Council chiefs have welcomed Department of Health plans to hand them responsibility for key reviews during the early stages of children?s lives.
The Government said it was 'mandating to local authorities' five universal elements of the Healthy Child Programme for 18 months from October 2015.
Under the plans, councils will carry out antenatal and new baby reviews, as well as assessments at six to eight weeks, a year, and 24 to 30 weeks.
A joint statement from the Local Government Association and the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives read: 'This announcement is recognition of the hard work that councils do with families in their communities.
'It is vital that mums and dads get the best support possible from the earliest stage in their child's development and local authorities are well placed to provide services around the needs of their communities.'
But the statement added: 'There remains a great deal of work to be done at a local and national level to ensure that in every area there is sufficient funding to deliver these new responsibilities.'
