Torbay councillor grateful for children's services grant

But she wants more

The Torbay councillor responsible for children’s services is grateful for a government grant that allows the council to support families, but would like more.

Torbay was recently named as one of 14 ‘trailblazer’ local authorities that have been given family hubs’ funding to provide parental, mental health and housing support – among other services – for families.

This money allows the council to identify issues with the scheme and focus their work on key areas before the governement spends £300 million on the programme across 75 local authorities.

One of the goals is to help children in the first 1,001 days of their lives, an odd way of saying until they are nearly three.

Torbay’s cabinet member for children’s services Cllr Cordelia Law places an emphasis on the ‘start for life’ part of the family hubs’ programme.

“We’d already done a lot of work around that in Torbay before that announcement,” she said. “So we had this whole programme ready to go really, that start for life programme. So, we were really lucky when the government announced that. We’ve done a lot of work towards it, and that’s why we’ve become one of the trailblazers as well for the family hubs.”

Torbay has a family centre in each of its towns, and is using former children’s centres as a starting point.

“We were very lucky in Torbay that we already had these centres there and available to roll this out from,” Cllr Law explained.

While cannot place an exact number on how many families will be using the support centres, she hopes that the service will provide help to all all that need it.

“It’s a programme over a few years, so I guess we’re aiming to see all new births that come in via our centres,” Cllr Law added. “I couldn’t give an exact number on it; I’m sure that there is a number that the service has worked out how many we’re expecting to deliver to, but our aim is obviously to reach all our families.”

With Torbay being one of the poorest areas of the United Kingdom, according to data in the 2021 census, Cllr Law would like to see more funding made available to support families, but she is glad the government has given something to the area.

“I’m really, really pleased that this money has come through to help these families,” she said. “There’s growing national recognition of the fact that our funds – the youth budget, children’s services and services to families – have been deprived of money for many, many years.

“Those budgets have been cut and cut, so I think it’s a good start, shall we say. I think there should be more investment in our families. We have to bid in for all these pots of money, which of course takes resources and time of officers from their ordinary jobs.

“And I would like to see our services adequately funded without us having to bid in for these pots. That said, I am very glad we’ve got this money, because we do really, really need it in Torbay.

“We have some of the most deprived areas in the south west and actually in the whole of England, so I think this money is really needed. I think we’re seeing families needing more and more support and help as they’re worrying about the cost of living.

“So, I would like to see more funding but I’m going to be very careful here. I am grateful for this funding for our families; I would like to see a lot more of it.”