Set up and manage an early years hub

Consider your timing if you're thinking of setting up a local early years hub.

Imminent local or national changes create uncertainty, which can make it more difficult for people to focus on, and invest in, setting up a hub.

It's important to set out a strategic and operational vision for your hub. Clarify the role of the hub and how it will complement and differ from other networks and initiatives, both locally and nationally.

It's also essential to have clear terms of reference, which set out the structure, who is involved, and the responsibilities of different decision-making bodies within the hub.

You might find it useful to look at:

• this example of a vision statement created by the Working Together Hub
• this example of terms of reference used by the Working Together Hub and the Wandle Early Years Hub

Develop a work plan showing what will be done, by whom and by when. Be realistic about what's achievable. The work plan should include both strategic and operational tasks.

You might find it useful to look at:

• this shared delivery plan between the Working Together Hub and London Borough of Newham
• this spreadsheet for getting to know your local community used by the BEYA Hub

An early years hub can act as an impartial ‘broker’ across the sector, providing an opportunity for providers to talk to one another, share good practice and explore challenges.

There are a number of factors that require time and co-ordination, such as:

• bringing people together from across the sector
• engendering trust and mutual respect
• identifying problems and working out solutions

By creating spaces for different settings to meet and talk, hubs can be pivotal in breaking down barriers and helping to create trust and good relationships across sectors.

Identify resources to deliver your work plan and support partnership working. This can include tasks such as:

• identifying potential hub members (type of setting, location, contact details etc.)
• talking to people (providers, partners etc.) about the role and purpose of the hub and the benefits of being involved
• convening meetings
• updating key documents such as the work plan

Each of the Mayor's early years hubs recognised that their work would be more effective if it were coordinated at hub level, but delivered at an even more local level. For example:

• the BEYA Hub set up four mini hubs, each led by a maintained nursery schools and children’s centre
• the Wandle Early Years Hub created three clusters based around maintained nursery schools
• the Working Together Hub developed four networks, each led by a maintained nursery school

The benefits of this approach were that:

• the workload of each hub was more evenly distributed and therefore more manageable
• the hubs were better able to respond to local needs
• local relationships were easier to create and often stronger and more sustainable

Consider who will lead any smaller networks within your hub and what resources and guidance they will need. The BEYA Hub produced a toolkit which it gave to its mini hub leads - this collated useful local information such as:

• agreed responsibilities for the hub and mini hubs
• tips on getting to know your local community and building relationships
• lists of local playgroups, nurseries and schools
• lists of local doctors, dentists and other community spaces where early education could be promoted

You may want to download this engaged settings spreadsheet, used by the hubs to record and monitor which local early years providers had become members.

All three hubs had formal structures that included strategic and operational groups. These acted as focal points and decision-making bodies for their work.

The groups met regularly to monitor and evaluate progress against the programme's aims. They also acted as a vehicle for bringing new and existing partners together.

Think carefully about:

• what structure might suit your local hub circumstances
• the key people and partners you want to drive the work of the hub at a strategic level
• which partners would be better suited to work at a more operational level of hub management
• whether you would benefit from having localised mini hubs or clusters to co-ordinate work in smaller geographical areas within the hub’s catchment area

These examples of terms of reference used by the Working Together Hub and the Wandle Early Years Hub, outline the range of partners that were involved in the hubs’ strategic and operational bodies.

In order to sustain the momentum and interest in their work, the early years hubs learned the importance of:

• listening to the challenges and issues faced by local providers
• developing and delivering activities to address these challenges
• creating opportunities to share good practice, new ideas, resources etc
• maximising opportunities to promote early years - this can be achieved through making links with early help and family support, health and education

The Mayor's early years hubs all worked with an independent evaluator (Diane Dixon Associates) to assess their impact, but you can easily develop your own evaluation framework to help you to do this.

You might find it useful to look at:

• this example evaluation framework created by the Working Together Hub
• Diane Dixon Associates' independent evaluation of the Mayor's Early Years Hubs Programme