Background to the Programme
The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme is a national funding package for the period 2022–2025, jointly overseen by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Education.
The vision of the programme is to provide families with the integrated support they need to care for their children from conception to two years old (1,001 Critical Days), and to continue this support through whole family working into the start of adulthood. This is to enable parents to establish a firm foundation for their children, from which to meet their full potential in life.
The investment will enable around half of upper-tier local authorities in England to transform their individual service offers into an integrated family hub model. The programme includes investment for essential services in the crucial Start for Life period from conception to age two, and services which support parents to care for and interact with their children.
This government’s 2019 manifesto included a commitment to champion family hubs. Family hubs are a place-based way of joining up locally the planning and delivery of family services. They bring services together to improve access, improve the connections between families, professionals, services, and providers, and put relationships at the heart of family support.