One minute guide: Family Hubs and the Early Help front door team

Family Hubs

The Family Hubs are the point of access for early help support for families with dependent children up to the age of 18. The hubs also support young people aged 18-25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) who are in education, to navigate pathways to adult services.

The Family Hubs are multi-disciplinary teams covering the whole of Leeds. There are seven Family Hubs which are based in: Horsforth Community Hub, Armley Community Hub; Chapeltown Children’s Centre; Deacon House Community Hub; the Compton Centre Community Hub; Rothwell Community Hub; and Dewsbury Road Community Hub.

Teams of practitioners at each of the Family Hubs consist of: early help practitioners, social workers, an alcohol and substance use coordinator, a domestic violence and abuse coordinator, a mental health coordinator, a SEND coordinator and a police officer.

Family Hubs bring together multiple organisations in a ‘one stop shop’ to make it easier to get the help families need. They unite different organisations, so that people only have to explain their needs once, rather than having to tell many different people their story. Meanwhile, professionals can work together more effectively to help overcome any difficulties families might be facing.

Early Help Front Door

The Early Help Front Door is a team of Early Help practitioners who work closely with the Social Work Duty and Advice team to provide guidance and support at an Early Help level. The team is based at Merrion House in the city centre, with the Duty and Advice team.

Social Workers at the Duty and Advice team take calls from practitioners about safeguarding concerns and discuss with them whether a contact should be taken and if a referral to Children's Social Work Service is appropriate. If its felt support can be offered at an Early Help level, the information is shared with the Early Help Front Door team who are able to offer support and guidance, workforce development and/or signpost to the relevant service such as Children’s Centre’s, Schools, Clusters, Youth Work or the Family Hubs who may be able to lead on any Early Help support required.

Work within the Early Help Front Door is closely aligned to our Leeds practice principles, Its purpose is to ensure all professionals and families have one place where they can request support and advice on early help services and processes and have confidence that families are getting the right support in a timely manner.

How the Family Hubs and Early Help Front Door team work

The teams use the Leeds Practice Model, which underpins all practice within the Family Hubs and Early Help Front Door. It is a framework that guides and supports practice, enabling the best possible sustainable outcomes for children and their families. The Leeds Practice Model contains the seven key elements of: Rethink formulation, Leeds Practice Principles, outcome focused supervision, trauma- informed practice, multi-agency working, family led decision-making; and continued professional development.

The Family Hubs and Early Help Front Door sit within existing Early Help systems and services within Leeds. Our support can be outlined through the Thrive Model as we take a graduated response.

Thrive model

This is a graduated approach model we have developed using the thrive model to help explain the early help approach to supporting families. It is important to remember that that Early Help is everybody’s business.

Getting help

Where appropriate a graduated approach to Early Help is taken. This means we anticipate universal or targeted services are able to support families with most of their Early Help needs.

Going from help to more help

Some families will need more support from targeted services. In those cases, services such as schools, Clusters, Youth Services and Children's Centres will provide Early Help support before referring families to more intensive services.

This approach means when families are referred, there is usually a better understanding of their needs, helping to get the right support in place, at the right time.

Getting more help

When family needs escalate or new needs emerge that can't be met by universal or targeted services, they can be referred to the Family Hubs who can help advise or provide additional support.

Family Hubs can help services to continue delivering early help by working with practitioners offering them advice and support or they can provide direct work with the family dependent on their needs.

Getting risk support

Where intensive family support is needed or risk concerns are identified, it may be more appropriate to access support from Multi-systemic Therapy (MST), SAFE Project, Children's Social Work Services or Therapeutic Social Work Teams who can support families where there may be a greater risk to a child, young person or family's wellbeing.

Examples of the work we do:

• guidance and advice
• signposting
• workforce development
• group work
• goal setting and formulations
• family support
• asset based community development
• support and guidance in relation to: domestic abuse; alcohol and substance use; mental health; SEND; and support and guidance from the police

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