Since the beginning of the year I realise that these columns have covered pretty weighty topics like balancing our budget, our bid for devolution and how we are trying to improve our work with children with special educational needs.

But at the same time as the county council has been addressing these topics, our day-to-day work has been continuing and I'd like to look at a couple of completely unrelated areas this week.

Firstly, for those of you who may be parents or grandparents of young children, we're asking for your input to help shape the way we support young families.

At the moment our Children's Centres provide mostly targeted support for youngsters from birth to eight years old. But the Government wants to see a national change from Children's Centres to Family Hubs where there won't only be targeted support for those who need it most but some universal support for all youngsters up to the age of 19 and up to 25 for those with special needs. This is part of the Start for Life national programme. 

Currently we commission the charity Action for Children to run our children’s centres in Devon. The charity is already working with Plymouth and Torbay councils to help their transition to family hubs and we're enlisting that expertise in Devon. 

But we're also hoping that local community groups will also want to get involved and work together to help young families.

The sort of services which will be provided in the new family hubs will depend on the needs of local families but could include early years services and education, public health nursing and midwifery,  drug, alcohol and domestic abuse support, mental health support and youth services. 

To start with, family hubs are likely to be located where the need is greatest with outreach services extending into local communities.

We want to develop and expand partnerships with voluntary groups and charities to ensure that the support families receive is easier to access, more joined up and responds to what is needed.

The consultation is open until March 23 and you can have your say at www.devon.gov.uk/haveyoursay/consultations/family-hubs-engagement

I did say that the second item was unrelated but I think it's equally good news.

And I can report that 10,000 trees are being planted this winter through the community planting scheme that is being rolled out across Devon with the help of the local, not-for-profit social enterprise ParkLife South West.

This initiative is being carried out alongside the planting of 2,250 trees this season by landowners and communities who successfully applied to the Free Tree scheme.

It’s the third and final year that we have received support for the scheme through the Emergency Tree Fund operated by The Woodland Trust.

Since we first piloted our Free Tree Scheme in 2019 - and combining all of our tree planting initiatives - we have planted just over 48,200 trees in all as part of the continuing efforts to meet our target of becoming net zero carbon by 2030.

So I want to say a big thank you to all of those individuals, communities and landowners who have supported us in planting thousands more trees this winter. This fantastic effort which will make a really positive difference for our county.

These community planting schemes are encouraging landowners and communities to plant native broadleaved trees. This helps to support wildlife, improves our local landscapes and helps to reduce carbon emissions.

You can join the volunteers who’ve already signed up to help with the tree planting and register an interest  by emailing parklifesw@gmail.com or visiting https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/parklife-south-west-cic-58873720283