Hampshire's only open Best Start hub is Leigh Park Library in Havant. Alton's is due later this year. Alex Brewer MP says 5,000 under-fives have nowhere local.

If you have a baby in Fleet, Hook or Odiham and you want the sort of place where you can weigh them, ask a health visitor something and meet other parents, the nearest one Hampshire County Council calls a Best Start family hub is Leigh Park Library, 50 Park Parade, Havant, PO9 5AB. It is the only one open in a county with almost 70,000 children under five.

Alex Brewer, the Liberal Democrat MP for North East Hampshire, made that the centre of her speech in the House of Commons on Friday 4 September, during the Second Reading of the Infants, Parents and Carers Bill.

“Today the nearest Best Start hub for the 5,000 children in my constituency is on the other side of Hampshire, and there is nowhere within my community offering a one-stop shop for early years support,” she told MPs, according to Hansard. “When services are closed, others are stretched to breaking point. Families have nowhere local to turn to, and we miss a window of opportunity to invest in a child.”

Her seat covers Fleet, Church Crookham, Hook, Odiham, Hartley Wintney and the Yateley and Blackwater side of Hart.

The clinic that did not come back

The specific loss Ms Brewer named will be familiar to any parent who used it.

“In North East Hampshire we used to have a drop-in health clinic, somewhere parents could weigh their babies, meet others, and build connections with other members of the local community,” she said. “It made a real difference, but it stopped operating after the pandemic.”

She did not name the venue, and the council has published no closure notice we can point to, so we cannot tell you which building she means. If you used it, tell us and we will find out.

Ms Brewer argued the case in terms of what happens next to the child rather than the service: “That child might arrive at school without the basic skills they need; they might arrive at the GP surgery with avoidable health risks. They are more likely to need further help that is harder and more expensive to provide.”

Before she was elected in July 2024 she ran a charity supporting children and young people with Down syndrome, and before that she worked in the domestic abuse sector. She told the House her charity and others “stepped in to provide the services that councils were cutting”, and that she had seen “at first hand what early intervention does for a child’s health, skills and confidence, and what its absence costs”.

Where Hampshire’s hubs are actually going

The county council opened its first hub at Leigh Park Library in March. On 10 June it confirmed the venues for the next three, all due to open later this year:

  • Gosport: Alver Valley Family Centre, with network sites at Gosport Discovery Centre, King’s Academies Gosport Community Hub and Bridgemary Library
  • Andover: Spring Meadow Children’s Centre, with Andover Library as a network site
  • Alton: Bushy Leaze Children and Families Centre, with Alton Library as a network site and a sixth site in Bordon still to be confirmed

Alton and Bordon are the closest of those to Hart, and both are in East Hampshire, not this district. Opening dates have not been published; the council says they will be confirmed “in the coming months”.

Around 30 hubs and network sites are planned in total. The council is explicit about how it picks them: they are “based in areas with the highest levels of deprivation and where there is the greatest need”. That sentence, more than anything said in the Commons, explains why Hart is not on the list, and it is the argument any campaign for a hub here would have to answer.

Hampshire's Best Start family hubs, open and confirmed, September 2026 Hampshire has almost 70,000 children under five and one open Best Start family hub, at Leigh Park Library in Havant, which opened in March 2026. Three more hubs have confirmed venues and are due to open later in 2026: Alver Valley Family Centre in Gosport, Spring Meadow Children's Centre in Andover, and Bushy Leaze Children and Families Centre in Alton, which also has a network site at Alton Library and a Bordon site still to be confirmed. Around 30 hubs and network sites are planned in total. North East Hampshire, which includes Fleet, Hook and Odiham, has 5,000 children under five and no hub open or confirmed. One hub open in Hampshire, and the next three are not near Fleet. Best Start family hubs open or with a confirmed venue, as at 8 September 2026. 70,000 children under five in Hampshire (almost) 5,000 of them in North East Hampshire 1 hub open in the county today 30 hubs and network sites planned (around) Leigh Park, Havant Leigh Park Library, 50 Park Parade, PO9 5AB OPEN SINCE MARCH 2026 Gosport Alver Valley Family Centre, plus three network sites DUE LATER THIS YEAR Andover Spring Meadow Children's Centre, plus Andover Library DUE LATER THIS YEAR Alton Bushy Leaze Children and Families Centre, plus Alton Library and a Bordon site to be confirmed DUE LATER THIS YEAR Nothing is open or confirmed in Hart. The nearest confirmed venues are in East Hampshire. Source: Hampshire County Council, 10 June 2026 announcement and Connect to Support Hampshire; under-five figures from Hansard, 4 September 2026. Graphic by Fleet & Hook News
Hampshire plans around 30 hubs and network sites in total. None announced so far is in Hart.

What the Bill would and would not do

The Bill Ms Brewer was speaking to, sponsored by Sir Desmond Swayne, the Conservative MP for New Forest West, and known to its backers as the Babies Bill, passed its Second Reading without a division and now goes to a Public Bill Committee.

If it becomes law it would require the Secretary of State to specify covered services in regulations, assess expected need, seek and take account of the views of parents and carers, work towards an appropriate level of provision and report to Parliament every year.

What it would not do, on the account of the charity promoting it, is put a hub in Fleet. The 1001 Critical Days Foundation, which supplied evidence for the Bill and sent us this story, says plainly that the Bill “is not yet law and would not itself guarantee a Best Start Family Hub or a fixed set of services in North East Hampshire”, because the services covered would be set later, through regulations needing the approval of both Houses.

Sir Desmond said: “The House of Commons has sent a clear message that supporting babies and families is a shared national responsibility. This practical Bill would strengthen existing services by requiring the Government to understand need, work towards appropriate provision and report to Parliament.”

Dame Andrea Leadsom, founder and executive chair of the foundation, said: “For more than a decade, the 1001 Critical Days manifesto has brought politicians together around one simple truth: what happens from pregnancy to age two lays vital foundations for life.”

What it means for you

Until an Alton date is published, the only Best Start family hub you can walk into is at Leigh Park Library in Havant, open during library hours, with a hub connector reachable at best.start.havant@hants.gov.uk. It runs free sessions including a sensory stay and play drop-in for under-fives, and short courses on speech and language: First Words Together for children aged six months to 30 months, and Early Words Together for three and four year olds, whose next six week course starts on Thursday 7 January.

That is a long way to go for a stay and play session, which is the point Ms Brewer was making. Closer to home, the free things worth knowing about are in our guide to things to do in Fleet, and Hart’s own grants to community groups, several of which fund parent and toddler provision, are covered in our report on the 28 groups that shared £124,731.

You can watch the debate in full on Parliament TV or read every contribution in Hansard.