About Margate early learning community

The Margate Early Learning Community (MELC) was established with the aim of improving early learning outcomes for children aged 0-5 growing up in poverty.

This is because evidence shows that early childhood is a critical time for the development of later life outcomes: positive experiences early in life are closely associated with better performance at school, better social and emotional development, improved work outcomes, higher income and better lifelong health, including longer life expectancy.

As a place-based, systems change initiative, MELC was designed to stimulate impactful and sustainable improvements across the local early years community over time, by bringing together a wide range of stakeholders, including families, services and organisations, to share knowledge, collaborate and innovate to improve outcomes for children. 
 

From 2023-25, MELC’s work was primarily focused across two broad workstreams, which were identified over the first phase of the project as clearly linked to poor early learning outcomes for local children growing up in poverty:

1. Confident parenting – parents and carers are aware of and engaging with existing support, including support focused on children’s early learning and any additional needs
2. Family mental health and wellbeing – both children and their parents/carers have access to support relating to their mental health and wellbeing

While we recognised there were a range of other barriers to learning affecting young children in the community, by narrowing MELC’s focus we hoped to better support the local early years community to collaborate on and learn more deeply about how best to address these two priority areas.

From 2018-25, we worked with over 70 local partners including: local authority service teams, primary schools, nurseries, children’s centres, health services, local businesses and other local charities. Families were also crucial partners in our work and were actively engaged in the design and delivery of projects supported by MELC. With their support, we were able to ensure our work, and that of the partners we worked with, best met the needs of local children and families.

From 2020, MELC supported the piloting of several innovation projects co-designed with practitioners and families from across the community. These projects included new services and adaptations to existing provision for families. Together, we aimed to test and learn from new approaches developed to address gaps in services, as well as trialling a new approach to service design and delivery that was community-led and supported long-term shifts in the local early years system. Projects supported by MELC included:

• Five cohorts of parenting support programme ‘Families Supporting Families’, delivered by The Education People
• Fast-referral counselling for parents/carers, delivered by Fegans
• Establishing an ‘Early Years Network’ for local professionals – following MELC’s closure in December 2025, Mama to Mama took on the role of hosting this network
• Partnership with the Turner Contemporary gallery to develop and deliver a range of projects, including Turnips
• Improving access to support for children with a suspected or diagnosed SEND, including through partnerships with The Autism Apprentice and For Us Too
• Participatory research into the challenges faced by local migrant families, in partnership with Beyond the Page
• Developing new spaces and opportunities for safe, outdoor play, including through partnerships with Windmill Community Gardens Margate and Thanet Community Churches
• Creating dedicated spaces for vulnerable parents/carers to support their mental health and wellbeing, including through partnerships with Spurgeons, Medaille Trust and Mama to Mama
• Promoting improved physical and mental health and wellbeing among young children, including through partnerships with Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust, Margate & Mocketts Wood Primary Care Network and Kent Family Hubs
• Improved wellbeing resources for children and families in local schools
• Community events connecting Roma families with local health services
• Free access for local families to parenting app EasyPeasy
• Distributing hundreds of grants including household essentials, toys and books through Save the Children's Early Years Grant programme