Many early years settings offer a wide range of support services for parents – from family learning programmes to health checks and financial advice. This article tells you more about the types of services that may be available at early years settings.

Middleton Neighbourhood Nursery

Hope Hawksworth, Nursery Manager, Middleton Neighbourhood Nursery

In 2001, the government launched the Neighbourhood Nursery Initiative to provide new, much-needed and affordable childcare services in the most disadvantaged parts of the country. The aim of the initiative was to enable parents and carers to return to work or education – and therefore help tackle child poverty – as well as giving parents more choices in childcare. As part of the initiative, the Pre-school Learning Alliance runs 27 Neighbourhood Nurseries around the country. And each offers a range of services to their local community. These additional services might be health visitors or speech and language therapists, for example.

Many of the settings work in partnership with other organisations and professionals from Sure Start, the local authority and health services. The involvement of the local education department is particularly important when working with children who have special educational needs. Each of the Alliance’s Neighbourhood Nurseries tailors its services to the needs of the particular area. For example, at the Play and Learning Centre in Middleton, we run drop-in groups for parents and children to meet others. We also run drop-ins for other groups of people, including the more mature parent or carer as well as for children with special educational needs.

We also run one session a week during which families can come along and get help with basic skills such as reading letters and filling in forms. We have recently just started our baby massage groups again. Our local Sure Start programme funded a Money Adviser for two days a week, based at our nursery. The adviser gives local families free advice on managing money.

In turn, we support Sure Start local groups, including breakfast, lunch and tea-time clubs. Here, we offer families meals at affordable prices while also promoting healthy eating. Bumps and Babies is a group for expectant mothers and its aim is to improve the access mothers-to-be have to the midwifery service. Our nursery offers many more services and groups. Your local Neighbourhood Nursery or children’s centre may offer different services.

Family support at Lewisham Pre-school Learning Alliance

Val Pope, Branch Manager, Lewisham Pre-school Learning Alliance

At Alliance pre-schools and nursery settings in Lewisham, parents can access the Parent Support Scheme – a family support service for families with under-fives. Its main aim is to offer friendly, accessible support to parents of young children, who are experiencing stress or difficulty in their lives. The scheme enables us to offer support to a family when the problem is identified, without several layers of bureaucracy and endless waiting lists. It targets support at the earliest possible stage to stop problems from getting to a level that might then be far more costly at a later date. It is based on the assumption that it is almost impossible for some mothers and fathers to be ‘good enough parents’ while they are under personal stress or facing isolation or difficulty.

The Parent Support Scheme reduces such stresses and gives support while the family develops and the parents learn to encourage and enjoy their child. As the Alliance is an educational charity, and not part of a statutory body, families don’t find this support ‘threatening’. Nor do they feel that the support is part of a hidden agenda to ‘take the children away’ as may be the case with more formal approaches. Support is deliberately low-key and informal, which means that families are much more likely to trust the Parent Support Worker and accept their advice, support and help.

The aims of the Parent Support Scheme are:

• To sympathise with and support the needs of individual families and provide support that is targeted to their needs.
• To give parents practical help and support in understanding and supporting their child’s development.
• To support parents’ understanding of how children learn through play.
• To offer respite for parents who are desperately in need of it.
• To tell families about the services they may need.
• To offer support in accessing local facilities and services for the first time.
• To stop the loneliness and isolation parents of young children often feel – and to empower them to become part of their local community and build their own networks of friendship and support within that community.
  

The Parent Support Workers provide support for a range of activities:

• Support in going to parent and toddler groups, Sure Start drop-ins, toy libraries etc.
• Support in registering a child at pre-school and school.
• Support in learning how to play and engage with their child.
• Support in going to appointments at clinics, hospitals, for housing purposes etc.
• Giving families information about other relevant local services and agencies that may be of help to them.
• Respite while the parent has a bath, plays with another child, relaxes, catches up on housework or just has some time to themselves.
  

Workers usually spend two to three hours a week with a family, although this depends on what the family needs.

Comments from parents using the scheme

“The support was brilliant and never made me feel inadequate about my fears of being a bad parent – she encouraged me little by little to let my daughter leave me – my support worker has been an integral part of my positive parenting experience.”

“She provided practical help when I had a bath etc. when my twins were very young, and she provided a listening ear when I needed to talk – the Parent Support Scheme provided an invaluable service to me at a time when I needed help most.”