The rationale
Supporting new and expectant parents as they make the transition into parenthood is crucial for providing babies with the best start in life. The Family Hub and Start for Life Programme in Wolverhampton includes various workstreams, all focused on providing supportive and inclusive parenting support and community outreach initiatives. To target funding to areas of greatest need, a Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) was conducted collaboratively by the Public Health and Data and Analytics teams. The JSNA identified gaps in parenting support delivery for specific groups, such as individuals where English is not their first language and young parents, as well as broader service needs related to attachment and parental conflict within the local community. As a result, the Wolverhampton team have used Family Hubs and Start for Life programme funding to improve their existing parenting support services and introduce support for underserved groups in the city, particularly in the 0-2 years period.
The intervention
In Wolverhampton, the team focused their intervention around four core concepts:
- Engagement with underrepresented communities
- Increasing staff capacity and capability
- Bridging service gaps
- Improving parental self-help skills
Implementation Steps
1. Leverage findings from the JSNA to target underrepresented communities
Wolverhampton utilised the JSNA to create a framework for protected characteristics. The data was taken from multiple sources of information that is held locally by the Council and from national publications to provide comparative context or an overview of the city where the information was not available at a more local level.
They established a parent-carer panel and recruited parent champions to conduct outreach. The champions reach out to parents in the local community who require English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and organise introductory parenting support sessions for them. Additionally, the team present their “Journey of Change” programme (a parenting programme delivered within Family Hubs) in Punjabi and initiated pilot programmes in other languages to better serve communities where English was not the first language.
2. Embed a partnership approach
A Partnership Board has been established for each Family Hub with the aim of identifying the local needs of the population relevant to each site. The Boards review locality profile data and local intelligence to agree priorities and a 12-month action plan for each individual hub area. Membership includes a variety of health and social care professionals, parent representatives and community and voluntary sector organisations. This provides a forum through which effective working relationships between different professionals and parents are built. The team also co-locate existing and developing services within Family Hubs to facilitate connections with a range of practitioners, such as midwives and health visitors.
3. Expand the capacity of the delivery team
Funding from the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme was utilised to create the Family Learning Support team, which involved hiring four new staff members. The team deliver parenting programmes within Family Hubs and provide training to other organisations across the area.
4. Develop the capability of the delivery team and wider system
The team conduct training sessions for other Family Hub staff members on Five to Thrive to support positive infant parent relationship. The team also embedded the Solihull Approach in their parenting offer which includes the antenatal and postnatal period. In addition, approximately 120 multi-agency professionals have been trained in ICON (It’s ok to walk away, never ever shake a baby), with the aim of embedding learning and support throughout the community.
5. Fill gaps with new parental support interventions
The team developed the Circle of Security Programme to bridge gaps in support for babies with insecure attachment. Wolverhampton also developed an online e-learning page for reducing parental conflict. A new universal parenting support offer was introduced to focus on vulnerable communities, as well as new expectant parents.
6. Implement resources to improve parental self-help
The team has developed a series of online self-help resources and information for parents. These resources are linked to national guidance. The team’s webpage also includes links to their wider parenting services. In order to make the services more accessible to fathers, they have introduced a “Dad’s App” where fathers can access information on Family Hubs and Start for Life services. Their future plans include developing resources for grandparents and other caregivers, such as family and friends. These resources will include the most up-to-date information on key topics such as immunisations. In addition, parent champions and voluntary sector partners are located within the community to help build service resilience and provide accurate sources of information and advice.
The impact of the intervention
Wolverhampton’s long-standing ambition was to run programmes from pre-birth to the age of 18, which has now been achieved with the help of Family Hubs and Start for Life programme funding.
Impact on service users:
The Tool to Measure Parental Self-Efficacy (TOPSE) is utilized to assess the effectiveness of parenting support programmes and to identify specific areas for improvement. The TOPSE booklet consists of forty-eight statements that address six domains of parenting. Families will indicate pre and post intervention how much they agree with each statement using a Likert scale. TOPSE then shows the progress parents have made during the duration of the programme.
