New government funding will be used to create a dozen flagship family support centres across Lancashire, whose services will include offering help with parenting skills and child development.
It was announced earlier this week that Lancashire County Council had been awarded £347,000 to develop what ministers have branded ‘Best Start Family Hubs’.
However, the authority already has its own network of 50 family hub facilities and satellite units – and so intends to upgrade one in each of Lancashire’s 12 districts to ‘best start’ status, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) has learned.
The previous Conservative administration at the now Reform UK-run county council launched the hubs two years ago as one-stop-shops to provide support for young people and their parents or carers at every stage of maternity, childhood and adolescence.
The government has presented its nationwide Best Start initiative as a revitalised version of the Sure Start programme delivered by Labour in the 2000s – and says it will reassure families that they have convenient access to support in their local area.
One of the main aims of Lancashire’s existing family hubs is to ensure that those seeking help can find it quickly and from the most appropriate source, without having to explain their circumstances to a multitude of different people.
As well as continuing to deliver services including baby feeding advice, family counselling and support for youngsters with special educational needs, the upgraded Best Start hubs will offer enhanced parenting advice and home learning support for families with children under five.
Cabinet member for children and families Simon Evans said of the cash allocation: “We warmly welcome this one-off funding boost within this financial year as part of the government’s ‘Best Start in Life’ agenda.
“The initiative is aimed at helping local authorities invest in services and support to help the development of babies and young children.
“This new investment will help strengthen support for children and families – and we’re committed to ensuring all communities benefit from it.
“We are already working on a plan for implementing this at our existing family hubs, which will include the development of one ‘Best Start Family Hub’ per district, a new parenting programme and a host of activities to support children’s development at home.”
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said the government wanted to “break the link between a child’s background and what they go on to achieve”.
She added: “Our new Best Start Family Hubs will put the first building blocks of better life chances in place for more children.
“I saw first hand how initiatives like Sure Start helped level the playing field, transforming the lives of children by putting in place family support in the earliest years of life and, as part of our Plan for Change, we’re building on its legacy for the next generation of children.
“Making sure hard-working parents are able to benefit from more early help is a promise made and promise kept – delivering a lifeline of consistent support across the nation, ensuring health, social care and education work in unison to ensure all children get the best start in life.”
Nationally, more than 1,400 of the original Sure Start centres – the first of which date back to 1999 – closed during the 2010s.
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