Family hubs: from Sure Start to Best Start

Children’s centres

Children’s centres make available universal and targeted early childhood services. These services are provided both within the centres themselves and elsewhere, through advice and assistance on how to access them.

Under part 1 of the Childcare Act 2006, a local authority must make arrangements to ensure that “early childhood services” in its area are provided in an integrated manner and that, “so far as is reasonably practicable”, this must include “arrangements for sufficient provision of children’s centres to meet local need.” All or some of this support may be provided via family hubs.

Family hubs

There is no specific legislative basis for family hubs. However, they can build on the existing infrastructure of children’s centres and, as explained in a January 2026 report from the Commons Health and Social Care Committee, extend their offer to include support for families with older children:

Family Hubs not only provide services relevant to the first 1000 days, but also offer support to parents, carers, pregnant women, partners, and young people up to age 19—or 25 if they have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND). Hubs can also support users in accessing other services that may be helpful to a family including: housing and debt advice, youth services or domestic abuse support.

From 2024: Best Start Family Hubs

In July 2025, the government committed to providing £500 million from 2026 to 2029 to “rebuild crucial family services, under a ‘Best Start’ umbrella”. Under the plans, Best Start Family Hubs will be created in every local authority area in England from April 2026. Up to 1,000 hubs will be created by 2028, along with 2,000 network sites (other settings that provide at least one Best Start Family Hub service on a regular basis).

Hubs will be based in disadvantaged communities and are intended to “act as a one stop shop for parents seeking a range of support”, including parenting support, preventative and universal health services for babies, and support for children with additional needs. They will be open to all families but will prioritise support for families with babies and young children.

75 local authorities that previously received funding through the Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme will receive additional Healthy Babies funding to continue to provide “enhanced support for babies and families in their areas”.

Stakeholders have broadly welcomed the plans to develop a network of Best Start Family Hubs. However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has cautioned that this is “not – yet – a new Sure Start”, and said that spending on integrated early years services will be less than a third of the amount that was spent on Sure Start at its peak.

2019 to 2024: Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme

At the Autumn Budget and Spending Review 2021, the government announced it would provide £300 million up to the end of March 2025 “to transform services for parents, babies, carers, and children in half of local authorities in England”.

The funding was provided to 75 local authorities with high levels of deprivation as part of a Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme.

In January 2024, the government announced that all 75 local authorities in the programme had at least one open family hub.

At the Autumn Budget 2024, the Labour government announced funding to continue the programme in 2025/26.

A thematic review of Start for Life services, published by OFSTED and the Care Quality Commission in 2024, found that families who accessed Start for Life services through a family hub had a positive experience. However, it added that more work was needed to ensure that all families, including those from seldom-heard groups, can access Start for Life services in every family hub. The report recommended that the Start for Life programme be made available nationally to remove any stigma associated with accessing services.

1998 to 2018: Sure Start

The Blair Labour government introduced Sure Start to reduce the effects of child poverty and address social exclusion by enhancing the life chances of children under five who were growing up in disadvantaged areas.

Sure Start began as a series of local partnerships (Sure Start local programmes) which targeted disadvantaged areas. However, from 2002, the approach shifted to the universal provision of children’s centres controlled by local authorities.

In 2004, the government set a target of creating 3,500 Sure Start Children’s Centres by 2010: one for every community in England.

By 2010/11, there were around 3,600 Sure Start centres in England and annual funding for local authorities for Sure Start was around £2.2 billion.

From 2011/12 onwards, spending on Sure Start fell, and by 2018/19 it was around 69% lower in real terms than in 2010/11. The number of Sure Start Children’s Centres also fell, although there was debate over the precise figure. By 2019, the total number of centres had decreased to 3,050, comprising 2,350 children’s centres and 700 children’s centre-linked sites.

Research published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies in May 2025 found that Sure Start had an “overwhelmingly positive” effect on educational and health outcomes, although it also found that the effects on socio-emotional and behavioural outcomes were more mixed. The research estimated that, at its peak in 2010, Sure Start generated £2.05 (across both private individuals and the government) for every £1 of government spending.