Introduction to family hubs | Services | Start for Life | Locations and activities | Get involved | Programme background
Family hubs programme background
The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme is managed by the Department for Education (DfE) and Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), responsible for working with 75 local authorities to deliver local family hubs across the UK.
Haringey has been selected as one of these 75 local authorities.
Timeline
The programme started in autumn 2022 and will finish in March 2025, when the DfE will review and check if the council has met the minimum requirements.
We are producing plans to ensure the hubs continue after that date, in line with other similar local programmes.
Funding
Haringey has been allocated over £3 million in government funding to spend, but the DfE has been specific in how Haringey can spend the money. All funds must be used to meet the programme's minimum requirements, covering the following areas:
- family hubs programme spend
- family hubs capital spend
- perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationships
- parenting support
- infant feeding support
- home learning environment services
- publishing 'Start for Life' offers and parent/carers panels
Family hubs are for children and young people aged 0-19 years and their parents/carers, however, the majority of the funding is focused on the Start for Life. This includes mental health advice for new mums in the weeks immediately before and after birth, and support for parents to build strong relationships with their babies.
Grant funding must be used to build on existing services and extend and improve the current local family support available.
The spend is monitored by the DfE and Haringey will regularly submit reports to evidence progress. Failure to demonstrate progress can lead to the DfE withdrawing or reclaiming funding back from Haringey.
Partners and stakeholders involved
We are working with senior leaders, managers and commissioners from our local health, social care, education and voluntary (VCS) organisations so that each family hub is designed to meet the needs of the local community.
The programme is being overseen by the Start Well Board, a multi-agency group of professionals which is chaired by the Director of Children's Services.
The family hubs oversight group, chaired by the Assistant Director of Early Years Help, and the family hubs implementation group, chaired by Head of Service Early Help, are responsible for the leadership and day to day management of the programme.
Delivery of the work is being coordinated by our family hubs programme manager.