Reports

Our vision is for a ‘single front door’ any family can walk through; a clear brand that wins community trust; services that reach out to families to make access easier; services which are high-quality and responsive to need; a consistent offer with dedicated support for children of all ages; and most importantly, an emphasis on hearing the voices of children and families. To achieve this, we need a fresh start in policy and practice – and that means new legislation which replaces the children’s centre provisions and establishes a stronger legal basis for Best Start Family Hubs. It also means a new and clear brand across all local authorities, which makes Best Start Family Hubs a household name like Sure Start was previously.

Dr Samantha Callan, Director of the Family Hubs Network, told the Committee that integrating the CMS with Family Hubs would help “’take the sting’ out of early and adversarial emotional separation issues” which could “help cultivate a set of circumstances conducive to stable maintenance arrangements”.

We will fund Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority: These services will reach the children and families who will benefit most – those from low-income families and with additional vulnerabilities. Best Start Family Hubs will be open to all and based in disadvantaged communities where they are needed most. Best Start Family Hubs will include professionals working across all local teams, including health and education, and will work with nurseries, childminders, schools, health services, libraries and local voluntary and community groups.

Working alongside other universal services like health and schools, hubs provide community-based, non-stigmatising support for families, when and where they need it – with a range of workers who can work alongside parents of children from pregnancy to age 19 (or 25 in the case of children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)). At their best, these centres offer a ‘nerve centre’ – where parents can come for a ‘stay and play’ session, and in the same familiar and welcoming environment, receive help with breastfeeding, talk to a health visitor, receive support with speech and language, attend a parenting course, and even access highly specialist help with issues such as domestic abuse and substance abuse, for those who need it. These services can be a lifeline for families and evidence shows they can also deliver significant long-term benefits.

Securing the stock of existing provision will be vital in any Children and Family Hubs expansion programme. To secure the future of joined-up family support and meet the needs of more children and families, we recommend the government protect current funding for this provision for local authorities, before expanding provision to reach more families in need over the period of the Spending Review and beyond.

Family hubs provide integrated family services and support for families with children and young people aged 0-19 years (0-25 years for SEND) but to be effective they need fami lies to access and engage with the services on offer. There is evidence that disadvan taged and vulnerable families are less likely to access the services despite being in the most need. The Department for Education (DfE) commissioned this research to support the development and evaluation of behavioural science interventions designed to pro mote the uptake of services delivered by family hubs. This report details the evaluation of those interventions.