Dr Neil Hudson, MP for Penrith and The Border, welcomed the Conservative Government’s announcement to open a Family Hub in Cumbria to dramatically improve outcomes for babies, children and parents.
Hundreds of local families will be offered help and support with issues such as infant feeding, mental health and relationship building.
Cumbria has been named as one of 12 local authorities to receive funds as part of the Conservative Government’s £12 million Family Hubs Transformation Fund. These monies will help transition services which used to operate under the Sure Start banner over to the Family Hub model, with a Cumbrian hub due to open by March 2024.
Family hubs are a way of joining up locally to improve access to services; improve the connections between families, professionals, services, and providers; and putting relationships at the heart of family support. Family hubs bring together services for children of all ages, with a great Start for Life offer at their core. They provide a single point of access to a range of universal services and targeted support for those who need additional help, such as midwifery, parenting programmes, youth services, housing and debt advice.
This is part of a wider funding package of more than £300 million for Family Hubs and the Start for Life Programme. This includes £100 million for bespoke parent-infant mental health and parent-infant relationship support, £50 million to fund evidence-based parenting programmes, and £10 million to support trials of innovative Start for Life workforce models.
Dr Neil Hudson, MP for Penrith and The Border, said:
“I’m proud of our Conservative Government’s commitment to make sure every child has the best start to life possible. This is the kind of compassionate long-term decision making I’m proud to champion.
“Ultimately strong and loving families make for happier and more stable communities.
“Having been a consistent voice for improving mental health services, I’m also proud to see this has been given proper prominence in the rollout - helping educational attainment, wellbeing and life chances.”
