed), WhatsApp communities (300,000+ interactions), and open-source materials. Parents, practitioners, and other early years settings can access Babyzone curricula and content for free, extending impact far beyond physical hubs.
5. The Babyzone Academy: Powering Practice Through Shared Learning – Launching in partnership with Hive Learning, the Academy will equip thousands of early years practitioners with Babyzone's evidence-based methodologies through short, practical modules and a buzzing online community. This creates a multiplier effect, reaching families across the country regardless of proximity to a physical hub.
6. Building Proven Parent Confidence, Agency and Impact – As parents and practitioners learn and develop new skills, they build confidence and agency, creating the conditions where children thrive. Confidence and connection compound, creating peer-to-peer advocacy, where parents and practitioners share Babyzone tools with friends, schools, nurseries and online networks, multiplying reach and credibility, measured through our co-designed evaluation framework, Parent Confidence Index and Hub-to-Home data.
7. Policy and Systems Change – Continuous learning from hubs, digital platforms, and partnerships drives insight and advocacy. Babyzone shares what works openly through the Academy and Insight reports, informing early years policy and shaping what good looks like for confidence, engagement, early learning, and service integration, nationally and globally.
Proven Impact at Scale
The strategy builds on a strong foundation of demonstrated results:
The Babyzone Model
Babyzone operates free, drop-in centres where families access evidence-based programmes, health services, and peer support under one roof. The charity's "flywheel" model creates a self-reinforcing system where practice creates knowledge, knowledge creates confidence, and confidence creates change.
At the centre of this flywheel sits Babyzone's North Star: confident, knowledgeable parents and practitioners leading to thriving children. Research shows that 80% of brain development occurs before age three, more than one million neural connections form every second, making early intervention crucial. Babyzone's approach supports parents as their children's first teachers, with measurable improvements in school readiness, parental confidence, and family wellbeing. As the flywheel turns, every visit, every interaction, and every insight adds momentum to a movement where confident parents and thriving children become the norm, not the exception.
Next Phase of Growth
The expansion will see new Babyzone hubs opening in communities with significant unmet need. Grimsby is set to open in Autumn 2025, with Swansea and Glasgow following in early 2026. With each rotation of the flywheel, families become more knowledgeable and confident, partners become more effective, and data becomes more insightful, building momentum toward stronger early years systems for all.