Family Hubs: Local Transformation  Fund

Application form

November 2021

 

 

Application Process

Funding available and timelines

The Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund will fund at least 12 LAs and is worth approximately £12m over the next two financial years (£4m programme and £400k capital in 2022-2023; and £5.8m programme and £1.6m capital in 2023-2024). LAs can apply for up to £1 million transformation funding, comprising of:

·         up to £833k available for programme expenditure per LA

·         up to £167k available in capital expenditure per LA

We expect grants to be in the range of £650k-£1m. The level of funding that is provided to successful LAs will vary depending on their individual proposals and activity required locally to transform to a family hub model of service delivery and open family hubs. LAs should provide a clear breakdown and rationale of costs requested in their application, and how it demonstrates value for money.

 

Funding will only be allocated as required for successful completion of the project’s objectives.  However, subject to availability, a small proportion of the total funding may be allocated to successful LAs upfront in March 2022 to support project start-up costs. DfE reserves the right to fund more or less than 12 LAs, as well as to discuss applications and negotiate delivery costs directly with applicants before determining successful projects. We reserve the right to not issue the full funding allocation.

 

The bid round will be open from Tuesday 2 November 2021 and will close on Friday 17 December 2021. We will accept applications up until 23:59 on this date.

Key dates and deadlines for the application process are set out in the table below.

Milestones	Dates (subject to change)
Bid round opens	2 November 2021
Bid round closes	17 December 2021
Assessment of applications	January – February 2022
Decision announced	March 2022

Fund guidance

The Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund application guide published alongside this application form includes details of the background, aims and objectives, funding and eligibility criteria for the Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund. 

Please read the application guide before completing the application form.

Completing your application

Please complete this application form to the best of your ability. Information on what is expected in each section of the form has been provided to support you in completing your application. Please make sure you refer to these prompts, as well as the Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund application guide and family hub model framework published alongside this application form, throughout to ensure you have addressed the questions fully.

A limit on the number of words is stated for each section in the text box provided. Any text that exceeds the stated limit will not be assessed. Please include the total number of words for each section at the bottom of each text box.

Sections marked with a red asterisk* are mandatory and must be completed in order for your application to be accepted.

A maximum of one application form per LA can be submitted, and joint LA applications will not be accepted.

All applications should be approved and have the full support of the following local stakeholders (or equivalents): Director of Children’s Services, Director of Public Health, Director of Adult Services and Chair of the Local Health and Wellbeing Board.

Submitting your application

This form should be used to apply for the Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund. Please email a single Word or PDF version of your completed application to FamilyHubs.Transformation@education.gov.uk.

Your ‘LA name’ followed by ‘Family Hubs Local Transformation Fund’ should be included in the email “subject” field when submitting your application.

When you have sent the department your application form, you will receive an email response within 1 working day letting you know that your application has been received.

Deadline

The Department for Education must receive all completed applications by email by 23:59 on 17 December 2021. No changes can be made to the application form beyond the deadline.

The Department will not be able to consider applications that miss this deadline as to do so would be to unfairly discriminate against those applicants who submitted their application within the allowed timescale.

Clarification questions

Any queries or questions regarding the application process should be emailed to FamilyHubs.Transformation@education.gov.uk. The deadline for questions to be submitted is 48 hours before the closing date: this will be 11.59pm on 15 December 2021.

 

Section 1 – Applicant details*

Name of Local Authority	East Sussex County Council
Name of Bidding Officer	Celia Lamden
Position	Head of Early Help Services  0 -19
Email	Celia.lamden@eastsussex.gov.uk
Telephone	07876 037539
Address	Hailsham East Children’s Centre, Vega Close Hailsham BN27 2JZ

 

 

Section 2 – Eligibility

1.  Start for Life*

The Best Start for Life Review: a Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days outlined a Vision for local authorities to pull together a coherent and joined up Start for Life offer which explains clearly to parents and carers what services they are entitled to and how they can access them.

This offer is made up of a Universal and Universal+ elements. This Vision describes the ambition for every Universal offer to bring together essential provision for every new family. The Universal offer brings together the six core Universal services of:  midwifery; health visiting; mental health support; infant feeding advice with specialist breast feeding support. And every Universal offer should also include safeguarding and those services relating to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

To be eligible to apply for this funding, you must confirm that you currently provide the six core services for the conception to age 2 period that make up the ‘Universal Offer’.

