The City Child and Family Centre: Frequently Asked Questions
What is the City Child and Family Centre?
The City Child and Family Centre offers a range of children’s centre services and activities for families with children under five. All children’s centre services are delivered out of venues in the City of London, including the City Child and Family Centre currently located at The Aldgate School and are available from pregnancy until your child is five.
Below is the current children’s centre services timetable. We anticipate that these services will remain the same, although the venue for some services may change after September 2025. The services provided by the Child and Family Centre are funded by the City of London Corporation.
Are there any plans to change how children’s centre services are delivered?
Following a review which involved conversations with local families and partners, a change to how the services are run and delivered was decided by Members of the Community and Children’s Services Committee in March 2024.
This means that the services will now be run across the City of London including the libraries and community centres, to make the activities easier to access for all families and children living in the City of London.
From September 2025, the service will be called ‘Start for Life’ and will focus on quality and increasing availability when developing the Family Hub services.
We will also seek to further improve access to services for families of children who have special educational needs and disabilities.
Please find a link to the City of London’s Childcare page, where a copy of the Children’s Centre Services Independent Review Summary Report Dated October 2023 is located Childcare - City of London Family Information Service
Is the intention to save money?
No, there are no plans to reduce what the City of London Corporation spends on children’s centre services.
What are Family Hubs?
Family Hubs, promoted by the Department for Education, offer advice, support and services to help you throughout your family journey (parents and children up to age 18, with additional services up to age 25 for those with Special Educational Needs). Services include, health, education, skills and employment, parenting, and youth services.
When will the changes come into effect?
From September 2024 to August 2025, we will carefully plan the changes.
The changes will happen gradually over the course of this academic year to ensure there is a smooth transition from September 2025.
Staff, who work directly with children’s centre services will be transferred to the City Corporation’s Education and Early Years Service.
The City Corporation acknowledges the importance of delivering services for local families and will work closely with The Aldgate School, parents, and key partners over the next year, to ensure a smooth transition of services.
A parent carer group called City Children’s Voices is currently being set up by staff. Members of the group will attend the Start for Life Advisory Board, to help oversee the changes.
If you are a City of London resident and would like to be a part of the Children’s Voices Group, then please contact Zahida Hussain at zhussain@thealdgateschool.org or call the Children’s Centre on 020 7283 1147.
What does this mean for the children’s centre services next September 2025?
The existing children's centre services will move over to "Start for Life" services. The City Corporation’s contributions have supported and will continue to support the sustainability of these services for families.
Stay and Play sessions as well as other services will start to be delivered at a range of venues across the City of London, allowing more families to benefit from accessing information about their child’s learning and development.
Emotional well-being support has already successfully moved to Artizan Street Library, with an outreach service across the City of London.
Will families have to pay for services?
No, there are no plans for new charges to be introduced for “Start for Life” services. As now fees for childcare remain the responsibility of the school.
What will happen to the childcare?
There are five early years settings in the City of London offering places for 0–2-year-olds, which includes the childcare at The Aldgate School.
Like all other childcare providers, the school can use funding from the Free Early Education Entitlement. The Government has also recently announced funding for schools and early years providers to expand their childcare offer. All childcare services rely on the contribution from parents in the payment of fees.
There is also a Nursery class at The Aldgate School which has its own admissions process and will continue after September 2025. Children may attend the Nursery class from the beginning of the school year after their 3rd birthday.
The Start for Life services will continue to be funded in a range of locations.
