Best Start Family Hubs

Baroness Stedman-Scott Excerpts

Wednesday 10th June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

I probably do not have enough time in my short answer to go into all the initiatives, but I assure noble Lords that every Best Start Family Hub will have a Best Start inclusion practitioner. An enormous amount of resource is going into making sure that the training is there and the links can be made. The fundamental point that the noble Lord makes, which we absolutely endorse, is that there need to be strong local linkages, bringing together all the different services that work with young people and their families, to make sure we get the very best provision at the earliest possible opportunity to improve their outcomes.

[Baroness Stedman-Scott (Con)]

My Lords, the test of the family hubs is not how many open but whether children are connected to the right opportunities. The Department for Education’s own guidance includes a minimum expectation that families whose young people are not in education, employment or training be connected to targeted support to ensure that parents are part of the solution. To what extent is this happening? Will the Government improve reporting to increase accountability?

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

Improved reporting is a mission for all of us, but most of all it is important to collect the data, as the noble Baroness suggests, and make sure that we use it. Running alongside the family hub model is the Youth Matters programme. Most important in this agenda is making sure that young people have a say and a voice, and that we design services in their local areas that are fit for purpose—and of course the wider family have a role in this. We are facing 1 million young people who are NEET, and I know that the noble Baroness recognises that policy over the last years of the last Government contributed to that. We are determined to work with those young people to make sure they can take advantage of all the opportunities we are creating.