NHS baby-box schemes (England)
From 2016, some NHS trusts gave parents cardboard baby boxes via a commercial partner after online education; an independent evaluation found the schemes complex, misunderstood and costly in hidden ways.
- Years
- 2016–2019
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Topic
- Infant sleep
- Asks people to
- Start
- Strategy
- Environmental support
- Channel
- Clinical settingPackaging
- Audience
- ParentsNew parents in participating trusts
Evidence
ProcessUnknown
Parents and staff were misinformed about purpose and origins; NHS staff promoted a provider that collected parents' personal details; hidden costs for trusts and parents; 16 recommendations.
Sponsor (who paid)
- NHS trusts in England Foreign government
- Commercial baby-box provider Industry
Credits (who made it)
Not recorded yet.
Related campaigns
- Back to Sleep 1994–now
Sources
- Ball HL, Taylor CE. Baby-box schemes in England: parent and practitioner experiences, and recommendations. BMC Pediatr 2020 evaluation · 2020 · DOI 10.1186/s12887-020-02064-2 · PMID 32278356
Research notes
Created 2026-10-23 from the sleep campaign literature search (PubMed and web search; OpenAlex was unreachable), see docs/sleep-campaigns-literature.md. Findings are paraphrased from abstracts, not full texts; official URLs come from search results and were not opened. endYear is the end of the evaluation window, not necessarily of the schemes.
Record cases/nhs-baby-box-schemes.json, updated 2026-10-23· Link to this campaign