Family support groups

Lots of different people offer family support; it could be a grandparent, a next door neighbour or a friend. Your health visitor, teacher or community group can also offer other forms of family support.

Bringing up children is exciting and enjoyable but it is also demanding, tiring and stressful. We all need help at times as none of us are trained to be parents.

Lewisham Council’s Children’s Services can offer support and services to your children and to you as parents and carers. We will also work alongside others offering you support in your community.

Who is eligible

We will carry out an assessment of your child and your family needs. This helps make sure that we are best placed to meet those needs with family support. Your involvement in this assessment is important, as it is our aim to support you to safely parent your child.

What help can we offer?

support for your family to enable you to live together better
opportunities for you as parents and carers to learn new skills
opportunities for young children to learn through play
support to help you to cope with your children better
opportunities for you to learn how to deal with problems and become more confident
services that recognise that all children and adults have different needs and help you to respond to your family needs
support and services that work with you to protect your children from harm.

How we provide it

we talk to you and your children to find out what services might be best for you
we offer a mix of services to suit your family
we recognise that you and your children have multi-cultural, religious and linguistic needs
we work in partnership with you, we recognise that you as parents have prime responsibility for your children
we signpost you to other community services
for those children who are not able to live together with you at home, we will work with you to assess how to safely return your children home
our priority is to offer support to enable you and your family to live safely together.

Teenagers

Having a teenager at home can be challenging for both you as a parent and the young person. This is a time when young people begin to want control over their lives. They need to learn how to take responsibility for their actions. This can mean a rollercoaster of emotions that upset family life with conflict, stress and worry.

We can offer advice and support, including individual work with your teenager.

Our aim is to support you as a family and prevent any family breakdown.

We work together

Lewisham Council’s Children’s Services is committed to working in partnership with you. This is to enable you to parent your children so that they reach their full potential.

Our services include:

information on assessments and services
consultation - you and your family’s views are taken into account when we provide services, you are involved in planning and decision making
we encourage your to take an active part in drawing up the plan for your teenager or child.