This week’s publication of the Government’s Best Start in Life Giving every child the best start in life - GOV.UK strategy has been warmly welcomed. There is no doubt the sector has been asking for and patiently awaiting a longer-term intent. We have long needed a rationalisation of our many anachronisms and over-burdensome processes. We are also ready, willing, and eager to play our part in rebuilding what we know works.

Whilst we were expecting this to be revealed in the autumn, we now have an earlier indication of the first steps of the reform programme. In it, the Labour Government has returned to some of the founding principles of Sure Start, first launched by Chancellor Gordon Brown in 1998. This time, the brand is Best Start, as it is in Scotland (it is Flying Start in Wales), which feels bolder and more ambitious. Laura Kuenssberg (BBC 1 06/07/25) asked the Secretary of State, if these plans were simply a continuation of the previous government’s Family Hubs programme, and early education and childcare expansions. That made me think about what is happening here.

First, let’s go back in time. Because the drivers and the problems that created the long-lamented Sure Start programme were in place some 30 years ago. Yes, I know, that shocked me too. The lobby was highlighting what needed improving and wanted to test and trial the methods trailblazed by the US Head Start programme. There was much good, targeted, innovative, and impactful work back then. However, ambitions soon took over and the universalising and in many ways soft-pedalling of services followed too soon after in the form of children’s centres. Don’t get me wrong, the place, purpose and activities of children’s centres remained important, I just felt they didn’t have the same level of rigour or impact as Sure Start. And let’s face it, they were soon left to wither on the vine from 2010. The result was a diminished focus, accountability, and resource. And we have all seen the impacts on our communities given this loss of support, whilst at the same time longitudinal studies showed their impact on the families they served (C&YPN 09/04/24 CYP Now - GCSE results for disadvantaged children 'greatly improved by Sure Start' ).

What followed that dereliction of duty was the Family Hubs programme, originally rolled out across 75 local authorities at the start of 2024. It is fair to say, these are smaller programmes focused on bringing people and services together, offering one-front-door services, and they are much less generously funded. Officials now say that the hubs will be rolled out in every local authority by April 2026, so there are up to 1,000 Best Start Family Hubs by the end of 2028.

So, what’s happening here? Well, I respect that the Government has decided not to throw the ‘baby out with the bath water’, avoiding the temptation to sweep away the programmes of the past only to replace them with an ego-inflating rebrand. Family Hubs provide us with a strong foundation, one that was in turn built upon the more recent experience of children’s centres, and both stand on the shoulders of the giants that were Sure Start programmes and their pioneering teams. What is completely and utterly crucial is that we don’t just base this new roll-out on goals alone. We must build a system towards these goals that truly, impactfully, and evidentially takes the lessons learned over the past generation and applies them to the best of our abilities. We all have a moral responsibility this time to ensure we get children’s best start right, demonstrate outcomes and return on investment, and secure the long-term sustainability of these vital approaches.