Family support centres

We have a number of Family Support Centres across the county offering support and services to meet your family's needs.

Photograph of lounge setting with two adults on sitting on sofa watching two children sitting on floor playing a board game

Services are provided as a result of an assessment of your family's needs. An assessment would be made by your local social care office and would form part of your agreed care plan.

The services include:

  • Intensive work with families to prevent family breakdown.
  • Opportunities for parents to learn new skills. 
  • A service which recognises the multi-cultural, religious and linguistic needs of all children and families using the provision. 
  • Close and meaningful partnership with parents/carers recognising that parents have prime responsibilities for their children. 
  • A high quality facility which recognises all children and adults' individual needs and responds to those needs. 
  • Protection of children from possible abuse.      

Some of the needs that can be met by the Family Support Centres as part of the overall care plan are:

  • Support to parents/carers who need assistance in looking after their children. 
  • Day activities for children in need - possibly to offer respite to carers/parents and appropriate stimulation for the child. 
  • The opportunity to learn how to deal with personal difficulties and to give them self-confidence to tackle issues in groups. 
  • A combination of group activities and skills opportunity groups. 
  • Services that are discussed and agreed with users.
     
  • Child/family assessment jointly with education and health to help families to address difficulties. 
  • It is a service which must take into account that children are entitled to protection from neglect, abuse and exploitation.      

The Children Act 1989 encourages us to publicise our services and gives a duty to review all services to children under eight years at least every three years.

The spirit of our family support service is to involve parents as far as possible in developing those services and to make the provision fit individual need. This is usually done through parent/user groups and individual feedback sessions. All centres have individual consultation sessions to involve parents. 

Alternatively you can contact them by email. All email addresses are available in the list of local family support centres. Each community is different, with differing needs. Each family support centre will therefore be different and will develop according to the needs of a given neighbourhood.

Our family support centres have received the Charter Mark and you can read the reports in the more information section below.

The Children Act 1989 gives us a duty to provide family support and day care to young children who are deemed to be in need, as outlined by the Children Act and in line with our access criteria. To see the access criteria please read section 4.2 of the Children in Need Handbook for staff. 

DirectGov