CYP Now - Put child health hubs on England’s high streets

Public services are not known for being agile, but the pandemic has seen councils “pivot” to provide support online, redeploy staff where the demand is greatest and work across departments to meet a range of families’ needs.

Derren Hayes: “It would breathe life back into declining high streets and ensure family hubs have a wider reach than just the communities they are located in”

It is within this context that Andrea Leadsom MP’s review of early child health should be seen. The review proposes the creation of family hubs – easily accessible centres that cater for a wide range of health and care needs for young children and their families, including support to access benefits and employment. These are not new – for the past few years, councils and charities such as Barnardo’s have been turning larger children’s centres into the hubs Leadsom describes.

It is a process driven by a 40 per cent cut in council spending on children’s centres since 2015 due to wider funding pressures that has resulted in the closure of 500 sites according to a 2019 Institute of Fiscal Studies report, with hundreds more reducing services.

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