Central Family Hub Locality meetings are held on a monthly basis with partners from across the Family Hub network coming together.
Central Family Hub Locality meetings are held on a monthly basis with partners from across the Family Hub network coming together. Discussions during the meeting in June 2024 identified further focus was needed to support Roma families in the locality to engage with health services. This was very much around ensuring they have a sound understanding of the health services available to them, the benefits of engaging and how to access them - the ultimate goal being to improve health outcomes for children and their families.
A set of meetings were held to plan a Family Fun Day to be held during half term. The meeting considered activities to engage families in and promoted positive relationships between partners prior to the event. The event was inclusive of the Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS); Family Support and Outreach and Engagement teams; Public Health; Connect Health Care; NHS – Patient Involvement Team; Peers Early Education Partnership( PEEP) Home Learning; Voluntary Action Rotherham; 0-19 Health - School Nursing, Health Visiting and Oral Health; Midwifery; Barnardo’s - Bump, Birth and Beyond; Rotherham Maternity Voices; Peri Natal Mental Health service; Sexual Health service.
In the planning meeting it was recognised that for families to engage, we needed to consider the stigma attached to statutory services, and how this impacts on engagement. Stakeholders were in agreement that the event would be held at a community resource, trusted by the Roma community, to improve the likelihood of attendance and engagement.
What was the impact?
The Healthy Family Fun Day was held on Tuesday 29th October 2024 at Clifton Learning Partnership.
Each child/young person who attended received a family hub goodie bag. Families received a raffle ticket to be entered into a prize draw, with raffle prizes donated from local organisations.
Multilingual staff at Clifton Learning Partnership supported the event and gathered feedback from families. There was no charge for families to attend the event or to engage in any of the activities. The following agencies had stalls and/or delivered activities with families on the day:
- Clifton Learning Partnership – Event host and sports activities
- Early Help Outreach and Engagement and Family Support – Welcoming/signing in families and sports activities
- Barnardo’s, Bump Birth and Beyond – Safe Sleep
- Rotherham Libraries – Information shared around library services and multilingual books provided
- 0-19 Health and Oral Health – Oral Health awareness, tooth brushing kits
- Peri Natal Mental Health – Information shared around the service and baby area
- Rotherham Healthy Holidays (HAF) – Information shared around delivery
- Rotherham United Community Sports Trust – Sports activities
- Voluntary Action Rotherham – Flour balloons and Table Pong
- MESMAC – Sexual Health advice, free sanitary products
- Midwifery – Smoking in pregnancy
112 people attended the event: 30 adults and 82 children/young people.
The event was considered a huge success by all partner agencies, with high levels of engagement and interest. The activities and competitive elements, such as stress ball making, football and planking were particularly compelling for families. The event helped to break down barriers between services and families and raise awareness of various health issues including sexual health and dental health. Providers valued the opportunity to build networks and identify partnerships opportunities with other services in the area.
Overall, the event was seen as a positive experience and a valuable opportunity to connect with - or simply to be seen by - the community and to build the trust that is considered essential for future engagement with services. The opportunity to promote health and well-being was seen as an additional benefit.
The event was considered to be highly successful in fostering community engagement and building trust between health services and local residents. By providing opportunities for social interaction, health education, and practical support, Clifton Learning Partnership solidified its position as a central hub for the community. The event not only raised awareness of available services but also promoted a sense of belonging and connection among and between providers and clients.
Oral health services noted that they had made 112 referrals to dentists at the event.
Families also shared feedback: Why did you come here today?
- Most responses focused on having fun with their children. The event provided an opportunity for families to enjoy their time together
- Some people used the event to gather information. This suggests that the event was a good way to engage the local community and make new contacts for CLP and other organisations.
What did you most enjoy/what was your favourite thing?
- Stress ball making, games, the football game, eating fruit, the new-born baby table and the plank challenge were listed as enjoyable.
- One person suggested a combination of all activities worked well.
- “People getting together” was also reported as enjoyable, suggesting social interaction was valuable to people who attended.
What lessons were learnt?
The event being held at Clifton Learning Partnership, which is a trusted organisation within the community, and ensured families felt comfortable in attending and engaging with different partner organisations.
The impressively high turnout exceeded expectations and highlighted the need for more resources, space and planning for future events. Future events should build on the engaging activities that were so successful. The target audience perhaps needed more consideration, both to attract more males and families with younger babies and to provide activities for older babies and possibly young people. Additional support to address language barriers might also improve the overall impact.
Families also shared feedback around how future events could be improved/what they would like to see more/less of:
● More refreshments and more activities for the children were suggested as ways to improve future events. People suggested a bouncy castle, costume/figures and more races to keep the children occupied.
● One person said future events needed more adults and loud music!
● Two people said that “all was good today” and “was all great” suggesting that it was a very successful event.
At the evaluation meeting which was held with partners on Tuesday 26th November there was a discussion around next steps to sustain engagement alongside further areas to be explored such as recycling; landlords and tenancies; this includes community safety, and the recognition for wider participation of local authority officers in attendance at future events.
The meetings discussed that following the event it was clear that the Roma community was not ‘hard-to-reach’ but that if we are willing to adapt and learn, engagement can be improved. Discussion took place around utilising a compassionate model of delivery, where information and advice shared recognises autonomy and empowers individuals; therefore moving away from a ‘done to’ approach. With a community that is generally suspicious of authority, this approach enabled trust building which in turn will hopefully permit more difficult conversations in the future, if needed. Understanding barriers to engagement was important. One of the biggest barriers identified was families believed that the needed to pay for dental appointments and treatment. This was clearly explained to them and will inform future discussions.