Who we are hoping to reach?

All families with young children. However, many projects and activities delivered by the Alliance have been developed specifically to focus on meeting the individual needs of families who have traditionally made less use of early years services. These may include:

• lone parents
• families who cannot speak English
• refugee and asylum seeking families
• fathers
• teenage parents
• parents of disabled children and those with special educational needs
• families living on low incomes

The Alliance aims to ensure that all families are able to access relevant support through a range of different services. These services work closely with parents, local groups and agencies to develop personalised ‘play’ action plans to meet the individual needs of each child and family. This helps families receive continuity of care from the outset and encourages professionals to share good practice with each other.

What type of services do we offer?

Drop-in sessions and targeted support

The Alliance runs drop-in sessions and bespoke services to support families and children that either require extra support or who are less likely to access services with their children (e.g parents in prisons and fathers). The Alliance also provides out reach support to early years settings who require practical guidance on how to include disabled children into their provision.

Flexible crèches

Our crèches support families wishing to undertake training, anyone living in isolated communities or in difficult situations where their children would benefit from being looked after professionally. The crèches are often delivered directly to the families. A Travellers’ project may use a ‘Playbus’ which is driven directly to the site. The community can also access services like after‑school clubs, family and transitional support and health information.

Toy libraries

Alliance toy libraries offer parents and practitioners a cost‑effective way to share play resources between early years services, particularly in rural areas or deprived communities. Baby and toddler services benefit from these initiatives as they are often set up by parents who may have few resources. Some of our toy libraries offer specialist toys and resources such as multi sensory equipment.

Pushchairs in the Park

This innovative fun activity for young children and their parents/carers involves activities both in and outdoors. The event is a joint venture between Milton Keynes Parks Trust Rangers and the Alliance. Every year the activity has grown in popularity and is now being used in other areas of the country. Families (mothers and fathers) enjoy the benefits of the exercise, companionship and fun that this outdoor activity provides.

Family programmes

Alliance settings deliver a range of informal, friendly sessions from messy play, exploring outdoors and other play activities to more formal workshops like fun with food and crafts. Literacy based activities such as book making also introduce parents to the National Book Start scheme and encourage families to learn together in a fun and relaxed way.

… and so much more

In addition the Alliance helps promote community involvement by organising local family fun days, fund raising activities, local cultural events and festivals.