Child health and development

The City of London activities timetable displays information about the regular free events for families taking place across City of London libraries, Guildhall, Golden Lane Community Centre and the City Child and Family Centre.

For a downloadable copy of the timetable, click here.

For information about further family events across the City, please visit our What's On section.

If you have any questions, please contact: FIS@cityoflondon.gov.uk

COLTALE (City of London Talks and Listens Enthusiastically) aims to support all children to develop their speech, language and communication skills, and further develop close partnerships between parents and early years practitioners/teachers.

For more information: COLTALE programme and home learning - City of London Family Information Service

Information and advice to signpost professionals and families on to local authority services, as well as accepting referrals on behalf of the City of London's early help services.

Early Help Service - City of London Family Information Service

PANDAS is a charity with a mission: ‘To be the UK’s most recognised and trusted support service for families and their networks who may be suffering with perinatal mental illness, including prenatal (antenatal) and postnatal depression.’

Our aim is to make sure no parent, family or carer feels alone. We have a variety of support services available to ensure help is delivered in a way that is right for you. No one suffering any form of mental illness should feel they’re on their own.

We offer motivational, educational and positive content through our social media channels, which adds to our value for the parents who need our help the most.

PANDAS Foundation values difference and diversity and does not discriminate on the grounds of age, gender, sexual preference, orientation, marital status, race, religion, colour, national origin, disability, heritage or political belief.

For more information: Home – PANDAS Foundation UK

Specialist paediatric dental care for children with special needs and in particular autistic spectrum disorders.

For more information: Finsbury Health Centre (whittington.nhs.uk)

Getting vaccinated is a normal part of growing up in the UK. It is one of many things people do to protect their children from serious diseases like meningitis, polio, measles, mumps and rubella.

The decision to vaccinate your children is yours and it’s natural to have questions about whether it is the right thing for you and your family. Here you can find all the information you need about the vaccines your child can get at every stage of their life, why they are important, and the vaccines you can have while you are pregnant.

You can also find advice from local experts, download free resources, find information on where and how to book, and hear personal stories from local people like you.

For more information, please visit: Vaccinations for babies and children - NHS North East London (icb.nhs.uk)

To book your child an appointment for their flu vaccination at a Vaccination UK community clinic please visit: https://www.schoolvaccination.uk/catch-up-clinics

Click the two links below for some useful oral health ideas for parents, children, adults, carers and professionals. They include 'Healthy teeth tips for your child’, Supporting your Child’s teeth for parents of children with SEND and ideas for providers to promote oral health in the Early Years Provision.

Oral health promotion resources | Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

Supporting your child's teeth for parents of Children with SEND

Peer Support with HENRY | HENRY

What happens in childhood has lifelong effects on our health and wellbeing. HENRY supports families to provide the best possible start in life for babies and children. 

We recognise that a healthy start is not purely a matter of individual choice; family, cultural and environmental influences also play a major role. To achieve our mission we will promote and support healthier lifestyles and environments at all levels – individual, community and population. We believe that:

• A healthy start is a whole family affair. Babies and young children are dependent on the choices their parents make for them and will learn from parental modelling, so we need to work with the whole family.

• A healthy family means the best start for babies and young children in the widest possible sense. Parenting, emotional wellbeing and opportunities to learn and grow through active play – as well as a healthy lifestyle habits – are all part of enabling young children to flourish.

• Parents want to do their best for their children. Help and support should build on this desire, working in partnership with parents to help them give their children a great start.

• Praise and encouragement are more effective than blame and judgement. Parents need to be valued for who they are and what they can do.

• We need to start where parents are. Families face different challenges and some are more ready to make changes than others. Those in a helping role are more effective when they are able to get alongside families, listen to what they have to say and gain an understanding of their strengths, needs, challenges and priorities.

• The messenger is just as important as the message. Helping families adopt a healthier lifestyle requires more than dietary advice and information. Sensitive, strengths-based and solution-focused support, which draws on evidence-based partnership and motivational models of helping, is more effective in enabling changes in lifestyle behaviour and habits.

• We need to prioritise babies and young children. Habits are established very early in life and it is easier to form healthy habits right from the start than it is to break less healthy ones later. For example, only 1 in 20 children who start school obese will be a healthy weight when they leave primary school.

• Practitioners have more credibility when they model a healthy lifestyle. Practitioners’ self-awareness of their own lifestyle and commitment to making positive changes in their own lives are key elements in providing effective support.

• We need to know what works and to provide the most effective interventions we can. Poor mental health, oral health and unhealthy weight have been described as ticking timebombs, with potentially devastating consequences for individuals, society and health services. The causes are complex; reducing and preventing rates of these conditions requires a joined-up approach informed by up-to-date research evidence.

For information on services, tips on recipes, activities ideas, useful links and parent stories please visit the HENRY website.

Using the toilet is a new skill that children need to learn. You can play an important role in supporting children and their parents or carers with toilet training. Please read article written by the Department for Education (DfE) in consultation with senior health professionals in the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID). Visit website: Help for early years providers : Toilet training