Our Work

Childcare Enterprise Solutions

This not for profit social enterprise, is launched November 2005. It has been funded through the London Development Agency (LDA) and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, from Islington Regeneration Dept. The company will work independently of Islington Childcare Trust to provide financial, personnel, and human resource support for the voluntary childcare sector.

The payroll service is already up and running with 4 community groups coming on board. If you are a voluntary organisation in Islington and would like to find out more please email or call James Horsford on 0207 527 5916 or

Step Into Childcare Courses

Islington Childcare Trust is currently running a Step Into Childcare Course. The course covers child development, managing children's behaviour and includes basic skills, first aid and basic computing skills around using email and the internet. It has been funded by the European Social Fund.

We run 2 courses at the same time, one at the Barnsbury Complex in Offord Rd and one at Priory Heights near Kings Cross. A crèche is provided at both centres. Candidates are also required to work as a volunteer in a childcare setting for several hours each week throughout the course. The volunteer placement is a vital part of the course as it enables the candidate to work towards gaining enough experience to progress onto NVQ level 2 and level 3 courses if they wish.

The course is accredited with the Open College Network and when candidates successfully complete the course they will be awarded an Open College Network Progression Award Level One. They will also obtain a First Aid certificate as part of the course.

If you would like more information or to book a place please call Sam on 0207 527 5916 or email


Government and Local Authority Partnerships

The Islington Childcare Trust currently sits on various steering groups, panels and committees where we represent the voluntary sector in Islington. This valuable use of our time and resources, enables the trust to raise the profile of the voluntary childcare sector across a broad range of different agencies and gives us a platform to discuss the issues and challenges facing the voluntary sector. It also enables us to build relationships with other organisations with whom we can then work together, to continually improve the quality of childcare in the borough.

Here is a list of panels, boards & committees that the Trust sits on:

Business, Jobs and Training
Children's Services Board
Islington Strategic Partnership
Surestart Strategy Group
Childcare and New Places Sustainability Panel
Social Inclusion Team Task Group
Children In Need
Islington Mobile Crèche Network Steering Group
Workforce Development
Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership
Children and Young People Strategic Partnership
Surestart South Management Committee
Surestart Holloway Management Board
Orkney House Community Nursery Management Committee

Crèches and Drop Ins

We currently run a Monday morning drop in session for children and their carers. It runs from 9.30am - 12.15pm and is in our Ofsted registered crèche provision, here at our offices in at the Barnsbury Complex. We also provide crèches for any training courses we are running, which are usually on a Friday from 9.30am - 3.00pm.

Kitemark Quality Assurance

The Trust provides mentoring for childcare providers within the voluntary sector who wish to apply for the Kitemark Quality Assurance Award. The provision has to complete several modules, during which they receive extensive support from our development officer, Jackie Raffles. Jackie is also a Kitemark Quality Assurance Verifier for the whole borough of Islington.

NVQ Early Years Assessing

Our development officer, Jackie Raffles is a qualified NVQ assessor and provides support for NVQ Level 2 & 3 candidates from the voluntary sector throughout their course. She provides tutorials and marks all their work prior to the work being sent to an external verifier.

Strengthening Families

Our director Annie and our development officer Jackie are qualified facilitators for the Strengthening Families, Strengthening Communities Course. Jackie delivers this course in partnership with Surestart on a Monday at Moreland Community House, EC1. It covers topics including our roles as parents, coping with the changes and challenges of parenting, communication and negotiation in families and sharing our ethnic and cultural roots.

Communication and Networking

Newsletter - We provide a quarterly newsletter to keep all our voluntary groups up to date with all the latest information around training, government legislation, and any other relevant information of interest to childcare providers.
Termly Providers Meetings - We hold termly meetings for the voluntary childcare providers in our borough.
Annual Conference - We hold our annual conference every July. This enables the voluntary sector community to meet each other, share ideas and discuss relevant topics in a professional and stimulating environment.

Crisis Management Support

This part of our work is the most unpredictable. Voluntary childcare provisions often experience unexpected problems and challenges around issues with staff, parents or children. They may also experience problems with their landlords or leases or any number of things.

We are here to offer advice and support over the telephone. We provide a bridge between the childcare providers and the different organisations who may be involved, acting on the childcare providers behalf or sourcing information from government agencies, local authorities etc.

We often provide on site support and advice when situations have overwhelmed the management and the management committee.