Member

Some of the Families First for Children pathfinders have integrated family hubs and family help to support delivery; for example, using family hubs as the primary co-location space for multidisciplinary family help teams. One such area is Wolverhampton, which has integrated its targeted family help offer within existing family hubs to provide that non-stigmatised place to access a range of services funded through the family hubs, Start for Life programme and the Families First Partnership programme. The noble Lord said at one point that it is not sufficient to co-locate; I agree with him, but it can be an important start. If we bring together the ability to pool sources of funding, and if we work to ensure that the changed way of working is embedded not just within children’s social care but across those services that support families, it becomes far more difficult for it to be unrolled and much more likely that it becomes embedded in the way in which the noble Lord is rightly looking for it to be.