In 2023, 100% of families who participated in a parenting support programme reported an improvement in one or more areas of parental self-efficacy, with the largest improvements in discipline/setting boundaries and empathy and understanding. For fathers’, the second highest score differed to the trend with the second largest improvements in understanding and meeting children’s emotional needs. This is a positive move forward for improving parent/child attachments and valuing and supporting fathers to better understand their child’s emotional well-being, fostering more secure relationships and boosting confidence in their parenting capacity.
Feedback included:
“Since starting this programme I have been able to have a more positive relationship with my daughter. I have also managed to stay calmer in certain situations and take time to listen to my children and that seems to have had a really positive affect. Thank you for a lovely four weeks.”
“The course was easy to understand and the facilitators made me feel at ease, so everyone could share our own experiences without feeling judged. It felt like a safe space we could let everything out and we felt we were given the right resources and advise to be and want to be better parents. Thank you for all your advice and insights, they are appreciated and will come in handy in the future to strengthen our family.”
Additionally, there was a 35% increase in attendance at parenting support programmes in 2023 compared to 2022, with further increases expected in 2024. Parents noted increased confidence after participating in parenting support sessions and they established emotionally secure support networks with other parents (e.g. via WhatsApp). These informal networks are used by parents to support each other through common challenges and experiences.
Impact on staff members:
The team in Wolverhampton aimed to improve the ability and readiness of staff members to offer emotional support to parents. According to staff feedback, funding helped in creating a more informed workforce. Training programmes enhanced staff retention by improving their professional knowledge, expertise and confidence. Staff also showed more enthusiasm for their work. For instance, some staff members volunteered to conduct group sessions outside of regular working hours to provide flexible support to underrepresented communities.
Impact on the wider system:
Local practitioners who underwent training with parental support, such as in schools, gave positive feedback, which led to increased interest and enrolment in training programmes. This positive impact extended to the broader community, with residents showing greater willingness to visit Family Hubs and seek assistance.
Collaboration among multiple agencies was a key factor in Wolverhampton’s success. The local team utilised support from council services, health services and the voluntary and community sector to come together and build an iterative approach. This helped establish a system of parental self-help through apps, web pages and virtual offerings. It also led to the integration of social workers and family support workers across existing services to provide early signposting.
Key lessons learnt
Building strong relationships and infrastructure to support new programmes effectively was described as crucial. In Wolverhampton, the programme operated under the governance of the Children and Young People’s Board, which facilitated partner engagement and strategic/integrated decision making. A robust partnership between the council and health services also played an integral role in supporting the Start for Life commissioning process.
Improved data sharing was also needed to understand the programme’s impact better. Challenges arose in accessing impact data, such as breastfeeding data and perinatal mental health outcomes, from partners (particularly health partners), hindering Wolverhampton’s ability to refine and target initiatives effectively.
Additionally, the team realised the value of conducting thorough research on local needs and identifying service gaps before commencing staff recruitment. Pressure to allocate the budget quickly in the first year of funding meant that there was less time to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment. With hindsight, the team felt that more time would have allowed them to facilitate better engagement with frontline practitioners and communities, therefore gaining a better understanding of gaps in support
Top tips for implementation
- Create a strong partnership foundation across the system to steer interventions towards a common goal. A strong partnership foundation is underpinned by trusting relationships between services and with partners across the wider system (particularly the community and voluntary sector).
- Develop a parenting support framework detailing all levels of intervention (universal/ self-help through to specialist) to ensure consistent messaging is provided to families and communities
- Create a strong relationship with parents and communities, including through the parent champion infrastructure and parent carer panels, to encourage interaction with Family Hubs.
This case study has been produced by the Start for Life Unit within the Department of Health and Social Care, in partnership with RSM and Wolverhampton City Council. By sharing promising examples of delivery, we hope to facilitate connections between LAs across the country and support local delivery of Start for Life services. For further information please contact familyhubs.startforlife@dhsc.gov.uk
The data included in these case studies is self-reported by Local Authorities and has not been quality assured by the Department of Health and Social Care. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department.
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