Please give a brief description of how each of the core services are delivered  (i.e. where – you do not need to provide details on the quality of service or expenditure) below. Please limit your responses to 50 words per category.

Core Services	Description
Midwifery	As part of an integrated service with East Sussex Healthcare Trust we have close working relationships with Midwifery colleagues. Our Standard Operating Procedures have been written in conjunction with Midwifery Services to ensure continuity of care for our families. We deliver midwifery appointments from many of our Children’s Centres
Health visiting	Health Visiting is a core element of our integrated service with our Locality Managers reporting directly into our Leadership Team. We have a strong skill mix team consisting of Health Visitors, Staff Nurses and Community Nursery Nurses who all contribute to delivery of the 5 mandated reviews.
Mental health support	Our Specialist Perinatal Mental Health Practitioner leads delivery of MH support and mandatory MH training. Our MH Champions deliver post-natal depression groups, and Staff Nurses are trained to deliver emotional wellbeing visits. We have a specialist perinatal counselling service for women with babies up to aged one.
Infant feeding advice with specialist breast feeding support	Our two Infant Feeding Coordinators are trained Lactation Consultants who manage the Breastfeeding Peer Support service and provide specialist feeding advice to the health visiting team and directly to parents. We have BFI status; IFCs ensure staff receive regular training to ensure practice is up-to-date and BFI standards maintained.
Safeguarding	All staff in the integrated 0-19 service are responsible for safeguarding. Staff have robust understanding of the Continuum of Need knowing when to refer to the Single Point of Advice which is also part of the Early Help service. All referrals at level 3 are allocated to Early Help Keyworkers
Services relating to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND)	Our Community Nursery Nurse and ISEND Practitioner deliver ‘Small Beginnings’, a group for parents and children where there are concerns about learning and development. In addition, we work closely with Community Paediatricians in ESHT who deliver child development assessment clinics in our Children’s Centres.

2.  Pass or fail qualifying criteria*

Bids will be initially assessed against three pass/fail criteria to determine eligibility.

 

Please confirm that your application meets the eligibility criteria set out in the fund guidance by answering yes or no to the following questions. If you answer ‘Yes’ to these questions you are eligible to apply for funding and your bid will be considered further.

 

	Criteria	Yes/No
1	Your local authority currently provides the six core services for the conception to age 2 period that make up the ‘Universal Offer’.	Yes
2	Your application for transformation funding has been approved by and has the full support of the following stakeholders in your area: ·         Director of Children’s Services ·         Director of Public Health ·         Director of Adult Services ·         Local Health and Wellbeing Board
3	Your bid does not exceed £1m.	Yes

 

 

 

 

Section 3 – Assessment criteria

All applicants should complete sections 1-6 below.

A cross-government assessment panel will examine eligible applications with consideration to the assessment criteria set out below. Each criterion will be scored between 0-4. Applications must gain an acceptable score on each criterion to be eligible for funding, those scoring less than 2 on any requirement will be judged as unacceptable and will not be eligible for funding.

1.  Strategic vision*

Please provide a summary of your proposal and strategic vision. This should include the following:

·         A description of your local authority’s current family/early help service model and landscape – please refer to the family hub model framework and set out which elements of the framework align with your current model.

·         A clear vision, ambition and commitment to a family hub model.

·         How the proposal aims to transform your service delivery model to a family hub model and aligns with the family hub model framework and core principles - Access, Connection and Relationships (please refer to the family hub model framework). Please indicate if there are any areas of particular focus (see ‘otherii themes’ in the guidance) that you would like to embed through your family hubs and why.

·         What your family hub network will comprise of by March 2024 (i.e., the number of physical hubs, virtual offer, outreach). (word limit 1200)

In East Sussex we are committed to continuous improvement in the way we support children and families and in particular to effective prevention at all levels. As part of our high performing suite of services we have a well established prevention and early help service which already brings together NHS health visiting and ESCC targeted family support within an integrated management structure. In July 2018 our Children’s Services Department was inspected under the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) and judged to be outstanding overall. We have an integrated front door with CAMHS and work closely with early years settings, schools and other partners to strengthen the resilience of vulnerable families. The Family Hubs programme provides an opportunity for us over the next two years to strengthen our integrated, multi agency prevention offer to children and families, alongside and as part of work we already have in train with the Sussex ICS, and with schools and other partners, to refresh our local emotional well being and mental health programme, to improve our collective response to neuro-diversity and, with the Police and others, to strengthen our “edge of care” prevention programme. Our strategic aim is to improve life chances of all children, young people, and families across East Sussex, levelling up opportunities for every child to fulfil their potential.

