Guide to family support services 2025

We are very pleased to publish this year's Guide to family support services

About the guide

The guide is funded by Ealing’s Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) Programme as it addresses part of the programme’s obligation to ensure families have access to information about family support and services which may be of benefit in their area.

The guide is also a quick-reference resource for professionals carrying out an Early Help Assessment & Plan (EHAP) for a family or fulfilling any other kind of advisory / signposting need.

Share with parents and school staff

Please share it with parents in whichever way works best and also with staff and other professionals engaging with your school.

Key things to note in this year’s edition

Water safety feature

As a result of a drowning incident here in the borough of an infant and a push that began last year to promote water safety – you’ll find a comprehensive double-spread on water safety (pages 14-15) giving parents tips and ideas about keeping their children safe at home.

To put this poster together research was done with the Royal Life Saving Society and Children’s Accident Prevention Trust to ensure we captured the best advice.

If you work with families who have young children – this double-spread has been turned into a one-page poster that can be printed out and shared or circulated digitally.

New Local Offer and Ealing Families Directory website design promotion

The centre-spread (pages 32-33) promotes key features of our new Local Offer website and main Ealing Families Directory website; incorporating a ‘they said / we did’ theme; highlighting key features. Please take a look at the newly designed website if you’ve not seen it already www.ealingfamiliesdirectory.org.uk

Wellbeing tips for parents

Working with Family Lives who are a key family support organisation in Ealing – we repurposed their five-page parent wellbeing leaflet into a three-page special feature just for us. They were wonderful to work with and very accommodating (see pages 42-44).

Housing entry

The Housing entry (page 48) has been redesigned and encourages people to go online to find the right team or information they’re after as housing is such a huge area and features so prominently as an issue in many family support situations. The Housing section of the Council website is actually very simple to navigate and very thorough.

Childcare funding changes

The latest situation with changes to childcare funding for working parents is explained in the feature on pages 62 and 63. Babies from as young as 9 months are now able to access a funded childcare place, in addition to extended hours for other age groups.

We hope you enjoy this publication!

Any feedback and comments to Therese Langford at tlangford@ealing.gov.uk