Family hubs represent an opportunity for councils to support families and to help them gain access to a range of important services in their communities.
The initial plans to be developed in 12 areas were announced in 2021 as a recommendation from Dame Andrea Leadsom’s review into improving health and development outcomes for babies in England, with a further 75 councils selected in 2022 to take part in the programme.
The Local Government Association (LGA) spoke to six councils that took part in the programme to understand their experiences of developing family hubs in their areas.
Some councils may already have family hubs, and these will look different in different parts of the country.
For some, they may build on previous children’s centre and Sure Start models, while others may be in a newly developed building or make use of a network of other community facilities.
Our joint study with Coram looks at how approaches to setting up family hubs varies from place to place and the difference these have been able to make to individual families.
As well as this, we hope that we have been able to draw out important lessons from the areas that have implemented family hubs and how these can be taken forward by councils that are at the early stages of developing provision.
ENGAGING FATHERS IN STOCKTON-ON-TEES
Stockton-on-Tees Council provides a universal family hubs offer for families with children aged 0-25, delivered in four hubs.
Family workers, school nurses and health visitors are all based in the hubs, with the buildings acting as a “one-stop-shop” for families wanting to find multiple services in the same location.
Stockton-on-Tees conducts programmes to engage with different family members, such as fathers. These have helped fathers to learn the fundamentals of parenting, teaching them to be a supportive and consistent presence for their children.
At the beginning of the programme, most fathers had little to no contact with their children; at the end of the programme, all fathers had intermittent or regular contact with their children. The council plans to run similar programmes through its hubs in the future.
Lessons learnt: The council advised other areas to build strong relationships with partners, to help deliver a holistic network of support for families. These partners can be health services, schools, police and fire services, or even other councils. Putting aside divisions and pooling resources can help deliver these outcomes.
COMMUNITY LINKS IN SALFORD
Salford Council’s early help service offers targeted support alongside its universal family hubs. Its family hub model has been in operation since 2018, with buildings previously used as children’s centres repurposed as hubs.
The council was given additional funding through the Start for Life programme. Using this funding, the council invested in its support for 0- to two-year-olds as well as improved perinatal mental health services and peer-to-peer infant feeding help.
Salford’s hubs cater for families from different groups. For example, one family hub was established specifically for the large Jewish community in Salford. This hub is delivered by members of the Jewish community as part of Salford’s commitment to co-production.
Lessons learnt: The council recommends building partnerships with local organisations that families interact with on a regular basis, such as health providers and schools. This helps to create a community network of support where families are signposted to services when and where they need them.
SERVICES FOR PRIORITY GROUPS IN ESSEX
Family hubs are not thought of as buildings where services are delivered, but rather as a “service without walls” that reaches out into the community it serves. Essex County Council focuses on meeting families’ needs in their home or in local and accessible community sites, including family hubs, building and capitalising on a strong network of support across the community.
Essex’s family hubs individually host advisory boards to work together and organise services that meet and support the specific needs of local families. The service collates information against what it calls “17 categories of vulnerability” – or priority groups – then maps these against where family hubs are situated and creates a targeted action plan in that local area.
Lessons learnt: One challenge for the council going forward is considering how to use its limited resources in the best possible way. The team wants to ensure that those families who need support the most can access it, and there is a concern that universal checks and targets may inhibit the council’s ability to efficiently allocate resources to these families.
CREATING A HOME-FROM-HOME IN CORNWALL
Cornwall Council is a good example of an area engaging rurally isolated families and collaborating with local services in their delivery of family hubs.
Inside their local hubs, families can find a welcoming home-from-home environment, which includes a reception area staffed by business support staff; spaces for health interventions; and a kitchen for life skills training.
While many services are delivered on-site, targeted early help services are also delivered through homes and community settings.
Many families are geographically hard to reach given the rural nature of Cornwall. The pandemic prompted the development of different delivery models, enabling more engagement with rurally isolated families, as well as with fathers. New digital delivery models included a hybrid offer with online support via Teams and WhatsApp video calls, and a parenting help programme to support families with children accessing the “neurodevelopment pathway”.
