Announcing his Autumn Budget and three-year Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), Chancellor Rishi Sunak pledged £300m to support new families.
The fund includes £82m for a raft of new family hubs to be overseen by the Anna Freud Centre and £201m to implement Andrea Leadsom’s Start for Life offer for new parents and babies.
The hubs will be designed to provide family help from pregnancy, through the child's youngest years and later childhood, and into adolescence until they reach the age of 24, the Anna Freud Centre said.
However, sector leaders, campaigners and Labour Party politicians have said while the government’s focus on young people “could be a turning point for children and families”, concerns have been raised that the funding does “not go far enough” to match Labour’s Sure Start scheme, which at its peak boasted more than 3,000 children’s centres.
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