• New analysis ahead of planned family hub rollout reveals areas with limited or no access to support for children’s development
• Approximately 100,000 under fives living in relative poverty in England do not currently live within walking, driving or commuting distance of family hubs
• Investment will need to be sharply targeted to ensure the roll out of Best Start Family Hubs improves children’s outcomes and offers genuinely local support to underserved families

London, UK - For the first time, analysis has revealed that as many as 100,000 children living in relative poverty in England are not currently able to access government-funded family hubs, leaving them without the face-to-face support that they need. Ahead of the planned family hub rollout, Nesta highlights how data on access to family hubs, inequality in early outcomes, and deprivation can best target the children who need it most.

Family hubs are a one-stop-shop, delivered through local authorities in England, for caregivers to access support and information. The UK government has committed to rolling out Best Start Family Hubs in every local authority over three years via a £500 million boost. But efficient distribution of this budget will be vital to ensure this investment contributes to the government’s commitment to increase the proportion of children being school-ready to 75% by 2028.

Researchers at the innovation foundation Nesta analysed the distribution of and access to existing hubs and children’s centres (formerly Sure Start centres) in England to understand how the funding can reach and provide access for young children living in poverty.

Most (86%) local authorities have adopted some form of the family hub model, but funding providers can differ between authorities. There are 900 hubs across England and around 600 of these previously received central funding through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme. Meanwhile, 22 local authorities do not have a family hub and large parts of the country – including areas like Devon, Somerset, East Yorkshire, and Derbyshire – are family hub ‘blackspots’, with very limited and sometimes no family hubs. The gap in developmental outcomes between children who are and are not eligible for free school meals at age five is wider in areas without a centrally-funded hub.

Family hubs are mostly located within easy reach for families: 80% of 0-to 4-year-olds living in relative poverty (around 400,000) can reach their local hub with a 15-minute drive or walk, or a 25-minute public transport journey. But the analysis finds that approximately 100,000 children living in poverty in this age group do not live within walking, driving or commuting distance of these services.

Local authority average deprivation scores have so far been used by the government to allocate hub funding. But Nesta’s analysis highlights that affluent areas can contain ‘pockets of deprivation’ which can be among the most deprived areas nationally. These scores risk missing these hidden pockets and children within otherwise affluent areas could miss out on vital funding.

On the back of the research, Nesta is recommending the government prioritises children who need it the most by taking a strategic approach. This can be achieved through combining data on access, inequality in early years outcomes, and deprivation at a neighbourhood – rather than local authority – level, while also giving priority to areas without an already existing hub.

Sarah Cattan, director of a fairer start mission at Nesta, said: “Children are missing out on vital support to meet their milestones due to family hub blackspots. The national rollout of Best Start Family Hubs could genuinely provide underserved families with access to local support. The government will need to use a data-driven approach to position the new hubs where they can deliver the most benefit for families and make the most of the investment.”

Notes to editors

1. Data on family hubs: In December 2024, Nesta commissioned the Family Hubs Network to update their existing dataset of the names and locations of all family hubs in England. Nesta used this data to identify and map the locations of family hubs in each local authority. In Nesta’s research, some sites are classified as a family hub where they have not been classified as such by The Family Hubs Network, and vice versa. For example, when a site is currently listed as a family hub on a local authority's website.
2. Data on children’s centres: Nesta used data on the names and addresses of open children’s centres from the Department for Education’s Get Information about Schools (GIAS) database from December 2024. Local authorities are required to keep this information up-to-date, however, this data is most likely an overestimate of the current provision of children’s centres, for example, we found some centres on this list that had since been converted into family hubs.
3. The definition of relative poverty is when a child is living in a household with an income less than 60% of the median UK household income for that year. (Office for National Statistics (ONS) Households Below Average Income)