Pre-school Education

(asked on 22nd September 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the (a) proposal to introduce a minimum guarantee of early years services and (b) recommendations of the Action for Children’s report entitled Beyond reach: barriers to accessing early years services for children, published on 21 September 2021.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 18th October 2021

The department is leading a cross government approach to champion the family hub model. The government is investing over £34 million to champion family hubs. This includes a National Centre for Family Hubs to provide expert advice, guidance and advocacy; a £10 million transformation fund to open family hubs in around 10 new areas in England; an evaluation innovation fund to build the evidence base; and work with local authorities to develop data and digital products that will support the practical implementation of family hubs. Further details are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/20m-to-provide-more-early-help-for-vulnerable-families.

Alongside this, the government is committed to delivering the action areas set out in the Early Years Healthy Development Review led by my right hon. Friend, the member for South Northamptonshire, more information is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-best-start-for-life-a-vision-for-the-1001-critical-days. One key action area was to champion family hubs as a place where parents and carers can access Start for Life services. To support delivery of this, the National Centre for Family Hubs will support councils to understand how best to build a family hub network, and to take steps at a national and local level to reduce the stigma some parents or carers experience when asking for help. We will consider the recommendations in the Action for Children report as we take forward this work.

We have not made an assessment of the accessibility of early years services in the West Midlands specifically. The work that the government is doing to champion the family hub model and support parents and carers to access Start for Life services is national in scope, and applicable, with local nuance, in all regions.

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