Support for young people with a baby

Having a baby when you are young can feel overwhelming. You may be unsure about some aspects of raising a child, and also how being a parent will affect other areas of your life.

Get advice from the Bump, Birth and Beyond on pregnancy, giving birth and raising children.

Learn about the challenges and happy surprises for you and your baby from birth to one year on The Kent Family website.

Contact the health visiting team on their website to get answers to your questions by text, phone or face to face.

Education options

You can stay at school up until the birth and then return to school afterwards.

Taking time away from school to have a baby is treated like any other leave of absence. You can leave school at the end of Year 11.

Until you're 18, you still have to either:

• stay in full-time education (for example, at college)
• start an apprenticeship or traineeship
• work or volunteer (for 20 hours or more a week) while in part-time education or training.

Learn more about your options on our pages on college, sixth form, employment and training.

Visit the GOV.UK website for advice on your school leaving age.

Get help planning your education after the baby arrives on the NHS website for teenage pregnancy support.

Help with childcare costs

If you're under 20, the Care to Learn scheme can help with childcare costs while you study.

The scheme is available for publicly funded courses in England. This includes courses in:

• colleges and sixth form colleges
• schools, academies and sixth forms in schools
• training providers.

Learn more about the Care to Learn scheme on the Student Bursary Support Service website.

Help to buy food, milk and vitamins

The Healthy Start scheme gives you a free prepaid card. This is reloaded with money every four weeks to spend on milk, infant formula milk, and fresh or frozen fruit and vegetables. The card also entitles you to free vitamins.

If you are under 18 and pregnant, you automatically qualify for the Healthy Start scheme even if you are not on any benefits.

For details, see our page on help to buy food, milk and vitamins.