| A brand-new Family Hub – Manchester’s fourth – officially opened its doors this week and is set to make a big difference to families in Gorton, providing support and advice to parents, carers and young people themselves through to early adulthood. |
| The Sacred Heart Family Hub is the latest family hub to open in the city and will act as a one-stop-shop where families with tots to teens can access a wide range of services, making it easier to get the help they need, when they need it.
Support and guidance is available through the hub for families with children of all ages, as well as for older teenagers aged up to 19. Young adults who have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) are able to access advice and support through the centre for longer, up to the age of 25. Services available include everything from birth registration, midwifery and maternity services, to infant feeding and breastfeeding support, and Manchester Health Visiting Service. The hub can also assist families in making applications for nursery, primary and secondary school places for their children, and will be offering youth and play activities for young people. Parents and carers needing practical support and advice to help them deal with wider concerns can also get Early Help and parenting support through the hub, along with debt and welfare advice, and support for anyone experiencing domestic abuse. Families are also able to access Manchester Adult Education courses via the Hub, including classes in English language for speakers of other languages (ESOL), with information also available about other adult education courses in the wider local area. With more than 136,000 young people aged 0-19 in Manchester, Sacred Heart Family Hub is the fourth such hub to open in the city, all of them aimed at making sure families and young adults get the vital support they need when they need it. It follows the opening of three family hubs across the city last year in Longsight, Cheetham and Wythenshawe. They are part of a broader five-year action plan called Making Manchester Fairer, which aims to address inequalities in the city that can start early on in life and even affect how long people live for, and their opportunities around work and housing. The plan also includes work around tackling cost of living pressures and poverty, which are also integral to improving health and wellbeing. The Sacred Heart Family Hub sits at the centre of a wider local network of sites in the Gorton, Abbey Hey and Openshaw area that brings together services for families with children of all ages up to 19 or 25 for young adults with SEND. Councillor Julie Reid said: “As a parent and a grandparent myself I know how hard it can be navigating family life and everything that comes with it. Having all this support in one place and on their doorstep – somewhere they can go for in-person advice and extra support when they need it – is going to make a massive difference to local families in the area.” The Sacred Heart Family Hub is at Glencastle Road, Gorton, M18 7NE. |
Manchester’s fourth family hub opens for Gorton families
