Parents and Carers

Services and Support Groups

The Family Service Directory lists a range of local services providing support and help to professionals, parents and carers of children who may be vulnerable or have special needs.

Resources for parents

The FIS has a huge range of leaflets to help parents and carers, and there are also books and magazines on parenting available to borrow from your local library. These are for parents or for children, covering all kinds of topics that may help in special situations, from potty training to tantrums, or separating families to teenage self esteem. If you cannot find what you want, ask your librarian for help. For more information see the Young People's library pages,or use the related link on the right to find the online library catalogue. There is a parents collection at each library.

The NSPCC produce a free parenting magazine with lots of useful tips for you and your family. The latest edition may be available through Early Learning shops or for sample pages follow the link to http://www.nspcc.org.uk/home/informationresources/yourfamily.htm

Family Information Service (FIS) has created a list of local resources which may help families including grandparents and friends, who are caught up in the midst of a separation or divorce. The list can be downloaded at the link at the bottom of this page, or contact FIS on 01628 685632.

Useful websites and organisations:

Action For Parents - a group of dedicated professionals who are on hand to work with you as parents to understand why your child might be having difficulties and then identify how things might be improved. This is a confidential, free service with its origins based on the pioneering work of the Centre for Parent and Child Support based at the Monroe Centre, Guys Hospital. For further information call Tracey Thornhill on 01628 683285.

Parentlineplus is a registered charity providing excellent support to parents, with topics arranged A-Z and by age, carrying information for parents and professionals, on child behaviour, child development and family relationships and all sorts of other issues. All around the UK, FIS offices are being encouraged to provide local support and information for parents, to back up the huge range of information provided by Parentlineplus on their national web pages. They also have contact telephone numbers and email support. http://www.parentlineplus.org.uk/

ParentsCentre has lots of straightforward information to help you and your child. It's easy to use and covers a wide range of topics and ages. It has been produced by the government and used to be known as Parentsonline. It has links from Directgov, which enables you to access information from all public services. http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/

If you have concerns about drugs there is information and advice for parents, children, and teenagers on the following link: http://www.talktofrank.com/

The BBC produces a wide range of information and advice on parenting www.bbc.co.uk/parenting BBC online also has some excellent support for children and their parents in cases of cyber bullying on email, MSN instant messaging and mobile phones. Follow the link to the report http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5210886.stm

Parents information produced by parents for parents can be found at the following link: http://www.parents.org.uk/

Fathers Direct is a registered charity with national information about fatherhood, supporting positive and active involvement of fathers. http://www.fathersdirect.com/

Lone Parents Support can be found following the link http://www.oneparentfamilies.org.uk/ as well as http://www.gingerbread.org.uk/

Local initial support for families under stress can be found through organisations such as Family Friends, Parent Talk and the Parent Partnership. Contact details can be found in our Family Services Directory.

Separating families or those going through divorce, can be under great stress. An excellent factsheet for parents, teachers or young people,is available through the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

FIS has created a list of local resources which may help families including grandparents and friends, who are caught up in the midst of a separation or divorce. The list can be downloaded at the link at the bottom of this page, or contact FIS on 01628 685632.

Netmums is for mums and produced by mums - but it is for dads and other carers too, as it covers all the issues and is extremely varied and lively. You need to register, but it provides opportunities to contact other local parents through chat and noticeboards. http://www.netmums.com/

YoungMinds campaigns about the importance of children's mental health and the importance of recognising when a child is troubled or stressed and providing adequate support for these children before their problems escalate out of control. They also operate a helpline, Parents Information Service, for worried parents on 0800 018 2138. There are some useful factsheets to be found on their web pages at http://www.youngminds.org.uk/

There are some local websites which have information useful for families. Follow the link to our Family Services Directory or the National Family Information Directory. You can find local information for families and a section for what's on for young parents.

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Leaflets and Newsletters

Separation and Divorce

Handout which contains a listing of local resources to help parents, carers, families and children.

•   Separation and Divorce handout (pdf 19KB)

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