Manor Street Children's Centre Consultation

Following the Children's Centre consultation in Plymouth in 2023, Manor Street Children's Centre has remained in the community and continued to deliver the full range of Children's Centre services. We are now proposing to develop services within Manor Street to expand the offer to local families.

What's changing?

The majority of children's Centres in Plymouth have now developed into family hubs.  This is the change we outlined in the 2023 consultation paper.  The change occurred as it was announced that the city was part of the government's new Start for Life programme, which saw the development of family hubs in eligible local authority areas. The aim of the hubs is to provide a joined-up service that's easy to access for families with children of all ages, where they can access the support they need. Family Hubs will bring more services together and expand this offer to support families from pregnancy up to 19, or up to 25 years old for young people with special educational needs or disabilities.

Family Hubs aim to offer early support to families to help them overcome difficulties and build strong relationships. Services include help with infant feeding and perinatal mental health support, as well as making it easier to access wider support such as smoking cessation. This announcement builds on our ambition to put strong families at the heart of communities, in recognition of how important they are for people's life chances.

Why are we carrying out a consultation?

We think that it would be beneficial for Manor Street Children's Centre to transform into a family hub so that children, young people, and families can benefit from the increased range of services offered by a family hub.  This statutory consultation will gain views from families' and practitioners on the proposed change.

The consultation will open on 06/11/2024 and close at midnight on 20/11/2024.

What is the model for family hubs?

Children's Centres currently support families with children aged 0 to 5 years, whereas Family Hubs will bring more services together and expand this offer to support those with children aged 0 to 19, or up to 25 years old for young people with special educational needs or disabilities.

The Family Hub model framework includes criteria for two stages of Family Hub transformation: Level 1: Basic Model. This describes a Family Hub model at the early stages of development and a Level 2: Developed model. This describes a more mature family hub model.

The developed model criteria incorporate and build on the basic model criteria. These criteria have been developed nationally based on learning from local authority areas with existing Family Hub models and evidence about effective integrated service delivery.

More details on the Family Hubs Model Framework are here.

The Start for Life and Family Hubs programme focuses on the following areas:

• Development of Family Hubs Model, including a small amount for building renovation costs
• Parent-Infant Relationships and Perinatal Mental Health Support
• Infant feeding Support
• Early Language and Home Learning Environment
• Parenting Support
• Publishing Start for Life Offer
• Development of Parent and Carer panel

Family Hubs are also expected to offer these services to families:

• Activities for children aged 0-5
• Birth registration
• Debt and Welfare Advice 
• Domestic Abuse support
• Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) and financial support (Tax-Free Childcare, Universal Credit childcare)
• Health visiting 
• Housing advice
• Intensive targeted family support services, including those funded by the Supporting Families programme and locally, young carers
• Local authority 0-19 public health services
• Mental health services 
• Midwifery maternity
• Nutrition and weight management
• Oral Health Improvement
• Reducing Parental Conflict Programmes
• SEND support and services
• Stop Smoking support
• Substance (alcohol/drug) misuse support
• Support for separating and separated parents
• Youth Justice services
• Youth services: universal and targeted

Map showing location of Children's Centre catchment areas

Take part and have your say

If you are interested in taking part in the consultation, then please complete the survey via the link below:

Start survey

The consultation surveys will close at midnight on 20/11/2024.