Who are We:

Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service is led by an experienced strategic leadership team who are dedicated and passionate about transforming the lives of children, young people and families.

Our Senior Leadership team comes with a wealth of knowledge across a range of different fields including Health, Social Care, Public Health and Early Years and we work together to set the strategic direction and priorities of the services within Essex.

Our Values

Our values are our moral compass and core to our DNA. They underpin the way we deliver our services and treat those who use our services.

Too many organisations values are just words which don’t translate into reality of the day to day.

At Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service, our values flow through everything that we do, they define who we are, what we stand for and set the expectations of our colleagues, communities, customers and partners.

They have been defined by our colleagues and have been integral to our journey so far and will be integral to our future as well.

What we offer:

HCRG Care Group deliver a ‘Family Hub’ service in partnership with Barnardo’s across Essex. It is named locally as the Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service (ECFWS) and it is commissioned by Essex County Council (ECC).
The services provided by the Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service began on 01 April 2017.
Pre-Birth to 19 Years (up to 25 for those with SEND)
A large part of the ECFWS service that we operate includes the delivery of integrated child and family services across Essex for pre-birth to 19 years (PB19)
These are made up of services historically referred to as:
  • 0-5 Healthy Child Programme
  • Healthy Schools Programme
  • 5-19 Healthy Child Programme
  • Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support up to 25 years
  • Children in Care
  • Safeguarding Services
  • Management of Family Hubs and satellite Healthy Family Delivery Sites (previously known as Children’s Centres).
All of these activities have been gathered under a single family hub service offer and are now collectively known as the ‘Essex Child & Family Wellbeing Service.’ We deliver them across Essex (excluding Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, which are separate unitary authorities).
The services are delivered and managed within four geographical Essex quadrants that mirror the
local government districts:
  • Mid (Braintree, Chelmsford, Maldon)
  • North (Colchester, Tendring)
  • South (Basildon, Brentwood, Rochford, Castle Point)
  • West (Epping Forest, Harlow, Uttlesford)
Children and young people can access services up to the age of 19 years or for SEND families up to
the age of 25 years.
All face-to-face services are provided by 29 integrated, geographically based multidisciplinary teams (HFTs) which include colleagues from both HCRG Care Group and Barnardo’s.
All services and activities are outcome focused and are designed to meet one or more of the 27
outcome measures that have been commissioned to us.
As part of our delivery of this service, we have three sub-contracts in place with Essex-based charities. These are:
  • Youth Enquiry Service (YES)
  • Home-Start North Essex (Colchester and Harwich)
  • Home-Start Essex

Talk to Us

Our Community Engagement team are always seeking to support the local needs of the area and want to know what families need and want. You can contribute to this knowledge through regular feedback in sessions, talking to staff and taking part in the regular surveys, questionnaires or quarterly Talk to Us sessions or events offered in your area or by simply talking to a Community Connector about your ideas. For more information on how to Talk to Us and to get involved in designing a service for you and your community please contact us on the numbers below.
To contact us please call:
  • 0300 247 0013 (South Essex)
  • 0300 247 0014 (Mid Essex)
  • 0300 247 0015 (North Essex)

Community work

In Essex we have four Community Engagement Teams led by our experienced Hub Coordinators and Community Connectors.

The team works closely with our Healthy Family Teams to identify community need in their local areas and offers support to the Community.Our Community Engagement Teams work with local partners and can help families with a range of resources, advice or support such as:

  • Helping to access local food banks
  • Helping to access support with the Cost of Living
  • Identifying local needs and signposting families to community activities
  • Helping to set up community activities
  • Supporting local community groups with information about our services
  • Providing networking opportunities
  • Providing volunteering opportunities
  • Working with appropriate partners to provide needs led, topical or seasonal events
Our teams have a wealth of knowledge about the local area and provision for families and share their expertise with individuals, families and other groups and partners.

Volunteers play a vital role in the Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service. They perform essential, supportive tasks complementary to those undertaken by our paid staff. Their role is an enriching one, which benefits everybody: service users; staff; and the volunteers themselves. We simply couldn’t reach as many children, young people and their families without volunteers.

Why volunteer with us?

Essex Child and Family Wellbeing Service delivers services across Colchester, Tendring, Maldon, Chelmsford, Harlow, Loughton, Billericay and Basildon – to name a few.

Services are delivered from purpose built Family Hubs, as well as Delivery Sites, community buildings, family homes and other convenient locations.

Our volunteers support our vision across the service, guiding people to learn new skills, develop their existing experience and knowledge, improving their confidence and self-esteem while giving something back to the local community.

We encourage our volunteers to have fun by doing something rewarding and enabling children and young people to have a better start in life.A volunteer role is an enriching one, which benefits everybody: users of our services, staff, donors and the volunteers themselves. We simply couldn’t reach as many children, young people and their families without volunteers.

How to become a volunteer?

You can make an enquiry by emailing or phoning one of the volunteer coordinators using the contact details below, speaking to a member of staff or contacting one of the Family Hubs. We will ask you to complete a short application form.

Once the application form has been completed, one of our Volunteer Coordinators will contact you to arrange an informal interview. If successful, we will need to run a DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) and carry out reference checks (minimum of two).

Once you have DBS clearance and satisfactory references have been returned, we will invite you to complete volunteer induction training where you will cover the necessary modules needed to volunteer within our service.
Please be advised this process can take up to 4 – 12 weeks.

Volunteer roles available

There are a variety of roles available to volunteers across our Essex services. If you think you have a particular skill or interest that could be used to benefit the families we support and the work we do, please get in touch.
Some examples of roles available:
  • Assist in busy sessions focusing on child development and play, for example, music and movement, messy play, or arts and crafts
  • Self-weigh sessions: sign-in families, show new families around the centre and provide information on Family Hub services and support available, support new mums and their babies through the early stages of parenthood.
  • Admin support: Assist admin staff with photocopying timetables and leaflets, laminating resources and scanning information
  • Meet and greet: Welcome families, sign in and register families, provide information about activities and services, answer the telephone
  • Other support: Other roles include gardening, supporting one-off events or a Family Hub Champion
The volunteering opportunities which Barnardo’s currently have available, can be found here.

There are many benefits to becoming a volunteer

  • Gain valuable life experience and skills
  • Build confidence and self-esteem
  • Gain new skills and support learning, training or studying opportunities
  • Develop knowledge and experience to support a return to paid employment
  • Access to Barnardo’s staff benefits
  • Opportunity to set up and run your own group / session
  • Be rewarded and recognised through Barnardo’s Reward and Recognition scheme
  • Satisfaction in helping others
  • Meet new people
  • All volunteers are offered full training and support, and an opportunity to develop new skills in a friendly environment.