Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan has endorsed government proposals to establish up to 1,000 Best Start Family Hubs nationwide, providing comprehensive family support including parenting guidance and early childhood development services.
Families nationwide will receive enhanced support to simplify daily life through the government’s Best Start Family Hub initiative across all local authorities – easing parental pressures whilst ensuring 500,000 additional children receive optimal early life opportunities.
Currently, one in four families with children under five lack access to local children’s centres or Family Hubs, with this figure rising to one in three amongst lower-income households. This leaves countless parents isolated from essential community support networks and specialist services, forcing them to face parenting challenges independently whilst jeopardising children’s developmental prospects, wellbeing and academic potential.
The Best Start Family Hubs will function as comprehensive service centres for parents requiring various forms of assistance, including breastfeeding difficulties, housing concerns, or children’s developmental and linguistic needs, ensuring families have accessible local support or efficient connections to specialist regional services.
Set to launch across every local authority by April 2026, these hubs will provide targeted interventions and programmes tailored for parents – including stay-and-play sessions facilitating parental connections and workshops addressing children’s emotional requirements – whilst offering unified access to health, education and wellbeing services.
Supported by over £500 million funding, this initiative will transform current Family Hubs and Start for Life programmes, establishing up to 1,000 centres nationwide by 2028’s conclusion. This encompasses regions presently lacking support hub access, spanning from Warrington and Leeds to Reading and Somerset.
Portsmouth South MP Stephen Morgan commented:
“The proposed Best Start Family Hub rollout across every local authority by April 2026, including Portsmouth, will deliver comprehensive family assistance, encompassing early development and childcare services.
“These centres will build upon Sure Start’s foundation, serving as comprehensive service points for Portsmouth parents requiring diverse support, including breastfeeding assistance, housing guidance, and children’s developmental and linguistic needs.
“With over £500 million backing, this rollout will revolutionise local family services, ensuring Portsmouth children receive optimal early life opportunities.”
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Sure Start transformed family and community provision, with studies demonstrating that children residing near Sure Start centres during their first five years showed 0.9 percentage point increases in achieving five strong GCSE grades at 16.
Today’s launched proposals will incorporate lessons from this predecessor programme whilst building upon existing Family Hubs and Start for Life infrastructure. This complements ongoing efforts to ease family life and reduce parental burdens, including extending government-funded childcare to 30 hours, expanding school-based nursery provision, and implementing free breakfast clubs across all primary schools to support working families.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson stated:
“This government’s primary mission involves severing the connection between children’s backgrounds and their future achievements – our Best Start Family Hubs will establish foundational elements for improved life prospects for more children.
“I witnessed how Sure Start-style initiatives helped equalise opportunities within my community, transforming children’s lives through early-years family support, and through our Plan for Change, we’re developing this legacy for future generations.
“Ensuring hard-working parents access increased early intervention represents a commitment made and fulfilled – providing consistent nationwide support, ensuring health, social care and education collaborate to guarantee all children receive optimal early life opportunities.”
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These hubs will serve as access points to local family support workers for vulnerable households – creating unified entry systems connecting universal services with children’s social care, ensuring early intervention before problems intensify.
This constitutes a fundamental component of the government’s forthcoming ‘Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life’ strategy, ensuring parents needn’t navigate complex systems to access essential parenting, health and family services.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting added:
“Every child, regardless of background, deserves optimal early life opportunities. Having experienced low-paid, insecure family employment, I understand effective support networks’ importance.
“Therefore, as part of our Plan for Change, these Best Start Family Hub rollouts prove essential – comprehensive service centres offering parents crucial family connections alongside necessary health, education and wellbeing support.
“By consolidating early support services and investing £500 million in children’s development, we’re implementing preventative measures improving lives whilst reducing NHS pressures – a crucial element of our 10 Year Health Plan.”
Best Start Family Hubs will provide families with services including:
- Activities for children aged 0-5
- Birth registration
- Debt and welfare guidance
- Domestic abuse support
- Early language development
- Health visiting
- Housing assistance
- Infant feeding support
- Mental health services
- Midwifery and maternity care
- Nutrition and weight management
- Oral health improvement
- Parenting guidance
- Reducing parental conflict
- SEND support and services
- Stop smoking assistance
- Substance misuse support
- Support for separating and separated parents
- Youth services
These hubs will welcome all families, particularly benefiting the most vulnerable whilst addressing child poverty challenges ahead of the government’s Child Poverty Taskforce strategy launch.
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‘Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life’ also emphasises local authorities’ crucial role in improving numbers of children achieving strong developmental levels by age five.
Local authorities will expand their existing family, young children and baby services to create ambitious local plans meeting their 2028 objectives.
