Targeted youth support: children’s centre based in primary school

In June 2005, a children's centre was established by Wandsworth borough council at Hillbrook primary school in Tooting. The borough has a policy of creating children's centres that span clusters of schools.

The centre is overseen by the Wandsworth primary play association (WPPA), a charitable company limited by guarantee. The WPPA acts as an umbrella organisation for over 50 voluntary run childcare groups in the borough, including parent and toddler groups, playgroups, extended playgroups, children's centres and nurseries, breakfast clubs, after school care schemes and holiday schemes. The WPPA has links with the Wandsworth early years development and childcare partnership and is a member of the Battersea Sure Start working group.

The children's centre spans a family centre and eight other local primary schools. In 2004, a neighbourhood nursery was located at the school, providing pre-school care for children from three months to five-years-old. The centre has helped extend the school's links with a wide range of external agencies working with families in the area.

The centre has a full-time manager a nursery nurse seconded from Hillbrook who has weekly meetings with Hillbrook's headteacher and deputy head. Hillbrook's special educational needs coordinator is also actively involved in coordinating the care provided by the school's nursery and the children's centre.

The centre has a steering group including the headteachers of the nine schools, parental representatives, the heads of the primary care trust and social services, and local authority managers. Day-to-day operations are overseen by a management committee that includes all of the key workers from the different agencies.

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