Latest news with #parentingsupport
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 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.'
BBC News
06-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Family hubs to open in every council in England
Family hubs offering parenting support and youth services will be rolled out across every local authority in England, the government has announced. The £500 million plan aims to support 500,000 more children in the most disadvantaged areas. Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the "Best Start" family hubs would "give a lifeline" to Conservatives said there was "little clarity on what's genuinely new and what simply rebrands existing services". The idea of a family hub dates back to the early 2000s when New Labour introduced "Sure Start" centres - focused on supporting young families with early education, childcare and health advice. Many closed after 2010 when funding was cut by the Tories. But last year the Conservative government under Rishi Sunak rolled out 400 new "family hubs" offering a wider range of services across 75 local authorities. Now Labour say the hubs will be in every local authority by April 2026, before expanding them to up to 1,000 by the end of 2028. They will offer services ranging from birth registration and midwifery support to debt advice and youth clubs. Officials hope the spaces will also provide families access to other services and social 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."Shadow Education Secretary Laura Trott said the lack of clarity about what was actually new was "part of a wider pattern"."This is a government defined by broken promises and endless U-turns," she 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: "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."
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
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.'
The Guardian
01-06-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
Momentum to revive Sure Start is long overdue – it's been a lifeline for my son and me
Child health clinics, breastfeeding support, groups for new parents, sleep and weaning workshops, speech and language therapy, drop-in physio sessions, parenting courses in child development and mental health, stay and play sessions (including specifically for dads and male carers), music therapy classes, support groups for women and children who have suffered domestic violence, a housing clinic, groups for children with Send and cookery courses. These are just some of the services available to parents in the borough where I live: Islington, in north London. They exist under the banner of Bright Start, a clever – and I suspect slightly sneaky – rebranding of Sure Start. Sure Start was the Blair government's leading early years policy, offering area-based holistic support to families with children under five in England (it was Flying Start in Wales and Best Start in Scotland). But since 2010, as a direct result of Tory austerity, 1,416 Sure Start centres in England have closed. Now that the child poverty taskforce is to recommend to the Labour government a return of the scheme, I thought that it was worth examining what it's like to live in an area that kept it. I didn't realise that Islington had retained Sure Start until I took my baby to be weighed at the local children's centre after the necessity for home visits ceased. There it was, next to the reception desk: a sign reading 'Sure Start', evidence of what had once been a dedicated service for families not just here, but throughout England. Children's centres offered all kinds of services like the ones listed above, and they also provided childcare to working parents, those in need and those entitled to the free government hours. In Islington, they still do. Of the three closest to where I live, two are rated 'outstanding' and one is 'good'. Childcare is in high demand in Islington, and childcare places aren't allocated on the basis of a waiting list but on a complex calculation based on proximity, the age balance of the existing children in the room and staffing ratios. Priority childcare places exist for those who need them most: looked-after children, children whose families are homeless, children whose parents suffer from mental health problems, children with disabilities and other vulnerable groups. Health visitors and other professionals can refer these children to a panel for consideration. It's one way in which the Bright Start services fulfil their remit of helping the most vulnerable families in the borough, an ethos that underpinned the very reason for Sure Start's existence. I owe so much of my experience of early parenthood to Bright Start. As someone whose family does not live close, feeling part of a community has been vital to my wellbeing and to my son's. Like many others, we do not own our flat and we live in an area where we are increasingly surrounded by millionaires (Islington has lots of very rich people in it, but also shocking levels of child poverty). That feeling of community becomes even more important in such a divided borough. Just knowing that there are people there who can help when things get tough means so much. In the three years since I had my son, we have accessed various forms of support, from health visitor advice to sleep and weaning workshops, not to mention some of the best therapy I have ever had. I highlight these things not to boast, but because it's important to emphasise the postcode lottery of parenthood that exists in the UK. Were I a parent living in a borough without these services, I expect I would feel angry reading about the support that exists elsewhere, because everyone should have access to them. Many local authorities do their best and charities try to plug the gaps, but there is no replacement for fully integrated early years services. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently found that the positive impacts of Sure Start were widespread and 'remarkably long-lasting', producing better health, education and social care outcomes for families who enrolled in the programme. It may sound obvious, but when services are integrated, they communicate better with one another. Referral pathways are more straightforward; professionals understand the systems they are working in and are able to signpost other services that might help specific children and their families, such as benefits and housing advice. If a child has a nursery place and needs an education, health and care plan for when they start school, the parents do not have to apply for this themselves. Supporting and safeguarding those who are vulnerable is less challenging because, with a proper safety net around them, people are less likely to drop off the map, or to feel that no one is looking out for them. Seeing how these services operate first-hand and benefiting from some of them has been, quite simply, amazing. That's not to say the system is perfect: there are funding pressures and high demand, and gaps in services (to cite one example, Bright Start speech therapists don't work with neurodivergent children, who are on a different pathway. As a result those children, who arguably need it most, don't get any one-to-one speech therapy). Nevertheless, it should be a blueprint for Labour, which should reinstate the scheme throughout England. Certainly, it will be a challenge. Concerns raised by a government source include fragmentation of services and cost as barriers to reinstating Sure Start. Neither is a convincing argument. Reintegrating fragmented services may be a challenge, but that doesn't mean it isn't worth doing, and the payoff is worth it. IFS analysis has found that Sure Start children's centres in England generated £2 of financial benefits for every £1 spent. We know that supporting the youngest in society from the outset means less pain, less social exclusion and less cost later on. More than that, it is simply the right thing to do. Senior Labour figures should visit one of Islington's children's centres and see for themselves how wonderful they are. Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist
