Help for kinship carers

The Bolton IFD (integrated front door) is a single point of contact for Bolton children and families services, including statutory social work support and early help services for families in need of help. These agencies work together to provide advice and guidance and to jointly triage referrals made in respect of children and navigate them to the correct service.

If you are unsure if a referral to the IFD needs to be made at this time and would like to discuss this, you are welcome to contact us on our consultation line by calling 01204 331500 and choosing option 3. A social worker will talk through your query with you and give you advice.

• For universal and targeted youth work services including events, advice, support and guidance, visit My Life in Bolton.
• For support designed for parents with a child under 5 years old, or those expecting a baby, visit Bolton Family Hubs.
• For targeted support for families to help them address a range of parenting and childhood development issues visit Bolton Family Hubs or Bolton Families Information Service.
• A range of parenting support programmes run throughout Bolton. Find out more at Bolton Family Hubs.

Bolton SEND Local Offer sets out the services available to children and young people aged 0 to 25 with special educational needs and disabilities.

• Looking after someone else's child provides government guidance on support and benefits you can get if you're looking after someone else’s child.
• Kinship care is a national charity that provides a range of advice, support and guidance to kinship carers.
• Family Rights Group is a charity that advises families whose children are involved with children's services. They have a confidential advice service for parents and family and friends carers.
• PAC-UK provides specialist independent advice, counselling, training and educational advice for those affected by adoption, special guardianship and other forms of permanent care.
• CoramBAAF is a charity dedicated to improving lives for children and young people in care.

Bolton's virtual school is a multi-disciplinary team that provides support to children and families, education settings and social workers. Their aim is to help children and young people achieve their potential through education, employment or training opportunities. The virtual school provides advice and guidance to children or families in kinship care arrangements. Contact virtualschool@bolton.gov.uk.

Being a kinship carer can be an incredibly rewarding experience, but it can also be challenging, so it's important to think about self care. A range of wellbeing support is available in Bolton and online:

• Calm Connections - online and face to face support groups, workshops and mindfulness sessions.
• PAC-UK - adoption and permanency support.
• The kinship care charity – peer support groups, advice, information, training and events.
• Mental health first aid (MHFA) England is an educational course focusing on young people's mental health and how to identify, understand and help a young person who may be developing mental health problems.
• Kooth is a free, safe and anonymous online support and counselling service to support emotional and mental health support for children and young people aged between 11 and 24 years and is available up to 10pm every day.
• MindEd for families provides materials for parents and carers of children and teens struggling with mental health issues, covering such topics as what to do in a crisis, parenting difficult children, everyday parenting and keeping ourselves strong.
• Every mind matters offers guidance on breathing techniques.
• NHS guidance – how to meditate for beginners and what is mindfulness.
• Bolton community and voluntary services (CVS) is an informative platform detailing Bolton's voluntary and community groups.