By phone or email
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Are you a parent, kinship carer relative or friend of a child who is involved with, or who needs the help of, children’s services in England? We can help you understand processes and options when social workers or courts are making decisions about your child’s welfare.
Our advice service is free, independent and confidential.
To speak to an adviser, please call our free and confidential advice line 0808 801 0366 (Monday to Friday 9.30am to 3pm, excluding Bank Holidays). Or you can ask us a question via email using our advice enquiry form.
Our online advice forums are an anonymous space where parents and kinship carers (also known as family and friends carers) can get legal and practical advice, build a support network and learn from other people’s experiences.
Our get help and advice section has template letters, advice sheets and resources about legal and social care processes. On Monday and Wednesday afternoons, you can use our webchat service to chat online to an adviser.
Our campaign aims to ensure all care-experienced children and young people have positive, loving relationships they can rely on into adulthood.
Lifelong Links, an approach we designed with young people, is proven to build a support network around children and young people.
We are calling on Government to make Lifelong Links and offer for all children and young people in care, and care leavers, across the UK.
The process of being taken into care often breaks important relationships with family and friends. Laura, a care leaver, told us:
One of the things that they did when I went into care permanently was any connections with anyone in my family, except my grandparents, were just cut off altogether
In the short term, having a support network around them can help children and young people in care cope with daily challenges. Bradley, a young person who has taken part in Lifelong Links, said:
I had no contact for 16 years with my dad’s family at all. Now I can ring up and go round for a cup of tea and it’s like I’ve always known them. So to me, Lifelong Links has been one of the best programmes.
Over the longer term, we know that young people rely on strong support networks for emotional and practice support as they become adults.
Currently 32 local authorities in the UK are offering a Lifelong Links service to children and young people. Over 2300 children and young people have benefited to date. There are over 100,000 children and young people in care across the UK.
Use our campaign tool below to send a message to your elected representatives. Start by entering your postcode.
“During the Lifelong Links process, a trained coordinator works with children and young people to find and safely connect with relatives and others who care about them. This could include brothers and sisters, school friends, former foster carers, teachers, or even pets.
“Multiple evaluations show that this approach, developed by Family Rights Group, can make a significant positive impact on outcomes for children and young people, with stronger support networks resulting in better mental health, more stability and an improved sense of identity. A recent study founds that Lifelong Links reduces the risk of homelessness by 10%.
“Our campaign goal to Government is simple: all care-experienced children and young people should be offered Lifelong Links, and Government needs to fund to make it happen.”
Find out more about Lifelong Links and its lifechanging impact on care-experienced children and young people here.
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