ACCESS

Physical 

We have a network of 16 Children’s Centres and 4 youth centres with collocated teams working across 5 geographical areas in these buildings or central office hubs with social care and education colleagues. Our Children’s and Youth Centres are in the areas of highest deprivation such as Hastings & St Leonard and Eastbourne    We will transform our existing Children’s Centres/Youth Centres into a network of 20 Family Hubs. We will extend our reach into rural communities where deprivation is high through provision of up to 4 additional Hubs in our more rural locations. We will complete a scoping exercise with community partners to identify multi-agency bases, taking on a hub and spoke model where appropriate.  The Family Hub offer, and principles of working would be consistent across county, but the delivery model would be shaped locally and nuanced within the community.

We have a comprehensive directory of evidence-based interventions with clear outcome measures. We have a well-defined 0-5 community offer with a range of groups and activities taking place in our Children’s Centres, Family Keywork spanning 0-19 age range and our Youth offer includes both targeted and universal access.  We have close working relationships with School Health and Library services. 

We will develop and extend our offer for children aged 5 – 15 years, through partnerships with community and voluntary providers and education colleagues. We have close working relationships with our colleagues in ISEND, early year’s service, co-facilitating groups for children with additional needs. We can easily signpost our families to the full range of ISEND services for older children including Speech, Language and Communication Needs including Autism, and Specific Learning Difficulties such as Dyslexia. 

We have close working relationships with East Sussex Healthcare Trust which has enabled our Paediatrician colleagues to deliver developmental assessments from our children’s centres.  Moving the delivery of some child development clinics from the hospital due to covid has been recognised as good practice because it provides a welcoming community environment rather than a hospital setting for children and parents to access support. We will extend this offer to facilitate more clinical delivery within our community settings.

We have developed the Junior Autistic Group in in recognition of the increase in referrals for children/young people on neurodiverse pathways which has led to high numbers of referrals to our level 3 keywork service. We will explore further the potential of developing more specialist services for children/ young people with additional needs and their families.

We have the Single Point of Advice (SPOA), single front door for all referrals as part of the Early Help service. SPOA is shared with CAMHS to ensure swift onward referral where appropriate and incorporates an Emotional Wellbeing team to support young people at L3.  All referrals are screened within 24 hours and directed to the most appropriate service. Analysis of our front door data means we can develop services according to need. We will develop our front door further to include referrals for children on a Neuro-diverse pathway and ensure that the screening process for these children and young people enables them quickly to be directed to the most appropriate support service. We will engage with Local Data Accelerator Fund project to establish how we can collaborate with partners to refine our data sets. This will support benchmarking for Early Help services with our statistical neighbours to define a specific set of outcomes to support the Family Hub programme.

Virtual

We have an Open for Parents website which provides parenting information plus Children’s Centre web pages and Facebook with information available about groups and activities. We will develop an online East Sussex Family Hubs platform to become the digital front door for all Early Help Services available 24/7.

We want to use digital developments to improve the difference we make to children, young people and families and maximise our productivity:

•           Meet families’ need for online support, advice and information - empowering families to help themselves.

•           Reduce bureaucracy and free up staff time to work with vulnerable families.

•           Make better use of data to work effectively in partnership and target our services to where they are most needed.

We believe digital services can enable children, young people and families to thrive while helping us spend time with the families who would most benefit from it.

They will support and enhance our relationship based and whole family based practice.

Seek to eliminate unnecessary effort for the families, carers and partners we work with.

We will involve users at every stage to ensure we engage with children, young people and families in the way that suits them, providing the information they need when they need it. This will help ensure that families and partners can find the right option for them and only contact Children’s Services when we can offer advice and support.

We have developed a series of bitesize antenatal videos to support the Health Visitor review with key public health messages including, safe sleep, feeding, crying all essential information to be discussed during mandated review visits by members of the enhanced skill mix health visiting team. We will develop a suite of videos to accompany the universal reviews at new birth, 6-week, 1 year and 27-month review. These videos will complement the work of the health visiting team and allow parents the opportunity to prepare questions in advance of the visit, discuss topics during the visit and review key messages in their own time. We’ll offer children, young people and families the online advice, support and self-management tools they need to help themselves.

