A focus on early support available for families and young people as they are invited to have their say

18 March 2024

Parents, carers and young people are invited to have their say on future services for children, young people and families in West Northants as part of a consultation to refresh and review our local support offer.

The consultation is an opportunity for families to input into what our 0-19 services look like for children and young people, and how families would like to access support, advice and information in a way that is convenient and right for them.

The consultation is available now for residents to complete via the online survey.

All responses from the survey will be anonymous, with the feedback being collated and used to inform the new service model for Council funded 0-19 services and the approach to how the Council, together with other local organisations improves the offer regarding early support for children and young people in West Northamptonshire.

This comes at a time in West Northamptonshire, where this is a huge focus on early help services for our families and young people, with this consultation being an important part. Together with other local organisations, the Council is looking at the early help offer and how this can be strengthened to ensure there is the right, preventative support available. The consultation responses will directly feed into project and service development including:

• Establishing local Family Hubs in West Northants with the aim of ensuring all families with children aged between the years of 0-19 can access help, advice and support they need for a wide range of services much more easily. This includes exploring different ways to make services accessible – for example building an informative digital offer, creating in-person ‘hubs’ where various services are available for families in one place.
• Planning of the Council’s service specification for our 0-19 services – understanding what families and young people would like from these services will help to create a localised specification that meets the needs of our population.

“This is about how together with other organisations we can ensure families can access timely and helpful support to offer information, advice and guidance on a range of topics – this may be advice on newborn support and development, vaccinations for children, mental wellbeing advice for teenagers to name a few examples. By ensuring that people have access to the right early help can make a difference to their wellbeing, development and ultimately, life experiences.

“Across West Northants there are some excellent services which work in the Early Help Space, for example our schools, health colleagues, voluntary sector, our libraries as well as many others. However, the needs of children and families that require help and support continues to increase and it is essential we meet the needs of our population and streamline how people can access this support. It is only by listening and engaging with those that have used our services or are likely too, that we can build a service offer that is right for our local families. We would like to build and strengthen the support already available, therefore I would encourage families and young people to please take the time to complete the consultation – your responses are so important for us developing our offer further to provide the right help, at the right time by the right service.” Cllr Fiona Baker, Cabinet Member for Children, Families, Education and Skills

The consultation closes on Sunday 28 April, at midnight. All responses from the survey will be anonymous.