What to expect when you go to an early help hub meeting

Early Help Hub meetings are held weekly and are organised by children’s social care staff within each district. Each district’s hub meeting always fall on the same day of the week, different districts may have different days. The meetings are held virtually via TEAMS.

The Hub Meeting has a core group of attendees drawn from agencies including health, police, the department for work and pensions and Hampshire youth justice service.

Why am I invited to attend a Hub Meeting?

If you have submitted an Inter-Agency Referral Form to Hampshire Children’s Services regarding a child or children, and it is decided that targeted early help should be offered to the child/ren and family, you will be asked to attend a hub meeting to discuss your concerns.

You may also be invited to an Early Help Hub Meeting as a representative of the school or nursery that the child/ren attends or if you are a professional working with the family.

How the Meeting Works 

Prior to the meeting you will be contacted by children’s social care and sent an invitation to the Hub meeting with a time slot.

To access the meeting, you use the Microsoft Teams link that will be emailed to you a few days before the meeting.

If you are from the school/setting or agency that raised concerns about the child/ren and family you will be asked by the manager chairing the meeting to outline those concerns, your view of the child and family’s needs and risks, including sharing background knowledge of the family that you may have.

If you are from the school or setting that the child attends you will be asked by the manager chairing the meeting to share background information of the child and family that you may have.

The manager chairing the meeting will ask each attendee of the hub about their knowledge of the needs of the child and family and what support would respond best to those needs. This forms the basis of a plan or decision from the Hub.

At the end of the discussion about the family the Manager chairing the meeting will summarise the decision of the meeting.

At the end of the discussion about the child and the family you may leave the meeting.

Actions

You may be asked as part of the meeting to take on a task or responsibility within the plan or as an action from the meeting.

You may also be asked to coordinate the plan of support for the child/family as appropriate. More information on the role of the early help co-ordinator can be found in this toolkit.