Babyzone and Family Hubs Partnerships

Babyzone works in partnership with Family Hubs across multiple local authorities to provide integrated, preventative early years support for families with babies. By embedding Family Hub practitioners and programmes within trusted Babyzone community settings, families are able to access early help, parenting support, health advice and wellbeing services in one welcoming space. This approach reduces barriers to engagement, strengthens referral pathways and improves parental confidence, infant development and maternal wellbeing. Across all locations, the partnership model demonstrates how co-location, shared data insight and relationship-based practice can enhance Family Hub reach, improve outcomes for families, and support councils to deliver effective, inclusive early help during the critical first years of life.

Babyzone Blackburn works closely with Lancashire Family Hubs to deliver joined-up, accessible support for families with babies, ensuring advice, programmes and specialist input are available in one trusted community space. At a community wellbeing event, Lois from the Family Hubs team spoke with families about speech and language development, toileting support and breastfeeding, and supported sign-up to multiple Family Hub programmes; she reflected that having this kind of support would have been invaluable when her own children were young and noted the wider community benefits and positive contribution to children’s development. 

The partnership also enables timely, sensitive specialist support.  When a young mother attended Babyzone Blackburn with her eight-week-old baby due to breastfeeding difficulties, she was introduced to a Family Hub Infant Feeding Coordinator, who advised on latching and explored wider support needs. The mother - also a single parent experiencing complex family issues - reported feeling much more content and confident, and valued receiving feeding advice, emotional support and access to classes “all under one roof.” Partnership working extends into antenatal early help too: the Family Hubs team supported an expectant family attending ‘Preparation for Parenthood’, a six-week antenatal course delivered at the family home to reduce anxiety and build confidence. Following previous baby loss, the Family Hubs team arranged to meet the family at Babyzone to introduce them to Lancashire Mind’s Baby Loss Service, who offer drop-in support and workshops at Babyzone, enabling the family to attend with a familiar face and access help in a safe and welcoming environment.

Babyzone Wigan provides a welcoming space where Family Hub teams can engage families in a relaxed environment that supports conversation, trust and practical signposting. Family Group Workers attend monthly and have shared consistently positive feedback, noting they were impressed by the number of families attending Babyzone. One group worker highlighted how easy it was to start conversations with families in Babyzone because the setting feels informal and supportive. During visits, Family Hub colleagues have provided free vitamins and promoted the Wigan Family Hub offer, helping families understand what support is available and how to access it. This approach has strengthened pathways between services: one mother reported she now attends a Family Hub on Mondays for baby massage after learning about it through Babyzone. Babyzone has also connected with the Family Hubs Parenting team, who will discuss the programmes they deliver, with the shared intention of establishing regular parenting workshops for families through Babyzone.

Babyzone Grimsby has embedded partnership working with the Family Hubs team from the earliest planning stages, ensuring services complement rather than compete with existing provision. When deciding on a Babyzone delivery day, Babyzone worked in close communication with Family Hubs to avoid impacting existing provision and to strengthen the overall local offer. This early collaboration established a shared approach of partnership and Family Hubs welcomed Babyzone from the outset, supporting a deeper understanding of local priorities and how these could be actively promoted and embedded within Babyzone. The partnership has continued to strengthen through ongoing collaboration and shared development: Babyzone staff trained as a PEEP practitioners with the Family Hubs team, enhancing the ability to promote key messages and support families effectively. During the soft launch, Babyzone worked closely with Family Hubs to ensure first invitations went to families who they felt would benefit most. Babyzone looks forward to continuing this relationship with open communication and joint initiatives that further enhance local support for families in Grimsby.

Babyzone Barnet particularly values its connection with Family Hubs, who visit regularly and attend quarterly wellbeing events. Family Hubs-linked services such as Silk Stream Children Centre and Early Years Barnet (and their wider children’s centre network) routinely recommend families into Babyzone, and Babyzone signposts families back into children’s centres and early years services, strengthening two-way pathways. Family Hub/children’s centre teams attend wellbeing events with themed activities (for example, arts and crafts), using a designated table while also walking around, interacting with families and actively engaging children through play (including Lego and art), which helps families feel comfortable approaching services. 

