Introducing: London Family Hubs and Beyond (FHAB)

A shared, London-wide effort to build a common outcomes approach that strengthens family hubs, drives integration, and improves outcomes for all babies, children and young people.

Over the past two years we’ve been working with children’s partnership leaders in London and beyond to explore how they can take more a joined up, outcomes-focussed approach to improving outcomes for babies, children, young people and families.

Background to Family Hubs

Building on the legacy of Sure Start and children’s centres, the family hubs programme was established in 75 local areas from 2021/22.  Family Hubs aimed to give families ‘the support they need, when they need it’ through transforming how services are delivered. They brought together services across a local area, sharing a common purpose to increase access, connections and relationships for families and between, and with, professionals.  

An opportunity to focus on what matters most

Since summer 2024, we’ve worked with the London Family Hubs Community of Practice, using the Common Outcomes Framework as a starting point to develop a consistent, common approach to how outcomes are defined and measured (for family hubs and across wider children’s services and reforms). This work had two key aims:

1. Agree and focus on the outcomes that matter most for babies, children, young people, parents and carers, with the aim of capturing the breadth and depth of our individual and collective contributions within complex and diverse local children’s services systems

2. Maximise the impact of our combined efforts and resources by addressing duplication, streamlining and focusing on core outcomes

Our resources:

Through this work we’ve produced two foundational resources:

1. London Family Hubs and Beyond (FHAB) shared outcomes framework

2. A ‘super spreadsheet’ which links to other outcomes frameworks incorporated into the FHAB framework (Supporting Families, Children’s Social Care, Public Health Outcomes Framework, Local Outcomes Framework).

1. The Family Hubs and Beyond (FHAB) shared framework provides a practical starting point to deliver on the Best Start in Life ambition and wider reform and transformation across local children’s services and partnerships.

It provides a shared outcomes structure and set of indicators most relevant to integrated services across local systems, which can be used to:

• Align multi-agency strategies

• Improve commissioning and accountability

• Support more coherent service design

• Embed a shared, outcomes-focused language across local systems

We have taken this framework through several cycles of testing and development across the country, and our latest iteration incorporates:

• the wider national Common Outcomes Framework, itself informed by an international review of over 20 outcomes frameworks, including Every Child Matters

• The final Local Outcomes Framework published in February 2026

• The updated Children’s Social Care Framework and Dashboard (published in March 2026)

• The final Best Start Family Hubs/Healthy Babies guidance (published in August 2026)

• Feedback from those using the FHAB framework in practice

You can review key updates made to this latest version of the FHAB framework here.

2. The ‘super spreadsheet’

Mapstone and Associates, working with the London Borough of Hackney and the London Borough of Merton, have created accompanying data tools – a ‘super-spreadsheet’ with links to other outcomes frameworks incorporated into the FHAB framework (Supporting Families, Children’s Social Care, Public Health Outcomes Framework, Local Outcomes Framework). The spreadsheet can be set up for each local authority (using the Setup tab) and updated using the link to the LGA’s LGInform tool (using the Update Instructions tab). A video has been created to share the background to and uses of the spreadsheet.

The ‘super-spreadsheet’ hasn’t yet been updated to match the latest (fourth) iteration of the FHAB framework published in September 2026. The Common Outcomes Collaborative continues to explore opportunities to update it and which partner might be best placed to lead this work into the future.

Why we’re proud… and what’s next?

This framework demonstrates the difference it can make when you bring the right people around the table to commit to collaboration and focus on delivering their shared outcomes-focused priorities.

Over the coming months we will be continuing to develop and iterate our core Common Outcomes Framework through and ongoing journey of Test & Learn partnerships.  As well as building on our existing Test & Learn work, including FHAB, we will focus on learning more about Regional work as a bridge between local and national impact, young people and the value of common outcomes approaches to funders, commissioners and impact investors.

If you are interested to learn more, please reach out to us at elaine.fulton@commonoutcomes.org.uk or anna.waldie@commonoutcomes.org.uk