Family Hubs
Our Family Hubs provide a welcoming space where families with children and young people (0-19 years, or up to 25 years for young people with special educational needs and disabilities) can access support, advice, and services in one convenient location.
Family hubs are designed to support families by bringing together a range of services into one easy-to-access space. Whether you need parenting advice, health support, education guidance, or help navigating local services, our Family Hubs are here to help.
Family Hubs act as a vital link between families and community support offering a holistic approach to meet individual family needs. They are also a space where families can connect with others in their community.
Family Hubs are located across the city to ensure accessibility for all families.
South
Dewsbury Road Family Hub- 190 Dewsbury Road, LS11 6PF
Rothwell Family Hub- Rothwell Community Hub, Marsh Street, LS26 0AE
East
Deacon House Family Hub- Seacroft Community Hub, 1 Seacroft Avenue, LS14 6JD
Compton Family Hub- Compton Community Hub, Compton Centre, Harehills Lane, LS9 7BG
Chapeltown Family Hub- Chapeltown Children’s Centre, 62 Leopold Street, LS7 4AW
West
Armley Family Hub- Armley Community Hub, 2 Stocks Hill, Armley, LS12 1UQ
Horsforth Family Hub- Horsforth Community Hub, Town Street, Horsforth, LS18 5BL
Contact us on 0113 5350185 or email family.hubs@leeds.gov.uk to find out more.
Cluster Partnerships
Clusters are local partnerships underpinned and core funded by schools. They include a wide range of partners including Children's Centres/Early Start, Children’s Social Work Service, Local Authority and Leeds Health and Care Partnership who work together, bringing resources and funding, to deliver early help services and provide support to children, young people and their families. There are currently 21 Cluster Partnerships in the city.
Each covers a geographical area, mainly defined by a ‘family’ or grouping of schools in the locality. Every cluster is unique and developed to meet the needs of the children and families that attend their cluster schools. The cluster usually employs and commissions staff to provide a range of services such as family support and social, emotional and mental health support for children.
You can find out more information from the One Minute Guide.
Reducing Parental Conflict
Parental Conflict can include regular bickering, arguing and frustration with each other about issues such as money, parenting or housework. When a child experiences this conflict frequently and it is unresolved, it could result in children feeling upset, confused or angry and affect their ability to resolve relationship problems throughout their lives and achieve positive outcomes.
In Leeds we understand that conflict is an everyday part of life; our aim is to ensure that conflict is constructively resolved thereby modelling appropriate relationships where any differences are agreed amicably between adults.
In Leeds we are taking a practice approach through providing workforce development opportunities.
If families would like to talk to someone about their relationship, a good starting point is speaking with someone at their child’s school. Sometimes schools are part of ‘cluster services’ and might request that a family support worker from the cluster offers some individual support. This would always be with a families consent.
Further information regarding reducing parental conflict can be found via the One Minute Guide
Funded early help services
The following are Leeds City Council in-house and commissioned early help services.
Multi-systemic therapy
Multi-systemic therapy (MST) is an internationally recognised and proven evidence based treatment programme aimed at young people aged 11-17 years who demonstrate severe anti-social behaviour that puts them at risk of either going into care or custody. In the UK, it is recognised as a mental health treatment of choice for this group. MST teams work intensively with all the systems around a young person (e.g. families, carers, schools, other professionals and local communities) to develop and align intervention plans to achieve positive outcomes for that young person.
MST uses pragmatic solution focussed approaches such as parenting, family work and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to empower families to no longer need services. Following a specific model and a set of principles that continuously inform the work, input lasts for no longer than 20 weeks. Therapists have small caseloads, can offer 24 hour support to the families, and are committed to the MST approach of doing 'whatever it takes' to engage families and help them achieve the best outcomes that they can. This involves high commitment and adherence to restorative practice. The MST therapist takes the lead practitioner role for the young person for the duration of the treatment, which provides consistency and reduces the number of practitioner and professional contacts for the family.
There are standard MST teams in Leeds covering all areas of the city, which the service divides into East North East, West North West and South areas. Each team receives referrals from all agencies in their area.
For further detail see the Multi-Systemic Therapy service One Minute Guide.
Leeds Young Carers Support Service
Leeds Young Carers Support Service is committed to ensuring that young carers are supported to have equal life chances to their peers; are able to flourish and thrive; are protected from possible harm, including inappropriate caring roles, and are able to attend, attain and achieve in education.
This is undertaken through:
- Information, advice and guidance
The service will reach as many young carers as possible, including those who are currently unidentified through the provision of information, advice, networking and support to have their voices heard - Targeted support services
The service will provide support tailored to young carers’ needs, for those young carers whose caring role has a profound impact on their lives. This may include individual support and/or group support - Awareness raising
The service will proactively support improvements in the identification of and support available for young carers by services involved in supporting children and young people in Leeds
For information, advice and guidance regarding the young carers service contact 0113 7339126.
LSCP Practitioner Toolkit
The LSCP Practitioner’s Tool Kit is a resource for practitioners when working with children and families. The Tools support practitioners in their day to day work, to identify and understand what is going on within a family.
Early Help notification
Notification of Early Help is a way to inform the Children and Families Service about a family you are supporting.
The lead practitioner working with the family is responsible for notification - this involves sharing the family’s completed Early Help documentation
Completing the Early Help documentation, 'Understanding Me/My Family Part 1, Our Early Help Support Needs' will confirm if the family has multiple support needs.
If there are multiple support needs, you will notify Children and Families Service about your Early Help work with the family by emailing the completed document, with consent, to earlyhelp.notifications@leeds.gov.uk
Notifying the service helps us to understand which families across the city are getting support and helps us to measure our work with children and families and evidence the difference we are making to improve outcomes.
For more information on Early Help documentation and notification and, access to any support and guidance related to Early Help work with families, please contact families.first@leeds.gov.uk
To register early help activity:
- If you have access to Mosaic and are undertaking activity yourself, please record this directly onto Mosaic.
- If you do not have access to Mosaic, please contact the Families First team to register the activity by calling 0113 3781840.
- Should you need any further assistance regarding early help activity, please contact your local Early Help Hub.
Workforce development opportunities:
There are a number of training opportunities available in relation to early help. For more information contact michelle.cunningham@leeds.gov.uk
- Early Help Qualification – The Level 3 Early Intervention Qualification is a multi-agency qualification equivalent to an A level. For more information contact families.first@leeds.gov.uk
- Parental Conflict training – For more information contact Lyndsey.mortimer@leeds.gov.uk
- Rethink Formulation – for more information contact rethink.team@leeds.gov.uk, and see the one minute guide or visit Rethink Top Concern Approach.