From July family help services previously offered at Sunflower House and Meole Brace Community Hub in Shrewsbury are moving to new locations to help give local children the best start in life.
From Thursday 9 and Monday 13 July respectively, existing meet and chat drop-in sessions and Health Visitor Open Access Clinics, which are provided by Shropshire Council, will move to The Lantern, on Meadow Farm Drive, and Louise House, on Roman Road.
Currently, at meet and chat drop-ins families can get free information, advice and support on all aspects of family life, while at Health Visitor Open Access Clinics families can get more specialised advice on topics including emotional health and wellbeing, growth monitoring and health advice, infant feeding and introducing solids, and development, behaviour and sleep.
The services at The Lantern will be developed in the coming months and the site will become a designated Best Start Family Hub, reflecting a new government initiative designed to give families access to all the help and support their children need in a single location near to them.
Moving the existing services to these two sites will mean there is more space to deliver existing and future services, and that services will be closer to the people who need them.
The aim of the changes is to help improve the number of Shropshire children starting school having met their development milestones and to reduce the number of children in care. The programme will also help Shropshire Council meet the objectives of its corporate and improvement plans by improving the health of Shropshire communities and making the council more sustainable financially.
Planning is underway to ensure Best Start in Life hubs including network sites are located across the county.
Councillor Andy Hall, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for children and education, said: “With the Best Start Family Hubs, Shropshire Council and its partners will be able to help families early on and where they live, to ensure that Shropshire children thrive and have the best start in life.”
Shropshire Council recently announced its Cabinet had approved plans for a transformation of children’s services that will help make a more child-friendly Shropshire. The transformation programme, which reflects changes to government statutory requirements affecting children’s services nationwide, will see a new focus on prevention, and on greater collaboration between agencies and services to ensure a smoother experience for families needing support. It will affect services for children aged 0 to 18 as well as for young adults with SEND up to age 25.
From 9 July, Health Visitor Open Access Clinics will be available on two Thursday mornings a month at The Lantern and two Monday mornings a month at Louise House. Meet and chat drop-in sessions are available weekly on Monday mornings at Louise House and Thursday mornings at The Lantern. Families can check dates and times of these activities on the Shropshire Public Health Nursing Service Facebook page and the Community Hubs page on the Shropshire Council website respectively.
