Agenda item

Briefing Note of the Deputy Chief Executive (People)

Further to minute 46/18 the Scrutiny Board considered a briefing note of the Deputy Chief Executive (People) which provided an update on progress with the Early Help Offer of the Family Hubs, including information regarding access by children, young people, and their families, and service reach from the Hubs into the wider communities.  The report also provided

·  further data regarding the support for young people accessing the service over 16 years, and the re-referral data,

·  the development of the early help dashboard, including data for those over 19 using the service

·  an update on the priorities identified in the previous report

·  the Early Help Strategy and embedded transformation plan, which included the continued development and delivery of the Family Hub model as part of the early help offer

The report noted that there were 8 Family Hubs in operation across the city, serving local communities and focusing on delivering early help to children aged 0-19, and up to 24 for young people with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and their families.

The Family hubs had been operational since November 2017 following the Cabinet decision in March 2017 to agree the implementation of Connecting Communities programme, which included the reduction of Children Centres and the redesign of Children Services. It was agreed at that time that 8 of the previous Children Centre buildings would become the Family Hubs, and the Local authority would base its newly formed Early Help family support staff within them.

The Family hub practitioners deliver a range of services targeted at families who need early help, and the buildings also host universal services for all families such as well baby clinics, and targeted services such as Coventry Independent Advice service.  Family Hubs were a delivery point in local communities to provide interagency working and they aimed to deliver the right help at the right time.  Practitioners working from the Family Hubs included Local Authority Children Services staff, health visitors, midwives, school nurses, adult learning, Police community support officers (in East and Central), Coventry Independent Advice Service, and an increasing range of other partners to meet the local needs. 

Anyone can access the family hubs, and there is a daily “Here to Help” service available for people that come to the centres, phone up or make a “request for early help”. There are also a timetable of activities and services delivered throughout the year that serve as opportunities for children, young people and adults to engage with the Family hub and the early help offer.

From January,2020 there would be a new digital sign in system operating in all family hubs, which would enable more accurate “footfall” data and improvements were being made in the data collection, and analysis process to enable more accurate performance reporting

The report also provided the following:

·  data including the number of children in each area by age and early help episodes/requests and staff caseload

·  information about new early help assessment and plans

·  a workforce development strategy

·  hub user survey

New initiatives had been established by the hubs for example:

·  Woodside (Willenhall) supported the foodbank

·  Families for all (Foleshill) served 2,628 meals with food donated from local supermarkets

·  Harmony (Hillfields) had a youth group and kids club

·  Pathways (Radford) used the provision outside of working hours

·  Aspire (Lower Stoke) had a Breakfast club during half term and provided youth work and targeted intervention in partnership with the Police, to support girls at risk of criminal exploitation and involvement in gangs

·  Moat (Wood End) held youth groups to support social skills and self-esteem for children in years 6 and 7

·  Mosaic (Tile Hill) had worked in partnership with Canley Firestation on transition work with year 6 about keeping safe

The Cabinet Member for Children and Young People congratulated the bespoke and flexible work taking place in the hubs around the City and encouraged members to support and promote the use of the hubs by their communities.

The Scrutiny Board questioned the Cabinet Member and officers on the following:

·  The location of the hubs and difficulties accessing the allocated hub for certain areas including Spon End at the Radford Hub and Wyken at the Moat Hub

·  Analysis of use of hubs and amendments to the map/ allocated hubs

·  Consideration of using public transport to access allocated hub

·  Data

·  Benchmarking

·  Awareness in communities of support available for 19-24 year olds with SEN, for example Hereward College

·  Awareness of Looked after Children leaving care about support available at the hub

·  Case studies of support provided and partnership working

Officers reported that residents could use any hub and were not restricted to the designated area, also the hubs were developing spokes in communities where access issues had been identified.  Outreach work also took place for example at parent’s evenings in schools.  As hub locations were providing a voluntary service and people chose to access services, there was generally less criticism than was received regarding statutory services which were not usually a choice.  Over time Children’s Services would like to see more money invested in Early Help and less needed in Statutory Services.

RESOLVED that the Scrutiny Board

1)  recognise the challenges faced and the importance of the work in Early Years and thank officers.

2)  request that the next update contain further detail regarding data, a better understanding of 19-24 year olds access to services for SEN, more information on partnership working and outreach and case studies to demonstrate successful outcomes for children and families.