Telephone Advice Line
If you are a parent, family member or friend of a child, in England or Wales, who has social workers involved in your child’s life, or if you need extra support from Children’s Services, and would like to speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential helpline.
0808 801 0366
(Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm)
Discussion Boards
For advice from our advisers, or to get online support from other people in a similar position to you, visit the parents or family and friends carers forums. To explore new research and to discuss ideas with practitioners and families, visit the FGC Network or the Your Family, Your Voice Alliance Boards. If you are a domestic violence worker or social worker in London, visit our new research and practice board.
FAQs
We have answered the most commonly asked questions put to FRG advisers. Please follow the links to see a list of questions and answers, grouped together by subject.
Advice Sheets
For more detailed information, please see our range of advice sheets on family support, child protection, looked after children, family and friends care, adoption or challenging decisions.
Films
Family Rights Group has produced films for families to help ‘demystify’ the child welfare system.
Go to the relevant films to view fictionalised cases which show what happens when a child protection conference is held and similarly when a family group conference takes place.
Advice during the Coronavirus Crisis
Delivering family group conferences during the Coronavirus crisis
This guide is written to help local authorities, during the crisis, to work in partnership with families. It describes how remote technology can be used to continue to enable family group conferences to be offered to families and to support their children during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Top tips guide for kinship carers to help children maintain relationships
This top tips guide is intended to support kinship carers to help children to safely maintain a relationship with those who are important to them, including their parents, brothers, sisters and friends, even if they cannot visit them.
Advice guide for parents and families with a child in the care system
In this guide, we have set out some creative ways in which relationships can be maintained and you can support your child during the Coronavirus crisis, even if you cannot visit them.
Government urged to step up and support kinship carers during the crisis to avoid placement breakdown
Research, commissioned by a cross-party Taskforce of MPs, setting out the results of a survey of 660 kinship carers during the Pandemic, reveals that the Coronavirus Crisis is increasing the pressure on already vulnerable kinship care families. It sets out recommendations for urgent steps that Government should take to support kinship care households during the crisis.
Delivering good practice initial assessments of family and friends carers in the context of Covid-19
A new appendix to the existing good practice guide for practitioners assessing whether a family member or friend might be a potentially realistic option to be a carer for a child who cannot live safely with their parents.