At Barnardo’s we have a long history of providing effective family support, and in 2023/24 we ran 75 Family Centres or Hubs across England. We see this work as key in helping us achieve our purpose as a charity to make sure children are safer, happier, healthier and more hopeful.
In recent years, successive governments have recognised the benefits of these services, through limited investment in the Family Hub and Start for Life programmes. However, political support and positive rhetoric has not translated into consistent support in communities. With councils under increasing pressure to meet the needs of children who have already experienced significant harm, spending on support like family centres reduced by almost £1.4bn between 2010/11 and 2023/24 and there have been no signs this trend is reversing. Recent analysis from the Centre for Young Lives found 49% of local authorities reduced their children’s centres and family hubs budgets between 2023/24 and 2024/25 – with an average reduction in spending of 11.5%.
We believe that in order to achieve its Opportunity Mission, the current government should now reimagine the role of family hubs as a core public service. We must build on the learning from the Sure Start centres that were opened in communities up and down the country in the late 90s/early 2000, and create a service equipped to support families with the challenges they face in the 2020s and beyond. These including reduced vaccination rates, school readiness and attendance, and the increased challenges facing children’s mental health and their safety online, as well as the growing number of children coming into local authority care.
Investment in a family hub in every community is a significant ask at a time when funding is in short supply, and while the government’s recent spending review recognized the importance of these services it did not pledge any additional funds for their development. However, by investing strategically in effective early intervention and prevention, we believe the government can achieve better outcomes for children today – including on key metrics such as school readiness – and a healthier generation in the future, whilst delivering cost-savings for the taxpayer in years to come.