Do you remember SureStart? I do.
I remember the antenatal classes we had before our first child was born where we were shown a colourful selection of “normal” nappy fillings, I remember the baby groups where it was really easy to chat with a health visitor or midwife.
And I remember being astonished and grateful that there was a place we could always go to find help, advice, or just some other people who understood what we were going through.
By the time our last child was born, SureStart had gone. I felt grateful to local churches for putting on toddler groups with tea, cake and sofas available alongside the toys, but I missed SureStart.
Our new Labour government have just announced £500m funding to put that right, with Best Start Family Hubs.
This is fantastic news for Worcester, where a small cohort of family hubs have been making the best of difficult times.
As one person put it to me, it’s felt like crisis intervention, not early intervention.
Now is the chance for that to change, and it’s vital that we get it right.
My only criticism of SureStart is that it was too easy for a Conservative government to simply ‘switch off’.
I’m determined that what we build now is embedded in local communities, owned by all of us and integrated with so many dedicated partners and services that they can never be switched off.
In that mission, I have been leading a group of MPs from all parties alongside charities and local authorities to write the new texbook on how we can breathe life into family hubs.
If you have benefitted from SureStart or a Family Hub, or if you’ve helped to deliver one (or have a passion to do so!) then please get in touch.
Worcester has been a pioneer for new free breakfast clubs in schools, we could also be a pioneer in Family Hubs.
If you remember SureStart, let’s make it more than a memory once again.
Tom Collins,
MP for Worcester
