Family Hubs rolled out to every local authority in the country

Family Hubs offering support and youth services will be implemented at every council in England, the Government has announced.

The expansion will be rolled out in every local authority by April 2026, and create up to 1,000 hubs across the country by the end of 2028.

Hubs will offer interventions and courses which work for parents – such as stay and play groups which help parents connect or sessions which help manage children’s emotional needs – while providing a single point of access for services across health, education, and wellbeing.

It is hoped that the hubs will also act as a ‘front door’ to local family help workers for vulnerable families – providing a single point of entry to join-up universal services and children’s social care, ensuring early help before issues escalate.

Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson said it was “the driving mission of this government to break the link between a child’s background and what they go on to achieve”.

Currently, it is thought that one in four families with children under five cannot access local children’s centres or Family Hubs, rising to one in three lower income families. This means thousands of parents cut off from vital community support networks and specialist services.

The plans also aim to test a new path to support with a Best Start digital service to enable parents to access evidence-based guidance online.

The digital platform will provide advice on a range of topics and connect parents to their local Best Start Family Hub, as well as link to the NHS App.

Family Hubs are seen by many as a revival of the previous Labour Government’s Sure Start centres, launched in 1999 to provide integrated early years services—healthcare, childcare, parenting support—in deprived areas. They rapidly expanded, peaking at around 3,600 centres by 2010, with strong evidence of benefits to children’s health and education. However, from 2010 onward, austerity-led cuts led to widespread closures and a sharp drop in funding.

Baroness Anne Longfield, Founder of the Centre for Young Lives and former Children’s Commissioner for England praised the expansion.

“As someone who was so closely involved in developing Sure Start, it is fantastic to see the announcement of a new start for 'Best Start' Family Hubs in every area bringing support for babies to teenagers and their families - especially the most vulnerable.”