Families need to know where and how to get help, and in the Family Hub model, straightforward access is key. Family Hubs have a central point from where services are accessed, whether this is a building named a Family Hub, a building with another title, or a virtual access point, reached by phone, email, App or online. This access point is often called the Early Help Front Door, Integrated Front Door, or One Stop Shop.
Denise Beevers, former Locality Service Manager, at Doncaster Council told Family Hubs Network: ‘We recognise that families will only be able to access our services if they know we are here so an important part of our work is marketing our services to raise families’ awareness. Our online presence plays an important part in this.
‘Our Family Hubs are featured on the main Doncaster Council website. It appealed to us to create our own website but because the main council website is well known, receives a lot of traffic and has well developed search engine optimisation (so families are likely to find us if they search), it made sense to inform families about Family Hubs on the main council website. Our webpage explains what Family Hubs offer, invites families to sign up for membership and provides contact information for all 12 Family Hubs. From there families can find out more about each Family Hub by using the link to the Facebook page.
‘Each Family Hub has its own Facebook page and this is where we post our what’s on information and really build our relationship with the local community, through posting regularly and ensuring our tone is friendly, informal and welcoming. We are also beginning to use Instagram too.
‘During the Covid pandemic, we have developed a Virtual Family Hub webpage on the Doncaster Council website, where families can use Live Chat to talk to a member of staff, in the same way that they could drop into a Family Hub in normal times, as that’s a really important part of our service.
‘On the Virtual Family Hub page, we also have a timetable of everything that the 12 Family Hubs are offering online. Links take you to the specific Family Hub Facebook page so you can join whichever Facebook live activity you choose. It’s a great way of getting our offer to the widest audience.’
If you would like to find out more about the nine core principles of an effective Family Hub model, please click here.
Back to news