Latest news with #familyhubs
The Independent
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Phillipson: Family hubs will give parents freedom to focus on loving children
Family hubs offering support and youth services will give parents 'the freedom to focus on loving their children', Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said. The Government announced there will be a Best Start family hub in every local authority in England by April 2026, with £500 million targeted at disadvantaged communities. This comes alongside plans to offer £4,500 to specialist teachers, in a bid to attract staff to nurseries. Officials have also said that Ofsted will inspect all new early years providers within 18 months of them opening from next April, under the Best Start In Life strategy announced on Monday. The Education Secretary has said she wants to 'make sure every child has the chance to succeed', as ministers look to drive up quality and access in early education. In a statement to the Commons on Monday, Ms Phillipson said: 'We'll introduce a new Best Start Family Service delivered through Best Start family hubs, the first step to a national families service that ensures they can get the right support for their children from conception to age five, giving parents the freedom to focus on loving their children.' She added: 'Best Start family hubs will be open to all, rooted in disadvantaged communities. 'They will work with nurseries, childminders, schools, health services, libraries and local voluntary groups – a whole community coming together around one goal: to give children the best possible start in life. 'And Our Best Start digital service means we're ready for the future, linking families to their local Best Start Family Hub, and exploring how the power of AI (artificial intelligence) can help parents find the right information.' According to the Department for Education, some one in 10 nurseries have an early years teacher. The new incentive scheme of a government-funded and tax-free £4,500 payment will look to keep 3,000 more teachers in nurseries. These will be targeted in the 20 most disadvantaged communities, the department said. There will also be a shift towards Ofsted inspections every four years for early years providers, rather than the current six-year cycle. Officials have also said there will be more money to fund partnerships between nurseries and schools to make transition periods easier. The announcements have been welcomed by the sector, but one figure has said the 'devil will be in the detail'. Neil Leitch, chief executive of the Early Years Alliance, said: 'We're clear that this strategy will only work if it is backed up with the tangible support – financial or otherwise – that early years providers and other bodies and professionals need to build an early years system that works for all families. 'But after years of calling for a long-term vision for the early years, there's no doubt that this is a positive development, and we look forward to working with Government to turn vision into reality.' Sarah Ronan, director of the Early Education and Childcare Coalition, has described Monday's strategy as 'a turning point in how we value early education'. 'Change won't happen overnight but it starts today with a shared mission to give every child the best start in life,' she said. Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said 'the rhetoric does not match the reality' because early-years providers were suffering from the impact of increased national insurance contributions (Nics). She told Ms Phillipson: 'Nurseries across the country are on the brink because of decisions her Government have made. 'While it is welcome that the Government has continued the roll out of our early years offer, the lack of compensation for the Nics increase is forcing providers to either hike fees or shut their doors. 'There is no use giving out incentive payments for jobs at nurseries if providers are closing because they've been clobbered with Nics.'
Yahoo
07-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Family hubs to open across every council in England
Family hubs offering parenting support and youth services are set to be rolled out across every council in England, ministers have announced. Early Education Minister Stephen Morgan said the move "will make a huge difference to children up and down the country" and make life easier for parents. .
The Guardian
07-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labour vows to protect Sure Start-type system from any future Reform assault
Labour will aim to embed a Sure Start-type system of help for deprived children and families so deeply and completely into the state that a future Reform or Conservative government would not be able to dismantle it, Bridget Phillipson has pledged. Arguing that efforts to close the attainment gap between poorer and richer children was the government's 'moral mission', the education secretary promised to build on this weekend's announcement of a new wave of family hubs across England, an effective successor to Sure Start. Sure Start, a network of centres offering integrated services for the under-fives and their families, launched in 1998 under the last Labour government, and was seen as one of its major successes, with one study saying it generated longer-term savings worth twice the system's cost. But much of Sure Start was dismantled amid massive spending cuts by the Conservatives. The new policy of family hubs will commit £500m to opening 1,000 centres from April 2026. In an article for the Guardian, Phillipson said the centres should become part of a wider network of help for families, one that would not just be impossible to take apart, but that would become so popular that they would become an untouchable 'third rail' of British politics. The family hubs strategy was 'a watershed moment' for both government and families, Phillipson wrote. She went on: 'To make it a reality we will begin unprecedented collaboration between parents, councils, nurseries, childminders, schools and government, enmeshing family support, early education, and childcare so deeply that no rightwing government can ever unpick it, as the Tories did with Sure Start over 14 long years. 