Parenting & Family Support

Are you struggling with your child's behaviour?

If you feel that your child's behaviour is starting to cause problems and you would like some help, you should talk to a professional.  This could be your Health Visitor, your doctor, your nursery/childcare provider, children's centre or school.  These services can talk the problem over with you and if necessary start an Early Help This involves building a picture of your child’s abilities, difficulties, behaviour, his/her special educational needs (if applicable) and the support required to meet those needs. A statutory assessment is a formal procedure which involves the collection of information from as many people as possible who have detailed knowledge about your child. (EHA) form so that they can involve other agencies who may be able to offer a wide variety of support depending upon the situation.  Examples of these are:

• the Early Help Team - support partner agencies to deliver prevention services across the whole of Knowsley.
• The Family Learning & Parenting service deliver a range of parenting courses to parents of children aged 6months to 18years.
• HomeStart - Work with families with at least one child under the age of 11.
• Family First 0-18 -  One of the key resources delivering interventions to families with complex, interacting needs. 
• Positive Behaviour Support Service (PBSS) - supports children and adults whose challenging behaviour is impacting upon their family and services around them, reducing their qualtity of life and will possibly lead to expulsion from community based services
• The Children with disabilities service - Provide support to families who have children up to the age of 18
• Knowsley MASH - The Knowsley Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) brings together agencies from services that have contact with children and adults at risk to make the best possible use of their combined knowledge to keep them safe from harm. 

Worried about child exploitation (criminal or sexual)?

If you feel that a child or young person is in immediate risk of harm please contact the Knowsley Access Team on 0151 443 2600 Option 3 or notify the police.

The Child Sexual Exploitation ( Child Sexual Exploitation ) team within Knowsley is known as the SHIELD Team who work closely with other services including Catch 22, Merseyside Police and Knowsley Children's Social Care.  If you are worried about Child Criminal or Sexual Exploitation you should speak to the Knowsley Access Team on 0151 443 2600 Option 3.

Other services that can help with behaviour or exploitation worries are:

• Safe Families for Children - Merseyside - Church co-ordinated crisis management organisation helping families avoid social care
• The Challenging Behaviour Foundation - A  charity for people with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges.
• Dot Com Children's Foundation - The Dot Com programme within schools covers all aspects of PHSE and with great depth, looks at aspects of PREVENT, radicalisation, child exploitation, e-safety and rights and responsibilities
• PACE - Parents against child sexual exploitation - Pace works alongside parents and carers of children who are – or are at risk of being – sexually exploited by perpetrators external to the family.
• Knowsley Youth Justice Service | Knowsley Council The Knowsley Youth Justice Service aims to address the causes swiftly to help children move away from offending and contribute positively to their communities.

Would you like to develop your parenting skills by attending a course or would you like some family support?

Parenting courses are often held in Children Centres and you can contact them or the Early Help Team and they will let you know what is available.

If your child has Special Educational Needs or Disabilities and your would like some help there is a section on this website with lots of advice and useful services - Knowsley Local Offer

Do you worry about the breakdown of your family relationships or are you affected by domestic violence?

These are some national websites that can help you if you are having family relationship difficulties -  CAFCASS, Family Law Courts, Family Action, The Centre for Separated Families.  Family relationship breakdown can also be a reason to contact the Early Help Team. We have information about how practitioners can help children/young people living in domestic abuse environments here.

We have a number of services listed on this site that can offer support to you or someone your know affected by rape or domestic abuse including The First Step who offer emotional and practical support for men or women.  Or you can visit our Useful Websites page for more national websites.

We have also found a site that explains what a healthy and safe relationship is: Respect Not Fear which contains information for and about young people.