Commission with confidence

What is PASCAL?

PASCAL (Parenting Support Commissioning Assistant for Local Areas) is a free-to-use decision-making assistant developed by the A Fairer Start Mission team at Nesta, a charity and the UK’s innovation agency for social good.

Its primary aim is to help simplify the commissioning process and provide local authority early years commissioners in England with access to the information and analysis they need to identify suitable and impactful parenting programmes which best meet their specific requirements. It currently focuses on programmes eligible for Best Start Family Hubs grant funding, targeting 3 to 4 year olds and aiming to help local authorities to meet their Good Level of Development targets. We encourage those commissioning parenting programmes to also consider their broader strategies for outreach and engagement of families, including the role of community partners.

PASCAL provides data-driven insights that aim to help you in the early stages of planning parenting support. It uses complex modelling, local needs data and user preferences to suggest a portfolio of programmes that is both personalised to your local authority’s specific needs and estimated to deliver the highest impact.