Cornwall Council is launching a new service aimed at improving support for young people and families.

From today, health visitors, school nurses and speech and language therapists will transfer from the NHS Cornwall Foundation Trust to join a new integrated council service: Together for Families.

This new initiative has been developed as a result of feedback from staff, children, young people and families in Cornwall who have said they want a streamlined service where they can get all the help they need.

Cornwall Council’s portfolio holder for children and wellbeing, Sally Hawken said: “First and foremost, we want to deliver a better experience for all those parents, carers and children who access education, health and social care services in Cornwall.

“This important change is the culmination of dedicated work by our early teams, together with the health staff who are joining us and our partners throughout Cornwall since the autumn of 2017. I am confident that Cabinet has made the right decision and together we will be able to further improve the help we give to children and families.

“We are committed to doing our best for families at a time of increasing national concern about financial pressures on services for children; across our Schools, Health and Social Care Services. We are experiencing increased demand for our services as families come under greater pressures due to austerity. We believe that by bringing these services together we are better placed to meet those needs.”

Access to over 20 services will remain via the Early Help Hub and Care Management Centre.

Parents and carers are encouraged to get in touch if they have any questions or concerns about the changes. Email addresses for Health Visitors and School Nurses will remain the same for the time being, before they are changed to Cornwall Council email addresses.

People will be notified of any changes "in good time".

Sally Hawken added: “We are enormously proud our children’s services and what they have achieved in incredibly challenging circumstances. However, we must not be complacent. We are motivated by an ambition to further improve the quality and effectiveness of services for children, young people and families in Cornwall. Today’s announcement is part of that commitment.

“Health visitors and school nurses play such a crucial part in identifying families experiencing difficulties and bringing their expertise in children’s health and development to help them to overcome those difficulties. Bringing them together with our early help services will offer families an even better service.”

Health visiting team coordinator, Tracey Hancock, said: “Health visitors and school nurses are looking forward to joining their colleagues in the new health and wellbeing service – as part of the new directorate. We will get even better at providing a collaborative multi-disciplinary approach to support the needs of children and families in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly that is designed to meet their needs even more effectively than we already do.

“We are excited about the opportunity to build on the foundation of the multi-agency One Vision Partnership Plan in ensuring that education, health and social care practitioners are able to work together to support children and families without the obstacles of organisational boundaries and referral systems. The shared recording system and co-location of different practitioners will play a major part in helping us to achieve this."

Some Health Visitors and School Nurses will be moving to new bases. The changes to bases are as follows. Sites not listed will remain unchanged:

Falmouth Packet: Falmouth Packet:

Clinics and schools where health visitors and schools nurses meet with their parents, carers, children and young people will remain the same.