Northumberland's family hubs praised for services offered to dads

The family hubs were designed to replace Sure Start Children’s Centres.

Instead of only providing support for families with children aged up to five however, family hubs offer support until children are aged 19, or 25 for children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND).

Northumberland County Council is one of 75 local authorities rolling out the family hub model, and one of just 15 to have “trail blazer” status, providing money to go “further and faster”.

Currently, there are 11 purpose-built family hubs across the county as well as seven outreach points.

Service manager Marie Roberts said: “We’re really focused on engaging dads, remembering we have dads around who for whatever reason may have limited access to come and support their children. They may have work commitments, they may feel that family hubs aren’t for them, it’s more of a mum’s offer – but we’re really making sure that we have somewhere to go for dads.

“They can come and get support, we have dad’s groups and we have the Dad’s App so fathers can log into this and get support tailored around male carers. To celebrate that we did have a Dad’s Matters Summit in February which was really well attended.

“We had a whole range of different people representing different groups to talk about the importance of engaging carers who are male.”

Cllr Eve Chicken revealed that a resident of her ward had benefited from the support offered. The Seghill councillor was full of praise for the Dad’s App in particular.