Children's Centres provide parents, carers and children aged 0-7 with single point access to a wide range of activities, support and guidance for families. The Centres act as 'hubs', delivering services themselves or co-ordinating service delivery from other professionals and advisors.
The services on offer will be tailored to local needs, but can range from family healthcare, parenting classes and career information, to quality early learning and childcare provision for young children.
Children’s Centres aim to:
- support the Early Years agenda
- encourage the adoption of health and well being principals for and by children (which will be progressed and developed by all local schools through the National Healthy Schools Programme).
- offer guidance, support and advice to parents and carers
There are currently 16 Children's Centres across Nottingham, with 2 more expected to open shortly. Each Centre is has a Community Team Manager who oversees the operation of the Centre.
The Healthy Children's Centres Standard (HCCS) is a locally developed programme that links to the National Healthy Schools Programme (NHSP). The overall aim is to promote a whole child approach to health and to build a strong and effective early years setting.
And by achieving the standard, we can be sure that services are delivered in a consistent way by each Centre.
As with the Healthy Schools Programme, there are a range of criteria to meet, this time within 3 core themes. And there is a
logical process to follow to achieve status.
Children's Centres will no doubt find that they are already instinctively carrying out a lot of the work needed to achieve Status.
