Croydon Best Start

 

Croydon was one of the first boroughs in the UK to fully combine health and local authority services for children aged under five and their families. More than 50 families have helped us shape Croydon Best Start to improve the health and wellbeing of children in the borough.

Launched in 2016, Croydon Best Start brings together our midwifery and health visiting services with services for young children and families provided by Croydon Council and the voluntary sector.

Our aim is for every baby, child and young person in Croydon to be equipped with social and emotional skills and resilience to maximise their life chances, and reach their full potential.

Our partnership of Best Start services include:

  • Best Start children’s centres  across Croydon providing baby massage, stay and play sessions, speech and language support for under 5’s, bookstart and 2 year old funding support.
  • Parenting courses provided by the Best Start parenting hub to help parents manage their children's behaviour and promote healthy child development. 
  • Family nurse partnership for young parents aged 19 years and under, going through their first pregnancy. 
  • The parent infant partnership for parents-to-be and parents of babies up to 24 months to build stronger and positive relationships with their babies.
  • Best Start Early Help offer a range of services to families (with at least one child under five) from universal support to access local services to 1-1 family support in the home.
  • The Early Learning Collaboration (ELC) are a partnership led by Crosfield nursery school and children’s centre to improve and maintain high quality childcare. They are responsible for providing training and support to nurseries, preschools and childminders.
  • The PRISM consortium  deliver social communication delay support groups in Children’s centres. They are a partnership including the national autistic society, parenting in partnership and jubilee parenting.
  • Breastfeeding support provides breastfeeding ‘Baby Cafes’ and Mum2mum Peer Support Programmes. The group recruits and trains volunteer mothers who have breastfed their babies to offer support and advice to other mums in our community.
  • Parenting peer led support groups ‘empowering parents, empowering communities’ share tips on managing your child’s behaviour and how to communicate positively. A free course raising parental confidence with a crèche provided alongside.
  • Employability training  delivered through children’s centres and other venues, providing free workshops to improve CV’s, budgeting skills and digital skills support. A free crèche is provided alongside the courses. 
  • Homestart  provide a one to one home visiting service to support parents with a child aged under 5 and also a parent champion programme.
  • Community builders  work in the local community at grass roots level. They support and nurture interests of local parents helping them set up small projects. If you have a project or idea that you feel would benefit the local community please contact the community builder for your area:

 

Further information

For more information on these services please visit: www.croydon.gov.uk/beststart

 

Follow Croydon Best Start on Facebook

To keep up-to-date with events and the support available across the borough, follow @CroydonBestStart on Facebook