Derby’s Family Hubs are continuing to welcome families following a successful summer launch programme.

The city’s six hubs were launched weekly over the school summer holidays with a packed programme of events and activities, as well as advice for parents and carers.

But these launch events were just the start – going forwards, all the hubs continue to offer a wide range of groups, workshops and support to all Derby families.

These include:

  • Fun and interactive groups
  • Infant feeding workshops, breastfeeding clubs, and support for new parents
  • Help with well-being, mental health, and parent-infant relationships
  • Support for children with special educational needs and their families
  • Activities for dads, co-parents and other carers
  • Targeted youth support work for young people aged 11 to 19
  • Child and family health activities around healthy eating, oral health, and stay and weigh clinics
  • Support with managing finances, the cost of living and getting back into work or training

Family Hubs provide activities and advice for families with children and young people up to the age of 19, while young people with special education needs or disabilities (SEND) will be supported until the age of 25.

The hubs bring together services that families may previously have had to find in different places, or found difficult to navigate, making it simple to get help in the right place, at the right time. There is a full start for Life offer for all parents to be, new parents and those with babies and children under five.

Over the summer, children’s centres in Mackworth and Morley, Sinfin, Rosehill, Derwent, Osmaston and Allenton, and Becket were designated as Family Hubs and launched with a programme of activities. Each week, there was a programme of fun, free activities for babies, children and young people, including arts and crafts, sports, dance, face painting, animal handling and theatre sessions.

Parents and carers could speak to a range of health professionals on a variety of subjects including infant feeding, first aid, special educational needs, pregnancy wellbeing, budgeting advice and healthy eating.

A whopping 1,005 families attended during the six-week launch and 209 free sessions were delivered to families across the sites. There were 389 new registrations for families wanting to access services, alongside those families already registered with the centres.

The Family Hubs teams were thrilled to received lots of positive feedback from those who went along:

Brilliant staff and amazing activities. Came for the first time and we have loved it, we will definitely come back again."

"We have had a fabulous time great activities and it’s nice for the community to get together."

"Fantastic sessions for a broad age range of children. It has been very inclusive for all ages. Thank you."

"My boys have loved coming to the hub. We have been most days and the boys have loved all the activities on offer. There is something for everyone. The staff have been amazing."

Councillor John Whitby, Derby City Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Learning and Skills, said:

We’re delighted that so many families came along to the launch events across the six Family Hub sites and we hope they will continue to take advantage of what the hubs have to offer.

Family Hubs are for every family living in Derby city. It doesn’t matter where in the city you live – you are welcome at any Family Hub.

To find out what’s on at your local Family Hub, visit the Family Hub Directory online and follow the Derby City Council Families Information Service on Facebook for updates.

You can also search for information on many other useful topics such as housing, schools, and colleges, jobs in childcare and fun things to do in Derby.