Lord Jamieson (Con)

My Lords, I declare that I am a councillor in central Bedfordshire. I too welcome this Statement; I think we all recognise how important it is to support families and the early start in life. The Minister made reference to Sure Start. When I became a council leader, I had to deal with Sure Start. It was great because we had these shiny new buildings, but they lacked long-term funding, which put councils in a very difficult position when that funding ran out after three years. The second point I discovered was that they were very much stand-alone and did not integrate with other services such as schools, health, various support services and, as I think somebody else mentioned, the wider age range. When we took over Sure Start centres, we started doing more of that: we took them out of some of their shiny buildings and put them in places where they were much more accessible. Given what the Government are now proposing and the real-term cuts that they are making to the local council funding that they provide, can the Minister assure the House that there will be long-term funding for family hubs into the future? Can she also assure the House that the Government will enable local councils and local partners to have the flexibility to tailor their approach to their local area and its needs, to deliver for their communities? As my noble friend Lady Barran said, will the Government build on the previous Government’s good work with family hubs and look at the wider age range? I do not want to be in a situation where you can bring your newly born baby along to the hub but not your three year-old or five year-old, which actually stops you going.