Children and Family Centres Update Following Consultation
Reporting Person: Adam Thomas
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed Adam Thomas, Family Support Programme Manager, and Nicola Norman, Family Centres Team Manager, to the meeting, who previously attended a Committee meeting on 17 June 2019, following the Surrey County Council consultation of the closure of Children’s Centres.
The consultation ended in February 2019, and resulted in Surrey County Council agreeing to endorse the re-modelling of the remaining Children’s Centres in the Borough to create Family Centres as part of a wider Family Service to support families with children ages 0 to 11 that were thought to be the most vulnerable. The Executive agreed that Woking Borough Council would take lead on the Family Centres in question moving forward.
Together, they provided a presentation on the changes that had been implemented since the consultation and information on the new team, that went live on 1 November 2019. The changes included embedding a new team and training them, encouraging flexible working throughout the borough, moving to an electronic casefile system and a new service delivery plan, with the next service review scheduled to take place in April 2020.
It was noted that the two remaining centres were at Parkview in Sheerwater and The Bungalow at Sythwood School. However as part of the service delivery, specialist support was also provided to families in the form of one to one personal visits at the family’s home, and an outreach service available in other community centres: The Vyne in Knaphill, Moorcroft in Westfield and St Marys in Byfleet. These centres also provide universal support services for families including health visiting, midwifery, citizen’s advice and support with housing and employment.
Following a question from a member it was reported that approximately 130 families were benefitting from the family support services and that the length of time families require the service for varies from a matter of weeks, up to a year and a half; the centres were coping well with the demand at present. The flexible service provided various benefits including centralised locations for families using multiple services and the option for home visits which are preferred by mothers/parents.
Mr Thomas reported that the team were confident the budget was sufficient to provide the services required to meet the demand.
The Chairman thanked Mr Thomas and Ms Norman for their presentation and time, and regular updates would continue to be brought to the Health & Wellbeing Task Group as well as feedback from the review scheduled in April.