To receive a presentation from Danny Gomm, Family Hub Manager (Achieving for Children, AfC), on the Family Hub Service in Windsor.

Danny Gomm, Family Hub Manager (Achieving for Children, AfC) gave an overview of the Family Hub Service in Windsor.

The Family Hub Service was launched on 1^st May 2021 through the merging of Children's Centres, Youth Service, Family Resilience and Parenting Service to form the Hub. While the Family Hub sat within the Early Help service, it supported children, young people and families on statutory plans, such as social interventions like child need plans or child protection plans. The work was focussed on supporting targeted families across the age range of 0-19 years, but also focussed up to 25 years-of-age if the young people had learning difficulties and/or disabilities or was a care leaver. A majority of staff were divided into 2 main hubs (Windsor and Maidenhead). Despite this, the teams were not restricted to working with families in their area. There were also the Families Together Service, which worked to stop children from going into care and keep them in their families or return them to their families if they were already in care.

There were two hubs/buildings within Windsor, with the main building being the Windsor Family Hub (near the Police Station and Holiday Inn). The Hub provided parenting groups and 1-1 support for children, young people and parent groups and a safe space for young people (e.g., pool tables, kitchen). It was also used by community groups who paid a fee as well as AfC partnership services like the Domestic Abuse Charity. The Manor was another building used by the Family Hub to meet families, deliver services and be used by community groups. Contrastingly, unlike the Family Hub building, it was not open from 9:00am-5:00pm for families to drop in.

Chris Caughey, Family Hub Lead (AfC), gave an overview of what was on offer from the Family Hub Service in Windsor. For children/young people, service offers included:

·       Esteem Project to help young people who were struggling with their emotions, self-esteem self-confidence and social isolation by building their confidence, give them experiences, meet and make friends and encourage them to join clubs.

·       Educational workshops across schools in Windsor and the Borough, covering Child Criminal Exploitation, Child Sexual Exploitation, Substance Misuse, Digital World and Safety, Realities of Pornography, and Youth Violence.

·       BREATHE program to support young people experiencing parental conflict and domestic abuse.

·       Youth Participation Groups, such as the Girls Forum and Youth Council, with regular meetings and one-off events.

·       Positive activities for children in care during weekends and holidays, such as meeting other children in care groups from other local authorities.

For parents, service offers included:

·       SPACE support group to support parents and carers’ emotions, and Triple P support parenting strategies.

·       Baby Massage (Datchet and eventually Windsor and Ascot) which provided a 6-week health check as well as help with parent-child bonding.

The FUEL holiday activity and food programme which offered children who claimed free school meals activities and food during Easter and Christmas holidays.

The Family Hub had community links with local charities and organisations, providing strong working partnership and making use of all these groups knowledge and expertise to ensure families were being fully supported. The organisations included Abri, The Green Room, West Windsor Hub, Tesco Dedworth Community Champion, The Baby Bank, The Link Foundation and Foodshare. Regular meetings with the community groups and volunteers were held at Windsor Family Hub as well as The Green Room and Windsor Castle to further promote collaboration.

To conclude, Danny Gomm displayed the Family Hub webpage which included links to online resources (e.g., online parenting courses) and parental advice.

Councillor Tisi congratulated the Family Hub Team for receiving an AfC Staff Award they had received and thanked them for their work.

After complimenting the presentation, Sarah Walker asked if all the services, facilities and events were free. She then wondered whether there were income opportunities for the Council with these courses, stating that some parents may be willing to pay for some of these courses. Danny Gomm confirmed that the services were free and that most families who used them were those who struggled financially. He added that the Hub was a discretionary service which always sought to investigate different ways to be more efficient and generate income. He also stated that the school workshops were free to ensure pupils received the information as charging the schools could cause them to not invite the workshops.

After commending the Family Hub’s work, Councillor Knowles asked whether the delivery of services had improved and whether there had been any noticeable difference in the amount of engagement with families and young people after the merging of Children's Centres, Youth Service, Family Resilience and Parenting Service. Danny Gomm, who initially worked in the Youth Service alongside Chris Caughey, answered that the service was much stronger after the merging of the individual services and taking a ‘whole family’ working approach. Regarding the amount of engagement, anecdotally, Danny Gomm believed that re-referrals back into the service had dramatically reduced due to the ‘whole family’ working approach. Chris Caughey added that the merge brought a wider skill sets and experience which had improved the service based on feedback.

Councillor W. Da Costa asked what were key factors which drove the need for support for vulnerabilities in young people. Danny Gomm believed that it was young people who were struggling to go to school due to anxiety. Mental health and anxieties were increasing in the service, likely due to isolations during Covid lockdowns. Other factors included the cost-of-living crisis which meant some families could not travel to the Hub building.

Councillor Wilson expressed appreciation of the work by the Family Hub, particularly the early help. He then asked if there was any interaction with the police. Danny Gomm answered that there were strong links with the police, including the exchange of intel and regular meetings, such as the youth violence and exploitation panels. These panels not only look at young people but also locations of concern.

(Danny Gomm and Chris Caughey left the meeting at 8:31pm)