Integrated Early Years Service (Camden Council)

(Formerly known as Early Years and Sure Start Service)

Integrated Early Years Service (IEYS)

There are five children’s centres located across the borough:

1a Children's Centre
Agar Children's Centre
Harmood Children's Centre
Kilburn Grange Children's Centre
Regent’s Park Children's Centre

Each centre offers a wide range of universal and targeted services for children and their families from pregnancy to age 5 years, including:

Midwifery: antenatal and postnatal services
Baby Feeding advice and support (1-1 and group based)
Integrated health visiting and family support (Early Help)
Children’s speech and language therapy
Parenting programmes and 1-1 parenting support and child psychotherapy
Benefits and housing advice, help to find training and work
Mental health interventions for parents and help to reduce inter-parental conflict
Universal and targeted Stay and Play drop-ins
Volunteer Programme (Parent Champions)
Early education: free entitlement for 2 year olds and 3-4 year olds, including CIN places

IEYS family support is a targeted service for those children and families at most risk of poor outcomes. Camden families with at least one child under 5 years (including during pregnancy) with additional needs (Level 2 – 4, see threshold diagram) are eligible.

Families can self-refer or be referred by a professional.

The Family Worker completes a whole family assessment, delivers interventions, refers to additional services according to need and acts as Lead Professional to coordinate the Team around the Family.

Contact details

Contact Name: Debbie Adams
Contact Position: Head of Integrated Early Years Service
Telephone: 020 7974 1679
E-mail: fis@camden.gov.uk
Website: cindex.camden.gov.uk/kb5/camden/cd/localoffer.page?localofferchannel=1
Alternative website: Camden Sure Start Under 5's

Address

Address: London Borough of Camden
4th Floor, 5 Pancras Square
c/o Camden Town Hall, Judd Street,
London
Postcode: WC1H 9JE

Further details

Parent Body: Camden Council Supporting People Directorate.
Ward: St Pancras and Somers Town Ward
Last checked date: 14/07/2016
Record ID: 1883

Local Offer

Local Offer Age Bands: Children under 5
SEN Provision Type: Universal

Where is the service located and what areas does it cover?: We are based in 5 Pancras Square, close to Kings Cross Station but we visit all settings and childminders across Camden. Our postal address is: Integrated Early Years’ Service London Borough of Camden Children Schools and Families Camden Town Hall (for 5 Pancras Square) London, WC1H 9JE The children’s centre teams are based in five locality offices. These teams provide family support workers and access to ‘drop- in’ sessions for parents of children with additional needs. Families can register with children’s centres and will then receive updates and information about what is going on in their local area.
Who does your service provide for?: Our service provides for children aged 0-5, and their families through children’s centres. The Early Years Quality Improvement Team provides for all registered early education and childcare settings and childminders. The Early Years Intervention Team provides support to children with special educational needs and disabilities in early education and childcare settings, to their families and to professionals providing services to these children and families.
How can a child or young person start using the service?: Parents who have any concerns about their child’s development should first of all speak to their Health Visitor. Their Health Visitor will contact our service if we can help. Professionals working with young children will contact us if they have any concerns about a child. If their children are in an early education and childcare setting, parents can speak directly to staff in the setting about accessing support from the Early Years Intervention Team.
How are decisions made about eligibility for your service?: When the Early intervention team are asked to provide support for a child, they work first with the setting where the child is receiving early education and childcare.. If it is appropriate, they put in place a specialist programme of support. If the child’s needs require more support, their care is referred to a panel of professionals with expertise in working with young children with special educational needs and disabilities. The panel looks at the assessments of the child’s needs and puts in place a package of support as necessary.
How do you communicate with service users and how are they involved in decision making/planning?: We have a range of information leaflets available to parents /carers. There is information about the children’s centre services available on the Camden's Children's Centres section. There is a newsletter and local information is sent to all families registered with the service. It is important that parents/carers of children with special educational needs and/or disabilities are fully involved in planning for their child so parents /carers are invited to their child’s Individual Education Planning and review meetings in early education and childcare settings. Service users’ views are important to us so we can continue to improve our service. We use questionnaires to gather service user feedback before and after our service works with them.
Is your service fully accessible?: The Integrated Early Years’ Service is an inclusive service and aims to ensure all it activities are fully accessible. The majority of Children’s Centres are wheelchair accessible and some have additional facilities to support children with hearing impairments. The Integrated Early Years’ Service has a range of specialist equipment available to loan to early education and childcare settings – for example standing frames, specialist seating , a hoist and some resources to support the children with sensory impairments. All Camden premises where we work are accessible to people with disabilities. The maintained children’s centres have made modifications to their buildings to make them as accessible as possible.
Who should a service user contact if they want to raise a concern or complain about something?: If you have a concern or complaint about children’s centre services you should speak to the member of staff concerned and ask for the name and contact details of their manager. If you are still not happy you can make a complaint through the Council’s complaints process. [Camden Complaints](http://www.camden.gov.uk/ccm/content/council-and-democracy/having-your-say/complaints-and-suggestions/how-do-i-complain-about-a-council-service.en) or ring the general council phone number; 020 7974 4444 If you have a concern or complaint about the Early Years Intervention Team you should speak to the team manager, Pat Kelly on 020 7974 5895 or email pat.kelly@camden.gov.uk If your child attends a Council-run children’s centre you should contact the Children’s Centre Head. If you are not happy with the response you should ask for details of their manager. If you are still not happy you can make a complaint through the Council’s complaints process and/or contact Ofsted. www.ofsted.gov.uk 0300 123 4666 Ofsted Complaints. If your child is in an early education and childcare setting or with a childminder and you have a concern or wish to complain you should speak first of all to the person in charge of the setting or to the childminder. If you are not happy with the response you receive and would like to speak to someone outside the setting, you can contact: Ofsted
Who can a parent carer/young person contact for further information?: For more information about see Camden's Children's Centres or you can directly contact the early years setting you are interested in.

The Local Offer is a free and impartial service provided by Camden Local Authority. Any service or provider mentioned in this Local Offer, does not represent a recommendation or endorsement of the service or quality of the service provided. You are responsible for undertaking your own checks to determine suitability of the service and provider.