We have a range of different referral mechanisms across the Early help service depending on the intervention. We will develop an online referral process for the range of Early Help interventions available to make this simple for partners and families.  Children, young people and families will be able to engage with us and make requests online, get immediate answers to routine requests, and find the right services for them. We’ll join up our digital developments with other departments and partners, so that digital supports whole-system working and removes duplicated activity.

We have 2 recording system, SystmOne for our ESHT staff and Liquid Logic for ESCC staff. Liquid is used for Early Help and Social Work staff to provide accessible recording for families moving between systems.  We are proactive in gathering data on protected characteristics via our Liquid Logic recording system to ensure that we can tailor services for a diverse population. We will explore the functionality of SystmOne to enhance recording of protected characteristics and ensure we are using all aspects of the programme to facilitate effective and efficient case recording. We will particularly focus on assessment and recording information on fathers and non-birthing partners as this is a gap in our current service delivery.

Outreach

We have an integrated Early Help Service, so outreach support starts with delivery of the Healthy Child Programme. This universal unstigmatised assessment through delivery of the mandated review provides multiple opportunities to identify additional needs and tailor services accordingly. We then have an established Family Keywork service, collocated with Health Visitors and other Community Teams providing support to all family members using the Supporting Families Framework.  Our Keyworkers use relationship-based practice to engage with children, young people, and families to develop the Early Help Plan; this sometimes requires assertive persistence to ensure that the needs of children and young people of all ages are assessed and provided for.  Our detached youthwork session cater for older young people ensuring that we target those most vulnerable with specific project work. We will review our Early Help Plan to consider how all those working with the family can be more involved in the planning process and how this can be part of our online referral process.

 

CONNECTION

We have a workstyle’s programme underway following Covid and the return to office working. We will use this opportunity to consider further colocation and joined up working with social work colleagues and those from the Mental Health in Schools programme, early years, primary support teams and those supporting school inclusion. In addition. We will consider the findings of Review of Children’s Social Care in England and how we can improve the continuum of assessment and support that is currently provided to families. We will work alongside the ‘Edge of Care’ project to share knowledge and skills of partners in Health, Education, Police and across the community. Putting in the right support, at the right time will allow us all to make better use of our resources and to establish a sustainable model going forwards. 

Governance and Leadership

We have delivered integrated health visiting since March 2006 and our relationships with East Sussex Healthcare Trust (ESHT) is now well established. The Integrated Partnership Group monitors the performance of the Early Help Service and includes representation from ESCC, ESHT and Public Health services.  In addition, we report to the ESCC quarterly monitoring process and the ESHT monthly governance meeting. 

We will establish a Family Hubs board to oversee development of the programme and extend our stakeholder engagement to include voluntary ad community groups. This board will build on the existing Early Help outcomes an consider those from School Health Integrated Therapies Service, Education and Community colleagues. We have the full support of DCS and Director of PH for the development of the Family Hub approach.

RELATIONSHIPS

We have a robust process to gather service user feedback that informs practice and shapes service planning according to local needs. We will enhance this through development of a Community Engagement Strategy to put the voice of children’ young people and families at the heart of our services and link with other interested community partners. We collaborate across departments in ESCC and with external partners in the NHS and voluntary sector organisations through the Children and Young People’s Health and Oversight Board, the East Sussex wide Partnership Plus and the Youth Infrastructure Forum, which is chaired by a voluntary sector representative.We recognise that involvement of parents/carers and partners on co-production is a key mechanism for service transformation. We wish to strengthen our engagement with smaller, placed-based community services and welcome the opportunity to re-establish those connections through the Family Hub model to create a community development framework.

Development of Family Focus Navigator Posts will support a whole family approach resulting in sign posting to the appropriate services, making a referral and in some instances the worker may offer some key work. 

We have developed a well-established learning culture with a comprehensive training programme.  We complete a regular Learning Needs Analysis to identify gaps in knowledge and commission training accordingly.  All practice across integrated teams is trauma informed and relationship based.  Our supervision model is embedded into service delivery across all teams, the containment that this provides allows our staff to work with complex families with confidence and knowledge that manager and leaders in the service will be there to provide support. We recognise that the trauma that children experience is based in social, cultural, and economic contexts and our staff need to understand this to work with families to achieve lasting and positive change. The Reducing Parental Conflict programme reinforces this message and identifies the stressors that are facing families. The training has been accessed by many of our staff to better inform their practice with parents and carers at an early stage.

