What Sure Start centres and family hubs are
Sure Start and family hubs reflect changing ways of organising help for families with young children in England. The earlier model focused on local provision for children under five, while the family hub approach can connect support across a wider age range. Both place value on services working together rather than expecting parents to navigate separate systems alone. Their development is best understood through the aims of the original programme and the policy changes that followed.
Origins of Sure Start
Sure Start launched in England in the late 1990s to support children under five and their families in disadvantaged areas. The programme aimed to improve children’s health, learning and development, while helping parents and strengthening family life. Its focus on the early years reflected the importance of experiences before school: children’s development is shaped by relationships, health and the opportunities available at home and in their community.
Early Sure Start Local Programmes were designed around neighbourhoods rather than a single national service template. Local partnerships brought public services and community organisations together to plan support around families’ circumstances. They could include local authorities, health services, early years providers and voluntary groups, with parents involved in shaping provision. Outreach was important: staff sought to connect with families who might not otherwise approach formal services, rather than relying only on families finding a central building.
This area-based approach mattered because disadvantage can affect several parts of family life at once. A parent might need advice about a child’s development alongside practical help to access local support; separate agencies can be difficult to navigate when they do not communicate. Joining up local expertise offered a route towards earlier, more coordinated help, while local planning allowed provision to respond to neighbourhood needs. Sure Start was not simply a childcare scheme: its wider purpose was to improve children’s prospects by supporting the family environment around them.
In practice, the original model worked best when local partners made help easy to find and involved parents in decisions. Families can look for provision delivered through a connected local partnership, rather than assuming every area used an identical model.
From children’s centres to family hubs
In the early 2000s, the Sure Start approach increasingly took shape through children’s centres, which gave local areas a recognisable place to organise early-years support. Their development formed part of a broader effort to make services for families with young children more accessible and joined up. A centre could act as a local point of contact, while partnerships with health, education and voluntary-sector organisations connected families to help beyond the building itself.
After 2010, local provision changed as funding, local authority priorities and service organisation shifted. Many centres closed, merged with other provision or changed their operating model; in some places, services moved to different venues or were organised through wider local networks. The practical result was not uniform across England: a family’s route into support could depend on local commissioning decisions, available partners and whether provision remained based in a dedicated centre.
Government policy has since promoted family hubs as a way to bring support together for families with children across a wider age range. The 2022 Family Hubs and Start for Life programme set out this direction in England, linking the hub model with support from pregnancy and the early years through childhood and adolescence. Compared with a model centred mainly on a building for under-fives, a hub can work as a network of venues and services, with digital routes also helping families find the right point of contact. The model aims to make transitions between stages of family life easier to manage.
Local authorities play a central role in commissioning and coordinating this provision, often working with health services, schools and voluntary organisations. That can create more integrated family support services, but the name “family hub” does not guarantee an identical offer in every area: local priorities and partnerships shape how the model works. For families, the practical step is to check which local organisation coordinates support and whether the hub acts as a building, a network, or both. A clearly signposted local route is the most useful starting point.
Services families use
Children’s centres and family hubs connect families with practical help, early learning and local professionals. The mix may include play sessions, health services, advice and parenting programmes, with delivery varying by local authority. Some support is available to all families, while other services are arranged around a child’s age or a family’s circumstances. Together, these family hubs services can make community resources easier to find and help parents reach the right service without navigating each organisation alone.
Stay and play, health and advice
Stay-and-play groups give babies and young children a supervised space to explore toys, books and simple activities while their carers meet other families. Early years staff or trained session leaders may guide play and suggest activities that support communication, movement and social skills; sessions can also help parents build confidence joining in at home. Availability and format vary by local authority.
- Stay-and-play groups: Early years staff set out age-appropriate toys and lead songs, stories or sensory play, giving children chances to practise sharing, movement and communication.
- Health visitors: These NHS nurses or midwives offer advice on child development, feeding and family health, and may arrange reviews or refer families to specialist support.
- Health checks: Health professionals use scheduled child health reviews to discuss growth, development and wellbeing, identify concerns early, and agree whether further assessment or support is needed.
- Immunisation information: Hub staff can explain how to access routine vaccinations and direct parents to the relevant NHS service; vaccination is generally provided through GP practices or other NHS clinics.