Lessons learnt: The team advised other councils to first focus on the values and principles that will guide them and what they want to achieve. For Cornwall, one challenge was that some family hubs buildings were too small to house the variety of services the team wished to have in one space and so careful planning is required.
LINCOLNSHIRE TARGETS ‘SELDOM REACHED’
Lincolnshire County Council is relatively early in its family hubs journey, establishing its first family hub in June 2023. The council received additional funding allocated through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, and spent time building a needs assessment to ensure that the additional resources would be targeted where they were most needed.
Lincolnshire has a thriving network of 48 children’s centres, upon which to build family hubs provision. The council has identified seldom reached families through their needs assessment, such as fathers, travelling communities, adults with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and military families, and uses specific communication strategies to engage with each of these groups. For example, following a county-wide piece of research on fathers, Lincolnshire developed a communication strategy which assumes that the father is also a primary caregiver.
Lessons learnt: The council encourages others to take their time to understand the current context and robust plan, dedicating between six months to a year for this process. As well as this, it suggests that councils look at what is already going well in their area and then build from that; enhancing the offer is more important than dismantling and rebuilding it.
CO-PRODUCTION IN YORK
City of York Council is in the foundational stages of its family hubs journey. The council received funding through the Family Hubs Transformation Fund and is developing at least three family hubs.
While parents and carers have long been involved in the co-production of services in York, the council wants them to be involved in the ongoing governance of services and support, not just co-produce them.
York is adopting the “champion” model, with parent volunteers acting as information givers to other parents and carers who may benefit from access to services.
Lessons learnt: Sustainability and managing expectations are two key challenges for the council, especially once the funding from the Family Hubs Transformation Fund has been used. To meet this challenge, it is hoping to utilise the strong university presence within the city, through partnerships with the University of York and York St. John University.
System-wide lessons
Beyond the physical buildings, the family hubs agenda has provided councils with an opportunity to rethink how they design and deliver services to best meet families’ needs.
The importance of strong partnerships was highlighted by all councils, whether with organisations who are helping to deliver the services, or with public bodies such as schools and GPs who can help signpost children and families to family hubs.
Councils are making good use of local commissioning arrangements to help deliver services, with the voluntary sector often being engaged for this purpose. No councils are running all family hubs services on their own, and some are almost entirely managing their services through commissioning arrangements.
Generally, the move towards family hubs has provided councils with the opportunity for service transformation and joined-up delivery, with co-location of other services in hubs, such as midwifery, child and adolescent mental health, health visitors, maternity services and school nursing. The idea of family hubs acting as a “one-stop-shop” was popular, so that families can access support all in one place.
Overall, there is a high degree of energy and enthusiasm about family hubs from council officers. They see the value of the hubs, and all councils are making great strides towards developing and improving their services, whether they received additional funding through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme or not.
The challenge for most councils is sustaining this momentum, and ensuring these services continue to be provided for families going forward. It is important to continue to research and assess the impact of family hubs, establishing an evidence base of best practice going forward.
LEADSOM BACKS COUNCILS’ HUBS APPROACH
Dame Andrea Leadsom MP, whose initial review recommended the creation of an England-wide network of family hubs, spoke about the national roll-out at CYP Now’s recent Early Help conference. She said there is “huge enthusiasm” across the sector about the roll-out of hubs and that councils and families like the “one-stop-shop” approach to service delivery.
She says: “I am pleased that local authorities are thinking about how they can involve families at an early stage in their family hub service design and decision-making. The funding that comes with the roll-out for 87 areas in England through the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme is clearly helping to alleviate financial pressures on local authorities so that services are of quality and useful to families.
“These case studies show the great work happening in other areas in England too. We must ensure that this excellent momentum is not lost to help every baby in every part of the country to get the best start for life.”
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The Implementation of Family Hubs: Emerging Strategies for Success from www.local.gov.uk/publications/implementation-family-hubs-emerging-strategies-success#summary
