Rossendale children and family wellbeing services

Monday 1pm, Haslingden Community Link and Family Hub

Thursday 10am, Maden Family Hub

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

Monday 9.30am, Maden Family Hub

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

Each 2nd and 3rd Wednesday of the month, 10am to 11.30am at Maden Family Hub

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.

Monday 9.30am to 11am, Rawtenstall Family Hub and The Zone

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

Thursday 9.30am to 11am, Haslingden Community Link and Family Hub

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

Wednesday 10am to 11.30am, Whitworth Library

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

Monday 3:30pm-5pm, Maden Family Hub

Tuesday 3:30pm-5pm, Haslingden Community Link and Family Hub

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

Tuesday 9.30am-11am, Maden Family Hub - for preschool children

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

Wednesday 10am to 11.30am Maden Family Hub (1st Wednesday of the month)

A play group for families with Special Guardianship Orders, providing positive activities for children, supporting their early development and experiences. This group also provides a great opportunity to make new friends.

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.

We offer the following Triple P courses, please call for more information and to book your place.

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

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 teenagers - developing self-discipline, establishing good routines, getting involved in school activities, being a good problem solver following school rules, having supportive friends

The course covers:

• positive parenting for children with a disability
  • creating a positive learning environment
  • using assertive discipline
  • having reasonable expectations
  • looking after yourself as a parent
  • adapting to having a child with a disability
  • being part of your community
• helping your child reach their potential - promoting your child’s development by teaching them new skills and behaviours; this explores
  • choosing a skill to teach
  • breaking skills into steps
  • choosing rewards
  • deciding on strategies
  • keeping track and reviewing

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

The Children and Family Wellbeing Service has a strong commitment to support both adults and children who have suffered from domestic abuse to heal effectively from their trauma and to help break the cycle of abuse. Our trained staff will help your child’s voice be heard and believed. The programme offers activities that are child led, age appropriate and sensitively delivered. They help children to work through their fears, anxieties and emotions, providing them with coping strategies, resilience building their self-esteem and confidence.

The sessions will help children to:

• explore abusive behaviours within relationships and recognise them
• explore non-abusive behaviours within relationships and recognise them
• reassure children that they are not to blame if violence has been received or witnessed
• build the confidence of children
• provide a safe and great place to meet new people
• build social skills

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

You can now collect your free vitamins from Children and Family Wellbeing Service centre by appointment only.

Healthy Start vitamins contain vitamins A, C and D for your child and folic acid and vitamins C and D for you if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or until your baby is one year old. Drops are for your child if they are aged from six months (unless a health visitor has advised earlier use of vitamins) until they are four years old and mums get tablets.

You must be receiving the Healthy Start vouchers that you get with your food vouchers. You will exchange the voucher to get your free vitamins.

To collect your Healthy Start vitamins, please call 01706 237780 or 01706 237788

If you don't yet get help from the Healthy Start scheme, find out more and apply at the NHS Healthy Start website.

• Your mental health
• During pregnancy
• Baby feeding advice
• Preparation for birth and childhood
• After the birth

Volunteer led peer support and is still available from F.A.B Families and Babies:

Our infant feeding helpline is available daily 9.30am to 2.30pm and 9.30pm to midnight 01254 772929 (voicemail available outside of these hours, picked up the next working day).

Whilst face to face support is still suspended due to COVID19 we are still very actively supporting families across Lancashire and South Cumbria (temporarily including areas that would normally fall outside the FAB Lancs and Lancashire County Council footprint).

We have implemented a varied digital offer that includes the following options for infant feeding peer support;

• One to one video support with a range of platforms to suit the family, including; Zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Microsoft Teams/Skype) – we recommend this option for specific questions or concerns
• One to one telephone, text or email support
• Infant feeding support group on Facebook
• Video groups sessions on Zoom
• Facebook Rooms
• Monthly 2 part antenatal workshop on Zoom

Monday 7pm to 9pm at Rawtenstall Children and Family Wellbeing Services

We support special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) young people to have a fun time and make new friends.

Throughout the program we will be looking at:

• Cooking, shopping, independence
• Motivation and confidence building
• Team building, teamwork and personal and social development
• Arts and crafts
• Employability skills (Older young people)
• Computers
• Sports
• Organising events throughout the year

For more details or to book on to the sessions contact Jo Riding 07939372418 or Lisa Spencer 07827257462.

Friday 6pm to 8pm at Rawtenstall Children and Family Wellbeing Services

A safe space giving young people the opportunity to meet up together, have fun and take part in a range of activities, whilst also having access to a youth worker to discuss any issues or concerns.

For more details or to book on to the sessions contact Jo Riding 07939372418.

Wednesday 7pm to 9pm Rawtenstall

Youth Council is an opportunity for young people to have a voice and be able to influence decisions made locally and nationally.  Regular meetings in districts give young people the opportunity to be involved in projects and campaigns that they identify significant to themselves and others. It also gives them the opportunity to attend monthly meetings at County Hall in Preston equipping them with skills that gives them a voice and influence over decisions that affect them.

For more details or to book on to the sessions contact Jo Riding 07939372418 or Lisa Spencer 07827257462.

Detached youth work is all about engaging young people where they choose to meet; be it a village green, retail-park or an urban housing estate, and working with them to an agreed outcome.

It is about empowering, politicising and supporting young people within their community and definitely should not be used as a tool for social control or trying to get ‘kids off the streets’. 

Detached youth workers literally enter the ‘space’ occupied by young people, and the dynamics are different to other youth work interventions. The key to success is in the positive relationships built and this requires time, commitment and really good negotiation skills.

Currently running in various locations on Thursday evenings.

For more details contact Jo Riding 07939372418 or Lisa Spencer 07827257462.

Young people aged 16 to 18 years who are not in education, training or employment, and those who are young carers/parents can apply for a free bus pass.

Please contact Jo Riding, tel: 07939372418, email: joanne.riding@lancashire.gov.uk

A welcoming and safe space for young people who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community or for those exploring their identity, gender and sexuality.