Family Hubs and Start for Life Programme

This is a Provider Selection Regime (PSR) award notice under Direct Award Process C. The awarding of this contract is subject to the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

For the avoidance of doubt, the provisions of the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 and Procurement Act 2023 do not apply to this award. This contract has now been formally awarded; this notice serves as a notice of the award of the contract under the PSR.

The publication of the prior intention to award notice was made on 23rd June to mark the start of the standstill period. No representations were received by the deadline of midnight on 3rd July 2025.

The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme is jointly managed by the Department for Education and the Department for Health and Social Care. It seeks to join-up and enhance services for families with children of all ages through a network of family hubs, with start for life services for families with 0- to 2-year-olds at their core.

In January 2025, £126 million was announced to continue delivery of a network of family hubs and start for life services. The Grant Funding allows the opportunity for local authorities to consolidate, embed and enhance their family hub network and Start for Life services offer.

Local authorities are expected to continue delivering all minimum expectations and wider delivery requirements set out in the Programme Guide. The Programme continues to encourage ambition and so, where possible, local authorities should build on the progress made and seek to strengthen their offer, learning from delivery to date.

The process that must be followed when awarding a contract under the direct award process C is set out in Regulations 6(5) and 9. Taking into account the key criteria analysis completed as part of the process, the authority is assured that the existing provider is satisfying the original contract and will likely satisfy the proposed contract to a sufficient standard.

The Family Hubs programme will enable us to continue to take forward the recommendations in The Best Start for Life (a vision for the 1,001 critical days) report. Details of the award decision-makers: Cabinet, Children's Leadership Team, Deputy Director Children's Service, Service Manager - Family Hubs. There were no declared conflicts or potential conflicts of interest.