Children's services
Families invited to the launch of the Walsall’s family hubs programme
Published on
The first of four family hubs in the borough is to be launched on 1 July 2023 in the North Locality and families are invited to attend. This will be followed by the West Locality on the 8 July, Central/South on the 15 July and then the East Locality on the 22 July.
Each hub will offer a combination of face to face support, a virtual offer and outreach services, offering help and support for a range of children’s services including infant feeding, mental health support, health visits and parenting classes. The services and support are aimed at children aged 0-19 (0 to 24 for children with special educational needs and disabilities), their parents and carers.
In total there will be four launch events, one for each of the localities and families are welcome to attend. Attendance is free and booking is not required. The event be run in two sessions repeated on each day – one from 10am until 12 noon and then another from 12 till 2pm.
- Saturday 1 July - North Locality Hub
275 Blakenall Lane, Blakenall, Walsall WS3 1HJ
- Saturday 8 July - West Locality Hub
Ilmington House, Crescent Road, Wednesbury, WS10 8AE
- Saturday 15 July - South & Central Locality Hub
Birchills Street, Walsall, WS2 8NG
- Saturday 22 July - East Locality Hub
Ogley Hay Nursery, Brickiln Street, Brownhills, WS8 6AU
“ I am so pleased that the hard work of the partners involved has paid off and we are now launching our Family Hubs in the four locality areas. Developing the family Hubs has been a great example of integrated partnership working across partner organisations and the voluntary and community sector to connect families with support. Each of the four hubs will offer a ‘front door’ for families in the borough to access family support services across social care, education, mental and physical health, giving their children the best start for life. “
“ A lot of work across the partnership has gone into setting up the Family Hubs offer which is all about giving the children of Walsall the best start in life and supporting them and their families throughout their childhood years into adulthood. These launch events will provide a real opportunity for families across Walsall to find out about all the great services that are on offer locally as well as how they can access any support or advice they need. It will be great to see so many people from the community coming together to enjoy the day. “
At each event there will be freebies available, as well as range of activities on offer such as face painting, a bouncing castle, Ice creams (to purchase), NSPCCs - Look, Say, Sing, Play, Grandpa Stick Story adventure. Families will be able to speak to and pick up information about a range of different local services including Early Help and parenting teams, Midwifery, Walsall Housing Group, Health Teams, West Midlands Fire Service and West Midlands Police.
-ENDS-
Notes to editor
Family Hubs provision is part of Walsall’s Children and Young People Strategic Alliance focusing on ‘The best start for life: a vision for the 1,001 critical days.’
Teams are co-located in each hub, connecting practitioners with each other, with community resources and the families they work with to enable us to provide easier access to integrated services giving the right help and the right time. Practitioner include Social Workers, Family Support Practitioners, Health Visitors, School Nurses, Early Help Police Officers, Domestic Abuse Support Practitioners, mental health support and substance misuse support.
As part of the plan, six action areas have been identified to help make things easier for busy parents and carers:
- seamless support for families: a coherent joined-up Start for Life offer available to all families
- a welcoming hub for families: family hubs as a place for families to access Start for Life services
- the information families need when they need it: designing digital, virtual and telephone offers around the needs of the family
- an empowered Start for Life workforce: developing a modern skilled workforce to meet the changing needs of families
- continually improving the Start for Life offer: improving data, evaluation, outcomes and proportionate inspection
- leadership for change: ensuring local and national accountability and building the economic case
Other types of support included within the Family Hubs will include parenting, perinatal mental health, parent-infant relationship, breastfeeding and home learning environment.
