Best Start Family Hubs to act as one-stop-shop for parents with SEND professional and services to support speech and language development confirmed.
Families of children with SEND will soon receive faster, earlier support as the government confirms new community-based early intervention is to roll out in every Best Start Family Hub from April.
As part of the government's pledge to roll out Best Start Hubs in every local authority next year, councils are being tasked with recruiting an all-new dedicated SEND practitioner in every hub to provide direct, family-facing support that has been missing for too long.
The government inherited a SEND system on its knees, and research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies is clear that when early help is missing, more children go on to need higher-level SEND support later in childhood.
To put a stop to this troubling cycle, by 2028, Best Start Family Hubs will act as a one stop shop for the whole community - offering parents a range of support, including a menu of proven interventions, from child-focused speech and language sessions for toddlers to specialist parent and baby groups.
This government has always been clear that the Best Start offer will follow Sure Start in its ambition to give every child gets the best possible start in life - with research showing that children who lived within a short distance of a Sure Start centre for their first five years were 0.9 percentage points more likely to achieve five good GCSEs at age 16.
Now, one in four families with children under five cannot access local children's centres or Family Hubs, rising to one in three lower income families, with the lack of support contributing to too many children not being ready to start school.
To access their share of the £500 million Best Start Family Hub investment, every local authority must prioritise the neighbourhoods where families face the greatest barriers to support, with an ambition for 70% of all hubs to be located in the 30% most disadvantaged communities.
This supports the government's plan to deliver national renewal - with more security, more opportunity, and more respect for every family and every community across the UK.
Education Secretary Bridget Philipson said:
Giving every child the best start in life means revitalising family support so that parents can rely on it once again.
Nowhere is that support more important than for families of children with SEND, where early, expert help can make all the difference not only for parents, but for children's life chances.
And now, local councils will need to work with us to put Best Start Family Hubs in the heart of communities, in service of the families who need them most, and on the frontline of our battle to break the link between background, and success.
It will take time to rebuild, but families need, want and deserve better. The evidence is clear that these services improve outcomes for children, prevent needs from escalating and more than return on the investment.
The guidance sets out the government's vision for a single, prevention-first system that sets a new baseline for early help nationwide - one rooted in fairness, connection and children's long-term outcomes.
The new offer will help parents understand their child's development, identify emerging needs sooner, and support vital join-up between early years settings, health visitors and SEND teams.
For many families, this will mean getting answers, reassurance and help much earlier than the inherited system often provides.
And it will mean families can get advice on early development concerns and help to understand support for SEND in one place.
Professionals will step in early with practical advice so parents can manage everyday challenges before they escalate or become medicalised, and families will be connected quickly to further support if they need it.
Mark Vickers MBE, CEO of Olive Academies and Chair of APSEND National MAT CEO Network said:
The government's commitment to improving access to SEND services via dedicated community-based practitioners is a significant development that I, together with the APSEND MAT CEO Network, strongly support.
Positioning specialist SEND services at the heart of communities will enable families facing the greatest barriers to access timely, meaningful support.
The specialist sector recognises the critical importance of health, education, and wellbeing services working in close partnership to deliver an integrated and comprehensive approach to supporting families and improving long-term outcomes for children and young people.
Our transformative Best Start Family Hubs, alongside wider measures including free school meals for every child from a family on universal credit, free breakfast clubs and scrapping the cruel two child benefit cap, show a government committed to building a fairer system that backs families from the start as it prepares to publish its Child Poverty Strategy this week.
The strengthened offer also builds on steady progress shown in new early years data towards the Plan for Change ambition to get thousands more children school-ready by age five. It is backed by new local targets set for every area, with councils now required to set out how they will drive progress towards the national goal by 2028.
DfE
