Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the new family hubs are able to meet the specific needs of disabled children, young people and their families.

The government announced £82 million to create a network of family hubs. This is part of a wider £300 million package to transform services for parents and babies, carers and children in half of the local authorities across England. The family hubs investment is in addition to the £34 million we had already committed to champion family hubs.

Family hubs are a way of joining up locally and bringing existing family help services together to improve access to services, connections between families, professionals, services, and providers, and putting relationships at the heart of family help. Family hubs bring together services for families with children of all ages (0 to 19 years old) or those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) from 0 to 25 years old, with a great Start for Life offer at their core. How services are delivered varies from place to place, but they can include services for disabled children, young people and their families. The decision on how best to meet the needs of the local population will be for the local council concerned. The SEND Review is looking at ways in which to improve outcomes for children and young people with SEND. Proposals for consultation will be published in the first three months of next year.