Shropshire Family Hubs: Four of Six Sites Still Unnamed

Shropshire’s first Best Start Family Hub opens next month. Four of the six sites the council promised still have no address.

The council’s Cabinet approved the plan on 10 June. Its own report to that meeting, Update on the Children’s Services Reforms, says The Lantern in Shrewsbury “would be the first to open in September 2026”. The press release issued the next day went further, saying hubs in Shrewsbury, Oswestry and Ludlow were “expected to launch in September”.

That is now a week away. Only one more venue has been named since: on 20 August the council confirmed The Severn Centre in Highley as the first network site, and said two more were “still to be confirmed”.

The six sites, and where each one stands

The council’s report and its press release name different places

There is one discrepancy worth setting out plainly, because it decides whether a service lands at one end of the county or in the county town.

The Cabinet report names the three multi-disciplinary team bases twice. At recommendation 3.9 it asks Cabinet to approve bases “in Highley, Market Drayton and South Shrewsbury”. At paragraph 4.52 it lists them again as “Highley, South Shrewsbury and Market Drayton”.

The press release published the following day said the teams would deliver “in Highley, Market Drayton and South Shropshire”.

South Shrewsbury is a part of the county town. South Shropshire is the Ludlow, Craven Arms and Bishop’s Castle end of the county, forty miles away. We could not reconcile the two from published documents. The approved recommendation is the one that carries legal weight, and it says South Shrewsbury.

Why Oswestry and Ludlow have no address yet

The report is candid about it. Paragraph 4.43 says sites for Oswestry and Ludlow “are still being determined”, and that “it is likely that we have split site arrangements where we undertake front line delivery from one site and host the multi-disciplinary team in the other site”. In other words, two buildings each, not one.

Cabinet delegated the decision rather than making it. Recommendation 3.11 hands authority for “exploring and confirming premises options for Oswestry, Ludlow and the additional multi-disciplinary team bases” to the Director for Children’s Services, in consultation with the portfolio holder, and asks that the choices be weighed alongside:

• the existing Community and Family Hub locations
• the council’s ongoing asset review
• the NHS Neighbourhood programme

That is a sensible way to avoid renting a building the public sector already owns. It is also why residents of two of Shropshire’s three largest towns still cannot be told where to go.

What a Family Hub has to do

These are not a Shropshire invention. The Department for Education is rolling Best Start in Life Family Hubs out nationally, and the report says plainly at paragraph 4.41 that “we are required to name our Family Hub sites”.

Each hub has to be a one-stop shop where families reach integrated health services in one place, delivering:

• parenting programmes
• home learning support, including outreach into people’s homes to model a home learning environment
• services from partners, voluntary and community organisations, not only council staff

At The Severn Centre in Highley, the council says the offer will include home learning environment and parenting support, plus guided stay and play sessions showing parents and carers how everyday routines support a child’s learning. Councillor Andy Hall, cabinet member for children and education, called it “a significant investment in the village”.

Something already exists in Shrewsbury. From 9 and 13 July, meet and chat drop-ins and Health Visitor Open Access Clinics moved out of Sunflower House and Meole Brace Community Hub to The Lantern on Meadow Farm Drive and Louise House on Roman Road.

The targets, and the money

The government has attached numbers to this. By 2028, Shropshire has to get 77% of children meeting the required standard at the Early Years Foundation Stage, with a stretch target of 56% for children on free school meals. The report calculates that an additional 32 children on free school meals would need to reach the required level to hit that milestone.

The grant behind it is modest. The report’s own funding table:

The report does not dress this up. Paragraph 4.42: “Our funding is relatively low, reflecting the local demographic and therefore we are seeking to deliver the core Best Start in Life Family Hubs from three sites across the county.” Three sites for a county of 333,000 people where Oswestry and Ludlow are fifty miles apart is a decision made by the size of the grant.

The hubs sit inside a much larger and more expensive reform. Cabinet was asked to note investment requirements of up to around £8m over four years, against an anticipated £21m of savings. The pressure behind that is set out in the same report: children and young people’s services ended 2025/26 with a £12.230m overspend against a £90.963m budget, driven largely by a £14.908m overspend on external residential placements, even though the number of looked-after children fell 7.5% over the year, from 721 to 667.

What it means for you

• If you use family services in Shrewsbury, they have already moved. Meet and chat drop-ins and health visitor clinics are now at The Lantern on Meadow Farm Drive and Louise House on Roman Road, not Sunflower House or Meole Brace Community Hub
• If you are in Oswestry or Ludlow, there is no address to go to yet, and the decision now sits with council officers rather than Cabinet. Expect an announcement rather than a vote
• If you are in Highley, The Severn Centre is confirmed, but the council says services there “will be developed in the coming months” and has published no start date
• If you are in Market Drayton or the south of the county, watch which of the two names the council uses next. Its report says South Shrewsbury; its press release said South Shropshire
• The full offer is not building-only. The report says services will also be delivered in community venues and in families’ homes, which in a county this rural matters more than any single address

The council’s own Best Start in Life programme page carries its plan and the age-by-age guidance, from pregnancy through to age five.

Sources

• Update on the Children’s Services Reforms, report to Shropshire Council Cabinet, 10 June 2026, for recommendations 3.4, 3.9 and 3.11, paragraphs 4.37, 4.41, 4.42, 4.43 and 4.52, the funding table at 6.2 and the 2025/26 outturn at 5.2. This is the primary record for the site list, the September opening, the delegation of premises decisions and every figure quoted.
• Cabinet approves proposals for service transformation programme to support a new child-friendly Shropshire, Shropshire Council, 11 June 2026, for the September launch wording and the “South Shropshire” reference.
• Severn Centre in Highley to welcome new services for families as Best Start Network Site, 20 August 2026, for the Highley designation, the six-site figure, the two sites still to be confirmed and the quote from Councillor Andy Hall.
• Family help services move to new Best Start in Life site, 2 July 2026, for the July moves to The Lantern and Louise House.
• Shropshire Best Start in Life Programme for the published plan.

All sources checked on 27 August 2026.

More on how the council spends and where it is building: Shropshire planning news.