Preston children and family wellbeing services

Tuesday 9.30am to 10.30am, Preston East Children and Family Wellbeing Services

The sessions will:

• help you to feel the relaxing effect of giving your baby a massage
• strengthen the bonding process
• build your confidence in handling your baby
• support your baby’s development in helping their physical needs if there is any tummy trouble, problems with bowel movement or trapped wind
• provide opportunities to meet other parent/carers, develop networks and peer support
• provide information about brain development, digestion, and nurturing relationships

Please bring a towel with you and please call to book a place.

Tuesday 11am to12noon, Preston East Children and Family Wellbeing Services

Wednesday 9.30am to10.30am, Ribbleton Children and Family Wellbeing Services

Meet and network with other new parents to share your experiences of caring for your baby together.

The sessions will:

• provide information about your child's ages and stages of development, particularly the growing brain and your crucial role in supporting this
• provide you with opportunities to play together and encourage positive play and interaction between you and your baby
• help you with any issues around bonding, connection and communication between you and your baby
• bring you together with other parents to prevent you from feeling socially isolated which is often a reality for new parents

Tuesday 10.30am to 12noon Ribbleton Children and Family Wellbeing Services

Volunteer led support is still available by telephone 01254 772929 and through Zoom support groups.

You can find more information on the FAB website.

Monday 9.30am to 11am, Ribbleton Children and Family Wellbeing Services

Wednesday 10am to 11.30am, Preston Central Neighbourhood Centre

We will provide groups in our centres where you can bring your child along to socialise and play alongside other children and parents.

The sessions will provide:

• high quality, well planned, stimulating and challenging activities across all ages from 0-5yrs based on child-initiated play both indoors and outdoors (where possible). This is guided by the Early Years Foundation Stage Development Matters
• information about how to nurture your child’s growing brain that supports their learning and development
• opportunities for physical play in a safe environment Support for you to play and enjoy some time together
• a chance to get involved in your child’s learning and development by actively observing and interacting with them whilst they play and as they reach important milestones
• a safe and secure environment for your child to develop their confidence, social and emotional skills and make friends
• ideas, activities and opportunities to continue, develop and expand play at home
• support for your child’s creativity and imagination and learning through roleplay
• support for you and your child if they have special educational needs or disabilities (SEND)
• support with your parenting if you need it
• information relevant to you as a family with young children including employment, training, childcare, health and wellbeing, healthy lifestyles, healthy relationships, early education and childcare
• the chance to meet with other families and make new relationships
• opportunities to participate and share your thoughts including your cultural and community values

Monday 10am to 11am, Preston Central Neighbourhood Centre

High levels of good health and wellbeing are vital for children to be able to fully engage in play to learn. Our physical health and wellbeing activities for early years children are a brilliant resource to help guide them on their first steps to living well and boost your child's physical and motor development.

The sessions will:

• build confidence
• develop gross motor and fine motor skills
• improve speech and language skills
• build social skills - have fun together and make new friends
• introduce the benefits of adopting healthy lifestyles

Tuesday 1.30pm to 2.30pm, Preston East Children and Family Wellbeing Services

Thursday 10am to 11am, The Foxton Centre, Off Knowsley Street, Avenham Lane, Preston PR1 3SA

A special group to support your child's speech and language. These skills support other areas of their learning and development such as:

• listening and understanding
• verbal and non-verbal communication
• language development

The sessions will:

• provide a strong foundation for school (for example children with proficient speech and language skills are likely to find it easier to learn to read)
• help build confidence
• enable children to communicate their needs better (and therefore reduce frustration)
• help the development of friendships
• give children a chance to build a love for words, books and stories
• help children make sense of the world around them
• provide opportunities to read and share books together, exploring the fun, rhythms and excitement of words and stories
• support your child’s listening skills by reading aloud to them and support you to do the same
• encourage children to join in song and rhyme, learning new words in a fun and friendly way
• encourage children to use language in their play, describing, predicating, sharing ideas and explaining
• encourage children to play and socialise together
• support you as a parent with ideas of how you can support your child’s speech and language development
• recognise when there may be a delay in your child’s speech and language and signpost to specialist support if it is needed

Please call to book your place.

Monday 1pm to 2pm at Preston Central Neighbourhood Centre

The sessions will help you to prepare for parenthood including:

• safer sleep for your baby
• support on feeding your baby
• how to ensure your home is safe and ready for your baby
• support with how to care for your newborn's needs, including practical demonstrations on bathing and changing nappies
• the importance of communication and talking to your baby and how this supports the developing brain
• strategies for coping with a crying baby Baby’s cry, you can cope (ICON)
• early Play
• Me you and Baby Too digital app, how a new baby may impact your relationship with strategies for healthy communication
• smoking and 'Smoke Free Homes'

Please call to book your place.

