Spending Review: Family hubs ‘no replacement’ for Sure Start, critics say
Fiona Simpson
Wednesday, October 27, 2021
An £82m investment to create 75 family hubs in England is “no replacement” for Sure Start and the closure of thousands of children’s centres, critics have said.
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.
Janet Boddy, professor of child, youth and family studies at the University of Sussex, said: “Since the 2010 CSR, successive waves of cuts to local authority budgets, and early years and early intervention services have been particularly hard hit.”
She noted that between 2010 and 2019, data from the Institute of Fiscal Studies shows that children’s centres’ funding reduced from £1.2bn to £0.6bn and more than 1,000 Sure Start centres closed in the same time period.
“This investment is both very little and very late, in terms of the scale and impact of cuts to Sure Start and early intervention provision. £500m investment in 75 areas could be a start, but on its own, and as it is constructed currently, it is not likely to solve the problems faced by children and families in this country,” she added.
Shadow early years minister Tulip Siddiq, said: “A handful of family hubs will not make up for the loss of over 1,000 children's centres under the Conservatives.
“Pretending this is in some way new is an insult to the families who have suffered from Sure Start closures.”
Anna Feuchtwang, chief executive of the National Children’s Bureau, said: “Creating lasting change must mean sustained improvement in local authority budgets for children and families too. Investment is still urgently needed in health visiting, childcare and early education, children’s social care, and support for disabled children.”
Sunak also announced a £170m boost for early years providers which sector leaders say does not give providers “the full support they desperately need”.
Purnima Tanuku, chief executive of National Day Nurseries Association, said the investment “amounts to a less than five per cent increase over four years”.
“We have called for nurseries, who are still being badly affected by the pandemic, to be exempted from paying business rates. Childcare business must be part of the relief given to the retail, hospitality and leisure sector that has been announced. Nurseries should not be penalised for the space they provide children to learn, play and develop,” she said.