Inside a family hub

Roiza is taking part in a female-only yoga lesson for members of the orthodox Jewish community at the Triangle Centre Family Hub in South Tottenham. With nine children at home, this one-hour window of exercise and relaxation gives her the respite needed to “emotionally and physically recharge”, she says.

Based in the centre’s community hall, the yoga class is just one of a programme of activities specifically for the local Haredi orthodox Jewish community.

Roiza also comes to Jewish stay-and-play sessions twice a week with her youngest children aged 12, 10 and three.

“It’s great we have facilities that cater to our community,” she says. “I wouldn’t be able to do yoga if it was mixed or not suitable, so this is amazing.”

Delivering services that meet the needs of local families is a key goal of the family hub, which is situated on a housing estate in the Seven Sisters ward of the London Borough of Haringey.

It launched in June last year after Haringey Council became one of 75 local authorities in England awarded government funding to develop family hubs.

The Triangle Centre has provided childcare to local families since the 1980s and in 2007 the building underwent a £4.2 million transformation to become a children’s centre complete with a 64-place nursery.

Like children’s centres, family hubs are intended to support families with young children by providing services like health checks and parenting classes on their doorstep.

But the intention is that family hubs will provide a wider range of services to families with children of all ages.

The Triangle Centre Family Hub runs up to 10 activities and drop-in surgeries per day for local families with children from nought to 19 or up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

“These range from parenting classes to breastfeeding support, employment advice and weekly Shape Up with Spurs fitness sessions for young people run by the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation,” explains the hub’s executive head, Carol Beaumont.

The contemporary green-clad two-storey building stands out in an area marked by deprivation, where at least half the borough’s population faces disproportionately poor health and educational outcomes.

With its floor-to-ceiling glass windows and cosy communal areas, it is bright, airy and inviting. Mums are sitting on sofas and floor cushions reading to their toddlers or mingling with other parents over a drink from the on-site cafe.

A large “Welcome” sign greets families in the foyer. Next to it sits an information table with timetables and leaflets about the range of services and activities on offer. Photos of children, young people and families enjoying circus skills, sensory play sessions, baby massage and gardening, give a taste of what to expect.

Some activities like the programme for the orthodox Jewish Haredi community are targeted at specific groups. The family hub also runs a stay-and-play session for Latin American families who make up a significant proportion of the borough’s residents.

There are universal postnatal classes; Bump to Baby groups run by the local hospital trust’s Parent Infant Psychology Service; wellbeing activities for dads; sessions on oral health and play sessions for children with SEND.

The ground floor houses the local authority-run Triangle Nursery. “Some of our families access the free childcare entitlement for two-year-olds while they look for employment opportunities through the support we provide at the hub,” Beaumont says. “We work together closely, as many families access family hub services before starting at the nursery.”

A stay-and-play session is taking place in the community playroom and there is a bustle of activity as mums take their babies out of prams and into the playroom. Bi-fold windows open out onto a decked veranda with flower beds and wheeled toys.

“I love it here,” says Hanan, who sits with her five-month-old son Nour, surrounded by sensory toys. “It’s easy to walk to and a great option for local mums. My family are back in Spain and it’s great to connect with other mums and share experiences.”

Livia, mum to 10-month-old son Kaius, is one of the stay-and-play parent helpers. She attended the breastfeeding clinic when her son was a newborn and now visits twice a week.

She loves the dance lessons with Groundswell Arts, where she dances with her baby in a sling.

“Being around other babies is great for Kaius,” she says. “He used to be anxious around strangers and would start crying. But his social skills are developing. I’ve made friends with other mums and there’s a lot of collective knowledge about raising children that you don’t always get exposed to as a mum at home.”

Downstairs, in the multi-purpose training room, a group of Spanish-speaking adults are having an English language lesson.

“There’s a large community of Spanish and Portuguese speakers and these lessons help integrate them into the community by improving their written and spoken language,” says Beaumont.

Although many of the services for nought to fives have not changed since it was a children’s centre, the team now works with more families with diverse needs under the expanded family hub offer.

“Rather than having to signpost them to additional services and support, their needs are now met in one place, here at the hub,” says Beaumont.

Early intervention outreach practitioner Georgina Oland says it “definitely feels different” since becoming a family hub.

“We’re engaging with different families and seeing more families accessing the new services for different age groups, such as yoga, circus skills, dance and drama groups and fitness sessions for young people,” she adds.

Professionals hire out meeting rooms and run clinics and surgeries from the hub. A health consultation room is used by NHS midwives and health visitors for antenatal and postnatal checks, and routine health checks for two-year-olds.

