Ocean Children's Centre

Ocean Children's Centre aims to help give your child the best start in life. If you are an expectant parent  or you are a parent or carer with a child under 11, we can provide family support, early education, child and family health services, childcare advice, employment, volunteering and training support.

Families can get advice and support in accessing a range of childcare options including the ‘Early Learning for 2 year old fund’ and the ‘30 hours extended free childcare’.

Healthy families

Children’s centres work in partnership with many services to provide advice and support on breastfeeding, emotional wellbeing, speech, language, child development, housing and domestic violence. We also deliver two years integrated health review and 8 months development reviews in partnership with health visitors.

Family support

Our family support team provides the following: Outreach and signposting to community resources, developing positive parenting skills and Building self-esteem and empowering parents. We work closely with the social services, local schools, health and educational professionals, day-care, libraries and other local organisations.

Play & Learning

Our Play and Learning team offer Stay and Play sessions for children aged 0-5 years throughout the week. The sessions are delivered from the children’s centre and local outreach venues. The sessions are designed to encourage children to learn through play which stimulates their cognitive, physical and social development.

WorkPath and volunteering

WorkPath is a unique employment service for all Tower Hamlets residents, providing support for people at all levels of work, skill or experience. If you live in Tower Hamlets, we can provide employment support tailored to your needs, whether you need basic skills or advanced training; access to work experience, apprenticeships or graduate schemes; CV help, interview preparation and more.

Come and see our friendly staff for help and assistance for:

• One-to-one appointments
• Volunteering opportunities
• Access/support into training and employment
• CV writing/job searches/interviewing techniques/carer advice. 

The volunteering Project can support you to build your skills for future employment. If you have a child under the age of eleven and are able to speak in English, please call Anna Shishkina on 020 7364 4625 to book an appointment.

Educational Psychology Support

We work closely with the team in supporting families who find it difficult to set boundaries in managing child behaviours, potty training, parenting strategies and support parents to understand of child disability diagnose.

For full details of activities and services, please click on the link in the "More Information (leaflet, form or publication) box.

Inclusion and SEND

If you are concerned about your child’s development contact your local Children’s Centre for advice. If your child attends a childcare setting talk to the Inclusion Coordinator in the setting and you can also get advice from the Inclusion Team on 020 7364 4925.

Adult learning and parenting

The Parenting and Adult Education Team work closely within all Children's Centres, local schools and Maintained, Private, Voluntary and Independent Settings (MPVIs) to support, plan and coordinate courses, workshops and programmes for families with children pre-birth – 5 years old. Through this delivery they offer a variety of parenting programmes and adult learning courses which support parent/carers to access the right training and learning opportunities to gain new skills and qualifications.

All programmes and courses are delivered in partnership with our stakeholders and partner organisations. These are all free to attend providing you meet the set eligibility criteria. For further details on the criteria and for additional information on the type of courses and programmes available please download the course guide leaflet.   

Useful telephone numbers

Family Information Service

Tower Hamlets Family Information Service (FIS) provides free, impartial information and advice on childcare as well as general information on a wide range of services for children, young people, parents and families.

The service runs a telephone helpline and drop-in service from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Contact the FIS on 020 7364 6495 or by email at fis@towerhamlets.gov.uk.