In Warrington we currently have six children’s centres. Children’s centres aim to offer support to the whole family, having a “think family” approach. Our children’s centres offer a number services for families, children and young people aged 0-19 (or up to 25 for young people with SEND).

These services include family support, youth service, child development, midwifery, health services, family learning, citizen’s advice, Torus Foundation and many others.

We want to make sure our centres provide an even better service and want to adopt a Family Hub model.

What are Family Hubs?

Family Hubs can broadly be defined as:

• A more integrated workforce: a ‘virtual’ network of providers working with children 0 – 19 years (25 years SEND), who share a single approach to working with families across a given area. This means bringing together early intervention work delivered by the wide spectrum of early help services – early help, children’s services, health visiting, school health, mental health services alongside housing, maternity services and local voluntary service providers
• A physical building: Using existing children’s centre hub sites and sourcing new locations to provide the opportunity to bring families into a physical building - a focal point in the community where they can access help and information.

Take part in our survey

We know from what children and their families tell us that it can be daunting asking for help.
Families have told us that they don’t want to have to tell their story more than once to lots of different people. We are now finalising the next steps so that the support available in our communities is the best it can be. 

You can share your views by completing our survey, which is open Monday 7 November until Monday 19 December.
 

Why are your views important to us?

Early help and early intervention mean taking action to support a child, young person and their family early on when a problem emerges. It can be required at any stage in a child’s life from pre-birth through to adulthood and applies to any problem or need that the family cannot deal with or meet on their own. 

Your views are important in how we do this. They will help us make sure you get the support you need in the ways that you need it. This could be online, in a local building, or face to face in your home. We want to find the right blend of support for you.   

What support would be available?

Building on the exceptional work that the Children’s Centres in Warrington have done over the course of the last two decades, particularly with children in the earliest years of life, the proposed Family Hub model will broaden their remit to encompass a wider range of services and position them as “epicentres” for all kinds of additional family support within their communities.

We are reassured that to some extent this is already starting to happen in Warrington. However, we need to strengthen this approach and transform into Family “one stop” Hubs for children and families: places where parents, carers and children feel confident that their needs will be met and services will be available to meet those needs. Hubs will bring services together in each area, for example, midwifery, health visiting, school nursing, family support, parenting, family group conferencing, early years, youth work and play, voluntary and community services, schools and community hubs, mental health and wellbeing, adult services supporting entry into employment, housing, benefit advice, food and energy poverty.

So, rather than the costly outlay on new infrastructure, a Family Hub model will make use of Warrington’s existing facilities wherever possible and extend and adapt buildings where necessary.