New Cash to give Bexley children the Best Start in Life
Bexley receives £150,259 as part of nationwide Best Start grants to local authorities to ensure every community has a Best Start Family Hub with 1,000 set to be rolled out by April 2026 to provide wide-ranging help for families, such as parenting and early development.
Labour’s Best Start Family Hubs will act as a one stop shop for parents seeking a range of support, including on difficulty breastfeeding, housing issues or children’s early development and language, reassuring families that they have convenient access to support in their local area or can be efficiently connected to specialist local services.
Welcoming the new funding, Labour’s Cllr. Jeremy Fosten, (Deputy Leader of Bexley Group) said,
“New cash to open a new Best Start Family Hub right here in Bexley means more local children will get a better start in life – and we know from all the evidence that a better start means they are likely to enjoy better prospects as they get older. That is the difference a Labour government makes in Bexley”
“Unlike the last Conservative government, which provided no money for the family hub in Erith, this Labour government has provided more funding, but we can’t just rely on government, here in Bexley the council has to do more to use our community spaces more effectively to support families.”
Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson said:
“It is the driving mission of this government to break the link between a child’s background and what they go on to achieve – our new Best Start Family Hubs will put the first building blocks of better life chances in place for more children.
“I saw firsthand how initiatives like Sure Start helped level the playing field, transforming the lives of children by putting in place family support in the earliest years of life, and as part of our Plan for Change, we are building on its legacy for the next generation of children.
“Making sure hard-working parents are able to benefit from more early help is a promise made, and promise kept – delivering a lifeline of consistent support across the nation, ensuring health, social care and education work in unison to ensure all children get the best start in life.”
Bexley’s new Best Start Family Hub will compliment work the Labour government already has underway to make family life easier and alleviate the burden on parents, including by expanding government-funded childcare to 30-hours, increasing the reach of school-based nurseries, and rolling out free breakfast clubs in every primary school to support working parents.
September also saw the launch of the Labour government’s digital service, www.beststartinlife.gov.uk, a new national digital hub linked NHS services to offer trusted advice and connect to support.