Newcastle Supporting Families provides a range of child centred support services for children and young people. This includes individual packages of family support and respite childcare in the home and community; a crèche and out of school club and outreach support for children and young people and their families who are homeless.

The project aims to provide a range of child centred support services to promote an environment where the mental and emotional health needs of children and young people aged 0 – 16 are recognised and addressed; where they feel safe, have security and stability and are appropriately cared for. Activities provided by the project promote the children and young people's personal and social development, ensure that they enjoy recreation, develop positive relationships and the self confidence to positively deal with the significant life changes and challenges that they face.

The project recognises the role of existing services and aims to complement these, as well as providing a unique service by:

•  Providing individual home based childcare services that are targeted to those families most in need and that build on existing support to families in conjunction with other services.

•  Linking families into other networks of advice, activities and family support.

•  Providing children and young people with stimulating and worthwhile developmental experiences and the opportunity and space to explore issues relevant to them.

•  Recognising and addressing specific needs of children and families from minority ethnic groups.

•  Offering parents' opportunities to increase their self-esteem, develop friendships and participate in activities to enhance their sense of well-being and impact positively on their children's development.

•  Offering confidential support and encouragement to families.

•  Ensuring that needs are identified and addressed by the most appropriate agency through regular review and evaluation of the project and activities.

 

The project provides:

Family Support

Funded by West Riverside Childrens Centre, the family support service provides a home-based family support service to families from a range of backgrounds and cultures; many of whom have complex needs. The service aims to ensure that children are cared for in a safe environment where their emotional, social and intellectual needs are met to enable them to reach their full potential.

Referrals to the service come from Social Workers, Health Visitors and colleagues within the childrens centre programme who work closely with the Project Manager and the families to identify the type of support needed. The project delivered the following activities to meet its aims:

•  Respite childcare to allow parents space and time to themselves, to recuperate from illness or physical injury, to attend appointments, attend to household chores, access parent education and support and spend valuable quality time with other children.

•  Emotional and practical support to mums with post natal depression or other mental health needs, including childcare, shopping, a listening ear, encouragement, praise, transport to the doctors and other appointments.

•  Access to high quality play provision – enabling children who would not otherwise do so to mix with peers, experience new learning and have fun.

•  Support to access Childrens Centre services and settings – to support parents to integrate into groups at their pace, with one to one support.

•  Support for families to establish routines for children to provide structure and preparation for nursery or school.

•  Working with other agencies.

•  Support to access nursery places – information about nursery provision, help to complete forms, practical and emotional support to settle child into placements and to maintain attendance.

•  Support to attend healthcare appointments/child development checks to ensure health and development needs are monitored.

•  Support for families following domestic violence – support to seek housing, benefits advice, relocate schools and access counselling.

•  Delivery of the Freedom Programme (for women survivors of domestic violence)

Recent feedback on the service:

“It helped ease X's stress. She was struggling to do any daily activities, due to the severe stress of divorce and the harassment she was receiving from her partner and his family. It has also helped her to cope better with her youngest son, whilst ensuring that he was safe…The support she received was tremendous and I am also very pleased with how quickly your service responded to my referral.”   (Health Visitor)

“I had an accident and also became a first time Mum and this service helped me develop my skills as a parent, enabled me to attend appointments and helped me find out what is available.” (Parent)

Support for Children, Young People and Families Living in Temporary Accommodation

Out of School Club & Outreach Service

Funded by Newcastle Children's Fund, the project offers specialised play provision, including after school and holiday activities, outings and residential trips, for children and young people age 5-15 years living the City Council's temporary accommodation units. As well as providing new experiences it is important that the club allows the young people to continue to have access to everyday activities in order to ‘normalise' the situation they find themselves in. The children and young people using the service are involved in planning and participating in activities ranging from soup making and strawberry picking to mountain biking and abseiling.

The club provides a safe and secure environment where young people are supported to build positive relationships, participate in decision-making, explore issues relevant to them and develop self-confidence to deal with the trauma and stigma of homelessness. In addition an outreach support worker works intensively with children and young people who are most at risk of disengaging from services or struggling to maintain their attendance at school.   The worker also supports children, young people and their families during the transition period following re-housing to ensure that they are linked into schools and support networks in the community.

Crèche service

The crèche service is funded through Grant Aid from Newcastle City Council Housing Department and provides a responsive, child centred service for under 4's living in their temporary accommodation units.

The crèche provides a safe and stimulating environment and whilst it's primary aim is to provide responsive childcare the reality is that the time spent in temporary accommodation can be a significant period of the child's life at an age where they are developing most rapidly. Through the implementation of the Birth to Three Matters and Early Learning Goals Frameworks, project workers offer a range of activities to encourage children's physical, emotional, social and communication development as well as providing invaluable respite for parents.

Staff work in partnership with parents and encourage them to become actively involved in a variety of the crèche activities, giving them opportunities to become involved in their children's early experiences and to increase their understanding of appropriate play activities and their enjoyment of their child. They also link families into other networks of advice, activities and family support.

The out of school club and crèche provision are both registered and inspected by Ofsted. The most recent inspection found the facilities to be ‘good' in relation to all the National Standards for under 8's day care and childminding “Overall the provision meets the needs of the range of children for whom it provides.”

For more information about Newcastle Supporting Families please contact:

Project Manager, Lesley Hutchinson on 0191 256 2444