The scheme, which was put forward by Leadsom in her 2021 report Best Start for Life: A Vision for the 1,001 critical days, has seen £300m rolled out to 75 local authorities to launch hubs over two years, Leadsom revealed today (9 February).
Family hubs are designed to offer support to families from conception through to age 19, or up to 25 for children with special education needs and disabilities.
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Local authorities that have been granted funding have been chosen to reflect “a good spread across England, and are a mixture of rural, urban and semi-rural areas,” Leadsom told CYP Now.
She added that the decision to fund certain local authorities is based “among other things” on those with the highest levels of deprivation.
“We took the most deprived half of all local authority areas in England, but then because we didn't want to end up with just inner-city areas and we wanted to be able to roll-out across all different geographic types, we also looked to ensure that at least five per cent of them are in rural and semi-rural locations,” she said.
Leadsom told CYP Now ahead of the funding announcement that she has had her position as early years healthy development adviser to the government renewed.
Leadsom was first appointed to the role under Boris Johnson in 2020 following a pledge in the Conservative Party’s 2019 general election manifesto to improve England’s “start for life” offer.
She added that as part of her role she will be “bidding for funding for the other 77 local authorities to roll out Family hubs as well as for ongoing funding for the first 75”, before the next government spending review due in May 2025.
The £300m already handed to local authorities will be used to create “hybrid” services allowing parents access to support from hubs both in-person and online.
“It needs to be both a physical welcoming place, but it also needs to be a virtual space,” Leadsom said, adding that the hubs will also focus on greater support for marginalised groups such as same-sex couples and those from minority ethnic backgrounds as well as fathers who have “been left out for too long”.
The MP for South Northamptonshire also revealed the 14 local authorities named as “trailblazers” for the scheme, which means they will be granted extra funding from the £300m to “lead the way and support other local authorities to improve services that are offered to families, so that these can be rolled out more widely across the country”.
Trailblazer local authorities are:
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Torbay
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Sheffield
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County Durham
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Cornwall
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Salford
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Kent
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Sunderland
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Manchester
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Northumberland
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Hull
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Coventry
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Blackpool
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East Sussex
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Isle of Wight
A further £12m has been granted for 12 local authorities to transition from Sure Start services, launched under Labour in 1998, to family hubs under the family hubs Transformation Fund, allowing them to open hubs by March 2024.
The 12 local authorities are:
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Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
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Brighton and Hove
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Cheshire East
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Cumbria
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Dorset
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Hammersmith and Fulham
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Leicestershire
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Merton
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Solihull
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Stockport
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Wirral
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York
Meanwhile, £10m has been granted to launch workforce pilots in five areas between April 2023 and March 2025.
“These pilots will test ideas on how best to support the workforce to give babies the best start in life,” said Leadsom, adding that the pilots will test models using multi-skilled teams of professionals including midwives and health visitors as well as volunteers within hubs.
The workforce pilot will also work to address the current health visitor shortage, she said.
The five local authorities set to host the workforce pilot are set to be announced by Leadsom and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak later today.
The announcements come alongside the publication of a report detailing the government’s progress so far on Leadsom’s Best Start for Life report.
