(1) In the Children Act 1989, after section 19 (review of provision for day care, child minding etc) insert—

“19A Duty on local authorities to provide family support services for children and families

(1) A local authority has a duty to provide, so far as is reasonably practical, family support services to all children and parents residing in their area.

(2) Family support services provided by a local authority must—

(a) be provided within the authority area;

(b) seek to improve the health and educational outcomes of children in the relevant area; and

(c) seek to reduce the number of children in their area who suffer ill treatment or neglect.

(3) In this section, “family support services” refer to services which provide children and parents with—

(a) advice, guidance or counselling;

(b) social, cultural or recreational activities; or

(c) accommodation while receiving services provided under subsections (3)(a) and (b).

(4) In fulfilling its duty under subsection (1), a local authority must have regard to—

(a) the availability of and demand for family support services in its area;

(b) the availability of and demand for family support services in its area which are capable of meeting different needs; and

(c) the location of family support services and the equality of access across the authority area.

(5) A local authority must publish information about family support services—

(a) on the authority’s website, and

(b) in all public libraries in the local authority area.

(6) The Secretary of State may by regulations make provision relating to the provision of family support services by local authorities.

(7) In this section—

“local authority” means—

(a) a county council in England;

(b) a district council in England;

(c) a London borough council;

(d) the Common Council of the City of London (in their capacity as a local authority);

(e) the Council of the Isles of Scilly;

(f) a combined authority established under section 103 of the Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Act 2009;

“children and parents” means—

(a) a child under the age of 18;

(b) a young person aged 18-25 who has a diagnosis of special educational needs;

(c) the parents of a child or young person;

(d) a person who has parental responsibility for a child or young person; or

(e) a person who is pregnant.””

This new clause would introduce a requirement on local authorities to provide family support services for all children and parents in their area.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship this afternoon, Mr Betts. New clause 30 is a simple clause that would put into statute the duty on every local authority to publish the details of their available preventive care and family support, because we know that those are crucial forms of early intervention for children who may be at risk of going into care or where families are struggling. They can prevent things getting to crisis point for families and children.

We know that a huge amount of good work is going on in local authorities up and down the country. Spending on preventive care is falling, while late intervention spend is rising, so it would be good practice for all local authorities to make that information freely and easily accessible to all families in the way that we have already legislated for, for instance, with the kinship care offer. I hope Ministers will seriously consider this simple new clause.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I rise to speak in particular to new clause 72, which is on a similar topic to new clause 30, although arguably is not quite as simply drafted. The number of children in care is at an all-time high, and outcomes for those children remain poor. Evidence from the children’s charity Action for Children shows that children who have any interaction with social care are twice as likely to fail an English or maths GCSE than their peers. We need to change those outcomes, preferably through early intervention.

We have spent much time in Committee discussing the Bill’s provisions on improving care for children who need to live with a foster family or in a residential home. It is important that the best possible support is available for those children who, for whatever reason, cannot live with their birth families. However, to significantly improve children’s social care, we need to radically reset the system with a much greater focus on helping families earlier on.

I welcome the Ministers’ comments in our previous debates that the Government are committed to helping children growing up in our country to get the best start in life through wider investment in family hubs and parenting support. However, as drafted, the Bill does little to do this. Only one section of the Bill, which covers family group decision making, and which we discussed right at the start, directly addresses the need for more early intervention. Unless we amend the Bill to go further, we will continue to have a system heavily balanced towards working with families when they reach crisis point, rather than one that seeks to prevent problems before they start.

As we have discussed, families in England face mounting pressures from the lingering effects of covid-19, the high cost of living and economic uncertainty. At the same time, there have been significant cuts to services to support families. I find this statistic shocking: between 2010-11 and 2022-23, spending on early help, such as family homes and children’s centres, decreased by 44%, while spending on late intervention, including children in care, increased by 57%. The skew is going the wrong way, and it does not have to be this way.

