Coronavirus – help for children, young people and families
Details of help and services on offer for children and young people during the pandemic. Covid-19 is affecting all of us in all sorts of ways, but while services may have had to change shape and focus we want to let children and young people, their families and professionals know there is support.
As part of its #StayConnected campaign for all young people living in Neath Port Talbot, these pages will highlight a whole range of emotional and wellbeing services, helplines and support to meet whatever the worry or need that arises.
Whatever the question or worry, however silly or trivial it might seem to some, it's about helping children and young people deal with what matters and what is happening to them.
If you are worried about the safety of a child or young person, services are available throughout the pandemic. The Single Point Of Contact (SPOC) Service is basically the front door to Early Help and Social Services.
Anyone can contact the SPOC team to have a discussion and get help.
A member of the team will listen to you and let you know what information, advice or assistance can be provided and who can help from social services, health, youth offending service, education, police, early intervention and prevention services and the third sector. How much we can tell you about a specific child will depend on the reason for your contact and the circumstances.
If you do not feel safe or are worried you can contact the SPOC team Telephone
If a child is at immediate risk of harm call 999
- Meic is the helpline service for children and young people up to the age of 25 in Wales from finding out what's going on in your local area to help dealing with a tricky situation details at www.meiccymru.org/get-help/
- Pelican Promoting Emotional Literacy in Children with Additional Needs
- Platform 4YP is a strengths based mental health charity with a team of coaches ready to support 13 – 16 yr old young people living in Neath Port Talbot. The aim is to support young people to build wellbeing strategies for themselveshttps://platfform.org/join-platfform4yp/
- TidyMinds If you’re a young person living in Swansea or Neath Port Talbot, we’re here to help you understand the way you’re feeling, and find the right advice and support.
- You can speak to somebody online at the NSPCC Helpline where friendly adults are able to support you to report that you do not feel safe.
- Useful information for children, young people and their families during this time is also available via the Young Minds Website children and young people's mental health charity
- Children and young people can access immediate support from Samaritans - call any time, for free from any phone on 116 123
- The Mix - text THEMIX to 85258
- Childline can listen to your worries and help you to cope with them
Supporting the psychological well-being of children, young people and families during the changes brought by Coronavirus.
The Educational Psychology service in Neath Port Talbot will continue to support families in these challenging times. They are available to provide advice to families and child carers in their response to meeting the learning and wellbeing needs of their children via the school.
We recognise that the current school situation will be challenging and the concerns around Covid-19 may increase the anxiety of children and families. The Educational Psychologists' Parent Guidance
The NPT Inclusion Service continues to support children, young people and their families in these challenging times. The service consists of a number of teams who support the Local Authority in addressing the needs of vulnerable learners, in particular those with additional learning needs and those that require support around wellbeing. They are:
- Support for Learning
- Additional Learning Needs Support Service
- Educational Psychology Service
- School Based Counselling Service
- Well-Being and Behaviour Service, including Cynnydd
- School and Family Support
There is an NPT Inclusion Service Facebook page, which has some very useful suggestions for schools and families. Search NPT Education Inclusion Service and simply ‘like’ the page to start following.
There is also a NPT Inclusion Service webpage.
In light of the impact of Covid-19 on the current schools situation, and the anxieties this may cause, the NPT Inclusion Service is offering a telephone consultation helpline, which may help support you and your child at home.
The concerns can be related to school or family life. You will be offered an initial telephone consultation of 30 minutes, with the most appropriate member of the Inclusion Service, dependent upon you and your child’s needs, and a potential follow-up of another 30 minute telephone consultation at a later date. These will be Monday to Friday within standard working hours. The form to complete to access the service can be found here.
The School Based Counselling Service has a Primary School Call Back Service for Parents. The purpose of this service is to support parents in supporting the emotional wellbeing of their children during this time. You will speak to a School Based Counsellor who will be able to guide you in supporting the emotional wellbeing of your child.
For further information and to request a call back please visit: https://www.npt.gov.uk/23236
The School Based Counselling Service are also now able to extend our telephone counselling service to new secondary school pupils clients. Secondary school pupils can refer themselves here.
The Covid-19 pandemic and in particular self-isolation can have an impact on mental health.
