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Nottinghamshire set to roll out family hubs following consultation

Nottinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet meeting today (Thursday, 28 March) approved a proposal to roll out family hub networks across Nottinghamshire.

The proposal set out the transition of children’s centre buildings into family hubs, offering services for families from pregnancy through to a young person’s 18^th birthday. The roll-out will start in June 2024 and run through to April 2025.

Family hub networks are intended to offer support from pregnancy, through a child’s early years, later childhood and until they turn 18.  

They aim to provide a ‘front door’ to families, offering a ‘one-stop shop’ of family support services across social care, education, mental health and physical health needs, with a comprehensive Start for Life offer for parents and babies at its core, and the underpinning principle that families should need to tell their story only once.

In Nottinghamshire, the core offer will be provided by a range of existing services and organisations under the banner of local Family Hub Networks, with the intention that partners will work together to assess and meet the needs of families through universal, early help and targeted services, making sure families get the right support at the right time.

Each network will include at least one main physical hub and several ‘spokes’ across a district. ‘Spokes’ will be a mixture of physical and virtual access and service delivery points. The council wants families to be able to get the right support at the right time, and this should not always require a visit to a building. Some information, advice and guidance can be provided over the phone, by text, online or through home-visiting.

Nottinghamshire established its first family hub network in Retford in 2023, working closely with the local community on its development, with local needs in mind.

Recently, Nottinghamshire families were invited to share their ideas about the further development of Family Hub Networks in Nottinghamshire and over 700 people responded to the survey.

Of those responding, 84% agreed that children’s centre buildings in Nottinghamshire should become family hubs and host more services for families who have children over the age of four, including help for families with teenagers, while maintaining services from pregnancy to age four.

Other feedback included being able to access services from a broader range of spaces such as community centres, libraries and leisure centres as well as online.

There is still work to do to help families access information online and to raise the profile of services that they may need, but don’t yet know about.

Councillor Tracey Taylor, Cabinet Member for Children and Families, said: “Family hub networks will improve a range of outcomes for children and families in Nottinghamshire, including pregnancy, emotional health and wellbeing, reducing parental conflict, and much more.

“I’m delighted to see that residents support the change of use of our children’s centre buildings to not only continue supporting under 5s but to offer much more for families with children and young people of all ages. We will continue to involve families and young people in the development of these local services.”

Families will see the changes phased in from June 2024 through to March 2025.

The services currently provided through the council’s children’s centre service will continue to be provided through the new family hub networks and families should not see a reduction in services for under 5s because of this change.

Discover your local family hub | Nottinghamshire County Council

 

Implementation date not before Tuesday, 9 Apr 2024