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Our advice service

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.

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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.

Discuss on our forums

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.

Advice on our website

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.

 

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Government funding secured for the future of Family Rights Group’s advice service to families

Published: 13th March 2020

2 minute read

Family Rights Group (FRG) is pleased to announce that we have secured funding from the Department for Education (DfE) to continue to provide our free telephone and on-line legal advice service to parents whose children are in need, at risk or are in the care system and wider family raising children who cannot live at home.

FRG has run a free specialist telephone and digital child welfare and legal advice service for many years. It enables families to understand their rights and options and is proven to prevent the unnecessary escalation of child protection procedures and children avoidably going into care.

Demand for the advice service has grown significantly in recent years, reflecting the significant rise in families involved in the child welfare system – the number of children in care is at the highest level since 1985. This funding will enable us to answer more than 5,500 enquiries in the next 12 months whilst we anticipate that visitors to the parents’ and kinship carers’ digital discussion boards and website will exceed 600,000.

FRG Chief Executive Cathy Ashley comments

‘We are delighted that the Department for Education has continued to fund Family Rights Group’s advice service. It demonstrates significant confidence in the great work that our advice staff do.

The service last year received calls from 17,000 parents and wider family members, even with this funding, we will only be able to answer a third of callers. We will therefore continue to seek further ways to secure funding to ensure that we can support as many families as possible who need our advice.’

People pie chart

Our funding means we can currently only help 4 in 10 people

Your donation will help more families access expert legal advice and support from Family Rights Group.

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