Today, we have 37 hubs across our county, including 21 family hub buildings and 16 libraries. The dedicated family hubs website has also been launched, which serves as a portal to a broader range of support and services for families and our communities.
Since officially launching in May 2023, family hubs have worked closely with specialist services and partner organisations who share the same vision to improve the lives of parents and carers of children aged between 0-19 (or 25 for young people with SEND) and local communities to deliver advice and support, signposting them to information around parenting, family health, relationships, education, employment, and more.
We launched a new partnership document, "Relations Matter in Leicestershire," and a training program in spring 2023. The program focuses on reducing parental conflict and helps families communicate and manage difficult conversations, avoiding conflict and improve things for the whole family. Over 600 workers and volunteers have been trained and are equipped with a range of resources to help initiate (those sometimes) difficult conversations.
A new Maternity and Early Years Strategy and Plan launched in February 2024 alongside an Early Help Strategy. Also, in February, our Family Help service launched, which combines children's social care and targeted family support. This ensures children and their families get the right support at the right time, which helps and support positive outcomes for the whole family.
Our hubs have supported over 7,000 families following a referral to Family Help services. A number of these families have received 1-1 support, and some parents have accessed the 0-2 pathway through the targeted Start for Life offer.
In the past 12 our hubs have hosted 741 stay-and-play groups, 180 volunteers have given up 7,000 hours of their time and nearly 43,000 KGs of food have been saved from landfill thanks to community fridges based at some of our hubs.
The Family Hubs website is constantly being updated with new content, focusing on forming new connections and links with other key organisations. In addition to this work, we've completed numerous projects to support families, parents and carers, young people, and our communities throughout the year.
We will continue to support families and giving children the best start in life and will invest in community based services for families through our hubs, family support, and early help. Our collaboration with partner organisations has shown that working together strengthens our support systems to ensure success for our family hubs.
The progress over the past year is the beginning of what we hope will become a vital approach to supporting families and communities throughout Leicestershire.