Community Hubs -
What is a Community Hub?
A Community Hub, is a building, or potentially a 'virtual' hub, that is tailored to be accessible to all groups of women and families in an area that it serves.
The community hub will be a base for outreach and signposting to other local services.
Parents will have access to antenatal, postnatal, general health, social care all under one roof.
There isn’t a fixed size or range of services a hub should have, and it is likely that some hubs will offer more services and be larger than other ‘hublets’.
Community Hubs should be designed with local women & families, to ensure services wrap around the needs of service users.
What is happening locally
Building on earlier work of mapping current services, along with identifying the new opportunities for closer working between professionals and different agencies, a second workshop on Community Hubs was held in May.
This workshop looked in more detail at how Community Hubs might be developed in different areas of West North and East Cumbria.
There was a good mix of attendees with Midwives, Health Visitors, Children Centre Managers, Sonographers & Managers, and also service users attended.
Earlier work had mapped services and new opportunities for closer working between health and social care and use of hubs for both children’s and maternity services.
Maternity Voices gave a short presentation feeding back what women and families had told us they would like to see in Community Hubs.
"I sat on the table for the Allerdale discussion. I could only stay two hours but I was encouraged by the discussions that were being had by the various professionals there. Lots of information was collated when the various area groups shared their thoughts. The general feeling on our table was that care is too disjointed at the moment, and that a community hub or number of hubs would be a good way of drawing pre and post natal care together for the benefit everyone involved. I am keen to continue to be involved , and I would encourage other 'users' to think about it."
Mum Feedback
What’s next
More engagement is planned with outreach workshops going out to parent groups across West North East Cumbria to gather more views on local community hubs.
Dates will be advertised on our involvement opportunities page and on our Facebook groups.
If you would like to share your views or ideas do get in touch.