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What is a Family Hub and Children’s Centre?

Bedford Borough Family Hubs and Children’s Centres are welcoming places where you and your family can go to enjoy fun, play and learning activities, meet people in your community, ask for advice and learn new skills. From coffee mornings and workshops, to storytelling, cooking, and gardening, there's something for all ages.

Who are Family Hubs and Children’s Centres for?

We are here for all families from the moment you are expecting a child until they turn 19 or, if they have special needs, until they turn 25. We have activities and support for all ages. If you want to meet other parents, want something fun to do with or just need some advice, we can help.

To register with Bedford Borough Family Hubs and Children’s Centres complete our online registration form or pop down to a centre and we can help you with this.

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

Much more is on offer through our Family Hubs Online - Best Start Bedford website and through our ability to connect families with a range of services and professionals across Bedford Borough.

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.

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.

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.

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.

A Parent Partner can get involved in different activities that play an important role in many projects across our services. Activities may include:

• Attending/participating in a meeting (focus groups, steering groups, working groups, strand groups, Children’s Centre Advisory board)
• Joining an interview panel
• Involvement in communications (ie digital media projects such as videos)
• Conducting or completing surveys
• Using local services and sharing feedback from your experience
• Speaking at conference or event (including induction days)
• Sharing a service user story
• Involvement in a strand group, which meets regularly to have oversight of a core function.
• Reviewing online resources, leaflets or documents and sharing feedback.

Why become a Parent Partner?

• Your opinion is very valuable to us; you see things from a different perspective and we would like you to help us make change!
• You can have a say in what our services look like in the future.
• You will gain experience of being part of project groups that could give you skills to add to your CV.
• We value your time and contribution and will recognise this in line with our Reward and Recognition for Parent Partners Policy. We’ve set out some of the useful information below.

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! Become a Parent Partner.

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
• 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! Become a Parent Partner

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:

• 18 September
• 2, 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