Big Lottery Fund is to provide £165m of funding for voluntary and charity sector partnerships working with local authorities to provide a better start for vulnerable babies in England.

Up to 15 local authority areas will receive a development grant of up to £400,000 to formulate a case for how their partnership would intervene to prevent societal issues faced by people who are considered 'at risk' in their first three years of life. 

Three to five of these partnerships will then be chosen to receive grants of £30-50m to run their programmes over the next ten years. Successful projects will work with all new parents in the target area and then focus on the 20-30 per cent most in need. They will also gather evidence to demonstrate the benefit of support in the early years to children, society and the economy.

The funding comes after BIG's work with a number of experts in the field of early years, including Naomi Eisenstadt, former director of the Sure Start Programme and Social Exclusion Task Force. 

Research has found that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are at a significantly higher risk of developing coduct disorders leading to numerous difficulties for them and society, and that the development of early cognitive ability is strongly associated with later educational success, income and better health.

Eisenstadt said: "This initiative will, for the first time, bring to scale some already proven approaches, as well as test the effectiveness of other innovative ways of working with families with very young children. BIG's willingness to invest for the long term is warmly welcomed."

BIG invites local authorities to apply for development grants, which will be awarded to between ten and 15 areas in August 2013. Final awards of between £30-50m from the 'A Better Start' programme will be made to between three and five partnerships in March 2014.