What is a Children and Family Centre? Click to get info
Our Children and Family Centres offer services where you can enjoy activities and receive any needed support for families with children. Skilled and experienced staff will be able to provide you with information and advice on child development, child and family health, parenting skills and family support. In Waltham Forest we have four Children and Family Centre Hubs working in family partnership with
- Waltham Forest Early Help Team - one to one family support and Parenting Programmes
- Health Visiting Service (NELFT )
- The Lloyd Park Children’s Charity
- HENRY (Health, Exercise Nutrition for the Really Young)
- Citizen Advice Waltham Forest (including money matters)
- Waltham Forest Early Years and Childcare team
- Waltham Forest Adult Learning
- Waltham Forest VAWG - Domestic Abuse One Stop Shop
Find information about the activities on offer through the Lloyd Park Children Centre website.
Waltham Forest Children and Families Centres on Facebook
Children’s learning and development Click to get info
You are your child’s most important educators.
We work in partnership with you to support your child’s early years development. Developing the necessary skills which will help them to become confident and successful learners.
We provide a range of virtual and open access sessions for you and your child/ren aimed at promoting early learning through play.
Support is delivered in a number of ways: a digital home learning offer, live sessions, activity ideas, and 1 to 1 support where this is appropriate.
For and information to support your child’s learning and development
Somewhere to Belong
Somewhere to Belong, these sessions support children and parents providing with a range of support services for children with special educational needs.
Waltham Forest Chit Chat Pitter Pat
London Borough of Waltham Forest Chit Chat Pitter Pat is a virtual home learning project for under 5’s. Chit Chat Pitter Pat
Chit Chat Pitter Pat empowers and inspires families to have meaningful home learning experiences and supports schools and early years provisions in encouraging and advocating the benefit of these experiences.
To get involved and start learning, you can join Chit Chat Pitter Pat on Facebook or Instagram.
Health Click to get info
Waltham Forest Children and Family Centres work closely with partners from Health Teams within North East London NHS Foundation Trust (NELFT) and HENRY to provide community support for all parents, carers and their children. This support includes
- preparation for being a parent during pregnancy
- helping with infant feeding
- and reviews of your baby and child’s health, growth and development.
We also support parent’s health, including mental and emotional wellbeing.
From January 2021 some of our teams are helping out on the Covid vaccination sites and hospital wards so have made some changes to our service during this time, but please do be assured that our service is still open and available to all families in the Borough
Our contacts may be virtual or in person, depending on you and your childs individual needs.
Our offer to all families
- Antenatal contact to all expectant parents from 28 weeks to introduce the service
- New baby contact when your baby is home from hospital, this is usually when baby is between 10 and 14 days old.
- A follow up contact at 6-8 weeks old.
- Weekday Duty Health Visitor telephone virtual clinic 0300 3001970 (Monday to Friday 9am-5pm) please call if you have any questions about your childs health, growth or development
- Bookable appointment clinics to weigh and measure your baby / child
- Contact when your child is one and two years old
For further information about the service, or to speak to your Health Visitor , please call the Single Point of Access team:
- 0300 300 1970
- 0-19universalspawf@nelft.nhs.uk
For more information visit
To help you access your child's NHS health records quickly and easily, and gain updates about the service, we would encourage you to sign up for the eRedbook.
HENRY
HENRY Will help you with infant feeding, healthy eating, dental health and speech and communication.
HENRY are currently running all services using phone, video and virtual group sessions. www.henry.org.uk/walthamforest
Infant Feeding:
- Infant feeding team are here to provide practical and emotional support however you choose to feed your baby.
- Infant feeding helpline (0208 496 5222 Monday to Friday 9am – 5pm)
- Infant Feeding workshops taking place every fortnight. Topics are night-time parenting, bottle feeding and building closer relationships. Workshops are one-off events for local families and staffed by one of the local infant feeding team.
Healthy Families:
- Starting Solids virtual workshops – exploring how to help your baby move from a milk only diet
- Healthy Teeth virtual workshops - explore supporting your child with good dental hygiene and strategies to prevent tooth decay
- Healthy Families 8-week programme, is for families to support healthier lifestyles for the whole family. Session topics include parenting confidence, enjoying new foods, active play and eating well as a family.
- Fussy Eating video and phone support - a dedicated 1-1 support for our team to help with fussy eating in young children
- Dental Health support – 1-1 phone guidance from our dental nurse, to support with any queries around dental health for children
Speech, Language and Communication Development:
- HENRY Speech and Language Therapy team offer telephone and video support for families. Get in contact with any concerns or questions about your child’s communication skills.
Contact HENRY
- office 0208 496 5223
- Infant feeding team: 0208 496 5222
- wfsupport@henry.org.uk
Or find us: www.henry.org.uk/walthamforest facebook: WFHENRYHealth
Instagram: henryinwalthamforest
Childcare and Free Early Education Click to get info
We want as many families as possible to benefit from the high-quality child care and free education places available to deliver to support and extend the learning that you are doing with your children at home.
Taking up your child’s Free Early Education Entitlement (FEEE) allows your child to play, paint, read, cook, climb, sing, dance, dress up or whatever they like doing. But most of all, your child is learning with other children, making friends and having fun! Many 1000’s of children are taking their place up across the Borough, so don’t miss out!
FREE early education and childcare for 2-year olds, approx. 30 percent of all two year olds in Waltham Forest can get up to 15 hours FEEE a week
FREE early education and childcare for 3 & 4 year olds. All three and four-year olds can get up to 15 hours FEEE a week.
