Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what role local authorities will have in the (a) delivery and (b) day-to-day operation of Best Start Family Hubs.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life, the chance to achieve and to thrive, are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
The government is investing over £500 million to create a network of up to 1,000 Best Start Family Hubs across every local authority in England by 2028. Best Start Family Hubs builds on previous investment into Family Hubs and Start for Life services between 2022 and 2026 for 88 local authorities.
Local authorities will deliver joined up and enhanced services through family hubs so that all parents and carers can access the support they need, when they need it. Local authorities will receive a programme guide with minimum delivery expectations and will be expected to develop clear plans to establish and enhance family hubs in their area. Their role will include identifying family hub sites, commissioning services within family hubs and the recruitment of staff to deliver services. Services will vary depending on local needs, though examples are: 'stay and play' sessions for child and families, parenting advice and courses, support for children‘s language and emotional development, health services, and support for parents in creating a positive home learning environment.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Best Start Family Hubs on levels of father’s parenting skills.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life, the chance to achieve and to thrive, are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
Best Start Family Hubs are backed by £500 million government investment and we have committed to rolling out hubs in all local authorities by 2028. They are expected to actively engage and support fathers through inclusive parenting support, peer networks and outreach. They must ensure services are accessible to dads, and others who are less likely to engage. Programme guidance sets specific expectations around the inclusion of dads in parenting and home learning environment programmes, infant feeding and perinatal mental health activities. Local authorities are encouraged to provide tailored groups for fathers and co-parents, both in person and virtually, to strengthen their involvement in early parenting and child development.
Many local authorities have established a strong offer for dads as part of their Family Hub models. We intend to maintain this focus on dads, and other seldom heard groups, in the new Best Start Family Hub programme.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that new Best Start Family Hubs can access high quality data collected by the NHS.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life and the chance to achieve and to thrive are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
Local authorities have their own data sharing agreement with the NHS. These are crucial for enabling population health management and integrated care services to better inform and co-ordinate care for babies, children and families.
We encourage Best Start Family Hubs to harness the power of networks to drive progress on joining up professionals, services and providers though co-location, integration, partnerships, data sharing, shared outcomes and governance.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of awareness of the Sure Start brand on take up of services by Sure Start Children's Centres.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents 2024, published in July 2025, includes the latest data on the awareness and take up of family hubs and children’s centres. The data is available under section 5: Home Learning environment, family hubs and children’s centres (tables 6.13 to 6.16), which is accessible at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/childcare-and-early-years-survey-of-parents/2024.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Best Start Family Hubs on the proportion of children who are subsequently re-registered on the child protection register.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life, the chance to achieve and to thrive, are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
Best Start Family Hubs will provide support for families that need it. They will improve the join up of vital services in an area and making it easier for children and families to access a range of help at the right time, irrespective of their needs. This includes the roll out of Family Help, which is showing positive early impact. We will continue to monitor outcomes for children through our published children in need statistics.
The Families First for Children Pathfinder has also tested radical reforms in local areas, across family help, child protection, family networks and safeguarding partners.
The pathfinder draws on evidence and existing good practice, including from the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme and the ten participating areas are reporting positive early impacts.
The department commissioned Ecorys and consortium to carry out process, impact and value-for-money evaluation of the Family Hubs transformation, home learning environment and parenting support programme elements of the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme which is ongoing. Findings should be available in early 2026.
Monitoring and evaluation will be a crucial component of the new Best Start Family Hubs. Planning is ongoing but we expect to include continue robust monitoring and evaluation, particularly looking at impact including on the impact on children from different backgrounds.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of Best Start Family Hubs on child safeguarding.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life, the chance to achieve and to thrive, are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
Best Start Family Hubs will provide support for families that need it. They will improve the join up of vital services in an area and making it easier for children and families to access a range of help at the right time, irrespective of their needs. This includes the roll out of Family Help, which is showing positive early impact. We will continue to monitor outcomes for children through our published children in need statistics.
The Families First for Children Pathfinder has also tested radical reforms in local areas, across family help, child protection, family networks and safeguarding partners.
The pathfinder draws on evidence and existing good practice, including from the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme and the ten participating areas are reporting positive early impacts.
The department commissioned Ecorys and consortium to carry out process, impact and value-for-money evaluation of the Family Hubs transformation, home learning environment and parenting support programme elements of the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme which is ongoing. Findings should be available in early 2026.
Monitoring and evaluation will be a crucial component of the new Best Start Family Hubs. Planning is ongoing but we expect to include continue robust monitoring and evaluation, particularly looking at impact including on the impact on children from different backgrounds.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that new Best Start Family Hubs embed a strong local parental voice in their governance.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life, the chance to achieve and to thrive, are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
Best Start Family Hubs will involve parents in hub design and delivery, working with parents through panels. We are investing in targeted community outreach activities, including accessing existing networks via the voluntary and community sector and local data to reach underserved groups, including fathers, minority ethnic communities, and young parents.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that new Best Start Family Hubs are integrated with primary care services.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life and the chance to achieve and to thrive are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
Children’s early years are crucial to their development, health and life chances. This government has an ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children ever. Improved health and education go hand in hand, as healthier children are better able to learn and children who achieve well in education go on to live healthier lives. Consequently, the Best Start in Life strategy makes it clear that the integration of strengthened health services within Best Start Family Hubs is critical to achieving these objectives.
Best Start Family Hubs will be a crucial part of shifting from treatment to prevention, and from hospital to community care. The department of Health and Social Care’s 10 Year Health Plan sets out how a new Neighbourhood Health Service will build on and coordinate with Best Start Family Hubs and Start for Life services to continue to integrate children’s services, NHS and public health, including primary care.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to embed a focus on (a) antenatal and (b) prenatal support for parents in the delivery of new Best Start Family Hubs.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Ensuring every child has the best start in life, the chance to achieve and to thrive, are the foundation stones of the government’s Opportunity Mission.
As set out in the Best Start in Life (BSIL) Strategy, Best Start Family Hubs will bring together professionals from health and education, with a continued focus on the 1001 critical days from conception to age 2.
The BSIL strategy makes it clear that the integration of health services within Best Start Family Hubs is critical to raising the healthiest generation of children ever, and to ensuring that every child has a happy, heathy start to life. Additionally, it commits the government to strengthening health services in early childhood, improving maternity and newborn care, strengthening health visiting services, making it easier to get vaccinated, supporting healthy eating, tackling tooth decay and giving parents and health professionals easier access to child health information.
Asked by: Tom Hayes (Labour - Bournemouth East)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many former Sure Start children’s centres are no longer operated by local authorities and have been transferred into the third sector.
Answered by Josh MacAlister - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
The department does not hold data on how many former Sure Start children’s centres are operated by the third sector.