Agenda item

Philip Tomsett (Head of Family Hubs) presented the report which covered the three Family Hubs across the boroughs in areas of high deprivation. He highlighted the following:

• Family Hubs aimed to offer a single point of access for families to receive comprehensive support they needed, including parenting, cost of living and access to service providers partnered with the hubs.
• Key data showed there had been a high demand for this new service area, with the new role of navigators in each hub receiving high numbers of requests and referrals for support.
• There was an award-winning online offer for families.
• Various feedback loops and surveys revealed positive outcomes from interventions for families which felt welcome or very welcome.
• The hubs received external funding from the Department for Education.

Dr James Cavanagh (H&F GP) noted that H&F Family Hubs were important assets for the community. He asked what could be done to help organisations providing the services to be more involved in the evolution of the neighbourhood. 

Philip Tomsett noted that he and his team were involved in various working groups, for example, place-based aspect of the neighbourhood health offer.  They also worked closely with local GPs in child health and MDTs.   Having good partnerships with key staff within health, the Hubs hoped to extend the partnership approach through various reforms including best starting life and neighbourhood health, bearing in mind not to duplicate service resources but enhance each other’s offers.

Councillor Alex Sanderson (Deputy Leader with responsibility for Children and Education) welcomed the report which witnessed the Family Hubs moving from the pilot phase into a local system with all partnerships from health and voluntary sectors integrating together in co-location working.

Councillor Natalia Perez (Chair of Health and Adult Social Care Policy and

Accountability Committee) appreciated the Family Hub model and the positive outcomes.  She was concerned about any groups being under-represented in the registration for the service of the Family hubs and steps taken to boost their awareness, e.g. those who were digitally excluded might fail to receive online offers.

Philip Tomsett noted that there was a catchment area for each Family Hub and together with partners’ venues, the whole borough was almost covered except some gaps where the number of families registered was not desirable.  The team planned to implement an outreach programme targeting families at those specific areas.  Philip further highlighted that physical contact was the first port of call including face-to-face encounters at the Hub premises, and outreach activities at community centres, libraries or partners’ venues. Online services were an additional resource for families.

Recalling the suggestion of the Children and Education Policy and Accountability Committee for the Children’s Service teams to constantly review their comms when reaching out, Jacqui McShannon (Executive Director of People’s Services) commended the Family Hub team which did act on the feedback by seeking other routes beyond the routine of contacting tenants and residents associations.

Summing up, the Chair was impressed by the breath of services offered in the Family Hubs and suggested promoting the wider scope of the Family Hubs for people beyond those with children.

RESOLVED

That the Board noted the report.