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Children's centres

Support for 0-5s and their families

We have now opened 12 children's centres, to find out which of our centres are open visit our updates page.

Children’s centres

Each centre offers different services, including:

  • childcare
  • early education
  • training or finding a new job
  • antenatal classes
  • baby clinics
  • support with breastfeeding
  • support with parenting and speech and language
  • drop-in sessions for parents and children
  • services for children with special needs and disabilities
  • opportunities for families to get involved with volunteering and designing services

Please check with your local children's centre to find out what they offer.

Register to use children’s centres

Things to do

Find your nearest children's centres and find what's going on there. Come to meet parents, have fun or get information, advice and support.

You can search for things like baby weighing, parenting sessions, stay and play groups.

Information and advice

Free childcare

Find out about free childcare for 2, 3 and 4 year olds.

Search for childcare

Find childcare near you.

Registering a birth

Make an appointment to register a birth.

Health

Including healthy weight, stopping smoking, mental health, sexual health and alcohol and drug support .

Schools

Including how and when to apply for school places, finding a school and term dates.

Other websites for parents

There are lots of other places you can find information and advice about a wide range of issues and answer questions you may have.

NHS pregnancy and baby guide

More than 200 easy-to-read pages, detailed week-by-week guides and lots of expert videos, parents' tips and interactive tools to explore.

Family Lives

Find advice on all aspects of family life from bonding with your new baby, dealing with tantrums, positive discipline, sleep and eating.

NCT

The UK's largest parenting charity with lots of useful evidence based information.

Beside You

Get breastfeeding support from Beside You, wherever you are in your breastfeeding journey.

Kent Baby

Lots of useful information and support for people expecting a baby, or with a preschooler from Kent’s health visiting service.

Born to Move

Born to move is an NHS app to help parents or carers with their newborn babies right up to pre-school age, it is available for both iphones and android.

SmarterPlay

We're currently rebuilding the SmarterPlay app and would like to hear from you, complete our short survey to tell us what you'd like to see.