The independent think tank’s report draws on new Freedom of Information (FOI) data from councils in England to paint a picture of the current provision of children’s centres and Family Hubs, which it says are ‘crucial tools in the Government’s mission to widen opportunity and boost school readiness.’
A total of 121 councils, which represent 80 per cent of local authorities in England, responded to the Centre for Young Lives’ FOI request on spending on children’s centres and Family Hubs.
Together the data reveals:
- Almost half of local authorities that responded reported cuts to their budgets between 2023/24 and 2024/25.
- Local authorities in the Yorkshire and Humber region reported an average of a 10 per cent reduction in their budgets. One local authority is cutting its budget by 81 per cent.
- Recent spending on children’s centres and Family Hubs by councils is just a quarter of that spent on Sure Start before 2010
- Children's centres and Family Hubs are spending just over half of the average amount spent per hub under Sure Start.
The report, ‘A Fresh Start for children and Family Support: Delivering joined-up place-based support through Family Hubs’, also shows that the number of centres has fallen and their ‘volume and depth’ of services has decreased over the last 15 years.
There are now an estimated 2,100 hubs and centres across England with an average spend of £275,000 per site. This spending is funded through a mix of non-ring-fenced funding from local authority finance settlements, the pooling of other local budgets in some places, and additional funding from the Government’s Family Hubs and Start for Life programme.
The report goes on to make a number of calls, they are:
- For the Department for Education (DfE) and Department of Health and Social Care to fund a ring-fenced grant to local authorities to fill the current gap in local authority funding and secure the future of existing family support.
- For the Government to scale up investment through a ring-fenced grant to deliver joined-up family support to more children and families across England. The report recommends a phased and iterative approach to scaling up funding to children and family support, building over time to reach 2 million children in year nine.
- For the DfE to issue new guidance on the core provision of children’s centres and Family Hubs, as was the norm during the 2000s.
- A cross departmental taskforce, led by the Cabinet Office, to maximise the role of Family Hubs and children’s centres as a springboard for a wide range of Government policy. This should be supported by cross-departmental guidance encouraging the delivery of a range of new services from high needs to universal through children’s centres and Family Hubs.
- For additional investment in the Family Hubs budget to continue to be jointly funded by both DfE and the Department of Health and Social Care.
Baroness Anne Longfield, executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives, said, ‘It has been more than a quarter of a century since the first Sure Start centre opened and many of the challenges children and families face today are even greater than they were in the years leading up to that landmark programme. Since 2010, early help and family support programmes have been hollowed out.
‘The Government has a target of ensuring 40,000-45,000 more children reach a good level of development before the end of this Parliament to reach its Opportunity Mission milestone, yet almost half of local authorities have told us they are having to make cuts to their budget for children’s centres and Family Hubs. This should be a serious cause of concern for Ministers.
‘We need to mend the patched-up, underfunded, postcode lottery that currently exists. We need a fresh start for family support.’
