Supporting the Development of Family Hubs in the London Borough of Croydon
The Brief
Croydon is developing its Family Hub model to strengthen early help, improve integrated working, and ensure children, young people and families can access the right support at the right time.
Senior leaders wanted structured, high-quality facilitation to:
- Clarify strategic ambitions for Family Hubs
- Strengthen partnership ownership and shared outcomes
- Build momentum and pace across the programme
- Engage a wide multi-agency workforce in shaping delivery
Given the scale of transformation required, Croydon sought experienced external facilitators able to provide both constructive challenge and practical support.
Our Approach
We designed and delivered a structured facilitation programme combining senior leadership sessions with large partnership events.
Working closely with lead officers, we created bespoke session plans tailored to Croydon’s priorities, ensuring every workshop was engaging, outcome-focused and inclusive.
Our work included:
Strategic Leadership Workshops (4 sessions)
Supporting senior leaders to:
- Define what success for Family Hubs should look like locally
- Identify required system and culture change
- Strengthen integrated leadership across services
- Maintain pace, accountability and strategic focus
- Translate ambition into clear actions
These sessions helped leaders move beyond service boundaries and focus collectively on outcomes for children and families.
Partnership Development Workshops (3 large-scale events)
We facilitated multi-agency events bringing together key partners across the system, including:
- Local authority services
- Health partners
- Education
- Voluntary and community organisations
- Wider delivery partners
The first event alone attracted 100+ participants, demonstrating the strong appetite for collaboration and shared development.
Sessions enabled partners to:
- Build a shared understanding of the Family Hub model
- Shape Croydon’s local vision collaboratively
- Identify delivery challenges and solutions
- Strengthen relationships and trust across agencies
- Commit to shared next steps
Why External Facilitation Made a Difference
Using experienced external facilitators provided Croydon with:
- Credible, specialist Family Hub expertise
- Strong facilitation across complex partnerships
- Independent challenge alongside supportive delivery
- Structured techniques to ensure all voices were heard
- Clear action planning and follow-through
This created safe space for honest discussion while maintaining strong focus on delivery.
Impact
The programme has helped Croydon to:
- Strengthen strategic alignment around Family Hub priorities
- Build shared ownership across agencies
- Engage large numbers of partners in shaping delivery
- Support leaders to focus on outcomes and integrated working
- Translate strategy into practical action planning
Most importantly, the work is helping to embed Family Hubs as a whole-system culture change programme, not simply a service redesign.