We will continue to provide a supportive learning culture with space for our staff to develop their practice and maintain our focus on trauma and relational practice. Using information form the Learning Needs Assessment we will fill gaps in knowledge and confidence. We will review our workforce development plan to ensure that we communicate a clear understanding of the Family Hub model and expectation that all teams and partners are working holistically across the 0 – 19/25 age group.   We will explain and how this differs to our current service delivery and recognise the importance of branding of r our children, young people, and families but also for our staff.  Our current Early Help logo is based on our vision and values.

 

2.  Delivery plan*

Please outline how you plan to deliver your proposal and open family hubs by March 2024. This should include:

·         A clear delivery timeline and milestones.

·         A clear set of objectives and deliverables which reflect the family hub model framework.

·         Resource – proposed staffing for the project and necessary skills/expertise to deliver the project including key roles identified to lead the activity as well as other roles to support delivery.

·         The governance arrangements that will be put in place to underpin successful project delivery and sustainability of the proposal. 

 

If it would be helpful to illustrate your delivery plan with visuals/diagrams you may attach a maximum of two annexes - each annex must be a maximum of two A4 pages (size 12 arial).

Total word count: (Max 1000 words)

We will follow the Family Hub development process from the National Centre for Family Hubs which clearly sets out theories of change methodology through the planning and implementation phases of transformation.  We will utilise the support of the Family Hubs regional coordinator to assist us in our transformation.

We have completed an extensive review of Early Help Service in 2019 which shaped our Early Help Strategy. This provided detailed information on the range of services available plus stakeholder views of the services provided and gaps in provision. We will revisit this review and explore further with stakeholders their hopes and expectations for a Family Hub model particularly in recognition that post covid we know that the situation for many children and families has significantly changed. We recognise that a process of change and a period of transition is required for stakeholders to reach a shared understanding.

Before we can embark on the change process, we will establish the Family Hub Transformation Team In anticipation of a successful bid, we will write and amend job descriptions for the most significant roles such as Family Hubs Development Manager so that we can move to recruitment in March 22 as soon as the outcome of the bid is known.  Key roles are identified below:

 

Family Hubs Development Manager - To lead the programme of transformation through a key role that is recognised amongst stakeholders, children, young people, and families. This will be a strategic manager who can clearly articulate the Family Hubs model to a broad audience, motivate the team with clear vision and values and key skills in problem solving and engagement at all levels.  This post will sit within the exiting Early Help Leadership team to ensure that all information and updates can be cascaded through the service.

Change Programme Manager   - To support the Development Manager in maintaining pace and purpose for the development team using a defined project management approach with measurable timescales and deadlines.

Digital & Comms Project Manager FH website development   - This is a key role in transforming the various web pages and Early Help platforms into one virtual Family Hub front door as a route into the new range of services available.

Community Engagement Manager – Key for active participation from our partners, children, young people, and families. This is an absolute focus for us during this transformation process and a real opportunity to hear about community stakeholders’ expectations of Family Hubs.            

Community Development Worker x 2      - We recognise that if we want active participation our children, young people and families need to be part of the change process, understand the vision, and believe that it can happen. Traditional community development approaches are key to this success. 

Data Manager Family Hubs x 0.5 – This role will support our data collection at the start and throughout the transformation process, linking with partners to ensure we can analyse relevant information to identify needs.

Business Analyst x 0.5 0- It is our intention to create an online referral process for our Family Hub services. We are effectively using Liquid Logic Early Help module and wish to develop this further to streamline our referral processes.

Admin Support Officer – to support the Family Hub Strategy meetings and reporting processes.

The Governance process will be well defined with the Family Hub Board reporting into the ESCC Senior Management Team, the Early Help Integrated Partnership Group, and the Health & Wellbeing Board. The Family Hubs Development Manager will be part of the existing Early Help Leadership team to ensure that all developments are shared and well understood, a Stage 1 - Building consensus on the need for change

Building Consensus for change via stakeholder workshops and parent engagement forums will be key to our process of transformation to ensure that there is a shared understanding of the need for change.  We already have an extensive data set for the Early Help service with a robust performance team who can work with us to research information further using a range of techniques. We will complete a population needs assessment to using our local and demographic data as well as key information from our partners to consider how best to meet existing and predicted needs. This is particularly relevant after the pandemic when we know that families are experiencing higher levels of poverty, stress, and tension. We will be sure to include the voice of children, young people, and families through participation on stakeholder events abut also smaller focus groups and one to one discussion using community development approaches in recognition of the need for differing methods of data collection according to the participants.

