Best Start Family Hubs

Baroness Barran Excerpts

Tuesday 27th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

My noble friend, as always, raises an important point. We have committed in the best start in life strategy to having a children and family services practitioner in each family hub to support children and families with additional needs. We recognise just how significant demand is this year, particularly for early years. We look forward to the SEND reform White Paper, which will come out soon and help progress this further.

[Baroness Barran (Con)]

My Lords, I was very glad to hear the Minister acknowledge the work of my noble friend Lord Farmer, who has offered huge leadership in this area. We on these Benches are very pleased to see the expansion of family hubs and even the choice of a name used in a Conservative paper on the subject from 2021—imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. However, I was not sure that the Minister addressed all my noble friend’s question, particularly in relation to families experiencing domestic abuse, parental conflict and separated parents. Saying that they need to consult across government to work out the additional services, with guidance in spring 2026, does not feel as clear an answer as I think she can give us.

[Baroness Blake of Leeds (Lab)]

The noble Baroness touches on an important point: we need to build on the good things from the Sure Start model and the good things that came out of the family hub model, bring them together and analyse the way forward. On working with parents, the model has proved that parents coming in will often get confidence from other parents in the hub helping them with support. Working with professional support in the hub, they can then be signposted to special services to give them the support they need. I cannot be more precise than that because things will develop in different ways in different areas, but there is a real determination to take advantage of all the cross-cutting themes that can come out of this. Parental relationships are one of those areas.