Family Support in Ealing

Ealing has a network of 27 children's centres - led by seven main centres - each offering a range of activities and access to services for young children (aged pre-birth-5) and their families .Each centre provides a wide range of services for young children and their families to ensure that young children get the best start in life and that their families are well supported.

To find out more, and to locate your nearest centre visit Ealing Children Centres or contact the Family Information Service on 020 8825 5588 or children@ealing.gov.uk

Contact Ealing (formerly Contact a Family) provide information and support to parents and carers of disabled children.  They run a number of parent information workshops throughout the year on a range of topics relating to disability as well as condition-specific support groups.  Families can also access seasonal events and family trips.

Contact Ealing                    

Email: ealing@contact.org.uk

www.contact.org.uk/ 

Ealing Anchor Foundation, formerly known as P.E.S.T.S (Parents of Ealing Self Help Training Scheme), provide information, advice, support to parents and carers of children 0-5 years with SEND living in the London Borough of Ealing.

Ealing Anchor Foundation offer a range of services including,

• Twice Weekly Play / Support & Music Therapy Sessions.
• Parent information &  training workshops e.g. visiting professionals from Occupational Therapy, Speech & Language Team, plus advice and support).
• Multi-lingual play workers to help with communication.
• Toy Library
• Counselling Service
• Parent Support Group

Referrals can be made by any professional, service or a parent carer. Activities are led by experienced staff & volunteers and many of the team are parents of children with SEN.

Ealing Anchor Foundation
Windmill Children's Centre 
135 Windmill Lane
Greenford
UB6 9DZ
020 8571 9954

Email: info@ealinganchor.org.uk

Website: Ealing Anchor Foundation – Helping special needs children and their parents.

The Ealing Carers Hub provide support and guidance to unpaid carers, to help them navigate the health and social care system and ensure that they look after their own needs, too.

Services for carers include:

• Provision of a Carers' Centre i.e. a physical base located in the borough as well as outreach support in other venues
• Training for Carers to support them in their caring role including advice and support on providing care for a range of conditions
• Support to young Carers and parent Carers
• Outreach, raising awareness and identification of Carers particularly ‘hidden and hard to reach’ Carers and those not currently accessing support
• Training for professionals to increase the identification of Carers, raise awareness of their needs and how they can be supported
• Providing policy input on Carers' issues across health and social care
• An information and advice service for Carers
• Facilitated and self-directed peer support groups for Carers (both general and condition specific, if required)
• Facilitating a Carers' Forum to include opportunities for co-production in service development
• Support for the Carers self-assessment
• Respite activities for Carers including opportunities for social contact, mental health and emotional well-being and physical well-being

Telephone 0203 137 6194

Email: info@ealingcarers.org.uk

Ealing Carers Information

Ealing Young Carers Project for under 18’s, provides information and advice, fun activities in school holidays, regular after school clubs, lunch clubs, homework clubs and one-to-one support. The project is a chance for the young carers to have a break from their caring role and to meet other young carers in a similar situation. The aim is to make each club a place where young carers can have fun and support each other in a safe environment. 

Brentford FC Community Sports Trust      
Half-Acre House                                  
37 Half Acre                
Brentford
Middlesex                                   
TW8 0BH                          
020 8326 7044

Email: ksobczak@brentfordfccst.com

You can find out more about young carers services on our Support for Carers page.

Ealing Mencap represents the interests of people with learning disabilities and their carers within the borough of Ealing.  Ealing Mencap offers a range of opportunities and services for people with learning disabilities as well as their carers and families: Life skills, training, advice, housing support, travel training, social clubs and children’s services.  Services are based at their main centre, Enterprise Lodge, as well as in the community, at other centres in the borough.

Ealing Mencap  
Enterprise Lodge      
Stockdove Way  
Perivale   
Middlesex    
UB6 8TJ        
020 8566 9575, (Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm)

Email: info@ealingmencap.org.uk

www.ealingmencap.org.uk/

Ealing Parent Carer Forum was set up to give local parents a voice in planning and delivering services to children with disabilities/additional needs. 

If you care for a child or young adult with additional needs in education, health or social care the Ealing Parent & Carer Forum is for you. They work to ensure Ealing Council, local health and other service providers understand what our children and young adults really need to deliver the support that is so essential to their development.

