A brand-new family hub has opened in Harpurhey this week to help ensure local children and young people are given the very best start in life and helped to become happy and healthy young adults who achieve their full potential.
The Best Start in Life Family Hub - Harpurhey, is located inside North City Leisure Centre on Upper Conran Street and provides one-stop-shop style access to a wide range of advice and support for parents and carers, as well as children and young people.
Its welcoming and accessible space gives families open-door access to services including family support, parenting programmes, and support for children who have special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), alongside health and wellbeing activities and community connections.
Designed to support families with children aged 0–19 years (up to 25 years for SEND and care leavers), as well as expectant parents, the team at the centre can provide information, advice, guidance, and practical support - helping families access services both within the Hub and across the local neighbourhood in partnership with schools and community organisations.
The kind of support and guidance on offer to families at the Hub begins from even before a child is born with pregnancy support and information for expectant parents, taking in every stage of childhood after that once a child is born - from feeding guidance and breastfeeding support, early language and learning, perinatal mental health support and parenting groups, to help with school applications, managing behaviour, and support for families new to the area, along with information about adult learning opportunities, volunteering, work experience and much more.
Staff at the Hub can also help families with form -filling and referrals to other agencies for additional support such as housing, counselling, and benefits advice.
The Harpurhey Family Hub is the sixth such Family Hub to open in Manchester and follows the opening of other hubs over the last two years in Longsight, Wythenshawe, Cheetham Hill, Gorton and Clayton.
One parent who is already a big fan of the Hub is local mum Shelter who has been a regular at the Hub with her 6-month-old daughter Nahla since it first opened its doors to parents and is really valuing the support she gets there including from other mums.
She said: "This is my first child and I never knew that you needed to be outside with other mums. Just to be with other women who are going through the same thing - like some parents have three children so they can give you advice on stuff that you don't know, things they've been doing with their kids at home to reach their skills like sitting, eating, anything else.
"So it's very good to meet other people, you can make friends for yourself and your own mental health, and babies get to see other babies doing stuff and play with them and make friends, so I think it's very good for their brain development and I've really loved it."
The Harpurhey Family Hub's opening follows publication earlier this year by the council of its Best Start in Life strategy which outlines how the city plans to support families with babies and children up to school age over the coming years, and also comes hot on the heels of Manchester's recent recognition by UNICEF as a Child Friendly City.
Councillor Julie Reid, Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People, Manchester City Council, said: "We're determined to make sure that every child in Manchester has the very best start in life and grows up safe, healthy, and happy.
"Our Best Start in Life Family Hubs have a vital part to play in this with their one-stop-shop approach to supporting families with whatever kind of help and advice they may need and at whatever point in their child's life.
"With six Family Hubs now open and more to come over the course of the next year, they are already making a huge difference to our families in the city and to the life chances of our children and young people."