Having a shared set of outcomes across the family hub partnership will be key for successful service delivery so stakeholder workshops will be developed on a range of different themes with monthly strategy groups to take forward actions from the workshops as illustrated below.

 

Stage 2 - Specifying a Family Hub approach

Having identified the need for change in stage one of the process we will begin to explore the options for the Family Hub model using the core principles and adapting these to our local demographics and geography. A key consideration for us will be our urban and rural populations with pockets of deprivation and isolation across all areas of the county. This will be our opportunity, with partners, to meet with other areas, such as the Isle of Wight who are further ahead with their Family Hub development. Theories of change will be clearly articulate during stakeholder workshops to ensure absolute understanding of the Family Hub model and anticipated outcomes for families.

Stage 3 – Planning implementation

The diagram embedded below illustrates our initial thinking in applying the Family Hubs transformation to our circumstances in East Sussex. As a large county with rural and urban populations including some areas of very high deprivation it is our intention to ensure that our Family Hubs are recognisable and accessible to all children, young people, and families by March 2024 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3.  Start for Life*

The Best Start for Life Review: a Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days outlined a Vision for local authorities to pull together a coherent and joined up Start for Life offer which explains clearly to parents and carers what services they are entitled to and how they can access them.

This offer is made up of a Universal and Universal+ elements. This Vision describes the ambition for every Universal offer to bring together essential provision for every new family. The Universal offer brings together the six core Universal services of:  midwifery; health visiting; mental health support; infant feeding advice with specialist breast feeding support. And every Universal offer should also include safeguarding and those services relating to Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). Supplementing the Universal offer, the “Universal +” offer meets the relevant needs of local communities, covering a range of services such as: parenting support; early language development; debt and finance support; housing support; smoking cessation services; drug and alcohol support (please note – Universal+ will be addressed in Stage 2 of this application).

If you received funding through the Transformation Fund, describe how you would integrate:

·         a) The six elements of a Universal Offer for the conception to age 2 period into your family hub model by March 2024 (700 words).

·         b) Elements of a Universal+ offer for the conception to age 2 period into your family hub model by March 2024 (300 words).

 

All of the elements of the Universal Offer must include physical and virtual services.

 

In answering this question, you should use the Best Start for Life Review A Vision for the 1,001 Critical Days as a guide.

 

Total word count part a): (Max 700 words)

We will explore opportunities to extend co-commissioning arrangements wherever possible. We will develop a clear approach to partnership working with families and the establishment of representative Parent and Carer Panels.

Service Delivery - Access

The core of Start for Life Offer will comprise face-to-face services from the proposed 24 Family Hubs.  A new East Sussex Family Hubs web platform will provide a one stop shop for families seeking information, support and opportunities to participate. For example, we will further expand our in-house suite of videos to accompany the mandated universal health checks, to include subjects such as infant feeding, healthy family relationships, mental health and parenting support. The platform will provide clear signposting to more targeted and specialist services such as domestic abuse and debt advice. Importantly it will also provide clear information on how families and the wider community can contribute to the Start for Life offer, such as through volunteering.

The provision of strong virtual services are a key component of the offer in East Sussex due to its varied geography and limited transport infrastructure. We will build on existing virtual services and what we have learned from partners during the pandemic. Some services such as antenatal and weight management groups have proven to be more accessible to many who would have struggled to engage otherwise. 

 

Service Delivery – Integration Successful integration will be underpinned by the aforementioned Family Hub ethos and branding, such that the 6 core services and wider Partnership+ services feel part of a joined up team. Each will understand their role and those of others. We will use a ‘Making Every Contact’ approach to ensure that everyone is equipped to help (directly or indirectly) with the range of needs presented by families.

Integration will be reinforced by bringing the wider multi-agency Family Hubs ‘team’ together for training, team meetings and quality improvement activity. We will also expand the membership of our existing Healthy Child Programme ‘High Impact Group’ for 0-5s. This multi-agency group has oversight over the implementation and performance against each of the High Impact Areas, and identifies areas for improvement and development.