As a parent or carer your opinions count. With your help the forum can have a real impact. It means the views and wishes of members and their children are taken into consideration when policy decisions are made.

We also realise that first and foremost parents want practical advice on the issues they face and therefore offer monthly free information workshops sessions on a variety of topics. See the event page on this website for details of our next session.

To join the forum or simply find out more please email on info@epcf.org.uk

Administrator on info@epcf.org.uk or Chair on chair@epcf.org.uk

ISAID is a service that provides free and confidential advice, information and support to parents, carers, children and young people aged up to 25.  Services include: support at meetings (with school or local authority), assistance with paperwork, advocacy, explaining SEND procedures and informal mediation.  Advice is impartial and confidential.

I SAID 

Sycamore Lodge
1 Edgecote Close,
London
W3 8PH                 

0203 9788 989

Email:  isaidealing@family-action.org.uk

Visit: www.ealing-isaid.org.uk                        

Early Start Ealing Health Visitors provide support for all families with children under the age of five who live in the London Borough of Ealing.  All health visitors are qualified nurses or midwives with additional specialist training and experience in child health, health promotion and education.  Health Visitors can advise on everyday issues such as breast feeding, sleeping and general nutrition as well as immunisation programmes, parenting classes, managing difficult behaviour and any special needs your child may have.  They can also signpost families to specialist help and services  for issues such as: unemployment, recent bereavement, family conflicts and support for families who have recently arrived in the country from abroad.

Health Visitors in Ealing work as part of a team called Early Start Ealing (see below).

Early Start Ealing

Early Start Ealing is a service for families – pregnant mums, expectant dads, parents, babies and children up to the age of five; bringing together workers from children’s centres, early years, health and other specialist services.  There is a focus on prevention, promotion and early intervention including for children who may not meet expected milestones or those identified with Special Education Needs and/or Disabilities. Services offered include: Health Visitor services (including pregnancy, newborn baby and child development checks), baby and child health clinics, speech and language support, parenting support and groups, play and activity-based sessions for children. Some activities are drop-ins and others are by appointment or referral.

For more information contact the Early Start Ealing team:

Early Start Ealing Main Hub
clcht.ealingadminhub@nhs.net / 020 8102 5888

Health Visiting-Southall & West Ealing Team
clcht.swe-earlystartealing@nhs.net 

Health Visiting-Acton & Central Ealing Team
clcht.ace-earlystartealing@nhs.net

Health Visiting-Northolt & Greenford Team
clcht.nag-earlystartealing@nhs.net 

Suspecting or finding out your child or young person has a diagnosis of autism or is being assessed, can be a very worrying time. You may feel overwhelmed and not immediately know what it means for both you and your child or young person, what you can do to support your child during assessment and after, if a diagnosis is confirmed. Or, importantly where you can access support, what support is available to you in Ealing and wider. You may also only be ready to find out more about it in your own time so to have information ready at your fingerprints is important to access when you need it.

The good news is - a lot of support and information is available to you and your family – both within Ealing and nationally – from advice information and guidance, workshops courses, groups/networks and 1:1 support. 

“If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism,” Dr. Stephen Shore

All children and young people, whether or not they have a diagnosis of autism have a unique set of skills, strengths and talents. When working or living with children with social and communication needs and/or autism, it is particularly important to identify their strengths.
We understand that finding out what support is available can sometimes be challenging, and it helps to have information readily available so you know where to go for some help, support or advice. You may be a parent/carer of a child/ young person with autism, social communication needs, or, assessments are still underway. Or you may be a young person with autism, or even a professional looking for more information on services locally and wider. 
Regardless of diagnosis and situation, we hope this guide can provide you with as much information as possible on what services are there to support you.  

Although we’ve tried our best to ensure that this guide is easy to read for all, we understand that some words or abbreviations may be new to you, so we have put together a glossary located at the end of the guide to support you. Please do refer to the glossary if you need further guidance in understanding what a term means.

• Read the Information on Services and Support Guide  for children, young people and adults aged 0-25 with social communication difficulties/Autism before and after a diagnosis

We welcome all feedback- what were you hoping to find within this guide? Did you have any suggestions on how it can be improved? You can provide feedback on this guide on our 'Feedback' tab, or by contacting the Family Information Service on 020 8825 5588 / children@ealing.gov.uk