Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of reductions in (a) family hubs and (b) health visiting on progress towards the target of children reaching a good level of development by 2028.

The government is investing over £900 million in Best Start Family Hubs (BSFH) and Healthy Babies between 2026 and 2029 to deliver a more connected, prevention-led system that improves outcomes for babies, children and their families. Local authorities are expected to use BSFH funding to enhance, expand and reshape existing services to provide families with an improved and strengthened offer, rather than maintaining existing provision.

This investment supports the government's ambition for 75% of children to reach a good level of development by 2028. Recent Early Years Foundation Stage Profile data shows continued progress towards this ambition.

The department will undertake a comprehensive evaluation of the BSFH programme to assess whether it is achieving its intended objectives and improving outcomes for children and families. The evaluation will help strengthen the evidence base on the programme's impact and inform future delivery and policy decisions.

Health visiting provides unique access to families, with the early mandated reviews often delivered in the family home. It enables trained professionals to identify emerging health, developmental and safeguarding needs in children that may otherwise go unnoticed.

In September 2026, the department published the first ever dataset for the children’s public health nursing workforce. This data will be published annually to allow local authorities to monitor delivery and support the government’s commitment to strengthen health visiting.