Thursday 1pm – 2.30pm The Foxton Centre, Off Knowsley Street, Avenham Lane, Preston PR1 3SA

A new group for young mums and mums-to-be who are aged 25 years or younger.

This group will be in partnership with The Foxton Centre starting from Thursday 2 February and will provide opportunities for support, advice and to be part of a new project.

Monday 3.45pm to 5pm Ribbleton Children and Family Wellbeing Services

Sessions available for 5 to 7 years and 8 to 11 years

We provide targeted support for children of primary school age. Your child may be:

• struggling to express and manage their emotions
• have low self confidence and self-esteem
• presenting with anxious behaviours

By creating a safe space, your child will have the opportunity to take part in evidence-based activities including scenarios and role play, breathing and stretching exercises, TV and video clips, arts and craft, fun and games.

The sessions will help children to:

• explore wishes and feelings and understand worries
• look at a range of strategies to help manage strong emotions
• take part in a range of creative and physical activities to encourage positive play and interaction between children and their peers
• build confidence and social skills
• meet new people and make new friends
• explore and understand the impact of their behaviour on others
• think about, understand and appreciate that we are all unique and different

Please call to book your place.

Tuesday 3.45pm to 5.30pm Moor Nook Children and Family Wellbeing Services

If you have any concerns about your child's overall health and wellbeing that is not connected to any diagnosed condition, we have sessions that support you and your child adopting healthy lifestyles.

Many children can be put off by PE at school and can feel excluded from participating. It may be too competitive or slightly threatening particularly if there are large groups with mixed abilities and they feel shy or have lower self-esteem.

We will provide a safe, sensitive and nurturing space for children to meet and have fun together, promoting physical play and activity. We will provide information on their growing body and how to adopt healthy lifestyles including healthy eating.

The sessions will help children to:

• build their confidence to take part in physical play and exercise
• get information to understand how diet and exercise effect their growing bodies
• build their social skills, have fun together and make new friends
• think about adopting healthy lifestyles, balancing activity time with screen time

Please call to book your place.

Wednesday 3.45pm to 5.15pm Moor Nook Children and Family Wellbeing Services

You may be worried that your child may struggle with the transition to secondary school? We know this can be the case for many children for a variety of reasons. We want to help make this a smoother and happier time for them so that they look forward with confidence and have a better understanding of what to expect when they enter the next step of their schooling journey. Concerns may be a result of their development, social and communication skills, behaviour and or emotional health and wellbeing issues. Through providing activities and games, discussions, scenarios, role play, arts and craft activities, travel to school and homework planning.

The sessions will help children to:

• explore feelings and emotions around transition
• prepare practically for starting high school, subject planning and homework
• look at issues/scenarios that might come up at high school
• build self-esteem and confidence
• learn about places to access for further support
• be more confident with their journey to and from school

Tuesday 1pm to 2.30pm Preston Central Neighbourhood Centre

We provide sessions in our centres for children with physical, learning, behavioural or emotional difficulties. We offer an inclusive environment, with opportunities for learning, development and support.

This is also where parents and carers have the opportunity to meet and make new friends and share experiences with those going through similar joys and challenges. There will also be information to hand about professional support so you can find out about other agencies, groups and services.

The sessions will help children to:

• be confident in expressing themselves
• experience positive social opportunities and interactions
• access learning and development opportunities
• receive peer support as well as signposting to specialist services for their parents and carers
• find a safe, inclusive place to be themselves

Children do not come supplied with a handbook, most of the time we feel our way along the parenting journey hoping that we are getting it right, crossing our fingers, that our children will grow up happy, healthy and fulfilled.

It is not an easy job and many of us can feel out of depth and overwhelmed, finding that our children’s behaviour is not what we expected, challenging and difficult to manage.

If you are struggling with being a parent, the evidence based, structured Triple P parenting course could be the answer for you.

Please call to book your place.

Tuesday 1pm – 3pm Preston West Children and Family Wellbeing Services

Wednesday 6pm to 8pm virtual via Teams – delivered by West Lancashire Children and Family Wellbeing Services

The course covers:

• Positive Parenting – using assertive discipline, having reasonable expectations and looking after yourself as a parent
• raising confident, competent children -showing respect for others, being considerate, having good communication and social skills, having healthy self-esteem, being a good problem solver and becoming independent
• raising resilient children- recognising and accepting feelings, expressing things appropriately, building a positive outlook, developing coping skills, dealing with negative feelings, dealing with stressful life events

Tuesday 6pm to 8pm virtual via Teams

The course covers:

• raising responsible teenagers – taking part in family decision making, being respectful and considerate, getting involved in family activities, developing a healthy lifestyle, being reliable, being assertive
• raising competent teenagersdeveloping self-discipline, establishing good routines, getting involved in school activities, being a good problem solver following school rules, having supportive friends

Thursdays – phone 01772 539444 for more details and to book a place.

