Hosted by The National Centre for Family Hubs, led by the Anna Freud Centre, the Implementing Family Hubs conference will be opened with a keynote address from the new children and families minister Will Quince.
Attendees will also hear from practitioners, evidence experts, parents, young people and local authority leaders who have helped to shape the toolkit, along with Dame Andrea Leadsom, who will discuss the importance of Family Hubs in making her Start for Life vision a reality.
A focus of the conference, which is free to attend, is to launch the pilot Family Hubs Implementation Toolkit – a collection of co-produced resources aimed to support all those working with children and young people to implement a hub in their area.
Attendees will be encouraged to share feedback on what they think is helpful in the Toolkit, what is missing and what needs to change to enable effective implementation of Family Hubs.
Professor Peter Fonagy, chief executive of the Anna Freud Centre, said, ‘Family Hubs will make a positive difference to parents, carers and their children, by providing both a physical and virtual space in which they can easily access non-judgemental support for any challenges they may be facing. Family Hubs will provide an open door to families, offering a one-stop shop for accessing vital services.
‘Without action, the pandemic could cast a long shadow on the lives of babies, children and young people. But persistent social and regional inequalities, and discrimination, often prevent children and families from accessing the help they need. Family Hubs will have a crucial role to play in making sure that services become more bound together, and many forms of help become accessible to families. This will empower them to fulfil their potential in supporting their children to fulfil theirs. We look forward to collaborating with colleagues who have a wealth of expertise and insight in this area, as well as with families themselves.’
- To book a place on the ‘Implementing Family Hubs’ virtual conference click here