Parenting and family support

We know that parenting advice and healthcare support needs to be accessible to families if it is to boost children’s life chances.

We’re proud to delivers projects and training, and to provide resources, that help families improve wellbeing, resilience and family relationships in order to reach their potential.

Example projects

CYP-MH Parenting Service (Lewisham)

We provide the CYP-MH Parenting Service for the London Borough of Lewisham, an early intervention service which aims to prevent escalation of mental health and emotional wellbeing needs amongst children and young people, either through working with the parents/carers, or working with parent and child/young person together.

The Incredible Years and PIPT programmes both offer the support/intervention recommended within NICE guidelines for treatment of children with ODD/Conduct Disorder.

We also deliver the Incredible Years Group-Based Parenting Programme for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Condition. This 14–16 session programme is offered to parents of young children (aged 4-9) on the Autism spectrum or with language delays.

We work with parents who are concerned their child may have ADHD, or ASC, or behaviours that make places and spaces unsafe to be in, cause serious harm to themselves and others, or for children and young people in the following situations:

with serious, high risk or distressing behaviours

with conduct disorders

with oppositional defiance disorder

where ADHD is suspected or diagnosed

where ASC is suspected or diagnosed

where families need Systemic Family Practice support

The Alliance also co-deliver an Incredible Years course with CAMHS for families on the ADHD assessment waiting list. This collaboration not only reduces waiting times for parents seeking intervention following a CAMHS referral, but also delivers meaningful improvements in family outcomes.

Our findings from delivery of Incredible Years indicate that the most impactful improvement was observed in Conduct Problems, with a 90% positive impact reported. This was closely followed by improvements in Emotional Symptoms and Hyperactivity, both achieving an 80% positive impact. Furthermore, 70% of families reported that our interventions positively influenced family life overall.

Parent feedback

“You gave me confidence and made me feel so comfortable, so I have been able to engage with further therapy. Because you are non-judgmental, I have a sense of safety that makes me feel as though I can make changes. I felt so hopeless and didn’t think things will change but I now see positive change because of attending this course.”  

Family Hub activities (Rutland)

Rutland Family Hub activities are facilitated by Alliance educators in the Family Hub and in local outreach venues.

The high-quality sessions support parental understanding of the 1001 critical days and how this will affect their child’s development and future happiness, along with the crucial role parents play as their most important and enduring educator.

The aim of the service is to improve outcomes for young children and their families, and to narrow the attainment gap and reducing inequalities between families in greatest need and their peers.

Sessions support child development – in particular, speech, language and communication in the early years – and children’s emotional health once they start school. They also support parents and caregivers to understand children’s behaviour in childhood and into adolescence at different ages and stages, helping them to develop effective strategies that enable children to express themselves in appropriate ways and to remove any barriers there may be to this as children mature.

The service operates with highly-trained and motivated early years educators who deliver high-quality early years sessions for children aged 0-5 (siblings aged up to 8).

These sessions are all underpinned by the EYFS principles and are designed to support children’s early development and school-readiness.

Best Start Lincolnshire: Early Years and Family Service

Best Start Lincolnshire: Early Years and Family Service is a commissioned service by Lincolnshire County Council delivered across the 48 children’s centres and Family Hubs across the county and in local community outreach venues.

The Early Years and Family Service support all children in their early years to have the best start in life. We support parents and caregivers to access effective antenatal and postnatal care and helps children to have the greatest chance of reaching or exceeding their expected level of development and be ready for school.

The service provides high-quality educational and fun sessions for children in their early years and their families. These sessions include Learning Together, Baby Massage, Big Cook, Little Cook, OWL babies, Early and Little Voices and many more that all support child development, early learning, positive health outcomes and positive parenting, including emotional literacy.

We also work with Lincolnshire County Council to implement their Family Hub offer, providing Making it Real and Learning Together PEEP for families with three- and four-year-olds.

The Early Years and Family Service workforce works as part of an integrated early years team alongside professionals from Lincolnshire County Council’s Early Years’ Service, Children’s 0-19 Health Service, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) Service, Early Help and Social Care. This also includes Midwifery, the Inclusion Service for ethnic minority children in their early years and their families, Portage and Early Learning Support Provision (ELSP) for children in their early years with a disability.

