Spurgeons co-hosts national Family Hubs Conference

Spurgeons together with Barnardo's and HCRG Care Group, sponsored the National Family Hubs Conference on Friday. We were supporting the Family Hubs Network's initiative to celebrate progress and forge the future for Family Hubs. A matter of weeks since the Chancellor announced that the new Government will continue to fund Family Hubs for a further year, the timing was perfect. 

We were thrilled to have over 280 people attend, from a wide range of stakeholders. We had delegates from 48 local authorities, 56 delivery partners, and we had 19 civil servants representing 4 govt depts - education, health and social care, work and pensions, and justice. 

This turnout alone showed the importance of the Family Hub transformation taking place up and down the country. It matters- people want to work differently, families are welcoming the change, and Government is seeing the potential. 

The importance of Hubs

Lord Farmer in his opening remarks made the point that if we want to achieve better outcomes for children, solving poverty alone doesn't do it. Children thrive when they live in safe, stable families. As a nation, we are affected hugely by family breakdown. We need to wake up and recognise the impact this has on children and help parents to parent well whether they are together or apart. 

The first three years of funding has enabled the transformation of how local authorities and their partners work together, in a Family Hub model, and has provided specific fund for Start for Life services for 0-2s. However, the evidence which led to govt adopting a Family Hub policy, demonstrates that Family Hubs work best for all families with children aged 0-19 (and to 25 for young adults with SEND). As the Government reviews how the money should be spent going forward, this conference helped demonstrate how working with a wider range of families is not only an important goal but can be done effectively. 

We also heard from Josh McAllister MP by video. He conducted the Independent Review of Children's Social Care and as a new Labour MP is now keen to see how the new Government implements the recommendations his review made. The Government has announced that there will be a considerable amount of funding for 'family help' which is a reset of how families are supported when their children are at risk of going into care. 

'I really hope that as central government's ambitions for Family Hubs develop, they recognise that as well as providing a robust foundation of early years services is absolutely essential - as the Secretary if State for Education agrees - the don't forget the importance of continuing the all-age family family approach,' says Catherine Barker, Spurgeons' Policy Lead. 'Family Hubs can help tackle fo many of the problems that affect children of all ages, such as poor mental health, struggling with special educational needs, and fragmented school attendance.'

Prison Hubs

We also heard from Tim Lloyd and Spurgeons' Vicky Baird about family affected by imprisonment. Many families with a parent in prison face many challenges but can often feel to stigmatised and fearful to engage with community based support. What is we had prison Family Hubs which connected Family Hubs in the community which could help families as well as prisoner rehabilitation? 

Tim and Vicky presented the Prison Family Hub. These services help families visit dads in the prison, creating an environment where children feel comfortable and providing activities which parents and children can do together so that relationships are strengthened. Through this contact with the family, Vicky and her team can help support the family with needs that they are experiencing at home whilst dad is supported in learning about parenthood, helped to become a better dad and thereby encouraged in his rehabilitation so that when he returns to the community, he is able to play a positive part in his children's live and rescind from crime.