Visit to Plymouth Family Hub

Summary of provision

Plymouth have focused on the integration of family hub related services. Building community asset is fundamental to the city’s commitment to a supportive, engaged highly trained practitioner and volunteer workforce. 

  • Key messages

    “We weren’t working in silos, but we weren’t working in collaboration either.” In the last eighteen months, whether teams are co-located or operate from different buildings, there is stronger connectivity, communication and coordination across the communities of Plymouth, and within areas of greatest need. 

    “We don’t move away when things get more complicated, we just build a bigger team!” 

    “Our strongest commodity is introductions.” Connecting families, workers, services, settings and providers and the links continue to grow, a relational approach that builds trust and belief. 

Strengths

  • Integrated working, for example, Barnardo’s, Action for Children and LARK are the three providers of Family Hubs Services, that emerged from children’s centres across 10 sites. They reach those areas of higher need, all provide services at different family hubs in the City, but work in conjunction with each other, collaborating and sharing skills and knowledge, working as one service that adapts to the local needs of the communities they serve.
  • The professional workforce have been upskilled through training and university links. They are building a new culture of multi-disciplinary working, ambitious for innovative working that learns and grows to support change for families that improves children’s lives 
  • Successful recruitment of leaders and staff who have complementary skills and experience, e.g. prior experience of working with those affected by gang violence, SEND, Social Workers etc. 
  • Flexibility of workforce and provision, for example, a single father was unable to make weekdays so a keyworker changed her hours to meet on Saturdays for the duration of the course. 
  • Trauma informed practice approach adopted across the city, embraced by the Family Hubs network. 
  • Connecting with creative offers for families beyond the brief, e.g. domestic abuse worker, youth club, Andy’s Dads Club, PAUSE project (for mothers who have previously had a child taken into care). 
  • Sustainability of training beyond a programme, e.g. linking parents in groups through WhatsApp so they can continue to support each other 
  • The Primary Family Hub Pilot is a local offer, to connect services around schools through a scaffolding approach 
  • Bespoke support available where needed, including support for families with children and adults with SEND  
  • Effective support from ‘Quick Win Julia’, the finance, welfare and benefits worker, employed by family hubs
  • Celebrating small and simple wins, e.g. ‘have you had a better day than you did yesterday?’ 
  • A strong culture of training and an effective models of supervision allow teams to work to people’s strengths and highlight opportunities for development 
  • 71 people currently trained in PEEP (Peers Early Education Partnership). This is the model being adopted across the multi-agency network to support home learning and place sessions in multiple points across the city in schools, nurseries, and other public accessed spaces.