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Access a Childrens Centre

What is a Children’s Centre?

The core purpose of a Children’s Centre is to improve outcomes for young children and their families, with a particular focus on the most disadvantaged. The centre will work towards equipping the child for life and get them ready for school, no matter of their background or family circumstances. It is a community resource that provides a range of services to support a family. The Children Centres are there to help and support the family.


How does it work?

Each Centre has access to a whole range of professionals including health visitors, midwives, family support workers and early year’s practitioners. They will work closely with the family, identifying their needs so that the advice and support is specific to them.


The services provided will be available all year round for a minimum of 48 weeks a year. Children's centres are ideally sited with or close to a primary school.


What services do they offer?

Children's centres have been developed to meet local needs, typically offering:

  • Childcare and early learning for children aged under 5 years.
  • Access to specialist services – Speech and language therapists,
  • Family and parenting support
  • Health services – Antenatal advice, child health advice, and information on healthy lifestyles.
  • Guidance on returning to work and training.
  • Advice on financial support.


Each Children Centre has a Champion for ‘Children of Offenders’ and they meet on a quarterly basis to discuss good practice. They do welcome contact/joint working with Offender Managers and we are currently looking at ways of improving this link.


How do we make a referral?

Anyone can make a generic referral into a children’s centre. Most children’s centres either have details about referring on their websites or you can ring for a form. The idea is that they are a universal service so all families with under 5s can access what they offer.

For more information: Call: 0845 129 7217

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