Interview - Andrea Leadsom

WHAT SERVICES WILL NEW PARENTS BE ABLE TO ACCESS FROM FAMILY HUBS?

Babies are at the heart of the services that are being developed around family hubs. Every family will be offered the six joined-up universal services that make up the minimum Start for Life offer in Family Hubs: midwifery, health visiting, breastfeeding support, mental health support, safeguarding, and disability support. Through the National Centre for Family Hubs Toolkit, we are advocating that the universal services should be available physically, virtually, and through outreach work. Local authorities (LAs) will also provide additional ‘universal plus’ services, based on local need, such as smoking cessation courses; English as a second language; couple counselling; and domestic violence reduction schemes.

HOW DO FAMILY HUBS DIFFER FROM SURE START CHILDREN’S CENTRES?

I’m a big fan of Sure Start centres, but the fundamental problem with them was that many didn’t go far enough in terms of joined-up working for families. The key point about family hubs is that you need to offer the six universal services co-located within your spaces, your virtual offer and your outreach offer. There are examples of LAs using their SSCC estate to transform into superb, multidisciplinary family hubs in the locations that best meet the needs of their communities. But some people we spoke to for the Review said that SSCCs can often be perceived as places for those who need targeted help with specific problems. This can stigmatise users and dissuade families from accessing services. Our vision is for every parent to access a family hub, with the antenatal midwifery appointment and going on to register the birth of their baby. This universal approach will provide staff with an opportunity to engage with hard-to-reach families.

THE FAMILY HUB TOOLKIT IS ALREADY IN ACTION IN SOME LAS. WHAT IS THE FEEDBACK SO FAR?

Bexley’s local authority have already been using the recommendations in our report to extend its outreach to all families. On a recent visit, I spoke to them about the changes that had been implemented and they told me they are joining up services and enhancing training, making sure the needs of the baby are at the centre of their thinking. The West Worthing Hub in Sussex is located on the same site as a private nursery and a primary school, which lends itself to the co-location of Start for Life services. A family advisor is on-site every day and parents can drop in for baby weighing, for antenatal checks or to take part in parenting classes. When I visited, they told me they had opened the space up for out-of-hour use for the dads and toddlers football club, Home Start and the local foodbank. They were also redecorating the interior to make it more appealing for the whole community, which is testament to the success of their project so far.

IS THERE A CODE OF PRACTICE FOR FAMILY HUBS TO ADHERE TO?

Rather than being too prescriptive in the way services are run, we’ve been working with academics, practitioners, volunteers, parents and carers to establish best-practice guidelines in the three key services funded by the spending review: breastfeeding support; infant mental health support; and parenting programmes. The support that mothers need with breastfeeding, for example, varies considerably. One mother may need a friendly volunteer to show her that the baby is latching on properly, and another may have a baby with tongue-tie who needs support from a lactation consultant. Another mum may need some reassurance over the fact that they’re not able to breastfeed.

WHAT NEW SERVICES MIGHT PARENTS BENEFIT FROM IN THE START FOR LIFE OFFER?

Effective mental health support for parents and carers to develop a secure bond with their new baby will be part of the universal offer. We want to recruit and train more parent-infant therapists who specialise in helping parents understand their own feelings about their relationship with their baby and to support secure bonding. We are putting together best practice principles to inform local authorities how they can go about setting this up. We’ve also established a national Parent and Carer Panel made up of dads and partners, LGBT parents, adoptive parents, kinship carers and parents from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Our Start for Life vision promotes the establishment of these panels in every local community. They will help shape services and provide regular feedback on their effectiveness and quality.

LAST MONTH, THE DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION NAMED THE 75 LOCAL AUTHORITIES THAT ARE ELIGIBLE TO SHARE £82 MILLION TO SET UP FAMILY HUBS IN THEIR AREAS. WILL LOCAL AUTHORITIES BE EVALUATED ON THEIR WORK?

Outcomes measures are one of the vision’s action areas. Local leaders will want to measure different standards of local provision, share best practice and ensure continuous improvement in the best outcomes for babies. Securely attached babies and infants are more likely to be able to socialise, play, have greater self-esteem and early speech development. They will be better prepared for school; happier; better able to learn, hold down a job and then to raise a family themselves.

WHAT ARE THE NEXT STEPS? WILL A CABINET MINISTER BE APPOINTED TO OVERSEE DELIVERY?

A cabinet minister will be appointed when we reach a certain stage in the implementation process. For now, I’m chairing the project and three ministers are overseeing it: Maria Caulfield in Health; Will Quince in DfE; and Michael Ellis, in the Cabinet Office. We will be hitting the ground running with a core group of local authority areas in quarter four this year. We need a baseline to demonstrate the improvements in outcomes within a number of cohorts of new babies, before the next spending review. The digitalisation of the Red Book will be transformational and we are pushing hard on progress on this over the next year. And in terms of the spending review, the funded services will be rolled out over the next few months. Lots done, and lots more to do!