Parenting Support
This page contains links to a number of external websites that offer help and support to parents on a range of issues.
Mental Health Support
There are lots of ways you can get support for your mental health. Whatever you are struggling with or worried about, there are services around Essex that can help you.
If you get help earlier, you are more likely to feel better sooner.
If you or someone you know need urgent help, contact one of the services below immediately.
- Childline: call 0800 1111
- Samaritans: call 116 123
- Anna Freud Centre Crisis Messenger: text to 85258.
If someone is in immediate danger, call 999.
We have split this page into sections so you can get the right help at the right time.
Please click this link for more information
Coping with Self Harm Guide
A Guide for Parents and Carers developed by Researchers at the University of Oxford. This guide was developed from talking to parents and carers of young people and is aimed at helping parents, carers, other family members and friends cope when a young person is self-harming. It includes information on the nature and causes of self-harm, how to support a young person when facing this problem and what help is available.
Parent Info - provides information about children's well being and resilience
"Parent Info" is a collaboration between CEOP and The Parent Zone. Parent Info provides high quality information to parents and carers about their children's wellbeing and resilience.
This service is free and ranges across a wide range of subject matter, from difficult topics about sex, relationships and the internet or body image and peer pressure to broader parenting topics like ‘how much sleep do teenagers need?’
In line with CEOP’s Thinkuknow programme, some of the content covers internet safety, but it all starts from the assumption that young people make little distinction between their online and offline lives and the issues for parents are often the same. The aim is to help parents help their children be discriminating, web-literate and resilient. The link below will take you to the website.
Parent Info: from CEOP and the Parent zone
ThinkUKnow Parents - focuses on online safety
A good source of information for adults on how to keep your child safe from CEOP: the government agency for child safety on the internet. This website gives advice from The Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre, which is dedicated to eradicating the sexual abuse of children. CEOP is part of UK policing and very much about tracking and bringing offenders to account either directly or in partnership with local and international forces. The CEOP Centre team consists of police officers specialising in this area of criminality working with professionals from the wider child protection community and industry. You will find seconded staff from organisations such as the NSPCC, teams sponsored by the likes of VISA and SERCO and experts from government and corporations such as Microsoft offering specialist advice and guidance.
Click on the link to go to the Thinkuknow website for Parents and Carers for advice and tools and on this link to go to the CEOP website.
ParentLine Plus - support for parents
Parentline Plus is a national charity that works for, and with, parents.
"We’re here because parents are the most important person in a child’s life. We know that family life can be challenging and difficult for parents. We support parents, so that you can do your best."
It includes articles about teenagers, bullying and flexible working and the law.
Click the link below to go to the Parentline Plus website:
Essex CC Admissions
On this page of the Essex County Council's admissions website you can:
- find general information about schools in Essex by clicking on 'Primary School Admission Booklet' or 'Secondary School Admission Booklet'. The booklets will tell you what to do if your child is starting school for the first time or is transferring from primary to secondary school;
- view information about individual schools, their admission areas and arrangements, OFSTED reports and exam results.
- download, complete and send a paper application form.
Click on the link below to go to the Essex County Council website:
Essex ContactPoint
All children and young people should get the best possible start in life. ContactPoint aims to make services better for children and young people. It is a contacts list for people who work with children and young people. It will provide them with a quick way to find out who else is working with the same child, making it easier for them to work as a team and deliver more coordinated support.
