Family Hubs – Best Start Bedford Borough is a one-stop-shop for parents and carers to find information, ideas and support for your family, no matter what the age of your children.
If you are looking for something to do, help for your family, or just an answer to a question we have information to support learning, health, development, emotional wellbeing and much more.
What Family Hubs do
Family Hubs act as one-stop shops where families can access a wide variety of services designed to meet their everyday needs. These hubs offer support with healthcare, education and more, all under one roof.
The role of Children’s Centres
Children’s Centres focus primarily on helping young children thrive. They offer programs and resources tailored to promote early childhood development, including activities that support learning, health, and emotional wellbeing.
How they work together
By teaming up, we create a network of support that makes life a little easier for families. We share resources, coordinate programs, and often even share space, ensuring that families can get all the help they need in one place.
Benefits for families
This close collaboration brings many benefits to families:
- Easier access: With services available in one place or through coordinated referrals.
- Holistic support: Families receive more comprehensive support that addresses a range of needs.
- Better outcomes: When services are integrated and coordinated, children and families tend to experience better outcomes.
By working together, Family Hubs and Children’s Centres create a nurturing environment where children can flourish, and families can thrive. Their combined efforts ensure that every family has access to the resources, support, and guidance they need to build a strong foundation for the future.
Where are the Family Hubs and Children’s Centres?
We have centres across the whole of Bedford:
- Queens Park Family Hub, Marlborough Road, MK40 4LE
- Pine Cones Family Hub, Slade Walk, MK41
- Peter Pan Children's Centre, Edward Road, MK42 9DR
- Daisy Hill Children's Centre, Hillgrounds Road, MK42 8QH
- Kingsbrook Children's Centre, Cavin Way, MK42 0HL
- Cherry Trees Children's Centre, Hawkins Road MK42 9LS
- Goldington Children's Centre, 28 Meadway, MK41 9HU
- Lakeview Village Hall, 155-160 Brooklands Avenue, MK42 6BE
What happens at a Family Hub and Children’s Centre?
We have a full timetable for 0-5 year olds and we are working hard to introduce activities for older children. Most of our sessions are free or low cost and many are drop in, so there is no need to book. Find out what’s on in Bedford Borough on our Family Hubs Website.
We also offer bookable activities, workshops and courses for families, children and young people aged 0-19 (or 25 with SEND) and these can be booked on our Eventbrite page.
You can find regular updates on things to do, information and ideas to help families in the local area on our Family Hubs and Children’s Centre Facebook page and by signing up to receive our half-termly newsletter straight to your inbox.
Activities and services running from the Family Hubs and Children’s Centres:
- Play, learn and exploration activities for babies and children aged 0-11.
- Workshops and short courses to help you with all aspects of parenting and supporting your child’s development such as toilet training, feeding and understanding behaviour.
- Well-being and mental health support for children, young people and adults.
- Support for parents who are breastfeeding and want to meet others and have the chance to ask for advice.
- Dads' and family groups at the weekend.
- Quiet sessions and support groups for children with SEND.
- Baby Massage and Baby Yoga to help you bond with baby.
- Help and advice with the everyday challenges as a parent.
Find out more on Family Hubs - Best Start Bedford.
How can I get in touch?
You can email us for more information on familyhubs@bedford.gov.uk or send us a message via our Family Hubs and Children’s Centre Facebook or Instagram pages and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
If you’d like to speak to someone please call us on 0300 323 0245 (8.30am-4.30pm Monday-Friday) or the Family Information service on 0800 023 2057 (open Monday-Friday 9-4pm with a 24 hour answerphone service).
How do you know what families want?
In the summer of 2023, we completed a local Needs Assessment to find out. This meant working with lots of local families and organisations through conversations, surveys and focus groups.
Download the Needs Assessment Executive Summary (PDF) to read more about what we found. We are using this information to help us shape the vision for Family Hubs and local family services moving forward.
In May 2024 we also sent out our Annual Survey of all parents and carers in Bedford Borough, with over 300 responses this gave us some great feedback on how we were doing and how we can improve.
You can read and download the Family Hubs and Children's Centres Annual Survey report (PDF).
We also have our Family Hub and Children’s Centre Parent Partners who are parents like you, who work with us to develop and shape our services.
Can I help?
Yes! We want our Family Hubs and Children’s Centres in Bedford Borough to be right for parents and their families and the only way we can make sure we are doing that is to have you involved.
- Volunteer or work at our Family Hubs and Children’s Centres.
- Become a Parent Partner. Parent partners help us to develop, improve and understand the needs of local families click on the link and fill in a short form if you would like to join us!
Anything else?
We are working with the bpha and Faith in Queens Park to run Café Connect – Queens Park. This is a community café at the Community Centre on 52 Marlborough Road, Queens Park, MK40 4LF.
The café is run by local volunteers offering home-cooked food to buy at a low price as well as free tea, coffee and biscuits. It happens every two weeks on Wednesdays, in term-time, from 12.15-2.15pm.
There are activities for young children and adults and many local services join us regularly give information on the support available and to run activities for children and adults.
The café is running on the following dates in 2024/25:
- 16 October
- 6, 20 November
- 4 December
- 15, 29 January
- 12, 26 February
- 23, April
- 7, 21 May
- 4, 18 June
- 2, 16 July
GDPR and privacy statements
View the full privacy statement for Family Hubs and Children's Centres