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Need help and advice

If your family is involved with children's services, or you need help from these services, our interactive web-pages will give you the information you need.

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Blogs and Vlogs

Families' voices and opinions are at the heart of our media. Our blogs and vlogs page features articles and videos by parents, kinship carers and other professionals on subjects of child welfare and more.

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Policy and Campaigns

Read about the Care Crisis Review, our kinship care campaigns, our policy work and download our press releases.

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Supporters Network

By joining the Family Rights Group Supporters’ Network, you agree to make a donation, no matter how big or small, which will make a crucial contribution to our work.

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Category: Friends and Family Carers news and development

Seeking social workers' views on family and friends care

Are you a local authority children's services social worker, social work manager or practitioner? If so, could you spare 10 minutes to complete this short questionnaire about your experience and views of family and friends care?

This survey is a crucial part of a research study (Understanding Family and Friends Care) being conducted by Family Rights Group in partnership with the University of Oxford. This is exploring how the support available to family and friends carers, and the children they are bringing up,  is linked to their needs and the legal status of the arrangements i.e. family and friends foster care, special guardianship or residence order, informal care.

In the first part of the study we interviewed 95 kinship carers and conducted an online survey of almost 500, follow the link to read a summary of the study Understanding family and friends care: the relationship between need, support and legal status. This, however, only gives us a partial perspective. Hence we are now in the process of interviewing a range of practitioners, within local authorities and the family justice system, who can help us understand how decisions are made about support and legal status. We consider it is particularly important to hear from front-line social workers and managers, as well as practitioners in specialist roles such as kinship teams.

All the information you give will be confidential and not divulged to third parties. It will be of great assistance to us in working to ensure that children living in family and friends care, and their carers, receive the support they need to achieve the best possible outcomes for the children.

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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)

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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.

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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.

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.

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