- Activate your life, – free online self-help video for anyone 16+ struggling with their mental health
- ARA (Addiction Recovery Agency), in partnership with GamCare deliver the Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme. This national programme aims to deliver workshops to 11-19 year olds and the people who support them on the subject of gambling and raising the awareness of young people and problem gambling. Problem gambling is on the rise within this age group with statistics showing 55000 (1.7%) of 11-19 year olds considered problem gamblers, with a further 2.7% at risk. In addition ARA can offer free confidential counselling to 11–19 year olds.
To book a place on a free workshop contact: RobertParker@Recovery4all.co.uk
- Barnardo’s have a Covid-19 helpline/service called Boloh. They recognise that the pandemic has disproportionately affected YP/families from BAME backgrounds.
The helpline is available between 1-8pm Monday-Friday for YP aged between 11-25 years and their parents/carers. They also provide practical/emotional support over the phone/webchat and onward referrals to specialist community support. There is also a team of psychotherapists that can provide therapy (6 sessions) for YP and parents/carers.
Service can be provided in different languages English, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi and this will be expanding to Amharic, Tigrinya and Mirpuri.
- CAMHS - If children and young people need some extra help at this time with their mental health, there is support available from the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS).
COVID 19 has resulted in changes to the way CAMHS delivers mental health services across Neath Port Talbot for children and young people. Most face to face clinic-based appointments have been replaced with telephone consultations.
Access to CAMHS support has been enhanced with a CAMHS Telephone Single Point of Contact and Referral Line. This is an open access service for children and young people, their families, and professionals, providing telephone advice, support and referral triage, 9.00am - 5.00pm, Monday to Friday.
If there are urgent or immediate concerns about a child or young person's mental health, the CAMHS Crisis Team can be accessed via the CAMHS Telephone Single Point of Contact and Referral Line 01639 862744, 9.00am - 5.00pm Monday to Friday. Outside these hours contact NHS 111.
- Daylight is free online guide to support people through worry and anxiety
- Parent Talk offers free, down-to-earth information and advice for parents of children aged 0-19 from Action for Children. The confidential one-to-one online chat service connects parents directly with a parenting coach for judgement-free practical advice and emotional support whilst the website answers some of the most common parenting questions.
Bethan Watts is Action for Children’s programme team lead for Parent Talk in Wales and part of a team who can respond in Welsh. She said: “This is such an important and innovative service for parents and families. The pandemic has created all sorts of extra pressure and demands that will only increase as we approach Christmas so to be able to provide this service in Welsh is very important. It will enable Welsh speaking parents express themselves more comfortably and accurately helping us to provide better outcomes for families.
“With so many mums and dads in desperate need of guidance, a service like Parent Talk is needed now more than ever. Our parent coaches are there for any questions parents have – big or small. Anyone who needs a bit of support in these tough times and want to do so in Welsh can go to parent-talk.org.uk/wales.”
- Meic Cymru - Meic is the helpline service for children and young people up to the age of 25 in Wales. Meic will listen even when no-one else will, Meic won’t judge you and will help by giving you information, useful advice and the support you need to make a change
- Childline - Childline is a service provided by NSPCC to help anyone under the age of 19 in the UK with any issue they’re going through. You can talk to them about anything, whether it’s big or small, their trained counsellors are there to help and support children and young people
Childline
- Young Minds - Young Minds are the UK's leading charity fighting for children and young people's mental health. You can find lots of information on their website
Young Minds
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Take some time for yourself - Brought to you by Platfform4YP, Project Me is an online space that offers you support for your everyday mental health and wellbeing. It’s somewhere for you to reflect on how you’re feeling, read up on tips for looking after your wellbeing, and find information on where to reach out if you need more help. We’ve got a variety of tools to help you through those times when you need some extra support. All the content is self-led, meaning you can go through everything at your own pace. Your wellbeing matters – so take some time for yourself.
- Tidy Minds - ‘Tidy Minds’ is a new website that has recently been launched for young people living in Swansea or Neath Port Talbot. The website is full of information to help you understand the way you’re feeling, and find the right advice and support.
