Clapham And Brixton Hill Better Start Area: Clapham Manor Children's Centre

Clapham Manor children's centre is part of the Clapham and Brixton Hill Better Start area and is a children's centre delivery site for Better Start services funded by Lambeth Council.

The Better Start offer in Clapham and Brixton Hill is managed and overseen by the Lambeth Nursery School Federation. Services available across the Streatham area include a wide range of activities, help and support for young children and their families. These include health services like:

• ante-natal and post-natal care
• baby clinics
• groups to support breastfeeding and infant feeding
• support around children’s diet and nutrition

Our speech and language therapists can support and guide you on children’s early communication and language skills. All centres welcome children with special educational needs and disabilities, and some centres provide additional specialist support groups and courses for these children and their parents and carers. These include specialist stay and play groups such as Sensory Sensations, advice sessions around being the parent of a child with Autism Spectrum Disorders, and parenting courses such as Stepping Stones (Positive Parenting Programme) and Early Bird.

Centres also offer stay and play groups and activities for babies, toddlers and young children to attend with parents and carers. There are services for parents and carers too including:

• family learning courses
• parenting support groups
• ESOL classes
• support around training and employment

You can get information about accessing benefits or dealing with housing difficulties from a skilled advisor, and a Better Start worker can give you additional help and support about a wide range of topics including parenting and child development, finding childcare, and signposting to other services that may support you or your child.

They will aim to provide this support as soon as you need it so that by the time your child is 5 years old, they are happy, healthy and ready for school.

Some of the services are open to everyone with a child aged 0 to 4 years old, and others are aimed at children of particular ages or particular groups. These might include dad groups, services to support young parents, or those for parents speaking English as an additional language.

To register to use children's centre services or to make a professional referral, please visit www.lambeth.gov.uk/childrenscentres.

Other children's centre sites delivering the Lambeth Better Start offer in Clapham and Brixton Hill are Maytree Children's Centre and Tree House Children’s Centre.