Midwifery We have existing co-location and co-delivery of midwifery within children’s centres but we plan to expand and develop this arrangement. This would include improved joint pathways for key groups, such as young parents, and key needs such as smoking cessation and weight management. We are actively exploring the potential for new joint Midwife /Health Visitor roles as part of the 0-19 service. We also plan to co-deliver our Infant Wellbeing Project which includes antenatal and postnatal classes and activities.

Infant Feeding and Breast Feeding  We will progress with our planned East Sussex Infant Feeding Strategy. We will to co-ordinate shared learning across services to help maintain Early help services BFI accreditation and support ongoing midwifery application. We will expand the reach of successful peer support service to groups with lowest uptake. We will explore access to tongue tie services and opportunities to integrated provision if appropriate.

Mental Health We will continue to work in close partnership with acute perinatal services, and ensure robust pathways are in place and shared with all practitioners. We will continue with existing plans to create a peer support offer for parents with mild/moderate perinatal mental health problems accompanied by mental health promotional activity. This offer will be extended to fathers in line with the ambitions of the NHS Long Term Plan.

A Sussex-wide mental health strategy for children is nearing completion. This includes commitment to a preventative approach, starting in the early years. It also includes adoption of the iTHRIVE needs led model. We will ensure that Family Hubs are integral to the system that helps children and families build resilience from an early age and aids them in getting advice, help and more help when they need it.

Safeguarding  We have an established Under 5s Safeguarding Group in East Sussex, which is currently taking forward work in relation to safe sleep , ICON and the needs of fathers and non-birthing parents. This group will provide leadership and oversight of the safeguarding role within Family Hubs. Safeguarding under 5s is one of the key priorities for the Safeguarding Partnership.

SEND Our recently published SEND JSNA provides a strong basis for the development of the next SEND strategy, which is currently underway. The current ISEND Early Years Service works effectively to support pre-school aged children with Special Educational Needs, Disabilities (SEND) and/or complex needs and will be a key partner in ensuring access through the Family Hubs approach.

Total word count part b): (Max 300 words)

Our Universal+ offer will build on our whole family approach drawing together services from across the system.

Good Early Years Development Offer additional targeted Speech, Language and Communication support to families, through Early Communication Support Worker (ECSW) as part of the Early Help Service and the Healthy Active Little Ones programme (HALO), that upskill nursery settings to provide joint interventions with families.

Good Mental and Physical Health One You East Sussex (weight management and smoking cessation service) will deliver services from hubs. Services promoting positive health and wellbeing will provide services from hubs, with pathways to more specialist services where required. We will continue with the development of our local ‘Food Partnerships’, which seek to ensure food security for residents. We will work towards ensuring Family Hubs are an integral part of this partnership approach. This includes provision of Healthy Start vitamins.

Better managed Substance Misuse East Sussex has a dedicated universal-access substance misuse service with strong links to early help. The service will seek to enhance their offer, through the Family Hubs model and explore opportunities for co-location.

Good Family Relationships Work with the multi-agency workforce to recognise parental conflict and its impact, providing tools and resources through our Supporting Families RPC toolkit, helping workers start a conversation about healthy family relationships. Across the early help system parenting support is offered; this would be expanded to use virtual tools to widen access.

Secure Housing Helping families to have secure and appropriate accommodation through collaboration with housing providers and progressing data sharing as part our Supporting Families programme. We fund Housing and Wellbeing Co-ordinators in each district and borough housing team. They provide a holistic offer encompassing health, housing, skills and employability.

Financial Stability Benefits and debt advice will be available in Hubs through our commissioned providers, plus our Supporting Families Employment Advisors who will provide advice on training and employment pathways.

 

 

4.  Risk management*

Please outline your risk management strategy. This should include:

·         Identification of key risks to the successful completion of the project and realistic provisions to mitigate project risks. This should include how you will mitigate the risk of ongoing / recurring disruption as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic on the delivery of your proposal.

·         An explanation of how risks will be reviewed during the implementation of the project.

 

5.  Project costs and value for money*

Please outline the costs for your proposal. This should include:

·         A clear statement of the total value of grant funding requested, taking into account any proposed risk of price increases and local economic conditions.