Some 3 & 4 year old children from working families are entitled to an additional 15 hours of free childcare (up to 30 hrs FEEE per week)
You can also find information on:
- choosing the right type of early education/childcare for your child/family
- Schemes and support available to help parents/carers with the cost of childcare
- Questions to ask when visiting schools/childcare providers
- Working with your school/childcare provider to support your child’s learning at home
- A guide to your child’s learning and development
If you have any questions or need support with finding or accessing a childcare place you can contact the Childcare team
- 0208496 3566
- childcare@walthamforest.gov.uk
who will be happy to help you.
Family Support Click to get info
Family life can be challenging for everyone. Children and Family Centre services provide help to parents/carers when they need it and aim to support families to give their children the very best start in life. This help can include issues such as parenting strategies, family relationships and domestic abuse.
There are a range of support services available such as:
- Flourish for parents with post-natal depression familysupport@lpcc.org
- Somewhere to Belong with a range of support services for children with special educational needs. familysupport@lpcc.org
- One to One Family support in the home and parenting support programmes.
- Support for families affected by domestic abuse and other issues for more details VAWG
- Early Help family support for children aged 0 – 18 or 25 with a disability
Contact LPCC
Contact Early Help
- 020 8496 231
- MASHrequests@walthamforest.gov.uk
Information and advice Click to get info
The children and family centre work in partnership with Citizens Advice Waltham Forest to provide free, confidential and impartial advice. You may have money, benefit, or employment problems. You may be facing a crisis, or just considering your options
Contact Citizens advice
- 0808 278 7838 or (freephone)
- twitter.com/WalthamForestCA
The Children and Family Centres, also alongside a number of other organisations, can advise you range of topics including
- One Stop Shopf for advice on Domestic Abuse
- Special Educational Needs ( SEND) and disabilities
- Parenting across the age ranges pre birth - 18
- Access to various community services such as Baby Bank and Food Bank
- ESOL – Learning English
- Work club/Help with CV’s job opportunities/training
Employment and training support Click to get info
Gain a new skill for work, life and your wellbeing at the Waltham Forest Adult Learning Service. We are committed to engaging local people in lifelong learning through working in partnership and promoting widening participation and high quality learning and training opportunities.
We provide a range of accredited and non-accredited learning opportunities for adults and young people across the borough
Our new programme has a variety of courses, workshops and training: from art, craft, fashion and ceramics to accounting, English, maths, hair and beauty!
We also have:
- jobs help for Waltham Forest residents
- recruiting apprentices
- and running our successful English Conversation Clubs.
Some of our courses are fully online, some are in-class and some are a mix of both in-class and online learning.
Contact Waltham forest adult learning
- 0208 496 2974
- Waltham Forest Adult Learning Service
Useful children and family centre links and numbers Click to get info
Lloyd Park Children’s Charity:
HENRY Best Start Service (0-5) Infant Feeding helpline:
- Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm 020 8496 5222.
Here to work with you on healthy eating, dental health and speech and communication:
- 020 8496 5223
- wfsupport@henry.org.uk
NELFT Health Visiting & School Nursing Team
- 0300 300 1970
- nem-tr.0-19universalspawf@nhs.net (appointments).
- www.facebook.com/NELFTWalthamForestHealthVisiting
- www.nelft.nhs.uk/services-wf-0-19-universal-childrens
Early Help Support
- Monday to Friday 020 8496 2310, out of hours 020 8496 3000
- MASHrequests@walthamforest.gov.uk
Early Years Team information about childcare:
- childcare@walthamforest.gov.uk
- 020 8496 3566
Citizens Advice: Full range of Citizens Advice services over the phone
- 0808 278 7838 (freephone)
- twitter.com/WalthamForestCA
Children and Family Centre information:
Other useful telephone numbers
- Medical help/ assistance: 111
- Emergencies: 999
- Waltham Forest MASH: 020 8496 2310
- Citizens Advice Bureau: 0808 278 7838
- Universal Family Support: 020 8527 1737
- HENRY: 020 8496 5223
- NELFT: 0300 300 1970
- Domestic Abuse Helpline 24/7: 0808 200 0247
- Respect Help for Perpetrators: 0808 802 4040
- Childline: 0800 11 11
- Childcare Team: 020 8496 3566
- Infant Feeding Helpline: 020 8496 5222
Find your local children and family centre Click to get info
Activities take place in various venues across the borough. However, there are four main centres:
Chingford Children and Family Centre Hub
5 Oaks Grove
Chingford
E4 6EY
Tel: 020 8496 1551
Leyton Children and Family Centre Hub
215 Queens Road
Leyton
E17 8PJ
Tel: 020 8496 2442
Leytonstone Children and Family Centre Hub
8-10 Cathall Road
Leytonstone
E11 4LF
Tel: 020 8496 2960
Walthamstow Children and Family Centre Hub
313 Billet Road
Walthamstow
E17 5PX
Tel: 020 8496 3511
For more information see Waltham Forest Children and Families Centres on Facebook
Register for your local children and family centre Click to get info
You need to register for services and activities at your local children and family centre.
Ways to register:
- Online: Register with your local children and family centre
- In person: Drop in and register at your local children and family centre. (This will not be possible whilst covid 19 restriction are in place)
- Email: You can download and complete the registration form (444.7 KB Word) and email it to familysupport@tlpcc.org.uk