The Family Wellbeing Hub - Glasgow's practice

This practice story describes the work and insight gained in Glasgow to empower parents and carers to support children and young people through mental health challenges and suicidal crisis.

The learning from their practice is laid out through the lens of the Time, Space, Compassion principles.

The Challenge

The challenge faced by Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership was that parents and carers of children and young people experiencing mental health difficulties, including suicidal ideation, often feel overwhelmed, isolated, and unsupported.

While services such as CAMHS and Youth Health Service provide vital support to children and young people, parents and carers reported a lack of support for themselves—particularly in understanding their child’s needs, managing behaviours at home, and coping with the emotional strain.

Local services recognised the need for a whole-family wellbeing model but faced challenges in implementation due to limited capacity, siloed working, and a lack of confidence or resources to support parents and carers directly. Their challenge was to create a model that empowered parents and carers as partners in care—without adding pressure to already stretched services—and to do so with minimal funding.

What They Did

The Health and Social Care Partnership co-designed the Family Wellbeing Hub with parents, carers, and 18 partner organisations, including statutory and third sector services. The Family Wellbeing Hub offers:

• A weekly peer support group co-facilitated by Health Improvement, Children 1st, and a trained Parent Carer Peer Support volunteer.

• Through partnerships with local services and organisations expert-led training and awareness sessions on topics such as self-harm, suicide prevention, neurodiversity, trauma, and online harms.

• A support pathway beginning with a 1:1 needs assessment, followed by referrals in to appropriate third sector partners for immediate, proactive, tailored support. In reality this means services call the parent referred rather than the parent needing to call a service.

They addressed risk management collaboratively, ensuring no family falls through service gaps. Their approach is trauma-informed, culturally relevant, and equitable—tailored to the unique needs of each family.

What They Have Learned

On reflecting on this work Glasgow have highlighted the principles of Time, Space, Compassion outlined below as being key:

Accessibility

An open-door policy is in operation at The Hub, allowing parents and carers to self-refer or be referred by partners such as CAMHS, Youth Health Service, and Education. This removes stigma and service barriers. Their welcoming, non-judgemental spaces—whether in-person, online, or by phone—offer flexible support options. The presence of a trained Parent Carer Peer Support volunteer with lived experience had been noted to help build trust and reassurance.

Listening and responding

The Family Wellbeing Hub was co-designed with parents and carers, built on their feedback-such as the inadequacy of being signposted to websites during crisis—and responded by offering direct, face-to-face or phone-based support. It provides practical tools, safety planning (with support from Papyrus), and resilience-building strategies that empower families to manage at home.

Building relationship

The work is rooted in time and compassion, through the offer of space for parents and carers to be heard without expectation or judgement. This fosters trust and connection, both with peers and services. The trauma-informed approach ensures support is delivered in ways that work for each individual.

Making connections

The Family Well-being Hub and its support pathway have strengthened links between statutory and Third Sector services. CAMHS services in some parts of Glasgow now have added time into appointments to ask how the parents/ carers of the child are coping and several services regularly refer families to the Family Well-being Hub, recognising the value of early intervention and wraparound support. This has helped parents and carers feel more confident, less isolated, and better equipped to support their children.

The Impact

For families

Parents and carers report transformational change. They feel more confident, informed, and supported. They’ve learned how to have difficult conversations, implement safety plans, and manage complex needs at home. Peer support has reduced isolation and improved family relationships.

For parents and carers

The project empowers parents and carers to build resilience and reduce reliance on crisis services. One parent, now Scotland’s first trained Parent Carer Peer Support Worker, continues to support others weekly. Parents have also influenced service development, contributed to suicide prevention research, and collaborated with Education to improve support in schools.

For services

Partners such as CAMHS, Youth Health Services and Education now offer enhanced wraparound support, signposting families to early intervention resources. Staff feel more confident supporting parents and carers. The model has influenced service improvement, workforce development, and stronger cross-sector partnerships.

Reflections from members of the Youth Advisory Group on Glasgow’s practice

What they liked:

“The different ways of contacting the service, as some might not be comfortable so it is important to adapt”

“The involvement of lived experience in the implementation and delivery” 

 What they found interesting:

“I really like the multi-agency approach as this ensures that the work reaches a wider audience.”