- Benefits and housing advice: Council advisers, welfare rights workers or local advice organisations can help families understand entitlements, complete claims, address rent concerns and find suitable housing support.
Health visitors typically work through NHS community services, while advice workers may be employed by a council or a voluntary organisation. A hub can host a clinic, arrange an appointment or make a referral, depending on local provision. These links matter because developmental concerns, financial pressure or housing problems can affect a child’s day-to-day security and a parent’s ability to manage. Ask the centre which professional is responsible for a particular service and whether an appointment or referral is needed.
Parenting courses
Parenting programmes offer structured ways to build skills in responding to children, setting boundaries and managing difficult behaviour. Courses may cover positive attention, routines, play, communication and calm, consistent responses; some are designed for parents of babies, while others focus on preschool or school-age children. The approach and length depend on the programme and local service. Examples used in the UK include the group-based Incredible Years programmes and Triple P, which offers different levels of support, from brief guidance to more intensive courses. Trained facilitators may come from health visiting, early years, education or family support teams. Some groups meet weekly over several sessions; more targeted programmes may include individual sessions or additional contact between meetings. Families may find a course through a hub, health visitor, school, GP practice or local authority service. Access can involve self-referral or a referral by a professional, and places may be prioritised according to need. A universal group is generally open to a broad range of parents, whereas targeted support may be offered when a family needs more help with a specific challenge. Choose a programme whose age range and level of support fit your child and circumstances, and ask the local team how enrolment works.
Early learning and childcare links
Children’s centres and hubs can connect parents with early years education and childcare without providing every place themselves. Staff may explain the types of local provision, such as nurseries, childminders, preschool groups and school-based settings, and help families compare what each offers. Early childhood education programs can support communication, play and social development before a child starts school. A family may be signposted to an early years setting or referred for additional help where a child has emerging developmental needs. With the parent’s agreement, hub staff can share relevant information with a health, early years or family support professional, helping services coordinate rather than asking a family to repeat the same details. A referral can support access to advice or assessment, but it does not itself guarantee a childcare place. Local authorities administer funded early years entitlements and publish information about eligibility and participating providers. Nurseries, schools and childminders deliver places, while hubs may help parents understand application steps, identify nearby options or contact the appropriate council team. The exact process and available support vary by local authority. For a practical next step, ask the hub which council team handles funded places and what information a provider needs before arranging a start date.
What the research shows
Research on Sure Start children’s centres has examined outcomes beyond attendance, including children’s use of hospital care. Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) researchers Cattan, Conti, Farquharson, Ginja and Pecher reported findings in a 2021 briefing and a later working paper in 2025. The results differ by age: hospitalisations rose among one-year-olds, while admissions fell for older children aged 11–15. The pattern was concentrated in more disadvantaged neighbourhoods and offers evidence about possible long-term effects, rather than a guarantee of an individual outcome.
Health effects
The IFS research by Cattan, Conti, Farquharson and Ginja, set out in a 2021 briefing, found that greater access to Sure Start was associated with increased hospitalisations among one-year-olds. The rise was largely driven by admissions for infections. A later working paper by Cattan, Conti, Farquharson, Ginja and Pecher (2025) reports the broader pattern across childhood: hospital admissions were higher around age one, but lower at ages 11–15. These reductions were concentrated in more disadvantaged neighbourhoods.
The age difference matters. An increase in admissions in early childhood is not, by itself, evidence that children’s health worsened because of the centres. The researchers’ findings are consistent with families becoming more connected to support and health services, which could lead to conditions being recognised and treated through hospital care. However, the hospitalisation results alone cannot establish that explanation or show what happened in every family. The later reductions point to a possible lasting benefit, but do not mean that every child who lived near a centre avoided hospital admission.
The concentration of reduced admissions in disadvantaged areas is particularly relevant to how the findings should be understood. It suggests that accessible provision may have had greater effects where families faced greater barriers or need, rather than delivering identical results everywhere. For policy, this supports attention to whether local services reach families who are less well served, and whether support is sustained as children grow. The findings concern Sure Start provision and its effects over time; they should not be treated as a direct estimate of the impact of every current family hub or each individual service.
