Health and wellbeing alliances (hubs)
- Coordinated interagency approach with shared responsibilities and resources; co-located on NSW public school sites;
- Often staffed with a Hub Coordinator who manages referrals and bookings and provides advice if needed to link students and their families to the appropriate supports
- Located in purpose built or refurbished consultation spaces where school staff and external services offer students additional supports
- The range of services vary depending upon the needs identified and service availability within the community.
- Provide additional supports to address known or emerging complex health care and/or wellbeing issues in the community, or to address a lack of access to services
- Geographically isolated communities where there can be very few services and public transport expenditure can be expensive or limited may choose to set up a ‘hub’ approach to overcome barriers.
- Supports students and their families to navigate the health system
- Students’ health care needs can be triaged with students receive greater access to the services they need
- Reduced time away from school to travel to specialist appointments
- Increased school community engagement with external service providers.
- Significant resources are needed to establish, coordinate and sustain ‘hubs’
- Sustainability of services may be reliant on external providers. In some communities services and/or personnel can change frequently, impacting continuity of service
- Fit for purpose spaces are not available on all school sites and costing can be prohibitive
- Coordination and governance require large investments of time, including asset management and legalities
- Roles need to be well defined with a shared understanding of purpose and value add
- Staff capabilities need to be built across systems working together to support students
- Health and safety issues need to be carefully considered when providing public access to ‘hubs’
- Ensuring the right legal agreements are in place
- Schools may require support to embed evaluation practices.
- External health and wellbeing services that operate out of school ‘hubs’ include Headspace, social workers, not-for-profit organisations, youth workers, art and music therapists and dietitians
- Most services rotate days to be on site; working one to two days a week which allows for a variety of services to access consultation spaces
- Connecting outdoor spaces through yarning cycles, kitchen and sensory gardens and other nature experiences
- Creating cultural safe and welcoming spaces for all students; personalising internal spaces through student design and art.