Connecting Families and Safe Families Support

Safe Families are a charity that are currently supporting families who are open to CSC but it has been agreed they can offer the following support to up to 20 families within the Early Help arena. Support is delivered via a network of volunteers and could include;

Mentor support – volunteer mentors to provide emotional and practical support to families to help affect positive change and address issues associated with parental isolation, mental health issues and parenting capacity. Support may include:

• Practical work with parents on home conditions.
• Providing daytime respite for parents.
• Mentoring parents and improving parenting capacity through modelling, parental support and advice.
• Providing emotional support to increase self-esteem, self-confidence and self-efficacy. 
• Providing practical child focused activities – ensuring appropriate boundaries and strategies and providing access to community resources through positive and stimulating activities.
• Reducing isolation and increasing integration into local communities – building resilience and networking by encouraging and accompanying families to facilitate their engagement with community resources such as the Children and Families Newcastle Offer. 
• Practical family resources – basic goods and services to support family life; for example, improving home conditions through de-cluttering, decorating, gardening, or providing furniture, baby equipment, washing machines, beds and so on.

*In some exceptional circumstances this could also include hosting / respite support where there is a family crisis. 

In order to make a referral to Safe Families or to have a case discussion please contact cathryn.elsy@newcastle.gov.uk / 07791 732 253

To make a referral please consider 

• Is there a TAF in place and a lead practitioner / main point of contact for the duration of the support – Safe Families require a point of contact and for their support to be part of a coordinated package of support.
• Do you have a clear plan for Safe Families support including desired outcomes.
• Do you have parental consent and an agreement from the family to engage with Safe Families support 
• What the impact would be if a volunteer is not allocated

Volunteers come from local communities and support families in various ways including

Family Friends, host Families and resource friends.

Criteria for referrals vary by area, so please contact the North East Safe Families team by calling 0191 7070 033.

For more information see the attached leaflets or visit www.refer.safefamilies.uk