Islington Family Hubs: Parent and Carer Panel

About Family Hubs

There are three Family Hubs in Islington that offer help and support to families from pregnancy up until age 19, or 25 for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) with great Start for Life (the critical 1,001 days from conception to age two) services at their core.

About the Parent/Carer Panel

We need the help of local residents who use our services currently or may in the future to make sure that Family Hubs are designed to meet the needs of our local community.

One of the ways we are doing this is through our parent/carer panel. The parent/carer panel is the place where parents and carers work together with local service leads and commissioners to help design and evaluate services. This helps to ensure that families are at the centre of service design and delivery across Islington.

Parent/Carer panels report back to our Start for Life lead which will ensure that families have a direct line to those leading local decision making.

The purpose of the parent/carer panels is to:

Make sure local parents/carers play a key role in designing and continuously improving family services
Enable the voice of local parents/carers including those whose voices are seldom heard
Ensure Family Hubs are designed for inclusion and meet the needs of the diverse communities that live in Islington

We want to ensure that the panel is representative of a range of parenting scenarios and of Islington’s diverse communities. We are therefore welcoming families from all walks of life and backgrounds with a particular focus on those who are pregnant/partner of an expectant parent and with children up to age 2.

Express your interest in being on the Family Hubs Parent/Carer Panel

If you would like to become a panel member and be involved in developing these plans, you can register your interest by emailing us a few details:

name
gender
telephone number
address and postcode
please tell us why you would like to be a Parent/Carer Panel member (for example, you would like to have a voice in designing of future services, gain more skills and confidence, get to know more local parents/carers)?

If you would help with this please go along to a family engagement surgery at your local children's centre.

Email us on FamilyHubs@islington.gov.uk.

If you’d like to be kept up to date on the Family Hubs please sign-up for our Bright Start and Bright Futures newsletters.

After you apply

When we receive your expression of interest form, a member of the team will contact and invite you to a short meeting in person or online. We’ll discuss if being on the panel would work for you, find out about the experiences you bring to the panel, and address any accessibility needs you have.

Please be aware that submitting an expression of does not guarantee you will be selected to be on the panel. We will choose participants to make sure that the panel is representative of Islington’s diverse communities and circumstances.

What’s involved in being part of the panel?

You will help shape how services for families are delivered and be a valued part of Family Hubs development. You will meet new people in your community and have the opportunity together to build Family Hubs that meet families needs. You may want to join for your own personal development, or to share your experiences of accessing services for families in Islington and how they could be developed.

Panel meetings will be agreed at a time and place that works best for the members of the panel, likely to be at least every two months for two hours and can be either face to face, online or hybrid to enable participation.

What support will I get to be involved?

We want to enable accessibility as much as possible so we will discuss with you what you need to participate but here are a few examples of what we can offer; creche/childcare for meetings where necessary, travel fares to meetings (by public transport), refreshments in meetings, interpreting, rewards and recognitions (gift vouchers or time credits) and any other accessibility requirement to enable you to fully participate in meetings/trainings.

What happens next after I apply?

When we receive your expression of interest form you will be contacted by a member of the team to invite you to a short meeting in person, or online. We’ll discuss if being on the panel would work for you, find out about the experiences you bring to the panel, and address any accessibility needs you have.

The first parent/carer panel meeting held: Week beginning 24 April 2023.

Please be aware that submitting an expression of does not guarantee you will be selected to be on the panel. Participants will be selected to ensure that the panel is representative of Islington’s diverse communities and circumstances.