Best Start Family Hubs Community Fund Launched for 26/27

The Best Start Family Hubs Community Fund (via Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council) aims to strengthen and sustain an inclusive Rotherham Best Start Family Hub Network by supporting community partners to work collaboratively with their local Best Start Family Hubs and Healthy Babies programme. A Family Hub is a place where children, young people, and their families can go when they need help, advice, and support. In Rotherham we have collectively been undertaking this work for the last 2-3 years, with VAR leading on VCS engagement.

We are pleased to share that the new guidance includes a connected network of hub sites, community locations and outreach. As such, a further opportunity has arisen for local organisations to receive small grants for service delivery under the programme.

Family Hubs Delivery Grant

• Grants ranging from £2,000 to £20,000 to develop your role as a Best Start Network Site. The criteria have been broadened to give organisations greater flexibility in how they contribute to the programme and to enable involvement in a way that best reflects their strengths.

• To operate as a Best Start Network Site you must be delivering at least one Best Start Family Hub or Healthy Babies service on a regular, sustained basis for example, related to health, early years education, parenting, or early SEND support - and can connect families with others. These sites might be early years settings, including specialist settings and schools, libraries, health and faith venues, leisure and recreation centres, and other voluntary, community or faith (VCF) venues, private and public buildings.

Family Hubs Access Point Grant

• Grants between £500-£2,000 to establish your organisation as a Family Hubs Access Site that provides clear and consistent signposting and promotion to families by sharing information, leaflets, QR codes and offering an overview of the Family Hubs offer.

• This will be ongoing throughout the financial year.

Please see ‘Guidance - Best Start Family Hubs Community Fund’ below for further details.

Please find application forms below. If you would like to arrange a conversation about this opportunity, please contact laura.ellison@varotherham.org.uk.

You can also find further information about Rotherham Family Hubs here.

The deadline for Delivery Grant applications is 5:00pm, 27th April 2026. Please also include your governing/constitution document.

There is no fixed deadline for the Access Point Grant, so applications will be considered as soon as possible on receipt. Please note that the Access Point Grant ‘pot’ may be exhausted within the financial year.