Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of digital parenting programmes in supporting families of children with SEND.

Giving Every Child the Best Start in Life sets out how the government will invest close to £1.5 billion over the next three years to expand and strengthen family services.

This will include £500 million for rolling out Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority. Each Best Start Family Hub will have a children and family services professional specifically trained in supporting parents of children with additional needs. This will help identify children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who may need extra help, making links with local early years settings and health services. We will also fund more evidence based parenting offers and set clearer rules to ensure that funding is used on high quality parenting programmes.

This will be supported by a new national Best Start digital service, linked to ‘My Children’ on the NHS app, bringing together the advice and guidance parents need in one place, and linking families to local services.

The Families First Partnership programme is embedding Family Help as a seamless offer of family support delivered by multi-disciplinary, community based teams. This includes a broad range of professionals, including those working in SEND. The location of services will be determined by local authorities, with partners, and we encourage areas to consider family hubs as a location.