Feb 9, 2023, Mirage: Thousands of Families to Receive Local Support via Family Hubs https://www.miragenews.com/thousands-of-families-to-receive-local-support-944430/
Services include help with infant feeding and perinatal mental health support as well as make it easier to access wider services such as smoking cessation and job advice
This announcement builds on Prime Minister’s ambition to put strong families at the heart of communities, in recognition of how important they are for people’s life chances
Thousands of families across England will be offered help and support with issues such as infant feeding, mental health and relationship building thanks to Family Hubs being rolled out in local communities.
75 areas will benefit from the £300 million [$362M] investment up to 2025, with the new hubs offering support from conception through to age 19, or up to 25 for children with special education needs and disabilities.
Strong, supportive families make for more stable communities and happier individuals. Investing in families and making sure they get the support they need from birth through to adulthood helps with children’s educational attainment, wellbeing and life chances, while also improving wider outcomes such as poor mental health and unemployment….
To fast-track delivery of these services, 14 local authority areas will become trailblazers and receive extra funding. These trailblazers will lead the way and support other local authorities to improve services that are offered to families, so that these can be rolled out more widely across the country.
Today’s announcement builds on the Prime Minister’s ambition to put families at the centre of communities and delivers on the 2019 manifesto commitment to champion Family Hubsn Children, Families and Wellbeing Minister, Claire Coutinho said:
Having children can be really tough as well as bringing so much joy. All families, from time to time, will need a helping hand.
Family hubs bring services together helping parents, carers, children and young people to access the support they need more easily…. for further work.
Parents will also be able to access a range of support through the hubs from midwifery to mental health support, health visiting to infant feeding advice. Hubs will also provide early language and communication development for young children to set the foundations for lifelong learning and prepare them for school at age five.
Minister Neil O’Brien said:
Every child should have the support to be able to reach their full potential….
Peter Fonagy, Chief Executive of the Anna Freud Centre, said:
Family Hubs make a positive difference to parents, carers and children by providing a single access point to services that can help them during challenging periods. We know how important early intervention is in improving physical, mental and emotional health outcomes for young people, and in helping to build a strong foundation for them to prosper in later life….
The early years are vital for children’s development and early language and communication skills. Start for Life services will help parents to form those secure lifelong bonds with their babies and children; and family hubs will provide advice and support to parents to encourage them to chat, play and read with their children to support early development.
The 14 trailblazer areas include:
Torbay
Sheffield
County Durham
Cornwall
Salford
Kent
Sunderland
Manchester
Northumberland
Hull
Coventry
Blackpool
East Sussex
Isle of Wight
*The 12 local authorities to receive a share of the Family Hubs Transformation Fund are:
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole
Brighton and Hove
Cheshire East
Cumbria
Dorset
Hammersmith and Fulham
Leicestershire
Merton
Solihull
Stockport
Wirral
York
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