HSC is partnering with Bright Beginnings and other charities to explore how future children’s centres and family hub services can be better designed and delivered.
To help facilitate better services for families, Health and Social Care will provide Bright Beginnings with a one-off grant of £60,000, to ensure its financial sustainability and the continued delivery of children’s services throughout this year.
The funding is specifically aimed at supporting the Children’s Centre strand of the charity.
“Bright Beginnings was founded in response to the 1001 Critical Days Agenda and all our services are linked to our vision that every child has the best start in life,” explained Rachel Copeland, Bright Beginnings Chair of Board of Directors.
“Our experienced staff support families with a wide range of challenges, and also receive referrals from professionals, including health visitors, midwives, doctors and social workers, who recognise the positive impact we have on parental mental health and therefore children’s outcomes.
“This generous grant from HSC will allow us to keep providing crucial early help and prevention to families in Guernsey, and we look forward to working in partnership with the States of Guernsey to explore the further development of services in the future.”
Bright Beginnings provides support through pregnancy, birth, and beyond, whilst the Children’s Centre strand focuses on supporting children and their caregivers from conception, up to age four.
HSC said this work is a crucial piece of the early years jigsaw, filling important gaps for families in Guernsey.
“Bright Beginnings Children’s Centre provides early help to enable children to have a happy, healthy childhood,” said a spokesperson for HSC.
“This helps to give children the best start in life and to grow into adults who can contribute effectively to society.”
Guernsey’s Political lead for the charity sector, Deputy Heidi Soulsby said the charity’s work deserves support.
“Bright Beginnings is another example of an excellent local charity that provides invaluable services to our community and does so at such a crucial time for children and caregivers.
“We now have an opportunity to consider what we want these services to look like going forward so that they can best support our children and families. This is a discussion we need to have with organisations like Bright Beginnings, on a co-design basis, given their expertise and passion for the work they do.
“We’ll be considering whether there’s an opportunity to commission some of these services to meet the needs of our community in the most efficient and impactful way. This has the potential to add to the many commissioned services we already have in place which exist as partnerships between the States of Guernsey and the charity sector for the benefit of islanders.”
Deputy Marc Leadbeater, HSC’s Vice-President agreed that what Bright Beginnings does is vital for the community.
“Bright Beginnings is a much-loved and highly valued organisation that has supported, and continues to support, some of the youngest members of our community and those who have the vital responsibility of caring for them.
“We already work closely with the charity on a number of different initiatives and so through this funding and the future discussions that will take place, we’re pleased to be able to support the charity in the crucial work that they do.”