The Government has published its first set of guidance for local authorities to support delivery of new landmark Best Start Family Hubs, setting the direction and ambition for transforming support for children and families. This guidance set out a definition of a Best Start Family Hub including core services, guidance on branding, a framework for identifying and placing new hubs, and outlined how local authorities can strengthen local join up with new Neighbourhood health plans. 

In our recent report, Best Start: A Fresh Start for Children and Family Support, we set out a clear vision for how, if implemented well, Best Start Family Hubs have the potential to transform family support for children and families. We established six core principles necessary to ensure new hubs meet the needs of children and families in their communities, including a single front door approach to support through system wide integration, services that are accessible and outreach into communities, and consistent, high-quality support that is co-produced alongside families. 

We also recommend placing Best Start Family Hubs on a statutory footing to ensure support is consistent and long-term, and we're calling for stronger partnerships between schools, SEND services and health to strengthen the wider network of joined up support for children and families. 

This guidance from Government is an encouraging first step, with many of our report recommendations reflected in the document. 

Compared to previous guidance on Family Hubs, it sets out clearer expectations of what a Best Start Family Hub should be. Without a consistent, shared understanding of what a Hub is, local authorities risk developing a patchwork of provision that varies widely in quality and scope. New Hubs must be physical spaces offering both universal and targeted support, co-locating services where possible such as with health, require a local outreach strategy and linked services, and ensure that parents, carers and voluntary organisations are involved in the shaping of Hubs. Hubs will also be expected to deliver a set of core services including evidence-based parenting and home learning environment programmes, alongside support for children with additional needs with a SEND specialist in every hub. 

The guidance also reflects a clear recognition that Best Start Family Hubs must sit within integrated local systems. Published jointly by the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care, the guidance goes some way to strengthen what is expected of local systems to integrate Hubs and health partners, with Hubs playing a central role in delivering the Government’s 10 Year Health plan and shift to prevention. 

Alignment between Best Start Local Plans and Neighbourhood Health should hopefully support a system-wide, integrated approach to early years support - which we called for in our report. 

The guidance also establishes expectations for Healthy Babies, which will replace funding for services including perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship and infant-feeding previously delivered under Start for Life. However, only the 75 local authorities previously receiving funding from DfE will receive service funding for Healthy Babies, and there is yet to be further investment committed from the DHSC beyond the commitments made in the 10 Year Health Plan. Our research with local authorities and health partners highlighted the challenges in delivering costly health interventions and the need for long-term, sustainable and sufficient funding. 

Our report urged the Department of Health and Social Care to match the initial investment of £500m from the Department for Education to boost delivery of health services through new Hubs and allow for provision of a smooth, integrated service for families. 

We also called for more ambition for the role that Hubs will play in supporting children of all ages - continuity of support being essential to building trusted relationships with families and preventing cliff edges in support as children grow up – particularly around key transition points which can prove challenging for some families. We have highlighted several local authorities across the country who are already delivering a strong offer for older children, for example Southwark’s ‘Adolescent Sure Start’ offer. So far, Government is lacking clear expectation on the role of Hubs for older children, and we hope to see future guidance outline more clearly the role for Best Start Family Hubs in supporting older children, particularly around join up with new Young Futures Hubs.  

On balance, this first guidance document is a positive start, indicating that the Government is moving in the right direction. The commitment to SEND specialists in every Hub, a goal to target support to the most deprived areas, and the emphasis on strategic alignment between new Hubs and plans for neighbourhood health will all be beneficial to families and children. 

However, matched funding from the Department of Health and Social into Best Start Family Hubs would rocket boost investment and strengthen local authorities’ capacity to deliver high-quality services and plan for the longer-term. Over the next couple of months, we would like to see Government address some of these gaps through its future guidance before rollout begins in the Spring.