Family Hubs in England

We can act as an independent adviser or chair of the local partnership board. We provide advice and guidance on development of the local offer, co-production with families, the way in which agencies are working together, the interoperability between agencies and link into our national services.

We can also lead on a review of local arrangements overseen by the Board or group.

We can provide additional capacity to your project management team. Our project manager can bridge the gap between strategic and operational services, working collaboratively with the 0–19 leads to ensure that the delivery plan targets are met.

We can help local authorities to co-ordinate partner agencies and provide strategic leadership and direction to assist the transformation of services for families. Our support can include:

• Defining the Family Hubs digital and virtual strategy.
• Mapping the Family Hubs offer.
• Leading workforce and parent and carer engagement plans.

We can act as the lead agency co-ordinating both statutory agencies and smaller charity or voluntary sector agencies.

This model involves hyperlocal organisations who receive mentorship and capacity building support from us as the co-ordinator. We can also support smaller organisations to have a voice in larger partnership groups and to represent the voice of the child and family.

To support this, we can:

• Develop a localised Parent Talk homepage that links parents in one click to your Family Hub and Start for Life offer as well as integrating local signposting within our Parent Talk information, advice and guidance and providing 1:1 support from a local support worker.
• Promote your Start for Life and Family Hub offer through our digital marketing strategies and working with partner agencies locally in order to direct your parents and carers to local services and the information they need.
• Provide insights and data about who is using services and when, their concerns and trends over time and support.
• Work with you and local parents to co-produce and design your digital offer to improve parent experience.

We can use the Parent Talk platform to:

• Provide easy access to online information about local services such as infant feeding or speech and language development, with live chat support from our parent coaches or local staff.
• Provide individual online outreach and remote support to parents.
• Provide out of hours support across the Start for Life offer.
• Support self-referral.
• Carry out user research and satisfaction surveys.

We can recruit, manage, and train:

Information and Signposting Officers

• They'll provide initial information, both within your Parent Hubs and in your local communities, to support new and expectant parent and carers during their transition to parenthood. They'll also support all parents to access universal and targeted services in their communities.
• The Information & Signposting Officers will support improving connections between voluntary, community and faith sector, as well as schools and early years settings. They'll advocate for children and families sharing their views and experiences.
• They'll be trained to be trauma aware in their approach and will be offered training in the selected accredited parenting programmes for your communities.

Trauma informed Family Practitioners

• In your local area, they'll deliver targeted, evidence-based parenting interventions for new parents and carers.  We can help you to select accredited parenting programmes to meet the needs in your communities and that achieve good and sustainable outcomes for families.
• Our Family Practitioners will support vulnerable and marginalised families to access hard to reach services and will advocate for children and families sharing their views and experiences.

Volunteers

• They'll provide peer-support in your communities building social networks and supporting families to access services.
• Our volunteers will have a role in improving connections between voluntary, community and faith sector and will advocate for children and families sharing their views and experiences. 
• They'll be trained to be trauma aware in their approach and will be offered training in the selected accredited parenting programmes for your communities.

We can recruit, manage, and train staff and volunteers from your local area to provide support to families with mild to moderate mental health needs, within their own communities.

• They'll signpost families to an appropriate mental health service and will destigmatise mental health issues through talking openly about mental ill health, education, being conscious of language and encouragement to ask for help when it is needed.
• Our trained Practitioners will provide accredited mental health and wellbeing programmes in groups in the Family Hub and in the community and provide one to one support in the family home.
• They'll be an integral part of the systemwide support for families and work with partner agencies to help families to access the right mental health support, at the right time, in the right place, from the right service for their needs.
• Our staff and volunteers will also be trained to assist with the delivery of antenatal groups, infant massage, infant feeding education and attachment.

We can recruit, manage and train practitioners and volunteers to work in your local communities and in family hubs to support parents with their child’s developmental needs and guiding them with their child’s key transitions into Early Years Settings and into School.

Our Family Support Practitioners will be trained to provide targeted support for families with children with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND) in the family hubs and in their communities. They'll assist families to access services in their communities, provide sensory groups and activities, and help families to access targeted services to meet their individual needs. Our practitioners will form part of the systemwide SEND support for families and work with partner agencies to make services accessible for all children and families.

Working with the local speech and language therapists and specialists, our staff will undertake local evidence-based training to help to assess children’s language development needs and provide families with activities to support their child’s language development. Our teams will work with Early Years Settings and Schools to identify and target local areas for early language development activities and support services.

We can recruit, manage, and train Information & Signposting Officers and volunteers to support parents and carers to attend and actively contribute to the family hubs Parent & Carer panels and help them to ensure their voices are heard.  They'll also capture feedback from parent and carers in groups in their communities and through phone calls and social media.

We'll capture parent and carer views and ideas through feedback forms and we will capture the voice of the child through observations and child activities and bring this information to the Parent & Carer Panels to represent the family voices.

Our Information & Signposting Officers and volunteers will distribute posters and leaflets to key community venues, including Libraries, GPs and Pharmacies, Early Years Settings and Schools, to increase awareness of the Start for Life offer and Family Hubs services.

Our experience of delivering children and young people services include leading Early Help Services, 0–19 Services, Parenting Programmes, Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Services, Early Language services, and youth participation services.

Our innovative 0–19 services model brings together NHS, Public Health, Health Visitors and School Nurses, Action for Children’s Children’s Centres and specialist support for young people. It allows for:

• Children and families tell their story once, single point of access.
• Flow of support through services from antenatal to college.
• Holistic view of child, young person or parents needs through working together and sharing information.
• Early identification of needs.
• Preventative services reducing escalation.
• Shared buildings, familiar places.
• Evidence-based approach.

In locations across the country, Action for Children engage with statutory services such as Health or early help to co-locate in a community or children’s centre. The centre acts as a one-stop shop for families requiring universal or intensive support. Services include:

• Food bank, warm hub and community café
• Sensory spaces - available for private by parents and children
• Antenatal classes and support for teenage mothers
• Inclusion workers based in local schools to help children stay in education
• Surgeries, helping parents navigate services
• Parenting support
• Early years groups
• Counselling
• Keyworkers for children, young people and families

The ECFS model was developed with a local authority and provides targeted and universal parenting support groups in the community, online and in local hubs.  We also deliver on-to-one support in family homes.  During 2021-22 over 78% of families  fully achieved their identified goals.

ECFS includes a digital front door enabling parents, carers and professionals to access support online, as well as through social media, or by phone. To ensure staff can focus their time on families referrals are managed by a central triage team.

Over 500 families shared their feedback about ECFS during 2021/22 and 95% said the service made a positive difference for their family:

• “I feel it has made me think about how I parent my child…and feel like I am a better parent”
• “I feel able to recognise signs of abusive relationships and predict behaviours. Also, I know it not my fault”
• “I’ve learnt lots of things about the development of the children and it made me have better confidents with myself with my children”
• “It’s given play ideas for my baby and including my toddler. I’ve felt better which makes it easier to feel good at home”
• “Found out I might have postpartum depression while in this group and got support”