Lewisham, Southwark and Greenwich are among the 75 local authorities to receive extra funding for family hubs from the central government.

The Family Hubs and Start for Life programme offers £302m to be allocated to create new family hubs as well as provide services such as parenting and breastfeeding support.

The £302m fund will be dived amongst the 75 local authorities pre-selected by the Government.

Up to £100m of the money will be allocated to provide counselling on bespoke parent-infant relationships and perinatal mental health support.

Lewisham Cabinet Member for Children’s Service, Chris Barnham (Lab), tweeted: “Delighted that Lewisham is one of the councils successful in securing funding for new family hubs. Still need to see the detail, but I'm confident that we'll use the money to continue improving our support for families.”

Southwark Council declined to comment on the Government initiative due to restrictions in place prior to the May 5 London-wide local elections.

Greenwich Council declined to comment, without citing a reason.

The 300,000 most vulnerable families across the 75 local areas will receive a dedicated key worker who can offer assistance such as parenting support.

This is backed by an additional £700m through the Government’s Supporting Families programme.

The Government claims that young people who have been supported by the programme are 38 per cent less likely to go to prison and 32 per cent less likely to end up in social care.

Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said: “Evidence shows that some of the most disadvantaged families don’t access vital services.

“Family Hubs offer localised early help and intervention, from early years support to parenting classes, all of which can make a transformative difference in the lives of parents and carers who may not have a support network.”

Further funding will help to support young people leaving social care to stay with their foster families past the age of 18 until they turn 21 or help them to live in the same area as their foster home.

Finally, an additional £3.2m will be provided in 2022/23 to help councils prevent those leaving care from sleeping on the street as part of Parliament’s drive to end rough sleeping in the UK.

The news comes as the Government, last week, proposed an overhaul of the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system which has seen schools’ costs skyrocket — according to London Councils, the cost of a place for a pupil with SEND is three times higher than that of a mainstream place.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid said on the overhaul: “Every child, regardless of their background, should be able to access the education they need and deserve. These plans will level up opportunities for children and young people with special educational needs.”

Other South London councils that have been listed to share in the £302m fund include Croydon and Lambeth.