For families and practitioners, the practical message is to consider health outcomes across different ages and alongside the wider support available locally. The IFS results show an early increase in admissions, largely for infections, and later reductions among 11–15-year-olds, particularly in disadvantaged neighbourhoods. They offer evidence of a potentially important long-term effect, while leaving the precise pathways behind that pattern open to further investigation.
Careers linked to the centres
Family hubs bring together professionals with different expertise, so responsibilities can overlap while remaining distinct. Common roles include:
- Family support workers help parents identify priorities, build practical routines and connect with suitable local support; they may coordinate follow-up with other professionals when a family needs several kinds of help.
- Outreach workers contact families who may not use centre-based provision, share information about nearby services and help remove practical barriers to attending groups or appointments.
- Early years teachers plan learning and play experiences for young children, observe development and work with parents on activities that support communication, curiosity and early learning.
- Health visitors provide a health-focused perspective on young children and families, offer guidance within their professional remit and signpost or coordinate with other services when appropriate.
In a hub, these practitioners can share relevant information appropriately, make referrals and coordinate support around a family’s needs, while each retains their professional responsibilities. Families can ask which named worker is their point of contact and how follow-up will be arranged; coordinated, accessible support is most useful when responsibilities and next steps are clear.
How provision differs across the UK
Sure Start and family hub provision is organised differently in each UK nation, because responsibility for children’s services is devolved. Family hubs are a prominent policy focus in England, but local authorities decide how to organise and commission their local offer. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use their own policy frameworks, funding arrangements and delivery models rather than one shared UK system. Any rules or rates described for England apply there only and can change; check the relevant national and local authority guidance for current details.
England
In England, family hubs are a current policy focus, including through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme launched in 2022. That national direction does not create one identical hub service in every area: councils make local decisions about sites, partners and how families reach support.
Commissioning and funding choices shape what is available in each authority:
- National policy sets a direction, not a single operating template: councils may use a central hub, linked satellite sites, outreach, or digital access.
- Local authorities can commission voluntary organisations, NHS partners or other providers, assigning separate responsibilities for venues, outreach, referrals and service coordination.
- Budgets may combine council spending with central grants, public-health funding and partner contributions; the mix and the timing of funding vary by area.
- Local design determines reach: some authorities provide a broad access point, while particular projects may focus on neighbourhoods or families with identified needs.
- Opening hours, referral routes and venue coverage can differ across council boundaries, even where neighbouring areas use the same family hub name.
These arrangements affect both families and providers. A family moving between authorities may find that eligibility, access routes or the location of support changes; providers may work to different contracts, reporting requirements and funding periods in each area.
For families, the practical starting point is the local council’s current information, rather than assuming that an offer available elsewhere in England is also available nearby. For providers, local commissioning plans and grant conditions determine which services can be sustained and where they are delivered.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have distinct national frameworks and delivery arrangements. Their services may share aims such as supporting early development and family wellbeing, but the names, responsible bodies and local routes into support differ.
| Nation | Policy or programme | Administrative responsibility | Funding and typical delivery model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) is the national approach to supporting children and families. | The Scottish Government sets national policy; local authorities and NHS boards organise services with community and third-sector partners. | Funding and delivery are arranged through national and local public services. Support is commonly organised through local family, early-years and health services rather than a single England-wide family hub model. |
| Wales | Flying Start and Families First are prominent Welsh Government programmes. | The Welsh Government sets programme frameworks and provides funding; local authorities coordinate delivery with health and community partners. | Grant-supported local programmes operate alongside wider council services. The offer can be shaped by local programme coverage and partnership arrangements. |
| Northern Ireland | Sure Start remains a named programme for early years and family support. | The Department of Education funds the programme, with local Sure Start partnerships delivering services in their areas. | Provision is organised through local projects, particularly in disadvantaged areas, rather than through a uniform network of family hubs across the UK. |
The practical differences are about both governance and access: Wales uses named national programmes delivered locally, Northern Ireland retains a targeted Sure Start model, and Scotland works through its broader GIRFEC framework and local services. A family should contact the local council or relevant national service to confirm what is available in their area, while providers should follow the funding and commissioning arrangements for their own nation.