Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to roll out Best Start Family Hubs.

On April 1 2026, we announced that Best Start Family Hubs in newly funded areas are open to families, as the government delivers on its pledge to ensure there is a hub in every local authority and building towards our ambition of having have 1,000 hubs and 2,000 network sites across England by the end of 2028.

The new guidance, published 30 March, set out how we will expect local authorities to deliver on Best Start Family Hubs, backed by over £900 million.

Hubs are there to create connections - between health visitors, early years providers, social care, employment services, the voluntary sector - so that families experience support as something joined-up and intuitive. Our guidance states that local authorities should work with families, communities and partners to join up services, to innovate in how they deliver them, to work in partnership. Local authorities are now developing clear plans to set out how they will deliver in practice.

We are going further to help them meet this challenge. Test, Learn and Grow Accelerators are now underway in Manchester and Northumberland, bringing together Hubs, schools and early years settings to ensure families can access the right support earlier, and in one place. By sharing this learning, we will help shape the future of Best Start services nationally to embed the path to change, working in partnership, locally and nationally, to deliver.

This is the most significant expansion of joined-up health, education and family support since Sure Start, and it will be felt in every constituency in the country, giving every child the best start in life.