The Challenge

City and Hackney has a rich ecosystem of services supporting children, young people and families. The challenge is not a lack of provision — it is how people find, understand and move between services.

Families told us that discovering what support exists can feel exhausting. Information is spread across council websites, NHS pages, leaflets, social media posts and informal networks, with no clear sense of what is current or reliable. One parent described it as “having to do detective work just to work out what’s out there.”

Others worried about what they might be missing. A parent visiting a library told us they were concerned that if their child wasn’t already in nursery, they wouldn’t know how to navigate the process of starting school. Another explained that they only felt confident because their local children’s centre actively shared information and helped them join things up.

Young people described similar frustrations when accessing mental health support. Finding the right service, understanding waiting times, and knowing what would happen next all took energy at moments when they were already struggling. A parent of a child with additional needs summed up the emotional cost: trying to find support can become so consuming that “it ends up costing people their jobs.”

Professionals felt the strain too. Practitioners often act as connectors, bridging gaps through personal knowledge and relationships. But many told us that digital information is hard to keep up to date, duplicated across multiple systems, and unclear in terms of ownership. As one stakeholder reflected,

The underlying challenge was systemic:

Any meaningful strategy needed to reflect this reality, rather than trying to simplify it away.

Background

Hackney Council, the City of London and their partners are working within a wider ambition to improve outcomes for children, young people and families by strengthening collaboration across health, care and community services.

This includes goals to:

Previous discovery and service improvement work had taken place across parts of the system, but insights were often held locally or focused on individual services. Phase 1 of this work was designed to bring those insights together and create a shared foundation for future change.

The scope included:

Crucially, the work acknowledged that this is not a problem with a single, permanent solution. The ecosystem is complex, relational and constantly evolving. The strategy therefore needed to support adaptability and learning, rather than prescribing a rigid end state.

Our approach

We took a human-centred, collaborative and place-based approach, working closely with partners and communities throughout.

Grounding the work in real journeys

To focus the research, we explored three life journeys where timing, trust and access to information are critical:

For each journey, we looked at experiences of both high and low digital access, recognising that confidence, connectivity and choice vary widely. This helped teams understand how the same system can feel supportive to one family and inaccessible to another.

An expectant parent described the first trimester as “really lonely”, with information available but few informal networks in place. Young people told us they wanted to understand mental health support before reaching crisis point, not only once they were already struggling.

Meeting people where they are

Research took place in libraries and community spaces. Places families already trust and use. These locations consistently emerged as the “real front door” to services. One parent explained that their local children’s centre was invaluable because staff could tell them what was happening locally and help them connect the dots.

Digitally, families described similar patterns. Many said they wouldn’t browse a council website for children’s activities, but would follow a local Instagram account or WhatsApp group if it showed what was happening nearby. As one parent put it, “I’m not going to go looking for leaflets…just show me what’s on where I already am.”

Working openly with the system

Alongside resident research, we worked closely with professionals across council, NHS and VCS organisations. We explored:

We shared learning regularly through show-and-tell sessions, creating space for challenge and reflection. This helped build shared ownership and avoided the sense that solutions were being developed in isolation.

From fixed answers to learning

Rather than producing traditional recommendations, we introduced a missions and experiments model:

This approach recognised uncertainty as a given and supported progress without requiring everything to be solved upfront.

What we learnt

Several clear insights emerged.

Place really matters.
Families strongly associate services with physical places they know and trust — libraries, schools, GP surgeries and children’s centres. Digital access works best when it reinforces these local connections rather than trying to replace them.

Word of mouth is powerful, but uneven.
People rely heavily on friends, parent groups and practitioners. This works well for some, but leaves others out, particularly people who are new to the area or less connected.

Websites are not used in the way the owners think they are.
Most residents use council websites transactionally. Practitioners, on the other hand, rely on them heavily, which increases pressure to keep content accurate and current.

Quality beats quantity.
Out-of-date or unreliable information actively discourages engagement. One parent told us that as soon as something is digital, the quality “can be all over the place”, and that inconsistency quickly erodes trust.

There is no single front door.
What’s needed is a clearer, more connected set of pathways — a “front window” that actually opens, helping people move smoothly between services.

Perhaps most importantly, the work highlighted how much goodwill and effort already exists across the system. The strategy needed to support that effort, not add to the burden.

The outcome

Phase 1 delivered a robust, shared evidence base and a clear strategic foundation for the next stages of work.

The outcomes include:

Most importantly, the strategy provides City and Hackney with a way forward that is realistic, flexible and human-centred. One that recognises complexity, values collaboration, and keeps children, young people and families at the centre of decision-making as the work moves into future phases.

Beyond the project

What this means for other councils and systems

Many local authorities and health systems are grappling with the same challenge:
services are there, people care deeply, but information and access don’t always line up with how residents actually live their lives.

This work shows that improving digital access doesn’t start with building a new platform. It starts with understanding people, places and relationships — and designing strategies that can adapt as systems change.