·         A full clear breakdown of the costs that will be incurred to deliver the proposal in the tables provided (e.g. breakdown of staffing costs including roles and FTE, local consultation costs, workforce development costs, communications/marketing costs, capital costs, other costs). Please add additional rows as needed.

·         A clear rationale for how you have devised the costings and an explanation of the assumptions underpinning the costing and why they think these are realistic.

·         The assurance processes that will be in place to ensure that funds are spent in a correct, transparent and effective way.

·         How your proposal offers value for money.

Programme costs

Activity	Description	FY 2022/23	FY 2023/24	Total
Staffing, salaries, travel, and equipment	Family Hubs Development Team	£364,285	£356,495	£720,780
Commissioning	For Community & Voluntary providers to attend meetings and share information about strengths and gaps in provision. Develop service offer for 5 - 16 yrs.	£15,000	£15,000	£30,000
Marketing	Branding and signage to be developed for the Family Hub buildings	£7,000	£5,000	£12,000
Consultation	Facilitation, Reward and recognition, Venue costs and refreshments for co-production with stakeholders, children, young people, and families	£10,000	£10,000	£20,000
Website development and video production	Videos Healthy Child Programme Welcome to Your Family Hub	£25,000	£25,000	£50,000
Total programme		£421,285	£411,495	£832,780

 

Capital costs

Activity	Description	FY 2022/23	FY 2023/24	Total
Adapting   existing buildings	We have a 20 Children’s Centres and Youth Centres which will need adapting to become multipurpose venues	£50,000	£50,000	£100,000
Refurbishing newly identified community space	A scoping exercise will take place to identify 4 existing buildings in our most rural areas that can be developed into Family Hubs	£30,000	£30,000	£60,000
Total capital		80,000	80,000	£160,000

 

Total costs (programme and capital costs)

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

 

 

 

 

 

 

Commissioning - £15,000 + £15,000 + £30,000

We are looking for active stakeholder engagement for effective transformation to a Family Hub model so need to offer our partners an incentive to join us in these discussions. Relationships with our community and voluntary partners need to be strengthened in or der to deliver a holistic model of support to children and families 0 – 19/25.

Marketing – £7,000 + £5,00 = £12,000

We have an established Early Help branding that can be adapted for Family Hubs to ensure that this becomes familiar and easily recognisable to children, young people, families, and partners.

Consultation, engagement and co-production £10,000 + £10,000 = £20,000

Facilitation, Reward and Recognition, Venue costs and refreshments for connecting and facilitating co-production with stakeholders, children, young people, and families. We will also involve parents on co-production so need to provide expenses and potential childcare for them to attend meetings.

Website development and video production £25,000 + £25,000 = £50,000

Production of 15 x 5-minute videos has cost £15,000 we will produce an additional suite of videos for Best Start/ Healthy Child Programme and Welcome to East Sussex Family Hubs.

 

6.  Sustainability*

Please outline how the proposal will be sustained beyond the funding period. This should include:

·         A commitment to continuously develop and improve your family hub model beyond March 2024, with an aim to reach a ‘developed’ family hub model as per the definition set by the family hub model framework.

·         An explanation of how this will be achieved beyond March 2024 and how learning will inform future practice.

 

 

 

Section 4 – Additional information

1.  Description of strategic intervention programmes*

Please name and provide a short description of any major intervention programmes/projects that your local authority is currently involved in or planning to bid to around improving family, young people and child outcomes (0-19). You should refer to both government and private-funded activity (i.e. DfE CSC Recovery Fund, DfE Opportunity Area programme, Serious Violence Hotspots, DLUHC Supporting Families Programme earned autonomy funding, DLUHC Data Acceletor Fund, The National Lottery’s Better Start Fund etc).

2.  Additional information

Please provide any additional information that you feel will support the assessment of your application form

3.  Attachments*

You may attach a maximum of two annexes as part of your response to Section B ‘Delivery Plan’ - each annex must be a maximum of two A4 pages. Please list any attachments here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DECLARATION*

Signatures must be either be submitted electronically or scanned in.

I confirm that the information given in this application is true and complete; I have obtained agreement to submit this application from my Director of Children’s Services; Director of Adult Services, Director of Public Health and Chair of the Local Health & Wellbeing Board (or equivalents); and that, if successful, the local authority will administer any grant in accordance with the letter supplied by the Department for Education.

Full name:
Position (Job Title):
Date:
Contact details including email address:
Signature:	<please provide signature>