The Freedom Programme is a relaxed, informal group for women who have experienced domestic abuse, from a partner or family members and would like to be able to recognise abusive behaviours and understand what makes a healthy relationship.

Freedom is primarily designed for women as victims or survivors of domestic abuse, as research shows that the majority of domestic abuse cases are male on female.

The sessions will:

• examine the roles played by attitudes and beliefs on the actions of abusive men and the responses of victims and survivors
• help victims and survivors make sense of and understand what has happened to them, instead of the whole experience just feeling like a horrible mess
• describe how children are affected by being exposed to this kind of abuse and very importantly how their lives are improved when the abuse is removed

Wednesday 1.30pm to 3pm Preston Central Neighbourhood Centre

All families have arguments, it is part of how we negotiate, make decisions, understand each other and live together. This is constructive and children learn from seeing how arguments are resolved. However, when arguments become frequent, intense and poorly resolved it is destructive conflict and children suffer from being exposed to it. There is support on hand and we would encourage you to come along and give this course a go if you find yourself entrenched in ongoing destructive conflict with your partner.

This is a course of 6 weekly sessions, couples are encouraged to attend together. The course aims to work in a solution focused way, enabling and empowering you as a couple to understand your conflict and see how to resolve the issues yourselves, rather than relying on a practitioner for solutions.

The sessions will include:

• the effects of conflict on parents and children, and the causes of conflict
• the stages of relationship development, how our existing vulnerabilities can make us more susceptible to conflict and the different perspective we bring to our relationships
• constructive and destructive communication
• thoughts, feelings and behaviours
• the feelings wheel, problems and issues
• better communication – expectations and reality, goal setting

Special educational needs or disabilities (SEND) group

Monday 6.45pm to 9pm

Fun, informative sessions, exploring key topics and issues affecting SEND young people. Providing an opportunity to take part in peer led education, building confidence and skills.

These will:

• provide a safe space to meet with friends, make new friends and connect
• offer lots of fun activities
• provide support from youth workers who are there to support and listen to you
• give opportunities to share your ideas for projects
• offer holiday activities and trips and visits for you to access

Contact Libby Shaw 07890054372 or email PrestonTYS@lancashire.gov.uk

Tuesday 6.45pm till 9pm

This is a group for young people who are LGBT or questioning their sexuality or identity and want a safe environment so they can be themselves in a non-judgmental and supported environment. Fun, informative sessions, exploring key topics and issues affecting young people who identify as LGBTQ+. Providing an opportunity to meet other young people, make friends, socialise and support each other.

These will:

• provide a safe space to meet with friends, make new friends and connect
• offer lots of fun activities
• provide support from Youth Workers who are there to support and listen to you
• give opportunities to share your ideas for projects
• offer holiday activities and trips and visits for you to access

Contact Libby Shaw 07890054372 or email PrestonTYS@lancashire.gov.uk

Wednesday 6.45pm to 9pm

This group is for young people who want to be heard, and want to influence change locally, regionally and nationally.

The group will discuss issues that affect young people and work on campaigns such as environment, gangs, education and homelessness. Young people will build an understanding of politics and have opportunities to impact on their community.

This group will enable young people to:

• make decisions
• gain confidence
• learn a range of skills and information
• have a voice and influence

Contact Libby Shaw 07890054372 or email PrestonTYS@lancashire.gov.uk

Starting from 24 February Thursday 1.30pm to 5pm

A drop-in at Moor Nook Centre, Burholme Road, Ribbleton for any young person aged 12 to 19 (or up to 25 with SEND) to pop in for a brew and a chat with our friendly Targeted Youth Support Team.

During this time we will also be running The Young Person's Transport Scheme to offer free bus travel to young people aged 16 to 18, who are classified as not in education, employment or training (NEET) and young people who are young parents and young carers.

Contact Libby Shaw 07890054372 or email PrestonTYS@lancashire.gov.uk

Thursday 6.45pm to 9pm

Friday 6.45pm to 9pm

Detached session engaging some of our hardest to reach young people in the community. Providing support and communicating key messages - stay safe, keep connected plus information, advice and guidance for services available to young people.

Contact Libby Shaw 07890054372 or email PrestonTYS@lancashire.gov.uk

Friday 6.45pm till 9pm

Providing safe spaces in local neighbourhoods, open during the evening, for local young people to meet and access services. By opening the doors of a suitable building in a local neighbourhood and welcoming in those local young people who are in need of support and want to access positive activities.

These will:

• provide a safe space to meet with friends, make new friends and connect
• offer lots of fun activities
• provide support from youth workers who are there to support and listen to you
• give opportunities to share your ideas for projects
• offer holiday activities, trips and visits for you to access

Contact Libby Shaw 07890054372 or email to PrestonTYS@lancashire.gov.uk