Tower Hamlets

Across London, a third of children of children are growing up in poverty and Tower Hamlets is one of the most severely affected boroughs, with 48% of children living in poverty (Trust for London). The causes are complex, including high levels of unemployment and rapidly rising housing costs.

Our goal is to improve outcomes for young children living in poverty by equipping parents and caregivers of children aged 0-6, with the tools, knowledge, and confidence to support their children’s early learning, development, and play.

We’ve partnered with statutory services, local community organisations, and – most importantly – families, to co-design and deliver our work. We do this through two projects – Power of Play and Community Power.

Play is one of the most powerful tools for early development—but too many children miss out. Through Power of Play, we create safe, engaging spaces where families can come together to connect and grow through joyful experiences.

What do we do?

We work with local organisations to:

• Run creative, child-led play sessions for children aged 0–6
• Support parents in using play to build developmental skills
• Create environments that foster confidence, curiosity, and connection
   

Community Power is a 5 year project through which we aim to make long-term systemic change. Through our work in Tower Hamlets, we aim to improve outcomes for children aged 0–6 living in poverty by empowering parents to support their child’s early learning, development. We do this through a three-pronged approach of money, services and power.

Money

• Through trusted partners, we aim to alleviate immediate financial hardship, with our tried and tested Early Years Grants for families

Services

• We listen to families and fund local projects that tackle the things they care about
• Our Advisory Group brings together early years professionals across sectors to share insights and align efforts
• We offer ongoing, collaborative support to our partners funded to run local projects - creating space for reflection, learning, and growth through evaluation support and constructive feedback

Power

• We are collaborating with local families and organisations in Tower Hamlets to drive long-term practice and policy change that improves the lives of children in the area

Power of Play

We support community-based organisations to promote opportunities for play. In the first year of the project we supported 3 local organisations – St. Lukes Millwall, Artburst and Rich Mix to run workshops with local children, parents and caregivers to co-create opportunities for learning through play  that reflect families’ needs.

The result was a set of ‘play labs’ – places where children can explore freely, guided by  their own interests – from imaginative play to activities that develop fine-motor skills.

The three organisations also encouraged parents and caregivers to engage in activities 
with their children. This helped them recognise the value of play in their children’s 
development, as well as improving their own confidence to engage in play.

“It is great knowing that organisations care about what  we want. I’ve never been asked in this way.” (Parent on the co-design approach led by St Luke’s, a Save the Children community partner)

Community Power Innovation Project 

Social Action For Health is a community-based health charity providing services and support to people most affected by health inequalities in Tower Hamlets.   Save the Children have collaborated with Social Action For Health as part of our Community Power Project.

Social Action For Health's innovation focused on running a dedicated, bilingual (English and Bengali-Sylheti) ‘Singing and Play’ session for babies under one year old, embedded within the existing Sure STEPS Wellbeing Hub.

These weekly sessions were led by a local mother fluent in Sylheti with a background in women’s mental health.  The sessions were designed to strengthen bonding and attachment between mothers and their babies, promote early child development through play and music, and support mothers in becoming more confident using English.

The Impact

The play sessions created an essential space for social connection, learning, and enjoyment.  Mothers reported that the sessions were the highlight of their week, offering a rare opportunity to get out of the house, socialise, and spend quality time engaging with their children in a stimulating environment. English-language storytelling and singing were particularly well received, with many mothers sharing that their children had begun asking for books at home as a result.

“I've really enjoyed meeting all the new mums and everyone's really friendly here. No one's judging anyone and that's the nicest thing. Since I've come here everyone's been really friendly, really smiley and really welcoming. I look forward to it, I look forward to coming on Fridays.” (Parent)

Community Power Early Years Grants

In year 1 we reached 183 households and 341 children.

“Now cost of living is very high. So this helps me a lot” (Parent)

“[The grant] helped me in so many ways I can’t thank you enough” (Parent)

We are taking a systems change approach to improve outcomes for families in Tower Hamlets.  We know that no single service or project can solve poverty or inequality, but by working across the system we can make it stronger and more responsive.

We contribute to systems change for children aged 0-6 and their families by creating the time and space for organisations to come together, connect and collaborate. In practice, this means we’re not just delivering services, we’re also strengthening the whole early years system. We’ve built a network of local organisations who work with young children and families. Taking a relational approach, we’ve created opportunities for connection and collaboration.

One partner shared:

“SCUK has increased my knowledge of local partners and national services.” (Partner)

We create space for shared learning and coordinated action. As one advisory group participant told us:

“The Advisory Group provides a platform for partner agencies to meet each other, liaise, share knowledge, ideas, and learn from each other.” (Partner)
 

Want to join us in supporting families and transforming early years systems?

• If you work in the early years sector and are interested in joining our advisory group and receiving our partner newsletter please contact our Partnership Lead 
  • Deborah Forster - [email protected]
•  For general enquiries about our Tower Hamlets work please contact the Area Lead
  • Sabrina Simpson - [email protected]
     

• A summary of our 2019-2023 Parent Power Project
• Power of Play Report
• Get a better understanding of our work!