Further examples

Children’s centre programme (Lewisham)

We delivered a comprehensive children’s centre programme in the London Borough of Lewisham for until 2024, and as the local authority brought services in-house to transition to a new Family Hubs offer, the Alliance continues to work in active partnership to bring services to the most disadvantaged families in the area. 

Over the lifetime of the project, services provided included family support, parenting programmes, many different targeted stay and play sessions, including focused play sessions for children with SEND and a range of innovative projects such as Roots of Empathy, therapeutic parenting and domestic abuse recovery work with young children. 

Over the 24 years of the service, it is estimated that more 120,000 children and families have directly benefitted from Alliance services in Lewisham through the Children’s Centre contract, with many more using the accompanying digital information service and service directory. 

In our final full year 2023-2024, we exceeded our annual contract targets, reaching 6,248 families through universal work (495%) and 2,564 through targeted work (309%). Our website had 233,079 visits, with strong digital engagement on social media.  

Stay and play sessions (Camden)

We deliver universal drop-in stay and play sessions for parents, carers and children under the age of five years as part of the Camden Children’s Centre family programme.

These sessions give children an opportunity to explore and discover through play, both indoors and outdoors, providing a safe stimulating environment for families to take part in a wide range of activities that support children’s development, and also offer support to them as families.

Parent feedback

“I just wanted to share with you that today’s stay and play was amazing.  I’m returning to work and sending K to nursery and was feeling a lot of mum guilt; the positive discussions with (the early years educator) and other mums was much needed today. The group this morning had a direct and positive impact on my mental health and wellbeing. 

There was also finger painting which was very special; it was K’s first experience.  I don’t think Camden or (or the early years educator) will really understand how much I needed this session today but I’ve left feeling so refreshed and in good spirits.”

Flying Start (Luton)

Flying Start is Luton’s antenatal to five years strategy and a programme of service delivery which forms a key part of the Luton Family Hubs 0-5 years family offer.

The Alliance has been the lead partner for Flying Start since 2015, providing strategic and operational interagency support. Service delivery across Luton is provided by the qualified Alliance workforce delivering the Flying Start programme.

In 2024/25, the Alliance Flying Start services saw 17785 attendances at sessions, with 1905 families receiving child development information and advice, including access and signposting to wider services. 1067 pregnant parents attended antenatal services and registered with Flying Start. They were encouraged to continue their journey to parenthood with Flying Start services when their baby was born. 74.4% of families attending services come from areas where the IMD ranges from the 10% to 40% most deprived.

Flying Start also saw an increase in the number of families registered from 4773 in March 2024 to 6783 at the end of March 2025.

Public Health Commissioner feedback

“We have something truly special in Luton with Flying Start and how we work together. I often feel it is more than just a partnership. We could not have achieved all of what we have over the last three years with Family Hubs if it weren’t for the amazing EYA, Flying Start team. We are excited about them delivering more sessions at the Hub; it is great for us to see firsthand the amazing work they do and to see families benefiting and enjoying them.”

The Juniper Programme (Lewisham)

Juniper is a recovery programme for mothers and their children under four years who have experienced domestic abuse, authored by Jo Sharpen, Domestic Abuse consultant, in partnership with the Alliance.

It is a psycho-educational model which utilises aspects from attachment theory, play therapy techniques and neuroscience research, underpinned by an understanding of violence against women and the impacts on children and mothers.

It has already been piloted by the Alliance in Lewisham, and the programme adjusted following feedback from the pilot. The revised programme is now rolling out in Lewisham for the first time in autumn 2025 through a multi-agency partnership with Family Hubs and Health Visiting, co-ordinated by the Alliance.

Play and learn support service (Bradford)

This service is designed to support and uplift informal universal play and learn provision, including baby and toddler groups, across the Bradford district. Its core aim is to ensure these settings are of high quality, promote wellbeing, and encourage health-positive activity, while also positively influencing the home learning environment for young children.

The service places particular emphasis on supporting groups in the most deprived communities, ensuring they receive the additional help needed to: