About Us

Meet the Team

The Family Centres have 21 members of staff across eight sites. Our staff work within four teams throughout the service these are, the Management Team, Early Years Practitioners, Family Centre Support Workers and Receptionist/Sign Posters. We work closely with partners, keeping up to date on local service provision that could support families of Southend on Sea.

Management Team

The managers lead, support and guide the Early Years Practitioners, Family CentrevSupport Workers and Receptionist/Sign Posters to maximise key strengths and skill sets to provide the best possible services to families.

Early Years Practitioners

The Early Years Practitioners provide high quality learning experiences to children and their families to enhance and support child development. This is delivered through a variety of universal learning through play sessions and informative workshops. They have a wealth of knowledge on child health, behaviour and development.

Family Centre Support

The Family Support team offers a homebased support service providing intervention, support and guidance to strengthen families resilience and overcome challenges. In addition the team provide a range of services through targetted delivery such as parenting programmes, domestic abuse courses and family support drop in.

Receptionist/Sign Posters

The receptionist/sign posters are the first point of contact for the families and partners accessing our services and centres. The receptionist/sign posters are responsible for the day to day running of these sites. Ensuring the saftey and wellbeing of all those accessing. Collecting data from families through registrations and registers of each session to demonstrate family centre usage.

Jo Houston a white woman with blonde hair smiling at the camera.

Family Centre Manager

Jo is responsible for the day to day running and oversees all the staff within the Family Centres. Responsible person for Health, Safety and Safeguarding in the Family Centres.

Senior Family Centre Support Worker

Mary is a Safeguarding Lead for Southend Family Centres and oversees the Family Centre Support Team including workshop delivery.