Towards a common approach to outcomes for babies, children and young people across family hubs in London
Introduction
Family hubs aim to give families ‘the support they need, when they need it’ through transforming how services are delivered. They bring together services across a local area, sharing a common purpose to increase access, connections and relationships for families and between, and with, professionals. Yet the family hub approach is not driven and underpinned by a shared view of the outcomes sought for local families or babies, children and young people. This lack of a consistent, common approach to how outcomes are defined and measured leads to missed opportunities to capture individual and collective impact, to share learning and to drive integration and transformation towards greater efficiency and effectiveness across local family hubs networks and the wider family services system.
Background
Family hub leaders in London have formed a Community of Practice that meets every two - three months, supported by the National Centre for Family Hubs. The aim is to share progress and challenges and provide a space for reflection and learning. At one of these meetings, it was apparent that all areas were grappling with developing an outcomes framework for their family hubs and it was suggested that we should work together to create a common approach across London. Aware of the national movement towards developing a common approach to outcomes for all babies, children and young people, it was agreed to link with this work as the starting point and framework for our collective action.
Our aims
Our aims in starting this work were two-fold:
• To work together to agree the outcomes that matter most for babies, children, young people, parents and carers in family hubs, linking to the national common outcomes work, with the aim of capturing the breadth and depth of the family hubs’ unique contribution and agreeing how effectiveness and impact might be recorded and recognised
• To address current duplication and prevent future wasted efforts by streamlining processes, focusing on key outcomes, indicators and metrics and maximising the impact of our collective efforts within and between family hubs and beyond, supporting transformation across the wider children’s services and partnership systems – thereby saving time and money
Progress
The commitment and motivation for this work across the Community of Practice has remained high and the work has progressed at pace. We have reviewed existing relevant outcomes approaches and frameworks (including across government early help, family and children’s social care policy) and used the wider national common outcomes framework to develop an outline approach for family hubs (see below) that:
• Focuses on impact for those accessing family hubs’ services across the five high level outcomes domains – safe, healthy, happy, learning and engaged
• Takes outcomes for babies, children and young people as its starting point, followed by outcomes for parents/carers and then service/system-level, cross-cutting indicators and metrics
• Focuses on family hubs’ contribution to outcomes (through direct delivery and commissioning) and as a gateway to more targeted services and into the wider local offer
In collaboration with a small working group, we are in the process of testing the approach within eight local areas in London, exploring the strategic fit with key priorities, strategies and data/performance management cycles, how the current family hubs offer fits with the framework and mapping data collection – what’s available, accessible and missing entirely (and why).
A Steering Group of Department for Education policy leads and Foundations (What Works Centre for Children and Families) is meeting monthly to discuss findings at each stage, feeding into ongoing development and implementation of policy.
At the end of the testing phase in March 2025, the learning will be pulled together, a further iteration of the common outcomes approach created and shared and recommendations for further action put forward.
Challenges
Challenges and complexities have emerged throughout the process as family hubs are different everywhere and exist within complex local networks and systems.
Firstly, the language and terminology in use relating to outcomes is often confused and confusing and it has been important to develop a shared understanding of key terms created as part of wider work towards common outcomes for babies, children and young people.
Secondly, measures, measurement tools and data sources may not or don’t exist to capture what matters most. At times, this has raised anxiety for colleagues rather than being seen as a key part of the process to flag gaps and follow up with action, including within the wider common outcomes work.
Long term benefits
Local areas perceive many benefits to having a shared outcomes framework for family hubs. It creates a shared language and clear focus on, and collective commitment to, the outcomes they want to achieve for local babies, children, young people and families. It enables strategic leaders, who are part of the family hub and wider partnership governance arrangements, to translate their shared vision into longer term strategy and plans and creates a streamlined, accountable framework for measuring progress – an intrinsic element of the sustainability of family hubs.
Many see the opportunity to extend the common approach to outcomes across their wider system, starting with early help and as a key part of the wider local transformation journey.
Finally, building a common approach to outcomes underpins local efforts to integrate the offer to babies, children, young people and families, stripping out duplication, building key connections and maximising the impact of our collective efforts and resources.