Babyzone has worked in close collaboration with Barking & Dagenham’s Family Hubs to deliver a range of inclusive, evidence-based early years and postnatal programmes that support babies’ development and mothers’ wellbeing, rooted in a shared commitment to improving outcomes for families during the critical first years of life, particularly in communities facing higher levels of need. Through the Family Hubs network, Babyzone delivered PEEP Talk and Play sessions to strengthen early communication, attachment and parent confidence, supporting parents to understand how everyday interactions like talking, singing and playing, contribute to baby brain development while also creating welcoming spaces for parents to connect with one another. Babyzone also facilitated singing sessions that encouraged bonding, language development and emotional wellbeing, providing a joyful, low-pressure way for parents and babies to interact and helping to reduce isolation and build routine in the early months. A key element of the collaboration was Dance Together, a Mum and Baby Dance Programme, delivered at Babyzone by the Family Hub and Groundswell Arts. The programme supported mothers to gently reconnect with and recover their bodies after birth while strengthening the bond with their babies through movement and shared experience, promoting physical recovery, confidence and mental wellbeing within a supportive peer environment. Overall, this partnership demonstrates the value of integrated, community-based provision that combines early learning, wellbeing and postnatal recovery so families feel supported, informed and connected.

Babyzone Warrington works closely with the Family Hubs to provide additional, joined-up support for local families. Family Hub staff are familiar with Babyzone and with Babyzone’s partner offer through Home-Start, helping families receive consistent guidance and strengthening continuity across services. Many families referred into Home-Start are encouraged to attend Babyzone so they can access activities, community connection and entitlements they may not otherwise know about, while Family Hub staff hold Babyzone leaflets to make signposting quick and easy. Babyzone often finds that new families attend after hearing about it through their local Hub, showing the strength of word-of-mouth pathways within the Family Hubs network. Family Hubs staff also regularly attend Babyzone wellbeing events, which strengthens relationships between practitioners, improves continuity of support for families and helps ensure that families experience a genuinely joined-up service.

Babyzone Croydon works in close partnership with Croydon Family Hubs to support effective early help delivery and ensure services are responsive to the needs of families with babies. Babyzone acts as a trusted community-based data collection partner for the Family Hubs programme, supporting service design, delivery and engagement strategies through targeted feedback gathered directly from parents and carers attending sessions. This has included specific surveys with male carers to help Croydon Family Hubs better understand barriers to engagement and develop more inclusive approaches to involving fathers and male carers across Family Hub services. Family Hubs teams also work directly within Babyzone to deliver services, strengthen pathways and increase accessibility. Practitioners, including the Home Learning Team, use Babyzone as a familiar, trusted space to deliver activities and classes such as PEEP sessions for parents and children, often structured around accessible themes (for example Summer or Transport). Family Hubs staff attend Babyzone events to promote Family Hub activities, children’s centre groups and the wider early help offer, enabling families to access information and support in a welcoming environment. Both services actively promote one another through shared leaflets, timetables and signposting, ensuring families receive clear and consistent messages. Family Hubs practitioners also engage directly with Babyzone families to promote evidence-based parenting support such as Triple P parenting workshops, which are sometimes delivered within Babyzone itself, reducing barriers to access and supporting early intervention.

Babyzone Hammersmith & Fulham works in close partnership with Hammersmith & Fulham Family Hubs to support early help delivery and ensure local services are informed by the lived experiences of families with babies. Babyzone provides data collection support to inform the planning and development of Family Hubs services, gathering insight from parents and carers attending Babyzone sessions on needs, interests and barriers to engagement. This feedback is shared with Family Hubs to support responsive, needs-led service design and continuous improvement of early help and parenting offers. Family Hubs practitioners regularly work within Babyzone to deliver accessible, preventative support for families in a familiar and trusted environment. This includes delivering evidence-based parenting programmes such as Triple P within Babyzone, alongside one-off parenting workshops on topics including managing tantrums, potty training and sleep support. Family Hubs teams also attend Babyzone events to promote Family Hub services, parenting support and wider early help provision. Both services actively promote one another through shared leaflets and timetables, strengthening pathways between Babyzone and Family Hubs, reducing practical and emotional barriers to access, increasing engagement with parenting support, and enabling families to receive the right support at the right time.