To receive presentations from Linda Cantillon-Guhat (Advice Service for Kids) and from Stephen Spooner (Elim Children’s Centre).
Followed by a round table discussion on the following questions:
Minutes:
The Chairman welcomed Linda Cantillon-Guyatt from the Advice Service for Kids (ASK) who was in attendance to give a presentation on the services and support available for families.
ASK Wiltshire had been established in 1994 and was a registered charity employing around 33 people. The organisation sought to support parents and those providing care for children up to the age of 19. Supported by funding from Wiltshire Council, ASK provided a number of services to parents.
One of these was the Family Information Service, which was a helpline for parents, giving advice on a wide variety of issues. A few examples of the queries received were:
· a parent seeking play schemes suitable for a six year old child with severe autism;
· a disabled parent of young children who had experienced abuse;
· concern over an 11 year old boy who had witnessed domestic abuse and who was refusing to attend school;
· concern over a 13 year old boy using violence towards his mother;
· queries over custody issues; and
· advice on how to afford equipment such as booster seats for cars.
ASK also provided a Parenting Service, to offer skills-based training to parents over a nine session course on communications and relationship building. This was specifically aimed at parents of children aged between 8-17 and had proven results in terms of reducing reoffending by young people.
Other services provided by ASK were the Parent Partnership Service which supported parents and young people with Special Educational Needs, and the Secondary School Choice Advice Service, which offered advice on the schools application process.
One of the main difficulties facing ASK was the lack of awareness about the services provided. Parents often commented that they wished they had known of the organisation earlier. As part of a wider publicity campaign, the organisation was now listed in “Find it”, a leaflet detailing local, regional and national services available to the public. Copies of this would be available though schools and online.
The Chairman thanked Linda for her presentation and invited those present to discuss the following two questions:
1. What are the issues for families?
2. What can I, or the organisation I represent, do about it?
Each table was then invited to feed back one suggestion in relation to the second question. The following ideas were raised:
· Family orientated workshops – to develop skills and relationships.
· Salisbury City Council offered to provide a link from its website to ASK and to offer space in the redeveloped Guildhall for a drop-in clinic.
· Salisbury Arts Centre currently ran a family festival, and occasional family days. These could be used to publicise services for parents, as could space in the café, which was popular with young parents.
· The UNIT could help publicise ASK, through reciprocal links on the websites of the two organisations.
· Promotion of walking buses.
· St Edmunds Community Association suggested intergenerational events to bring families together through spoken history or arts activities.
· St Thomas’ Church offered to publicise ASK through its toddler groups.
· Reference was made to the stigma of attending parenting courses. It was suggested that making parenting classes compulsory would minimise this image, and also help share good parenting practice. This could be run through schools.
The Chairman thanked everyone for their contributions and asked for all written notes of the discussion to be handed to the clerk, so that these could be collated and shared with the relevant organisations. As usual, feedback would be given at the next meeting of the Area Board.