Reports

Over a third of the public (35 per cent) say cutting taxes for families should be priority for the Chancellor as 60% believe cost-of-living crisis has hit families with children hardest. This number rises to three quarters of young people aged 18-25, with very recent or ongoing experience of their parents’ financial challenges. 

This report details research undertaken by the Centre for Behavioural Science and Applied Psychology (CeBSAP) at Sheffield Hallam University (SHU) and commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE). The research aimed to develop interventions informed by behavioural science to promote the uptake of family hub services across four local authorities/organisations, with a particular focus on disadvantaged and vulnerable families; and develop research protocols for evaluating those interventions.

The four projects are:

• London Borough of Redbridge (LBR): increasing uptake of the 2-2.5 year health visitor review by parents living in Loxford (an area of high deprivation).
• London Borough of Merton (LBM): increasing uptake of the Early Learning Together programme for babies aged up to 8 months.
• Fellowship of St Nicholas (FSN): increasing uptake of a temporary accommodation hub service by families living in temporary or insecure accommodation in the Hastings area.
• Sheffield City Council (SCC): increasing uptake of infant feeding support services by young expectant mothers (aged 25 years and younger) in Sheffield (particularly those living in areas of high deprivation).

(This report was no. 4 in a series of 5)

This report presents the findings of a joint study the Local Government Association (LGA) carried out with Coram, looking at how approaches to setting up Family Hubs varies from place to place, and the difference these have been able to make to individual families. They spoke to six local authorities – Salford, Cornwall, Lincolnshire & York who received some government funding, and Essex and Stockton-on-Tees, who did not. The key lessons have been collated in this report, and highlight the importance of:

– strong cross-sector partnerships

– research & planning to ensure design & delivery of services to best meet needs

– Family Hubs acting as a ‘one-stop shop’, ensuring services are accessible to all through co-location and integration

– managing resources effectively

– establishing ongoing research and assessment of the impact of Family Hubs and an evidence base of best practice going forward

On 2 February 2023 the government published a new vision to transform children’s
social care: ‘Stable Homes, Built on Love: Implementation strategy’, along with an accompanying consultation. This report, published in September 2023, summarises the consultation findings, and the government’s response to them. Their ultimate goal is to implement ambitious reforms across the children’s social care system, guided by the unique insights shared by those who have personal experience of it.

The Stable Homes, Built on Love strategy focuses on the importance of love and stability as fundamental foundations for both children and adults to flourish. Family Hubs provide families with easy access to integrated early help and prevention services, with a focus on strengthening relationships and providing the right support at the right time in each unique situation.

The government is committed to investing in key areas for all families, and have already announced over £1billion for programmes to improve early help services, including delivering on Family Hubs and helping families facing multiple-disadvantage through the Supporting Families programme, and Holiday Activities and Food programme. The NHS is also investing additional funding in children and young people’s mental health.

This annual report marks the tenth anniversary of Supporting Families, (originally launched as the Troubled Families programme in 2012), which has evolved to become a crucial element of the early help system across England. The Supporting Families programme has already supported over 650,000 vulnerable families, and with it’s overall funding now reaching £695m, their goal is to work with 300,000 families between 2022-2025. The keys to the success of the programme are whole family working within a context of more integrated, accessible services. By focusing on targeted early help, the need for more costly and complicated statutory interventions is reduced. This report highlights the importance of joining up services, and already Family Hubs are places through which many families are able to access the Supporting Families programme.

Dr Samantha Callan OBE, Co-founder and Director of Family Hubs Network, was commissioned by the government to conduct an independent review to assess the current framework of CMS operational policies and procedures that are intended to provide support and assistance to customers experiencing domestic abuse. Here you can read the Callan Report, in which she made 10 key recommendations that included:

• Preventing the CMS being deliberately used as a form of coercion and control (for example, by withholding maintenance or making deliberately erratic payments).
• Doing more to ensure child maintenance liabilities for low-income paying parents are affordable.
• Including both parents’ income in child maintenance calculations.

She also emphasised the need to integrate early intervention with the CMS, so parents are helped to avoid or resolve entrenched conflict at an early stage. Family Hubs have a key role in providing this support and linking it to services to tackle debt, mental health, housing and other problems often faced by separating families, in which at least a third of all children live.