• Report reveals how those local authorities where children are less likely to be ‘school ready’ are more likely to be ‘childcare deserts’ – and argues these areas should be a priority for Best Start Family Hubs.
• Report proposes new legislation to embed Best Start Family Hubs in law, warning that failing to put hubs on a statutory footing leaves them at greater risk of being dismantled in the future like Sure Start in the 2010s.
• Report calls for new Best Start Family Hubs information campaign and branding to ensure it becomes a trusted household name and urges greater clarity over the place of mental health hubs and Young Futures hubs in the Best Start Family Hubs network.

Report recommends Best Start Family Hubs and schools work in partnership to tackle the ongoing SEN crisis and reduce the number of children needing Education Health Care Plans (EHCPs).

[.download]Download the full report[.download]‍

‍The Centre for Young Lives think tank is today (Wednesday 5^th November) publishing a new report, “Best Start: A Fresh Start for Children and Family Support”, setting out a framework for the Government to ensure that its Best Start Family Hubs – the successor to Sure Start – are effectively delivered and meet the needs of those children and families who need them most.

The report builds on research published by the Centre for Young Lives in April 2025, “A Fresh Start for Children and Family Support: Building from the Foundations”, which found joined-up family support receives less than a quarter of the funding it did at the peak of Sure Start, and that half of local authorities were having to cut their budgets in the last financial year.

Today’s report welcomes the substantial step up in investment for family support announced in last summer’s Spending Review and in the Best Start in Life Strategy, and it sets out key recommendations for establishing a clearer vision for what children and families want and need from family support, and how Government and local authorities can get there. It calls for the Department for Education and Department for Health and Social Care to establish a clear delivery plan for reaching its aim of 500,000 more children by 2028 through new Best Start Family Hubs, arguing that the Department for Health and Social Care should match the initial investment of £500m into Best Start Family Hubs through Start for Life, to boost investment to a total of at least £1bn over the next three years, beginning with those areas in greatest need.

According to recent research, 100,000 children living in relative poverty from birth to age four do not live within easy reach of the vital services provided by existing family hubs. While local authority average deprivation scores are useful in targeting support, affluent areas can contain ‘pockets of deprivation’ which can be among the most deprived areas nationally and so Government must take a strategic approach to targeting funding to ensure those most in need receive support.

New analysis published in today’s report reveals how those areas in England where children are less likely to be ‘school ready’ are also ‘childcare deserts’ (areas where there are three or more children aged 0-5 for every childcare place).  This research shows that, of those local authorities with children least likely to reach a Good Level of Development (GLD), 76% are considered childcare deserts. The report calls for the Government to target support to these disadvantaged areas, which include some of the country’s most deprived local authorities, as well as some rural and coastal areas, in the North of England, the South West, and in some parts of the East of England.

The report urges the Government to introduce strong, recognisable Best Start Family Hubs branding, so the hubs become a trusted household name and first port of call for families, like Sure Start in the early 2000s.

It also calls for the Government to establish a statutory basis for Best Start Family Hubs that brings all existing family support under one Best Start Family Hub legislative framework, to remove confusion, set clear and consistent expectations on local authorities and ensure a clear and consistent pathway for families across the country. It should include a duty on local partners, including local authorities, health providers, and schools, to work together to support families through hubs.

The report argues schools must become a crucial partner for Best Start Family hubs, sitting at the heart of communities as a focal point for children up to at least sixteen years old. School staff are often experts in the key challenges facing children and their families. In recent years, school staff have increasingly been tasked with delivering more support for children and families outside of the curriculum. It calls for school-Best Start Family Hubs partnerships to provide a more joined up, holistic offer of support for children, including reducing pressure on the SEND system and offering more support for children with SEND and their families. Under Sure Start, access to a nearby centre at an early age increased the likelihood of children being recorded as having SEND at age 5 but significantly decreased the proportion of children recorded as having a SEND at ages 11 and 16, by 3%. By age 16, the probability of having an Education, Health and Care Plan decreased by 9% for children who had access to a centre.

Over the last few months, the Centre for Young Lives has been working with experts and system leaders to identify the overarching principles required to deliver a high quality, easily accessible, outcomes-focused and joined-up network of Best Start Family Hubs family support that is responsive in meeting the needs of babies, children, young people and families.

The report sets out six key principles for delivering a successful network of hubs – a single front door approach to support and an integrated local system; family support where the voices of children and families are heard; family support that is embedded into communities; family support that is easy to reach; high-quality family support in every community; and family support for all children of all ages and their families.

The report’s other recommendations include:

• The Department for Education should establish and lead a cross-departmental plan for Best Start Family Hubs, co-signed by key departmental partners including Department for Education, Department of Health and Social Care, Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. The DfE and DHSC should publish one single and comprehensive, cross-departmental guidance document for Best Start Family Hubs.
• The Government should clarify the role of integrated mental health support for teenagers through Family Hubs and Young Futures Hubs.
• Guidance from Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care should establish routine collection of reach data for services delivered by and through Best Start Family Hubs. This would enable local authorities to better understand impact, target underserved communities and strengthen proactive outreach.
• The Department for Education should support the national rollout of community-facing ‘navigator’ roles to strengthen proactive outreach to families and connections across services. This should include co-producing a national role specification and training network for navigators with local authorities, families and the VCSE sector.

Baroness Anne Longfield, Executive Chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said:

“The dismantling of Sure Start since 2010 left a vacuum that many communities are still struggling to fill, while a legacy of underinvestment and fragmented provision has seen support for families depleted, and in some areas decimated. Vulnerable families have been left without the vital help they need and family problems have too often spiralled into crisis. We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past that allowed this to happen.

“The Government’s Best Start in Life Strategy is a pivotal opportunity to set sights high for families again, learn from the best of Sure Start and Family Hubs, and to rebuild a trusted, integrated system of family support that reaches 500,000 more children by 2028.

“This report sets out a clear framework for achieving that, beginning in those areas where a lack of childcare places is holding back the Government’s plans to improve school readiness.

“The Government should also look at new legislation to put Best Start Family Hubs on a statutory footing and protect them from any future shredding of family support, as well as developing new, strong branding that makes the Hubs a household name.  

“Time is of the essence for families coping with early parenthood, child poverty, rising youth unhappiness, unmet special educational needs, and school absence. We need a fresh start for family support that learns from the dismantling of Sure Start and delivers a lasting and deeply embedded network in the communities that need it most.”

[.download]Download the full report[.download]‍

ENDS

1. A separate executive summary is available here.
2. Alongside the full report, the Centre for Young Lives published an additional chapter setting out case studies and typologies of integrated family support. The additional chapter is available here‍
3. This report was funded by Impact on Urban Health, Impact on Urban Health - tackling health inequalities in cities‍
4. Part 1 of this research, published in April 2025, is here.