Employment advisers from Haringey Council’s Project 2020 give support on CV writing, job applications and volunteering opportunities, and there is targeted early help support for families affected by issues such as housing, domestic abuse or substance misuse.

For families with children with SEND, the hub puts on workshops around specific conditions including autism, cerebral palsy and Down syndrome and topics like behaviour management. Outreach workers also support families with practical matters such as claiming benefits.

The hub runs some activities for young people, such as art therapy, a study club and the Shape Up with Spurs fitness sessions. The hub works closely with Haringey’s youth services and also points young people in the direction of other support on offer in the borough.

Breaking barriers

Breaking down barriers with the Jewish orthodox Haredi community is part of a wider commitment to work with a diverse range of families, says councillor Zena Brabazon, Haringey’s cabinet member for children, schools and families.

Around 20% of the South Tottenham ward self-identified as Jewish in the 2021 census, which is likely to be an underestimate, according to Haringey Council.

An outreach worker is based at the hub and funded by Jewish charity Ezer Leyoldas to support families to engage in activities and access health services. Shulamis Levy, who performed the role but has since moved on, says there are around 400 Jewish families on roll with 30 to 40 families accessing services each week.

“The level of engagement is slowly increasing thanks to a culturally sensitive programme of activities and staff training across the family hub to better understand the needs of the Haredi community,” she explains.

“One of the main problems is how to get key messages across to the community. They don’t read the general press; they don’t have computers and are not on the internet. They are nervous of people outside their community and won’t travel to another area to access services.”

She says female-only, non-verbal activities and play sessions are the most popular.

“Mothers often don’t want to talk when they come here. It’s time out for them, a safe space before going home to look after their large families,” says Levy.

The Haredi mothers also visit the hub for midwifery and health visitor appointments, breastfeeding support and oral health sessions. Those that don’t speak English can access language classes and outreach workers are starting to signpost them to employment opportunities to become registered childminders.

The family hub works with NHS health and mental health services as well as a wide range of charities and voluntary organisations, including Haredi organisations. It also works closely with the local residents’ association, hosting meetings to talk about what’s on offer. A parent-carer panel meets monthly to discuss services and help ensure they meet local needs.

Haringey Council conducts annual surveys of families who use children’s centre services and will gather feedback on its first family hubs in its survey for 2023/24, which is due to be sent out this month.

It says families are generally positive about services at the Triangle Centre Family Hub. Brabazon says it is testament to ongoing efforts to integrate health, education and social care services for families and builds on lessons learned from Sure Start children’s centres.

“It feels like we’re picking up from where we left off with Sure Start,” she says. “It’s a more advanced, super children’s centre, reaching families with children up to the age of 25. The infrastructure was already in place but the new funding has allowed us to work more closely with health and focus on the wellbeing of children and families, which is key.”

What is a family hub?

Family hubs are intended to bring together services for children, young people and families in one place with the aim of making it easier to access support, advice and information.

They are a key part of the government’s Best Start for Life Strategy, launched in 2021 to improve outcomes for families with young children.

This came with more than £300 million in funding including money to support 75 local authorities in England to develop family hubs. There are currently about 400 hubs covering half of county councils.

Services for families with children aged 0 to two such as parenting classes, midwifery, health visiting and perinatal mental health support are a core element of family hubs.

But they are intended to be a resource for families with children of all ages and offer a wide range of other services including housing and debt advice, domestic abuse support, physical and mental wellbeing activities and youth services.

However, a government-commissioned review of Start for Life services by Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission found some parents believe family hubs are only for “troubled families” and were not aware of the services available to them.

How are they different to children’s centres?

The government says family hubs build on the lessons learned from Sure Start children’s centres, which were also designed to be a “one stop shop” for families, offering services close to home.

Children’s centres were a Labour flagship policy and benefited from substantial investment. At one point there were 3,500 across England but many have since closed due to funding constraints. Haringey closed nearly half its children’s centres in April 2016 following a review, reducing the total to nine.

Children’s centres focus on providing support to children aged 0 to five and their families but family hubs are designed to support families with children aged 0 to 19 – or up to 25 for those with special educational needs and disabilities – and offer a wider range of services and support.

Many local authorities have based at least some of their family hubs on existing children’s centres.

Are they here to stay?

With a general election in July, the future of family hubs as a model is uncertain although efforts to integrate services for families will continue.

Funding for the current family hubs programme runs out in March 2025. In their election manifesto, the Conservatives have pledged to “deliver a family hub in every local authority in England”.

In a speech last year, shadow education secretary Bridget Phillipson described family hubs as a “pale shadow” of Sure Start. The Labour election manifesto does not mention family hubs or children’s centres but does include plans to open 3,000 primary school-based nurseries.

Read more: Haringey Council's DCS - 'Our vision for family hubs'