Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to continue funding (a) family hubs and (b) the Start for Life programme.

The Government has a bold new ambition to raise the healthiest generation of children in our history. There is strong evidence that the critical 1,001 days from conception to the age of two years old sets the foundations for later cognitive, emotional, and physical development.

Launched in August 2022, the three-year Family Hubs and Start for Life programme provides approximately £300 million to 75 local authorities in England with high levels of deprivation, to improve outcomes for families with babies.

The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme is currently funded until 31 March 2025. Further funding for the programme is dependent on future fiscal events and cannot yet be confirmed.