How Churches can help with Levelling up through Family Hubs: £302 million Government funding locations announced

This week 75 local authorities have been named by the Department for Education and Department of Health and Social Care as eligible for a share of £302 million to set up the Government’s flagship Family Hubs and enhance start for life services, as part of the government’s levelling up drive.   Family hubs are one-stop-shops where families can access important services. The Government will also be providing additional funding for perinatal mental health and parent-infant relationships; and parenting programmes, accessible through the family hubs.  

‘It is incumbent on all those who can offer their help to wedge open that door and to combine forces’
_{- Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, Chairman of the Early Years Healthy Development Review}

These 75 Local Authorities will be looking at what they will be able to offer locally.  At a meeting of the ChurchWorks Commission on 30 March Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, Chairman of the Early Years Healthy Development Review, encouraged churches and faith groups in these 75 areas to discuss co-design of services in the new hubs with their Local Authorities, together with public services and the NHS.  Dame Andrea exhorted faith groups, as well as charities and volunteers, to work together with their local authorities, noting ‘it is incumbent on all those who can offer their help to wedge open that door and to combine forces’.   

Outreach is expected to be a key aspect of the new Family Hubs, with their hub and spoke model.  The Secretary of State for Education previously discussed with the Bishop of Durham (Chair of the Churchworks Commission) the significant potential for the Church and other faith groups to be part of effective family hub models. 

The Churchworks Commission will be seeking to support clusters of churches in the 75 areas, to enable them to work with their Local Authorities as their local provision is planned by co-designing services.

The full list of eligible Local Authorities:

Barking and Dagenham, Barnsley, Bedford Borough, Birmingham, Blackburn with Darwen, Blackpool, Bolton, Bradford, Brent, Bristol, Calderdale, Camden, Cornwall, Coventry, Croydon, Derby, Doncaster, Dudley, Durham, East Sussex, Enfield, Gateshead, Greenwich, Hackney, Halton, Haringey, Hartlepool, Hounslow, Isle of Wight, Islington, Kent, Kingston Upon Hull, Knowsley, Lambeth, Leicester, Lewisham, Lincolnshire, Liverpool, Luton, Manchester, Medway, Middlesbrough, Newcastle upon Tyne, Newham, Norfolk, North East Lincolnshire, North Lincolnshire, North Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Nottingham, Oldham, Peterborough, Plymouth, Portsmouth, Redcar and Cleveland, Rochdale, Rotherham, Salford, Sandwell, Sheffield, South Tyneside, Southampton, Southwark, St. Helens, Stoke-on-Trent, Sunderland, Tameside, Telford and Wrekin, Thurrock, Torbay, Tower Hamlets, Wakefield, Walsall, Waltham Forest, Wolverhampton.

More information:

For more information on how the ChurchWorks Commission can support churches in your area to engage with the Local Authority, if it is one of the 75 eligible local authorities, please contact info@churchworks.org.uk

More information on the Family Hubs is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/infants-children-and-families-to-benefit-from-boost-in-support