As part of the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, local authorities are shaping enhanced services delivered through transformed hubs to ensure all families can access the support they need and improve health and education outcomes.
As part of the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, local authorities are shaping enhanced services delivered through transformed hubs to ensure all families can access the support they need and improve health and education outcomes. At the Autumn 2021 Budget, the government committed to invest £301.75 million to transform services, achieve integration at a systems level, and improve the universal Start for Life offer in 75 local authorities across England.
As one of only 14 trailblazers for the Family Hubs and Start for Life programme, Cornwall Council sought to enhance its offer for local families and embarked on a journey to integrate innovative digital solutions into the service delivery model. One intervention they commissioned as part of their Family Hubs programme was EasyPeasy, an integrated digital solution for the early years designed to enhance early years development from birth to age five, improve the home learning environment, and close the gap in school readiness. EasyPeasy is evidence-based and included in the Early Intervention Foundation Guidebook.
Dilys Vincent, Lead Officer - Early Years Inclusion and SEND at Cornwall Council, shares how the council approached the design and delivery of their Family Hubs programme as a trailblazer local authority, the key challenges and opportunities faced, and the impact of the EasyPeasy offer in their local families and communities.
The challenges faced by Cornwall Council
Cornwall Council supports local families and children via 23 Family Hub centres delivering joined-up early help services for children from pre-birth up to 19 years or 25 years if the young person has a disability. The council identified challenges in their efforts to support local families effectively before undertaking their Family Hubs transformation. One significant challenge was the increasing demand for support and intervention, particularly with children with complex needs and SEND, in the area of speech, language, and communication.
“We're quite geographically spread out and have over 500 settings across Cornwall which is a challenge. We've got a whole range of people who work within our team to support settings in the early identification of needs and then help them through interventions that meet those needs. We've got huge numbers of children likely to need an EHCP with at least a 2-year developmental delay, and those numbers have doubled over the last two years.” - Dilys Vincent, Lead Officer - Early Years Inclusion and SEND at Cornwall Council
With a core commitment to improving outcomes, and a new funding stream as a Family Hub and Start for Life trailblazer, Dilys and the wider Early Years Inclusion and SEND Team set about to further improve the quality of provision in Cornwall.
The solution implemented: EasyPeasy
In response to these challenges, and seeking a partner to deliver a localised, integrated, digital service for parents and practitioners of babies and children from birth to five, Cornwall Council turned to EasyPeasy and commissioned their digital solution in July 2023.
EasyPeasy offered families and early years teams in Cornwall a digital platform that provided accessible, engaging, and evidence-based support to inspire simple, positive interactions at home or in settings, improve family dynamics, and support child development. As part of this offer, premium access to the app was made free for their entire community and promoted via their Family Hubs centres and resources, and early years teams and settings.
“The EasyPeasy aspect of our work right now is focused on universal support for families. So our objective is to support speech, language, and communication across the board and improve outcomes for children with gaps or delays. EasyPeasy is shared with families and partners via all of our settings…reception classes in schools, Family Hubs, health visitors, midwives…and our numbers are building.” - Dilys Vincent, Lead Officer - Early Years Inclusion and SEND at Cornwall Council
Practitioners in Cornwall also received online training, providing teams with additional guidance, best practices, and advice to achieve home learning environment outcomes and drive impact for children and families. Their dedicated EasyPeasy data dashboard allowed them to easily track and monitor outreach and impact, with real-time data on take-up amongst children and families, engagement with content, geographic breakdown, and numbers of reach-to-families in low-income households.
“There are 23 Family Hubs in six localities across Cornwall but there's not as much footfall through the door since the COVID pandemic. So what we've targeted more is our settings because in our settings we’ve got direct access to lots of families - at least 30 families per setting in nursery, preschool, and schools - so you’re reaching a lot more parents through practitioners. It’s great that families can access the EasyPeasy app 24/7 and during times when in-person services are not always available.” - Dilys Vincent, Lead Officer - Early Years Inclusion and SEND at Cornwall Council
The impact of the programme amongst children and families in Cornwall
Over the last 9 months, the app has been used by hundreds of parents and carers of 0-5-year-olds in 87 local wards across Cornwall, with over a third of families coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.
- 78 percent of parents say they know more about what they can do to help their child develop their speech, language, and communication skills
- 80 percent of parents say they know more about what they can do to help their child develop their personal, social, and emotional skills
- 86 percent of parents say that since using the EasyPeasy app, they feel they are making a difference in their child’s behaviour
- 90 percent of parents say they will continue to use EasyPeasy
"[EasyPeasy] definitely has strong suggestions on the areas I get stressed about. It has great tips and methods to try to alter our sometimes hectic routines or toddler dilemmas. It’s helped me with my twins." - EasyPeasy Parent, Cornwall
"The app offered a wealth of creative ideas and suggestions for activities that we all loved to try out." - EasyPeasy Parent, Cornwall
"My child is at an age where he is needing to learn new skills before moving up to school and it helps me to know how to help him." - EasyPeasy Parent, Cornwall
Lessons learned by Cornwall Council and recommendations to other local authorities
Through their experience with EasyPeasy, Cornwall Council recommends embracing digital solutions such as parental apps to engage with families who may not be able to attend in-person groups and events at Family Hubs centres. By engaging a range of settings and early years practitioners such as nurseries, preschools, and childminders in the rollout of the service, the team were able to successfully drive awareness of EasyPeasy amongst their communities who weren’t accessing in-person support.
“What we're finding genuinely in Cornwall is that parents are more interested in signing up to an app than they are attending groups since the COVID pandemic. In some cases, they just don't want to come out in person and that's why the family hubs have not been as successful in getting groups in. But by going through the early years settings where we have a close working relationship with the team, they've been able to successfully engage their parents in the process. Our early years settings form part of the Family Hub's wider community and demonstrate the need to be flexible in our offer.” - Dilys Vincent, Lead Officer - Early Years Inclusion and SEND at Cornwall Council
Outlook for the future of the Cornwall Council Family Hubs programme
Dilys notes that Cornwall Council has been fortunate to receive support for early childhood programs despite challenges posed by council cutbacks and that they have a large team in place dedicated to early years support which is unique compared to some other local authorities. However, as all councils continue to face constraints due to increased demand for services, the focus for Cornwall is on prioritising services that enhance the home learning environment and school readiness and meet the needs of a wide range of families, babies, and children.
Dilys Vincent: Lead Officer - Early Years Inclusion and SEND at Cornwall Council