Member

I understand why the Start for Life offer has to be tightly drawn for local authorities, with far more patchy provision. However, where local authorities have pioneered good practice and blazed an innovative trail for other councils that has proven successful, they should not have to conform to a one-size-fits-all approach. I understand that a level of standardisation is essential to get timely scale-up of new approaches. What used to be known as the troubled families programme began in quite a clunky way, which attracted a lot of criticism, but it would never have got off the ground without tight controls around payment by results. However, a sizeable chunk of its success lay in its operation becoming more flexible for well-performing local authorities. The ability to gain earned autonomy from the strictures of payment by results gave local authorities lump sums to spend on early intervention and helped to float a fleet of family hubs. Deploying a similar approach with councils whose family hubs are being hampered in delivering excellence by command and control from the centre could similarly help greatly with progress of the whole national programme. Hence I will likely table amendments later in this Bill that would give councils earned autonomy in how they design and deploy family hubs.