Released on: 27 October 2021
In response to today's Budget, Angela McConville, Chief Executive, NCT, said:
'We strongly welcome the focus on new parents and babies in today’s Budget, particularly the focus on perinatal mental health and support for breastfeeding. It’s good to see funding for family hubs, which we advocated as part of the NHS England national maternity review. These will need to bring together the range of community and voluntary sector support which parents and babies desperately need to thrive.
‘Disinvestment over the last decade has left many new families isolated and unsupported which can have significant repercussions for longer term health and wellbeing. Further compounded by the pandemic, it has left a backlog of unmet need and widening inequalities.
‘This is a step in the right direction and we’ll be watching to see how funding is allocated to local authorities for family hubs. The devil is in the detail, of course, and we’ll continue to work with our local and national partners to develop effective services that meet the real needs of new families.’