- Kooth Virtual Counselling Service - A new online virtual counselling service for young people in Neath Port Talbot and Swansea is now available. Kooth is a free, welcoming and confidential way for young people aged 11-18 years to access emotional wellbeing and early intervention mental health support. The service offers one-to-one, anonymous counselling sessions with fully trained and qualified, experienced counsellors and emotional wellbeing practitioners
- Suicide and self-harm guidance launched to support schools
- Repository – Hwb (gov.wales)
- Young person's mental health toolkit - Low mood
- Samaritans - Finding your way – A guide for anyone who is struggling to cope
- Call 111 Option 2 - 24/7 mental health support is now available over the phone in Swansea Bay. People living in Swansea and Neath Port Talbot who need urgent support with mental health issues can now call a team of mental health professionals for free, day or night. Calling 111and choosing option 2 puts callers in direct contact with a team of 20 mental health professionals based at Neath Port Talbot Hospital.
If you have questions or need someone to talk to then you can, online or by phone. Talking to people who make you feel safe and you can trust is important.
If you can, talk with an adult you trust at home. If this isn't possible, don't worry. There are lots of safe spaces where you can talk online or over the phone to trusted adults whose job is to help children and young people when they need it. There's no need to feel nervous because we all need someone to talk to, ask questions and get the information we need to be happy, healthy and safe.
Even though there's a lockdown, there are plenty of ways to chat, ask questions and seek advice. We are here to help where we can, with worries or questions you may have - no issue is too big or too small and we will always try to help.
Many services are still running to make sure people who use our services can be happy, healthy and safe, and get what they need from us. You can still get in touch with us for the things you need. Information about how to contact council services and what's available are accessible at www.NPT.gov.uk
Check out the Neath Port Talbot Virtual School for information that may help you with things to do, help with home schooling and study and also further information about where to go for more support.
The school pages are constantly being updated with information from support for you to things to do.
In addition, please see below details of Family Support/Prevention Services provided by other organisations and the type of support they are providing at this time, they include:
- Team Around the Family (TAF) - provides support, advice and assistance to families
- Families First
- Children and Families– provide links to parenting and mindfulness advice
- Neath Port Talbot Youth Service
- NPTCVS - Neath Port Talbot CVS exists to support, promote and develop the participation of voluntary organisations, community groups and individuals in the voluntary sector in Neath Port Talbot. Part of the Third Sector Support Wales structure, they offer support in volunteering, sustainable funding, good governance and engaging and influencing. Whether you are an individual looking for support yourself, a potential volunteer wanting to help or a group looking to set up to deliver services within the community, Neath Port Talbot CVS will be able to help
- Student Support Neath Port Talbot College - Following the ending of all face to face student contact on 20th March 2020 the following link can be used to access services studentsupport@nptgroup.ac.uk
- Thrive (Women's Aid) “Thrive Women’s Aid are providers of specialist emotional and practical support for women, children and young people affected by domestic abuse in Neath Port Talbot. We support families to rebuild their lives and regain independence in safe communities and believe that everyone has the right to have a future without fear. We aim to encourage, enable and empower those who have experienced challenging circumstances and are passionate and dedicated in our approach to ensuring the cycle of abuse is broken for good.” Enquiries
- NSPCC In Control is a group work programme for children and young people aged 9-13yrs that aims to help them keep safe and prevent online sexual abuse. It lasts up to 8 weeks and can be delivered 1-to-1 when a child or young person needs extra support. Practitioners support parents helping them to understand the work being offered to their children. Protect and Respect works with children and young people aged 11–19yrs offering support for children who either need support to learn about healthy relationships or who may be experiencing exploitation. We provide tailored support for the child and their parent or carer. Enquires call
- Barnardos - Beyond the Blue service can offer a range of supportive and therapeutic interventions that meet the emotional and wellbeing needs of children, young people and their parents. Support provided will be tailored to each family by a support plan developed in partnership with the family. We work with families and their children up to 25 years of age. Enquires call or email:
- Children's Community Nursing Service
- Childline - is offering 1:2:1 counselling between 9am – 10.30pm for children and young people with high anxiety and for families suffering domestic abuse
Welsh Government have created a mental health toolkit for 11 to 25-year-olds. Here you will find six playlists to signpost you to a wide range of online resources to help you through this period and beyond. In each of the playlists, you will find self-help websites, apps, helplines, and more here to support your mental health and wellbeing.
