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<p>The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme aims to improve access to services
for parents and families with children 0-19 or up to 25 for those with special educational
needs and disabilities. It provides funding for parenting support as part of the Start
for Life offer to be used on evidence-based programmes alongside peer support and
community outreach activities.</p><p>The department has selected 75 local authorities
based on levels of disadvantage. The department would like to see Family Hubs open
across the country. The departments initial focus is on delivering well in the local
areas that it is currently working with and building a model and evidence base. The
department can then look to expand further in the future.</p><p>The published programme
guide sets out requirements for local authorities to invest in evidence-based programmes
with encouragement to select those that feature in published guidance, which have
been rigorously evaluated and demonstrated impact.</p><p>The programme guide can be
found at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/family-hubs-and-start-for-life-programme-local-authority-guide</a>.
The published guidance is available at: <a href="https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/programme/incredible-years-preschool"
target="_blank">https://guidebook.eif.org.uk/programme/incredible-years-preschool</a>.</p><p>The
department is working with the local authorities selected for the programme to assess
delivery of all funded services in Family Hubs, and evidence-based parenting programmes
are included as part of this. A comprehensive external evaluation of the parenting
support offer has been commissioned and is due to report in late 2025. This evaluation
will explore how well different parenting programmes have been implemented into the
Family Hubs model. It will include a quasi-experimental impact evaluation that will
assess the outcomes for families and an assessment of the value for money offered
by the programme as a whole.</p><p>The department is currently considering options
for widening access to parenting support through Family Hubs and as such undertaking
assessments of the effectiveness and value for money of evidence-based parenting programmes,
as well as other forms of support for parents. As part of this work to inform future
fiscal events, the department considers policies from across the world, including
Australia, to inform departmental thinking. This scoping work also includes engaging
with the Social Mobility Commission following their recent report into family and
parenting programmes.</p><p>The department is also investing over £17 million on the
Nuffield Early Language Intervention (NELI) in order to improve the language skills
of reception age children who need it most following the pandemic. This evidence-based
programme targets children needing extra support with their speech and language development
and is proven to help them make four months of additional progress, and seven months
for those on free school meals. Over 500,000 children have had their language screened,
with 160,000 reception age children having received extra support with their speech
and language development from this proven programme.</p><p>Alongside investing in
parenting support and the NELI programme, the department has also launched a national
media campaign ‘Little Moments Together’ to encourage parents to chat, play and read
with their pre-school children. The campaign, run jointly with the Office for Health
Improvement and Disparities, provides evidence-based advice for parents on the NHS
Better Health Start for Life website, and support from national partners on activities
for parents. Little Moments Together is based on long-standing evidence on the importance
of the home learning environment to providing children the best start to life. The
Better Health Start for Life website can be found at: <a href="https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/early-learning-development/"
target="_blank">https://www.nhs.uk/start-for-life/early-learning-development/</a>.</p>
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