Family Hubs news

Oldham's Family Hubs have quietly become the place parents turn to when nappies, bedtime stories or simply a kind word feel out of reach. Over the past twelve months the council-backed centres have handed out more than 170 coats and sleeping bags, run 10-week courses that leave dads saying their outlook has 'changed', and sat with mums who arrived crying and left able to 'stay calm in difficult situations'.

The help arrives in small, practical bursts. In October, Our Community Wardrobe emptied rails of winter clothes inside the hubs so 100 families could leave with warmer layers; one mother received a replacement pram on the spot. A literacy project that began in Royton primary schools before Christmas saw children practise writing wish lists while parents learned how to stretch a story across bath-time, a tweak that one mother says has her daughter 'coming out of her shell'.

Behind the giveaways are people who were once sceptical themselves. John Taylor, a single father who says he was 'on the brink', now tells other solo parents the hubs are 'life-changing'. Joshua Bardsley, diagnosed with autism at 21, credits the Play, Learn, Grow course for the bond he now has with his three-year-old.

The first hub, still less than two years old, has already logged thousands of visits and council planners are consulting on six more sites. Staff say the most common request is simply 'someone to talk to'; the second most common is a size-4 coat. With winter returning, the wardrobe appeal has restarted and organisers expect rails to empty as quickly as they fill.

No one claims the hubs fix every pressure facing families in Oldham, but for parents like Louise Hall-who finished the 10-week parenting course and realised 'I don't cry all the time like I used to'-they offer a place to breathe. The council will weigh consultation responses early this year and decide where the next door should open. Until then, the current seven hubs keep their kettle on and the lost-and-found box ready for anyone who walks in.