Devon County Council is setting out a proposal for how it would like to use its former Children’s Centre buildings in a new network of Family Hubs.
The proposed model would see ten main Family Hub centres across the county, at least one in every District council area. These would be bases from which families can access the wider range of support that Family Hubs offer, with meeting rooms, space for groups to use, and for staff to meet and train.
In addition to the main hubs, there would be wide number of outreach hub spaces in local communities, using buildings such as schools, libraries, community hospitals and community centres, for families to access services closer to home, in trusted spaces they already know.
Much of the work currently offered by Children’s Centres is done in families’ own homes or by using community venues nearby, so the proposed outreach Family Hub spaces is already a familiar model for many families.
The council is launching consultation today (Wednesday 8 May) about how it would like to use its existing buildings, with proposals for each of the current Children’s Centre sites.
The move from Children’s Centres to Family Hubs is a national one, with the government announcing the transition in 2021. Local councils across the country have since been making the transition, with Devon County Councillors agreeing last year to the development of Family Hubs in Devon.
Family Hubs are different and broader in scope than previous Children’s Centres, supporting a wider age range of children and young people, and linking-in with the many existing local groups to offer a wider range of family support.
Where Children’s Centres in Devon have for some years offered support to families of children aged zero to eight years-old, referred to them by a GP or other professional, the new Family Hubs will offer targeted and universal support to all families of children aged from zero to 19, or up to 25 years old for young people with special educational needs or disabilities.
Support available from Family Hubs will be accessible to all families with children in that age range, rather than via a third-party referral.
And Family Hubs will work more closely with existing care and support providers in local communities, so there will be a wider range of help and advice available to families.
The council has been engaging with families who have been using Devon’s children’s centres, to give them a better understanding of how families use them, and what they value most from them.
The national drive is for Family Hubs to provide increased and improved access to community services such as maternity services; midwifery and health visiting; statutory, voluntary and community services; as well as some services not traditionally associated with early years, such as Department for Work and Pensions, and registration services.
Devon County Council and the charity, Action for Children, which has been running Children’s Centres in Devon on the council’s behalf for years, adopted the new Family Hubs model of working last month, and is now supporting families of this wider age range of children and young people.
The charity is helping the council, as it is also helping Plymouth and Torbay councils, with the transition from Children’s Centres to Family Hubs.
Councillor Andrew Leadbetter, Devon County Council’s Cabinet Member with responsibility for children’s services, said: “I’m very excited about these proposals but it’s very early days. There are some national drivers to help develop the Family Hubs model, and we’ve done a lot of engagement work with families, so we feel we know pretty well what families want.
“We’ve opened up the access to a wider age range of children and young people, and we’re beginning to see how we can expand the range of support by linking in with existing community support groups.
“The transition to Family Hubs will be a gradual one over the next 12 months.
“Now, we are looking at how we can best use the buildings, previously associated with Children’s Centres, in our new model of Family Hubs, with the proposal to have a core network of main Family Hub centres in each District council area, with a wide range of outreach hubs in local communities based in buildings already familiar with parents and carers.”
The consultation will run until midnight on Wednesday 3 July.
For more information and to take part in the consultation please visit the Have Your Say website.
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