Since the late 1990s, several initiatives have been aimed at providing support to families in their communities. That includes the Sure Start centres—first established in 1997, with more than 3,500 children’s centres having been developed by 2009—and the latest family hubs, which provide support to parents from pre-birth all the way through to 18. These centres provided welcome, non-stigmatising support for families. The services they offer and have offered are varied, but often include provisions such as stay-and-play sessions, speech and language support or benefit and employment advice for parents.

While welcomed by families themselves, too often such services are seen as a “nice to have” and subject to cuts when funding is short. It is perhaps not surprising that evidence suggests that around 1,000 such centres have shut since 2009, but we know that cutting early support for families is a false economy. It does not benefit children and families, who are too often left to struggle alone, and it does not save money in the long term. In fact, spending on early intervention programmes has repeatedly been shown to be cheaper than spending later. And this is not just about the finances; it is about the wellbeing of children and families.

On money, the children’s charity Barnardo’s has calculated that spending on the Welcome to Parenthood programme offered through many of its family hubs delivers £2.44 in benefits for every £1 spent, which is good value. That is why the Bill must go further in its noble aim of reforming children’s social care. We need a much more equal emphasis given to local authorities’ obligations to support children and families early on and in their community, alongside their and our important obligations to support children who need to go into care.

My new clause will introduce a new requirement for local authorities to provide sufficient family support services, such as family hubs, for all families in their area. It will build on the provisions in section 17 of the Children Act 1989, which require local authorities to provide support services but only to children who have been assessed as in need. The new clause will broaden that provision, thus requiring local authorities to have a wider family support offer that is available to all families in the community. I do not pretend that that is a small undertaking—I recognise its scale—and it would need to be accompanied by spending allocated in the forthcoming spending review if we are to make it a reality, but as I have outlined, it is a great investment in the future of our kids.

Without sufficient access to early support, too many families are reaching crisis point. We have heard time and again from reports, reviews and inquiries that the children’s social care system must be rebalanced towards early intervention. The Bill, with the new clause, is our opportunity to do just that.

I appreciate the intention of the hon. Member for Twickenham in tabling new clause 30, and I agree that local authorities should be transparent about the services available to support children and families. However, our statutory guidance, “Working Together to Safeguard Children,” already requires local authorities and their statutory safeguarding partners to publish accessible information about the services that they offer children and families, including preventive services and family support.

I welcome the reference that the hon. Member for Twickenham made to preventive services and family support. The Government are committed to rebalancing the children’s social care system towards earlier intervention and reversing the trend of unsustainable spending at the crisis end of the system. Ou reforms to family help and multi-agency child protection, backed by over £500 million of investment in the next financial year, will improve access to early intervention services and ensure that more children and families can access the help and support that they need at the earliest opportunity.

I appreciate the intention of the hon. Member for North Herefordshire in tabling new clause 72, and I agree that local authorities should have a range of services available to support all children and young people and their families, but we have already planned investments of over £600 million for family services, across the spectrum of need—from universal services through to children’s social care interventions—in 2025-26. Through the family hubs and Start for Life programme, 75 of the most deprived local authorities in England have received funding to set up family hubs with integrated Start for Life services at their core. An additional 13 local authorities have been supported in opening family hubs through an earlier transformation fund.

By joining up and enhancing services, family hubs provide a welcoming front door to vital support to improve health, education, and the wellbeing of babies, children, young people and their families. More than 400 family hubs are funded through that programme. In 2025-26, local authorities will receive a further £126 million of combined funding from the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care.

Our reforms to family help and multi-agency child protection, backed by over £500 million of investment in the next financial year, will improve access to early intervention services and ensure that children and families with multiple and/or complex needs can access the help and support they need at the earliest opportunity. I hope that that response is reassuring and that the hon. Member for Twickenham feels able to withdraw the amendment.

I beg to ask leave to withdraw the clause.

Clause, by leave, withdrawn.