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.