Best start in life: A Family Hubs good practice toolkit

This research and background section sets out the national policy context, evidence base and core principles underpinning Best Start Family Hubs, providing practitioners with a clear foundation for understanding how integrated, early‑intervention approaches can improve outcomes for children and families.

This resources document brings together links, tools and guidance to help practitioners find the right support, information and ideas for strengthening Family Hub work and Best Start in Life services.

Coventry City Council, along with the multiagency partnership, has developed a city-wide model of integrated family support through eight Family Hub locations.

Recognising that helping families across the whole of Cambridgeshire could lead to better outcomes, Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council began working together on an Early Years Strategy in 2017, in partnership with colleagues across the children’s health system and communities.

Queen’s Park Family Hub is one of three family hubs in the City of Westminster. Each hub has different leadership arrangements, which reflect the communities they each serve whilst the underpinning governance arrangements are the same. The integration of services at place are seen as vital in all of the hubs and this is strengthened by a local integrated leadership team around each hub.

Doncaster, has spent the last three years working in partnership with local organisations to better serve our youngest children, aged 0-5, their families and educators.

Moorlands Family Centre supports communities across a range of wards in Milton Keynes. It is located in Beanhill, in Woughton and Fishermead Ward, ranked in the 3% of the most deprived areas in England.

Hillingdon Council explored the development of family hubs to bring together a support network for children, young people and families. Hillingdon self-funded its family hubs as the location was not a government funded family hub area, yet the council recognised the value of service delivery in this way. By focusing on collaboration across sectors and a flexible, community-driven approach we were able to develop a model that meets diverse needs and maximises existing community resources.

To reduce the injuries that young children from the most disadvantaged families suffer at home, a University of Nottingham research team worked closely with Nottingham’s Small Steps Big Changes team, children’s public health 0-19 nursing services, children’s centre staff, family mentors and parents to develop, deliver and measure the impact of the innovative Stay One Step Ahead programme.

Lancashire developed a mapping tool to map required service expectations across their network, which helped them understand geographical service delivery patterns, highlighting gaps and areas of good practice.