28/09/2018 - Permalink

New Shropshire family hubs – some questions and answers

Related topics: Children's services

Plans to deliver children’s centre services from seven new family hub bases across Shropshire were agreed by Shropshire Council’s Cabinet at its meeting on Wednesday 26 September 2018.

The decision means that services will be delivered from seven key buildings instead of the existing 26 buildings, namely:

  • The Centre – Oswestry
  • Sunflower House – Shrewsbury
  • Crowmoor Centre – Shrewsbury
  • Rockspring Centre – Ludlow
  • the Youth Centre – Bridgnorth
  • Raven House – Market Drayton
  • A hub base in the Whitchurch area yet to be determined.

Although some services will be provided directly in hub buildings, the majority will be delivered through local community venues and home visits.

We hope the below will help to answer some of your questions about the new hubs.

What is happening to stay and play?

Shropshire Council will  no longer deliver stay and play provision but we’ll continue to support the delivery of stay and play through alternative providers e.g. schools, day care providers, and the Pre-School Learning Alliance.

What services will be delivered at the hubs?

The seven family hubs will continue to be designated as Children’s Centres, and will coordinate Early Help support to families with children aged 0 – 19 (25 SEND).  Early Help family support workers will operate from the hubs working directly with families in their homes and local community venues as agreed with the family.

Parenting groups and clinics will be offered in the hubs as well as other venues in local communities, and as we develop a range of services will be available for families varying from location to location, based on community need and provider agreement.

Families will not be expected to travel to the hubs to access services; services will be coordinated via the hubs ensuring better communication between services and therefore a more joined up way of working, to ensure that families have the right package of support to meet their individual needs.

When will these changes come into effect?

Children’s Centre services will continue to operate in their current format until the end of this year. After this our Early Help teams will move into the newly identified hubs and be fully operational in the new model of working by April 2019.

Where can I find out more?

For more information, please click here to read the report that went to Shropshire Council’s Cabinet this week.

We will continue to update families as the changes progress via Shropshire Family Information Service Facebook pages.