Why Community Matters: Understanding What Children and Families Want and Need from Early Help in Wirral
The Community Matters project explored what children and families in Wirral need from Early Help services. Between June and November 2019, Capacity engaged with 447 children, young people, parents, carers and professionals across Wirral, through interviews, focus groups and surveys. Families emphasised the importance of human connection over formal services, highlighting unmet mental health needs, social isolation and challenges during life changes. Barriers included fear, shame and fragmented support. The insights informed the co-design of the Family Toolbox Alliance, launched in 2022, providing a community-driven model and a single online access point to empower families with practical and emotional support.
Insights gathered: June 2019 - November 2019
Insights gathered by
Capacity
Aim
To support a shift in Wirral’s approach to Early Help for families, the Community Matters engagement project aimed to understand:
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The experience of being a parent, carer, young person or member of the community in Wirral.
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What do families do when they face challenges and how effective do they feel existing support is?
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What additional experiences or opportunities may help families to feel happier and healthier in their communities?
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What helps or prevents families accessing support?
People engaged with
The project engaged with a total of 447 people, including children, young people, parents, carers and professionals across all nine neighbourhoods of Wirral. 51% of participants were children and young people, aged 8 to 25 years, from mainstream, special and alternative education settings, as well as youth groups, children who are looked after and care leavers.
Methods
Participants primarily shared their views via face-to-face semi-structured interviews, focus groups and online questionnaires. Engagements took place in schools, community centres, community cafes and social supermarkets. In addition, door knocking took place with support from Community Connectors to reach people who do not typically access support services.
Deep dive engagements were carried out with families living in specific Lower Super Output Areas. The LSOAs (below) were chosen as they have the same rates of deprivation, yet half have high children’s social care usage, while half have comparatively low rates of children’s social care usage.
Highest rates of social care usage: Birkenhead Central, Bidston St. James East, Seacombe St. Pauls, Birkenhead East Float, Hamilton Square.
Lower rates of social care usage: Egremont Promenade South, Beechwood South, Lingham Park West, Lingham Park East, Noctorum Central.
Key insights
Wirral residents were unanimous in their feedback: they don’t want traditional “services”. Children and families shared hundreds of examples of wonderful support that they’d received in Wirral; when they spoke, they rarely described programmes or pathways, they described people.
From teachers and GPs to staff and volunteers in third sector organisations or next-door neighbours, human beings are creating lifesaving networks across the borough, and families want more of this. They ask, “could volunteer and other peer-based experiences that can give me more time and organic support that changes as I change, play a bigger role?”
1. Main challenges that participants described and what needs to be done:
Mental Health: Children and families across Wirral identified a wide range of unmet mental health needs, from anxiety and low mood to severe mental illness that they felt current services did not have capacity to support. People across the life course need more accessible, low-cost mental health support, from cultural activities and peer-based wellbeing groups to respite and therapeutic care.
Social Isolation: Many families described times where a lack of meaningful connection to others meant their problems had quickly escalated or opportunities for more informal support were missed. It is important to create the conditions which help build meaningful relationships between people and create experiences that whole families can take part in.
Managing Change: Adults and children described personal experiences where additional support during times of significant change could have helped address problems before they escalated. Many families want extra help when life suddenly changes; clearer information, peer support groups and trusted people who can offer both practical and emotional support.
Supporting Children with Additional Needs: Many of the families spoken to raising children with additional needs described the need for more inclusive, whole-family experiences. They would like to get support from others in a similar life situations and to gather knowledge and information, particularly before a formal diagnosis has been made by professionals.
2. Barriers to accessing support:
Fear and shame: Families described the embarrassment that came with ‘needing early help’.
Services at Breaking Point: Despite the best intentions of many services, residents said that professionals are often reacting to crisis, not preventing problems before they escalate.
Wrong Time, Wrong Place: Many families spoken to want Early Help support that is closer to home, preventing the need for costly travel and transport.
Communicating Too Late, or Not at All: Families wanted well connected services, so they did not need to keep repeating their story to different organisations or finding support when it was already too late.
Quotes
“Help our parents look after themselves, so that they can look after us.”
“Take on board the reality of my situation without being over-whelmed or referring me on.”
How have the insights been used/shared?
Using the insights on what families did and did not want from a new model of Early Help in Wirral, Capacity worked with communities, funders and Wirral Council to co-design a new model of Early Help. The result of the work was the April 2022 launch of a new approach called the ‘Family Toolbox Alliance’ made up of a group of seven local, third sector organisations who wanted to promote a better approach to delivering Early Help in Wirral. Capacity worked with Wirral Council to make sure this model was commissioned as 5–9-year contract, giving everyone the chance to truly test the approach. Alongside the core Alliance, the Capacity team worked with families to design, develop and launch a unique support tool – The Family Toolbox Website. The site is a single point of access platform that aims to empower and enable families to find tools and support.
Online links
To see the full report of findings, visit: https://thisiscapacity.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Enc.-2-for-Early-Help-Model.pdf
To read more about the outcome and impact of the work, see the ‘Transforming Early Help in Wirral: The Start of the Family Toolbox Story’ report here: https://thisiscapacity.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/CAP-CommunityMatters-ImpactStory-2022-A5-V4.pdf
For more information on Early Help in Wirral, visit: https://www.wirral.gov.uk/health-and-social-care/childrens-social-care/early-help