Report to:	Health and Wellbeing Board
Date of meeting:	14 December 2021
By:	Director of Children’s Services
Title:	Family Hubs: Local Transformation Fund bid
Purpose:	To introduce the Family Hubs bid and gain the Board’s support of it

RECOMMENDATION

The Health and Wellbeing Board is recommended to approve the Family Hubs bid for submission.

1. Background

1.1 The Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund is a key part of Government’s commitment to ‘champion’ family hubs. It is funded through HM Treasury’s Shared Outcomes Fund which aims to test innovative ways of working across the public sector to address complex policy challenges.

1.2 This £12 million funding stream is for local authorities who do not currently have family hubs but wish to transform to a family hub model of service delivery and open family hubs by March 2024.

1.3 This fund is administered by the Department for Education. Submission deadline is 17 December 2021 with funding decisions expected to be announced in March 2022.

1.4 Family Hubs are a way of joining up locally and bringing existing family help services together to improve access to services, connections between families, professionals, services, and providers, and putting relationships at the heart of family help. Family hubs bring together services for families with children of all ages (0-19) or up to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), with a Start for Life offer at their core. They can include hub buildings and virtual offers.

1.5 Children’s Services is already currently providing the six core services for the conception to age 2 period that make up the Start for Life ‘Universal Offer’ and are therefore eligible to apply for this fund.

1.6 The Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund aligns with the Children and Young People’s Trust’s “whole family, whole system” approach and the three Children’s Services Department (CSD) inward investment priorities. (Appendix 1)

1.7 The proposal to bid for the development of Family Hubs connects to our priorities in the Strategic Development Framework which has the aim of strengthening the way we work together to improve population health and wellbeing, increase prevention and address health inequalities.

2. Supporting information

2.1. If awarded funding, the East Sussex County Council would be committing to:

• opening family hubs by March 2024
• leading and implementing the transformation process locally
• publishing our Start for Life offer and setting out what will be available through our family hub network by March 2024
• working with and sharing information about service provision with the Department for Education and other government departments.

2.2. Project funding would be for 2 years with payments made via a grant made under Section 14 of the Education Act 2002. All payments will be made at the end of each quarter in arrears, subject to provision of adequate reporting. Subject to availability, a small proportion of the total funding may be allocated to successful local authorities upfront in March 2022 to support project start-up costs.

2.3. The total bid value is shown below with further details set out in Appendix 2:

	FY 2022/23	FY 2023/24	Grand total
Total costs	£501,285	£491495	£992,780

2.4. An early-stage draft copy of the bid is shown as Appendix 3.

2.5. East Sussex County Council’s (ESCC) Corporate Management Team (CMT) has agreed to the submission of the Family Hubs bid. In addition, the funders specifically require bids to have the approval and support of the Local Health and Wellbeing Board.

Risks and mitigation

2.6. The key risk with this proposal is that if the Government does not sustain funding beyond the two-year transformation funding period, and the Council is then unable to resource the operation of Family Hubs in the way they have been developed, expectations may have been raised in communities which cannot then be met.

2.7. The proposed approach to mitigating this risk includes, as set out in sustainability section of the draft bid:

· Focusing the transformation funding on developments with a lasting legacy, particularly digital investment as proposed.

· Using the funding to develop community capacity and assets in a way which is as sustainable as possible, for example building volunteering capacity.

· Working with partners to strengthen integration around Family Hubs so that their operation is a shared opportunity and risk, for example linking the development strongly to the local delivery of the Foundations for Our Future Emotional Well-being Strategy we are working on with the Sussex Integrated Care System (ICS).

3. Conclusion and reasons for recommendations

3.1. The Family Hubs programme offers us an opportunity to secure transformation funding over two years to further integrate our early help offer, and develop our digital offer, as part of our wider approach to demand management at all levels.

3.2. The Board is recommended to approve the Family Hubs: Local Transformation Fund bid for submission.

Alison Jeffery

Director of Children’s Services

Contact Officer: Celia Lamden
Tel. No.             07876 037539
Email:               celia.lamden@eastsussex.gov.uk

BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS

None

Appendices

Appendix 1: CSD Inward Investment Priorities

Appendix 2: Programme costs

Appendix 3: Draft Family Hubs bid