Early Years Hub

 EARLY YEARS HUB

Hope Understanding Belonging

CrossReach, the Social Care arm of the Church of Scotland is delighted to announce the opening of its first ‘Early Years HUB. This was made possible through investment by Inspiring Scotland from the Early Years Action Fund.

Vision

Our vision is to improve the lives and life chances of young children by building 4 community based early years HUBS in areas of urban and rural deprivation which will deliver integrated services to children and their families.

The first one opened on 5th December 2011 in Elim Pentecostal Church in Govanhill, a priority area in Glasgow. The HUB will make it possible for children (focussing on under 8’s) and their parents to be provided with a range of services in a one stop shop model of support, increasing the chances of them accessing such support. The Service will be geared to improving parenting, improving self esteem and confidence in children, improving health and early literacy and preventing vulnerable children from being the victims of isolation within their communities.

It is anticipated that we will open further HUB’s in Dundee, Edinburgh and Dumfries over the next couple of years.

MODEL OF SERVICE DELIVERY

The HUBs will address health and wellbeing issues identified for young children in areas of urban and rural deprivation. Children in such areas often live in poverty, including financial poverty, poverty of choice in life and poverty of expectation. The HUBs would address both physical and mental health issues for children and build services which would in turn increase life chances by helping children be ready for education and engagement in other activities.

The HUBs will be inclusive services to people from both faith and non faith communities and operate over three days each week delivering a variety of support and advice sessions to children under the age of eight and their families in partnership with appropriate agencies as identified by CrossReach and the HUB service users. Engagement with the local community will be an important factor in the HUBs success and services may also be delivered in community locations outside the HUB building if appropriate to a particular group.

Each of the HUBS will have a core service provision along with bolt on ancillary services according to the needs of children and parents. Various reports including Growing Up in Scotland (2010) indicate that attachment, early language development, and health education are all pivotal in increasing a child’s life chances and quality. As a result the Core services would include play, parenting, health clinics, early literacy and work on attachment.

Children growing up in Govanhill have a number of obstacles to overcome. The community is diverse in its population and houses a large number of refugees and asylum seekers.
Within SE Glasgow, Govanhill as a neighbourhood has the highest levels of serious violent crime (159% above Scottish average); drug related hospitalisation (319% above the Scottish average) and reported drug offending (73% above the Scottish average). It also has the second highest levels of domestic abuse (45% above the Scottish average) and alcohol related hospitalisation (153% above the Scottish average). The number of children living in workless households in Govanhill is 64% above the Scottish average, in contrast to neighbouring Cathcart where the figure is only 5%. All of these factors are cited within the Growing Up in Scotland Report as risk factors for a child failing to thrive and develop to their full potential.

However there is already an active model of community engagement within the area, and a desire within the local statutory and voluntary services to work together to increase capacity and make a difference. Community leaders have already been identified and we are working to engage with them to ensure current community structures are developed to support children in the early years in a more robust basis.

In line with the recommendations of the Growing Up in Scotland Report we are developing a number of strategies for working with children and their parents to decrease stress, increase resilience and make positive futures.

In addition a number of partner agencies, already identified, would help develop the core services offered. The Scottish Preschool Playgroups Association are delivering an outcomes based ‘stay and play’ session, and facilitators from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Team ‘Mellow Parenting Programme’ are engaged to deliver the parenting interventions where the PPP parenting programme delivered across the city is not meeting the needs of the most vulnerable families and the Mellow Parenting is likely to engage these families in a more direct way.

Early Literacy is being covered by the Bookbug scheme, and Health Clinics, including Health Visitor advice is being provided by the local health centre staff.

A children and parents participation strategy would be in place in each HUB, starting with Govanhill, to help design and deliver the additional support services needed within the HUB and community to best support young vulnerable children. CrossReach already has a service user participation strategy in place and a service specific protocol would be developed for the HUB identifying appropriate tools for engagement for this service user group. Our research suggests that interventions for postnatal depression and infant mental health, interventions for children affected by parental substance misuse, support for children where a family member is in prison and advice and support with housing and benefits are all likely to be services which would be useful in the HUB models. We hold much of the expertise to deliver these services within our current portfolio of service provision across a number of Local Authority Areas.
The HUBs will eventually be community run enterprises and intended to build on existing strengths to increase capacity within families and communities to support encourage and develop their children.

Chris McNaught

Crossreach Director of Children and Families Services
chris.mcnaught@crossreach.org.uk