Two new Family Hubs to open in High Wycombe and Burnham

Buckinghamshire Council’s Cabinet approved plans for the two hubs, which form part of the authority’s Best Start in Life programme.

The hubs will help provide targeted support to families with young children and help to “improve early years development.”

A suitable location for the BSFH in High Wycombe is currently being identified, the council said.

In Burnham, the site of the adult services day centre will be repurposed as the location for the new hub.

A decision which has caused anger among the families of loved ones who attended a former day centre on the site.

Last year, the cabinet agreed to close Burnham Short Breaks centre, a decision which was met with uproar from the families who’s relatives used it.

Since then, they have fought tooth and nail to keep it, taking the battle to the High court which blocked an attempt to prevent the closure. They also wanted to put forward a case for buying the site for community use.

The national Best Start in Life programme aims to strengthen early years and family services to better support children’s development and school readiness, and increase the proportion of children achieving a Good Level of Development (GLD) at the end of their reception year at school.

Buckinghamshire has been set an “ambitious” target of 80 per cent of children achieving a GLD by 2027/28.

Achieving this, the council said, would require targeted, early, preventative support for families facing greater challenges.

The hubs are set to play a crucial role in that work, offering a targeted and comprehensive package of early years support as part of the council’s existing Family Hub network.

Carl Jackson, Buckinghamshire Council’s cabinet member for education and children’s services said: “Based on the latest good level of development data from Burnham.

“It’s become very clear in my view that the day opportunity centre site offers the best opportunity for a new Best Start family hub in the area.

“That site is already in the council’s possession, it’s already known to the local community, it’s accessible and unlike the existing family centre across the road, it also has plenty of parking and is big enough to accommodate all the services you would expect in the Best Family Hub.”

He added: “Today’s decision allows Buckinghamshire Council to build on the positive start we have made to our Best Start Family Hub programme.”

Council leader Steven Broadbent commented: “Fantastic, because as I said, we want everyone to have the best start. And this gives us, as it says in the name, an opportunity to do that.”