Croydon Best Start is a service for families from pregnancy until their child turns 5.
It is made up of a number of different organisations all working together to support parents give their children the Best Start in life.
By working together Best Start ensures families receive consistent key messages at the right time through their parental journey and any issues are identified early on.
Best Start services provide both universal and targeted support.
Universal services include health visiting, children’s centre activities (stay and play sessions, baby massage), breastfeeding support, and Chatterbox sessions for parents worried about their child’s speech and language, parenting courses and employability workshops. Targeted services include Early Help, home visiting (Homestart), parenting programmes – mellow bumps and mellow parents, 1-1 parenting support through the parenting infant partnership and support for new young mums under 19 years old.
Best Start also encourages parents to support each other, sharing knowledge and experiences through peer to peer support groups across libraries and through our online platform www.buddywith.org.uk