Supporting families across Derby’s communities: A year in review
Published: 21 May 2024
Councillor John Whitby (right) at the launch of the Derby Promise
Councillor John Whitby, Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Learning and Skills, reflects on the past twelve months in administration.
As I look back over the past year, I’m mindful of just how much has been achieved by the dedication of our hard-working teams.
Last summer saw the launch of Derby’s Family Hubs and, since then, they’ve welcomed a huge number of parents and children, offering a vibrant mix of groups, workshops, and vital support. 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.
We got to showcase the fantastic work done at the hubs during a visit by Dame Andrea Leadsom, Minister for Public Health, Start for Life and Primary Care, in January. The Minister visited Becket Family Hub to see how Derby is delivering the Family Hubs Start for Life programme, spending time with children and their parents, who told her about the varied services they access through the Family Hub. She also met with staff to find out more about their roles and the help they offer families.
We’re very proud that the Minister described Derby’s Family Hubs as among the best she had seen during her visits to local authorities across the country. We’re now building on that success to strengthen our services and enable us to reach even more families.
It’s also been wonderful to see how the Derby Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme has reached so many families across the city over the past 12 months. The holiday club scheme, delivered by the Council in partnership with Community Action Derby, offers thousands of free places during the Easter, summer and Christmas school holidays to children eligible for free school meals.
We now have around 40 providers offering a huge range of activities and every child that attends a session receives a free, nutritious meal. During 2023/4, the scheme reached more than 5,000 children and saw 33,582 meals served. Of those children, 21 per cent have a Special Educational Need or Disability (SEND), and the programme has also supported children in care; children with child protection plans; and refugees and asylum seekers.
Going forward, we’ll build on the excellent work done so far by broadening the offer even further, providing more places for teenagers and creating stronger links with the wider childcare offer in Derby.
It’s been really exciting to see Foster for East Midlands launched this spring. The new regional fostering hub for the East Midlands is a collaboration between councils in Derby, Derbyshire, Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, made possible after D2N2 authorities secured £1.626m in government funding.
The new hub will make it easier than ever to find potential foster carers, meaning more young people in need will have access to stable, loving homes in their community. As a foster carer myself, I know how important this is.
Less than two months after the launch, the hub has received more than 70 enquiries from potential carers, most of whom have never fostered before. This is a great start and I’m sure these numbers will only increase as we spread the word about Foster for East Midlands.
We want Derby’s young people to be confident and ambitious about their place in Derby’s future. To that end, we recently launched the Derby Promise – an ambitious commitment we’re making with our partners across the city to expand opportunities, raise aspirations and promote the wellbeing of our children and young people, and their families.
It will see a network of businesses, educational and cultural organisations – together with the Derby City Council – develop the great work already being done across the city to provide meaningful opportunities for children, young people and adults from primary school right through to further and adult education.
The full programme is still in development, but we have several exciting events already planned over the next 12 months, plus the creation of a Skills and Employment Hub website to give Derby people a new one-stop shop for jobs, apprenticeships, learning and skills opportunities and much more. It’s been really inspiring to see so many of our city partners sign up to the Derby Promise and I’m looking forward to seeing it continue to take shape in the coming months.
The challenges and, in turn, the costs that our children’s services face seem to increase year on year, but we are blessed with a workforce that is creative, energetic and dedicated to delivering for the city’s children and it’s been a privilege to be a part of it.