The story so far

Consultation

In October 2021, we consulted with families and young people in Retford about whether they wanted a Family Hub, and if so, what services they would like to see within a Family Hub Network. View the full summary of feedback [PDF].

Family Hub development

The Family Hub project team gathered the findings from the initial consultation and engaged with relevant partners to build the network and prepare for the first design site in Retford.

More consultation

The family hub project team was busy behind the scenes developing the findings from the initial consultation and engaging partners to build the network and preparing for the first design site in Retford.

The next two design sites were then selected: Hawtonville Children’s Centre in Newark and Summer House Children’s Centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield.

We conducted a consultation with families, young people, and partner organisations in those areas. You can read more about the findings below:

Summer House feedback newsletter

Hawtonville feedback newsletter 

Shape your family hub event – phase 1

Three events were organised in Retford during September and October 2022. The events were an opportunity for young people, caregivers and partners to contribute feedback and participate in shaping the development of Family Hubs in Retford.

View a summary of the key themes [PDF] that were highlighted as part of the discussions.

The Virtual Family Hub

The development of a Virtual Family Hub is key to our Family Hubs project, offering an online resource for everyone to find reliable information and support.

We looked at ways to improve information, advice and guidance and decided on key themes for the Virtual Family Hub, using feedback from the previous ‘Shape your Family Hub’ sessions.

A feedback activity was then given to young people, parents and partners in Retford so they could tell us what topics they wanted to find more information, advice and guidance on.
This collaborative approach ensures that decisions are made together, from start to finish, resulting in better outcomes for everyone involved.

View the feedback exercise [PDF] and a summary of the family related themes [PDF]

Family Hub branding

We developed three logo designs as options for the identity of Family Hubs. We shared these with partners at meetings, local events and online through the council's survey system, for greater feedback.

The feedback gathered from the consultation contributed to the selection of one design, which you can see below:

Co-production

We continue to engage with children and young people, parents and partners to develop the following elements of the virtual family hub:

• Appearance of the pages that young people, families and partners will be directed to including text, layout, images and buttons
• The kind of information that will be displayed, dependant on ages, themes and types of services
• Types of key words that maybe used to search for family related information
• Services that are available.

Shape your Family Hub Phase 2: Questionnaire

As part of our Family Hub pilot in Retford, we asked:

1. Name three good things about being a partner / young person / family in Retford.
2. Name one thing that could be improved.
3. How do you currently access information?

This questionnaire was created online, and findings were used to determine what was needed to meet the needs of local families.

Retford Easter egg-stravaganza Easter 2023

Feedback from partners, young people and families revealed a lack of awareness about available services in Retford.

The Retford Family Hub partnership group ran an event in the Easter holidays to further promote their services and engage local families. They received support from various internal and external services promoting their work.

The event received positive media coverage. For more information about the media coverage, visit Easter egg-stravaganza for Retford family hub network | Nottinghamshire County Council

Retford Family Hub launch

The Retford Family Hub network opened in April 2023 and is currently testing different ways of working. The network is a localised partnership that brings together Nottinghamshire County Council partners, external colleagues from the public and private sectors and voluntary organisations.

Retford’s Family Hub now hosts services such as children’s centre service activities, counselling for young people, groups for children with special educational needs and disabilities, maternity clinics and more.

Retford’s work has been recognised by the National Centre for Family Hubs as an example of successful co-production. For further details, you can read the publication here: Participation case example: Nottinghamshire - National Centre for Family Hubs

Lots of exciting changes are happening to family support services in Nottinghamshire. It has been agreed that during 2024, the Children’s Centre Service sites will change to Family Hubs.

This will offer support locally for families from pregnancy through to 18, or up to 25 years if the young person has Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The support on offer will be from a wide range of different services and organisations, for babies through to school age children and their families.

This comes after a countywide public consultation, where over 80% of people agreed that this would be good for children, families and communities.

The first three Family Hubs will 'go live' in June 2024 – these are in Retford, Hawtonville (Newark) and Sutton-in-Ashfield, with the next two in Netherfield and Mansfield in September 2024.

Look out for more information on our social media and in the Children’s Centre Service e-newsletter. To sign up for the Notts Children’s Centre Service newsletter, visit:  Sign up to our e-bulletins | Nottinghamshire County Council  

Throughout 2024 the Notts Children’s Centre Service newsletter will be changing to the Family Hub Network newsletter. You can also sign up for the Family Life newsletter, which has lots of great competitions and useful information for families in Nottinghamshire.

We'll also be using social media to keep people updated. You can follow us on Facebook by visiting: Nottinghamshire Families Information Service | Facebook