Merton's Start for Life website is live!
After 6 months of extremely hard work and brilliant partnership focus we are delighted to introduce Merton’s Start for Life Digital offer. This offer details a range of local services available to (expectant) parents and carers in Merton, from pre-conception through to children age two. Please take a moment to review the content and feel free to share the link across your networks and with the new parents/carers you may be supporting.
Buildings update
Capital works
Merton has received a small amount of capital funding to modify our Family Hub buildings and spaces. Some of this will be used to enhance the look and feel of Phipps Bridge Youth Centre, including the outdoor garden space and front entrance. Plans are being progressed and we hope to start physical works in early 2024. We will continue to assess and plan for other capital work projects including the installation of signage across Family Hub buildings and delivery points. We want to make sure that the places which deliver Family Hub services are accessible and recognisable to families in Merton. We also want our Family Hub buildings to be multipurpose and able to accommodate a wide-ranging service offer. We will continue to work with families to develop our spaces and have drawn on feedback from initial engagement activity in shaping our initial work at Phipps Bridge.
Co-location
We recognise that having Family Hub buildings alone, is not enough. We must work hard to ensure that what happens inside them on a day-to-day basis works well for the children, families accessing them and for those delivering support. Work is underway to develop our co-location arrangements, including how we make use of shared spaces and accommodate multiple service deliveries. A ‘co-location strategy’ is being drafted and this will be consulted on in early 2024. Family Hubs will bring together practitioners who may have had little previous professional contact. Co-location presents a great opportunity for partners to network and embed shared understanding of families need and care, although this may take some time to achieve. We will continue to develop our co-location activity throughout the final phase of the programme (between April - September 2024).
Understanding Services - Mapping Survey
We are required to deliver 24 core services through a Family Hub offer and as set down in the programme guide Family Hub Service Expectations (publishing.service.gov.uk). Service mapping has already taken place across the six Start for Life (0-2yrs) service areas including:
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Midwifery/Maternity
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Perinatal Mental Health
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Infant Feeding
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Health Visiting
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SEND
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Safeguarding
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These services are reflected within our recent publication of our ‘Start for Life’ digital offer and further work is now underway to assess provision across remaining service area.
Please take two minutes to compete our very short service mapping survey using the link below. This will really help to support transformation activity by providing an overview of existing delivery arrangements, whilst helping us plan the schedule for future FH programme offer. The deadline for responses is 1 December 2023.
FREE Online Relationship Support for Parents who are experiencing conflict in their relationships
Merton’s free accessible digital resources provided by OnePlusOne are designed to help parents understand the impact of their arguments on their children, and learn techniques to communicate better, handle stress, and manage conflict more constructively.
Parent resource sign up (oneplusone.org.uk)
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Me, You and Baby Too - helps new and expectant parents adapt to the changes that parenthood can have on their relationship, while raising awareness of the impact of stress and conflict on their baby. Parents completing this course will develop the skills to manage their conflict more constructively.
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Arguing Better - helps raise awareness of parental conflict and its impact on children. It gives parents the skills to cope with stress together and manage their conflict more constructively.
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Getting it Right for Children - uses Behaviour Modelling Training techniques to help separate parents see how they are putting their children in the middle of their conflict. It helps parents to develop positive communication skills so that they can parent co-operatively and work out solutions together.
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Debt and Relationships - developed in response to the cost-of-living crisis, offers parents free advice about how debt can have an impact on their relationships.
Evidence Based Interventions to support parents experiencing conflict in their relationships
This Multiagency training takes place quarterly via the Merton Safeguarding Children’s Partnership. The training raises awareness of parental conflict and equips practitioners with the skills, confidence, and tools required to support parents in accessing the interventions above.
Training - Merton Safeguarding Children Partnership (mertonscp.org.uk)
Early Education and Childcare Entitlements
There is a wide range of government support for families with their childcare costs for children aged 0-16 years, dependant on a family’s circumstances, from such schemes as Tax-Free Childcare and the childcare element of universal credit to reduce their childcare bill to the free early education and childcare entitlements for eligible children aged 2-5 years.
In 2024, there will be further support for eligible working families with children aged from 9 months through the expansion of the Free Early Education and Childcare entitlements.
Parent and carers can find out what support they may be eligible at www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/
For information on the free childcare entitlements and to find local education and childcare provision, please visit Merton’s Early education for 2, 3 and 4-year-olds.
One You Merton
One You Merton is your local health promotion service in Merton borough. We offer advice, support and signposting for people who want to stop smoking, eat healthier, drink less, move more and reduce stress.
One You Merton health advisers can support you to set goals around improving your health and they provide motivational interviewing to help keep you focused and clear about your goals. Our health advisers and outreach team can also provide advice and training in a group setting to people in the community.
The One You Merton frontline trainer and outreach coordinator provides health champion training to people who are interested in taking this up in the community.
The trainings give in depth information on:
- Public Health issues both nationally and locally
- Inequalities issues both nationally and locally
- Behaviour change, how to support people changing behaviours and people adapt a bad behaviours.
- Communications, how to communicate effectively.
All these outcomes are learned in friendly communicative and interactive style, both online and in person, depending on the choice of the group.
One You Merton stop smoking support consists of the NHS 12 weeks programme for those who are pregnant, have mental health conditions, respiratory conditions or are under 19 years old. The 12 weeks programme includes motivational interviewing, medication and support over the course of the programme. All smokers in Merton can access a shorter programme of support or brief intervention to help them to stop smoking.
For more information on our programmes and training, and to self refer please check the one you Merton website: Merton Health & wellbeing service - One You Merton
Home Learning Environment campaign
In January 2024 Better Health Start for Life and the Department for Education will launch a new home learning environment campaign. The campaign will aim to improve children's language and communication skills and ultimately increase levels of school readiness in reception aged children. Building on the successes and learnings of the Chat, Play, Read campaign, the campaign will update messaging and offer to inform, motivate and empower parents to improve the quality of the home learning environment for their children.
A range of resources will be made available to partners ahead of the campaign launch and we will be in touch with you again soon to let you know what to expect and when.
Previous family hub bulletins - coming soon
Our family hub bulletins will shortly be available online. Check the Family Hubs webpage soon if you would like to read any of the previous issues.
A (temporary) goodbye and thank you!
Earlier this month we said a temporary goodbye to Tim Wallder (Service Manager for Infrastructure, Information and Transformation) who is now covering the post of Head of Performance Improvement and Partnership on behalf of Maisie Davies whilst on maternity leave. Tim has been working tirelessly with other colleagues from the ‘Insight to Intervention’ project to develop data maturity and innovate the use of data to support identification of need and inform service delivery. Tim had oversight of some key elements of Family Hub activity including the development/refresh of online directory, capital works programmes and the establishment of sound financial frameworks in addition to ongoing work in aligning the data requirements for Family Hubs against other Early Help transformation activities.
We are sad to lose Tim’s expertise and his valued contribution to Family Hub development but wish him all the best in his future role.
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