Family Hubs and Start for Life

In the last newsletter we shared that Luton had been selected to receive funding from the Department of Education and Department of Health and Social Care to create a network of Family Hubs across the town. 

We are excited to share more and update you on the start of our transformation journey. 

Family Hubs are based on three key principles; Access, Connections and Relationships and provide early intervention and prevention services for all families and children aged 0-19. It is also an opportunity for us to expand and develop our universal services for children and families and improve the experience families have by working in partnership, integrating services, making them easier to access and navigate and enhancing digital technology. 

As well as creating a network of Family Hubs we need to focus on the following six key areas or programme strands: 

 The development of Family Hubs is a three year programme where we will co design what we want our hubs to look like and how they will make a difference to all families. in the short term there are some things we must do;  

• by April 2023 we will need to set up Parent Carer Panels and Publish a Start for Life offer 
• by the middle of 2023 we need to open our first Family Hub 

Our Family Hub network will be a mixture of building based and virtual services, through hubs and outreach in communities and greatly improving our digital offer to children and families. We won’t be building new hubs but utilising existing buildings that become multi-purpose, accessible, inclusive places for all families across the town where a range of services can be accessed. 

If you would like more information or would like to be involved in co designing and shaping these services or be part of the Parent Carer panel please contact Michelle Bailey at Luton Council, Public Health Team at michelle.bailey@luton.gov.uk