Family Hub on the Harbour Family Hubs are a place-based way of joining up locally in the planning and delivery of family services. They bring services together to improve access and the connections between families, professionals, services, and providers. They offer support to families with children of all ages, from conception to 19 years or up to 25 years for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with a great Start for Life offer at their core. Cumberland Council uses its strong partnerships with a wide range of local organisations to create a holistic network of support for families. Co-production with families and services is key to service design and delivery. The Family Hub on The Harbour (named by local families) in Whitehaven is the first Family Hub in Cumberland and launched in April 2024. Family Hub on the Harbour is working towards delivering 24 ‘core’ services focussed on meeting the needs of our local families. Family Hub on the Harbour is successfully improving access and becoming a one stop shop for families to get the support they need across services. In the first eight months, the Family Hub on the Harbour has had over 5,000 individual attendances into the hub. Cumberland Council is building co-production into the way services are designed so they truly meet need. The Hub hosts in-person groups where parents, carers and children are consulted on a range of matters, such as the readability of literature or whether hubs are offering all the services families want. In the next 12 months they plan to roll out a further five family hubs across Cumberland delivering the 24 core services to build on this success. They will be supported by spoke hubs to reach families with support in their local area. CASE STUDY 20 Better Tomorrows Over the last decade, there has been a significant under-investment in youth work, resulting in the loss of many skilled youth workers and valued youth work places. Better Tomorrows was launched in 2021 with the aim of increasing the number of trained youth workers and increasing the number of young people able to access quality youth work. In West Cumbria, South Whitehaven Youth Partnership received support from Better Tomorrows to offer detached youth work over three years. The youth workers plan their sessions around young people and where they have agreed to meet. They work closely with the local Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) while also using social media to visit areas where community members have raised concerns to help reduce anti-social behaviour. Kelly Bell, Youth Worker for South Whitehaven Youth Partnership, said: “We’ve been able to extend our youth work offer to those who wouldn’t have had access to youth workers before and helped several young people gain ASDAN awards as well.” ASDAN awards are nationally approved qualifications based around the development of personal, social and employability skills. Research from DCMS (Department of Culture Media and Sport) explored the link between weekly participation in youth clubs and six outcomes: educational outcomes, employment and career pathways, general health, mental health, life satisfaction and wellbeing, crime and anti-social behaviour. The research states: “There is a clear association between participation in youth provision and positive short-term outcomes relating to physical health and wellbeing, pro-social behaviours and education. There is also strong evidence that these short-term outcomes are sustained over decades, and compared with non-participants, people who attended youth clubs continue to score more highly for several of these indicators of wellbeing.” Other areas to benefit in West Cumbria include Millom, Workington, Cockermouth, Keswick, Maryport, Aspatria and Wigton. CASE STUDY 21 Activities for Children aged 0-5 Midwifery / Maternity Debt and Welfare advice Health visiting Mental Health Services Housing Youth Services (Universal and targeted) Substance misuse Youth Justice Services Infant Feeding Support Parenting Support SEND Support Stop smoking Oral Health Improvement Birth Register Early Language Domestic abuse support Support for separated parents 0-19 Public Health Services Peri-natal mental health/Parent Infant Relationships Targeted Family Support (Family Help) Nutrition and Weight Management Home Learning Environment Housing Core Family Hub Services
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