The Family, Early Years and Childcare Service
The Outreach Team can help families to find out about:
- free childcare for working parents with children aged 9 months to 4 years
- Best Start for Twos: Free childcare for 2-year-old children whose children are receiving additional forms of support.
- free early learning for 2-year-old children whose parents have no recourse to public funds
- free 15 hours universal childcare for all 3 and 4 year old children.
- other ways to help with childcare costs
We can help families who experience difficulties finding childcare and accessing other support services to access childcare that meets their needs through our brokerage service.
Nurturing Bright Futures is a brand new guide designed to support families, early years professionals and wider partners across Southend. Shaped with input from a wide range of voices across the sector, including families, it brings together shared knowledge and simple ideas in one clear resource.
Focussing on the journey from pregnancy through to starting school, it highlights the power of everyday interactions to build children’s brains and the importance of learning environments both in settings and at home, framed through the core themes of emotional wellbeing, communication, independence, health and curiosity.
The guide also offers links to helpful resources, signposts to local and national services, and shares opportunities to develop learning through local places of interest such as our beaches, libraries, parks and museums. It recognises that every child grows in their own way and provides simple, supportive ideas to help each and every Southend child thrive.
Check out the Nuturing Bright Futures page or speak to your child’s setting or health visitor to see a hard copy.