'We will ensure any such assault on the system will become the new third rail of British politics.' In a follow-up announcement to the plan for family hub centres, which are intended to be created in every council area in England by 2028, Phillipson's department has also announced plans to pay qualified early years teachers to work in the most deprived areas, where their work could have the greatest impact. Currently, the Department for Education says, just one in 10 nurseries have a qualified early years teacher. The incentive scheme will involve a tax-free payment of £4,500 to early years teachers who take a job in a nursery in one of the 20 most disadvantaged communities in England. In another change, the education watchdog Ofsted will inspect any new early years providers within 18 months of opening, with subsequent inspections taking place at least once every four years, rather than the current six. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion Sure Start and its successor programmes have a near-totemic role in the narrative of the modern Labour party, with Angela Rayner, its deputy leader, saying her life as a teenage mother and that of her son were turned around by her local centre, which offered her a parenting course. In her Guardian article, Phillipson recounted working closely with the first-ever Sure Start centre in Washington, Tyne and Wear, when she ran a refuge for women fleeing domestic violence, before she entered politics. 'It was a lifeline for those women who, despite everything, were determined to give their children the very best start in life,' she wrote. 'The gap in achievement we see between our poorest and most affluent children at 16 is baked in before they even start school, creating a vicious cycle of lost life chances that's all too visible in the shameful number of young people not earning or learning.' Speaking in interviews on Sunday morning, Phillipson said Labour was also committed to tackling child poverty, but said the fiscal cost of Downing Street's U-turn on changes to welfare last week would make it harder to implement other policies such as potentially scrapping the two-child benefit cap.
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The Independent
06-07-2025
- Health
- The Independent
Family services hubs to opened by all England councils
The Department for Education has announced a nationwide rollout of 'Best Start' family hubs across every council in England. A £500 million investment targets disadvantaged communities, aiming for a hub in every local authority by April 2026, with up to 1,000 hubs by the end of 2028. These hubs will offer a range of services including birth registration, debt advice, midwifery, and support for separated parents. The initiative aims to provide a "lifeline" to families, improve life chances for children, and build on the legacy of previous family support programmes. While charities like Save The Children and the NAHT union welcomed the move, the Conservatives criticised it as a potential rebranding of existing services.
The Independent
06-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Family hubs to be rolled out across every council in England
Family hubs offering parenting support and youth services are set to be rolled out across every council in England, ministers have announced. The Department for Education is putting £500 million targeted at disadvantaged communities into the scheme, to put a Best Start family hub in every local authority by April 2026. The Education Secretary has said that the scheme will 'give a lifeline' to families. Family hubs were originally rolled out across 75 local authorities at the start of 2024 by the then-Conservative government. Officials say that the hubs will be rolled out in every local authority by April 2026, and there will be expanded so there are up to 1,000 of them by the end of 2028. Among the services available at the locations will be birth registration, debt advice, midwifery services and support for parents who are separating or have separated. Officials hope that the spaces will also provide families access to other services and social care. Bridget Phillipson said: 'It's the driving mission of this government to break the link between a child's background and what they go on to achieve – our new Best Start family hubs will put the first building blocks of better life chances in place for more children. 'I saw firsthand how initiatives like Sure Start helped level the playing field in my own community, transforming the lives of children by putting in place family support in the earliest years of life, and as part of our plan for change, we're building on its legacy for the next generation of children. 'Making sure hard-working parents are able to benefit from more early help is a promise made, and promise kept – delivering a lifeline of consistent support across the nation, ensuring health, social care and education work in unison to ensure all children get the very best start in life.' The Conservatives have said that the announcement 'brings little clarity on what's genuinely new and what simply rebrands existing services'. Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said: 'That lack of clarity is part of a wider pattern. 'This is a Government defined by broken promises and endless U-turns.' Charity Save The Children has said it is 'pleased' to see the Government 'making it easier for families to get the help they need'. Dan Paskins, executive director of Policy, Advocacy and Campaigns at Save The Children UK, said: 'Focusing on family services for the under-fives will be vital in securing better outcomes for children, and we welcome the Best Start In Life announcement. 'We know from our work in local communities that bringing together parenting, healthcare and education support services in one place is an approach which works, so we are pleased to see the UK Government making it easier for families to get the help they need. 'With ministers now demonstrating an increasingly ambitious plan for children in the UK, we hope this drive for change continues when the child poverty strategy is released in autumn. 'This must include scrapping the two-child limit to Universal Credit, which is the only meaningful way to reduce the UK's record child poverty rate.' The head of the NAHT union welcomed the move. General secretary Paul Whiteman said: 'This is a positive step forward towards ensuring all children get the best start – and we are pleased to see tangible investment following this week's announcement of new targets for school readiness.'
