The Children & Families Clinical Service is a specialist mental health and wellbeing support team linked with the City & Hackney Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Alliance. It works with:

• Children, young people and families already receiving support from Children’s Social Care, Young Hackney, the Family Support Service, or the Youth Justice Service
• Those experiencing emotional, behavioural or mental health difficulties alongside wider family or social challenges (cityandhackneycamhs.org.uk)

The service offers clinical consultation, specialist assessments, and brief therapeutic interventions tailored to the family’s needs (cityandhackneycamhs.org.uk).

Note: The service focuses on joint working with social care professionals and time‑limited therapeutic support rather than long‑term weekly therapy (chscp.org.uk).

Links with council services in Hackney

• Support for families and early help services – multi-agency support, family support units, and safeguarding 
• Children and families service overview – access to social care, safeguarding, children’s rights, and youth provision:
• Mental health support information – including local CAMHS info and guidance:

Feedback & complaints

• Share feedback
• Make a complaint

Both pages explain how to raise concerns, make formal complaints, or access advocacy support.

Recent local developments

In June 2025, Hackney Council opened a new Care Leavers Hub, which includes clinical support space for children, families, and care-experienced young people to access services like the Children & Families Clinical Service (news.hackney.gov.uk).

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Eligibility criteria

Inclusions

This service supports children and young people who are:

• Receiving statutory support from Children’s Social Care
• Engaged with Young Hackney, the family support service, or youth justice
• Identified as needing mental health support alongside their existing interventions

Exclusions

Referrals cannot generally be made directly by families and must come through relevant professionals such as social workers, youth workers, or family support practitioners

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How to refer

The following clinicians can refer to this service: GPs, Nurses,

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