The government’s Start for Life and Family Hubs network programme will allow local services, working together and in partnership with the voluntary, community and faith sectors, to further support families who require support. 

I am pleased that Norfolk has been selected as one of 75 local authority areas to take this forward and will receive around £6m additional one-off transformation funding to build on and further develop the prevention and early help services for families with children and young people up to the age of 19 or 25 if they have special educational needs and disabilities. 

I welcome this new opportunity for the county as the aims and focus of the programme aligns to both the local shared ambition for Norfolk to be a place where all children and young people can flourish, and to the recommendations of the recent Independent Review of Children’s Social Care. 

Norfolk County Council will use this new funding to build on how they work with partners to offer better access to services for all families with children, particularly target those from lower socio-economic groups, those who have SEN/D, and those from minority groups who experience exclusion. 

As MP for Norwich North, ensuring that our young people get the best possible start in life is one of my priorities. To find out more about what action I am taking both in Norwich and Westminster for this work, please visit: https://www.chloesmith.org.uk/myplan/children. 

If constituents need to contact me on this matter, or any other issue, please do email me at chloe@chloesmith.org.uk or ring my constituency office on 01603 414756.