Helpful Services for Parents

babies and woman sitting on sofa while holding baby and watching on tablet

Parents are the people best placed to raise their children. Parents can give their children the emotional and physical care and support necessary for healthy development. Mums and dads will sometimes need support to help them through the joys and challenges of being a parent. Sometimes experience of bereavement, relationship breakdown, unemployment, ill health or homelessness can make parenting more difficult and parents need more support.

Search Results in Parenting Support Category

Useful Support Organisations/Information for Parents

Health Visitors

Your Health Visitor helps you to learn about being a parent, and supports you to raise a healthy, happy child . Health visitors work closely with midwives, practice nurses, and GPs. Your Health Visitor is a qualified nurse or midwife who has gone on to do further training

Parenting Focus

Parenting Focus aims to provide parents and carers with the support and resources they need to ensure the most positive upbringing for their children and young people.

We are here to listen to your concerns and offer reassurance to help you through any parenting challenge you are facing. The Support Line also opens doors to other Parenting Focus services including parenting programmes and family support projects. We can also help you to find other services which are available in your local area that could offer any additional support.

Parenting Focus Support Line : 0808 8010 722

Monday – Thursday: 9:30 am – 3:30 pm Friday: 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

Parentline NI

Parents, carers, family members...if you need us we're here.

Call Parentline NI today for advice, support or guidance. Freephone 0808 8020 400

Parentline NI is open from

9am to 9pm Monday to Thursday,

9-5pm Friday

and 9am to 1pm on Saturday.

Our Service is available through a range of different channels including telephone, face to face and online.

Call us for FREE on: 0808 8020 400

Chat online: start a webchat using the chat window Email: parentline@ci-ni.org.uk

You can also call and leave a message outside of our opening hours, and we will get back to you within 2 working days. How much does it cost?

Parentline NI is a free service and freephone number.

Home-Start

Home Start NI visits families in their own homes and offers support, friendship and practical help to parents with young children.

Libraries

Libraries NI in Northern Ireland have many activities like Rhythm & Rhyme or Jo Jingles for young children. You should contact your local branch to find out about what is happening in your area.

Family Support Hubs

A Family Support Hub is a multi-agency network of statutory, community and voluntary organisations that provide early intervention services, or work with families who need support.

The network accepts referrals and uses their knowledge of local service providers to signpost families with specific needs to an appropriate service.

What do Family Support Hubs do ?

The specific purpose of hubs is as follows:

To improve access to early intervention family Support services by matching the needs of referred families to family support providers;

To improve coordination of early intervention family support services by creating a collaborative network of community, voluntary and statutory providers;

To improve awareness of early intervention family support services;

To assess the level of unmet need for early intervention family support services and inform the Trust Outcomes Group

There are currently 29 Family Support Hubs in operation covering all of Northern Ireland.

Hubs co-ordinate existing statutory/community and voluntary services. Some Hubs have attached services but this is separate from the hub function which is about co-ordination. To find your local Family Support Hub :- Choose category 'Family Support Hub' and input your full postcode to find nearest.

SureStart

SureStart programmes support parents with children aged under four years old, living in disadvantaged areas in Northern Ireland. The programme can help a parent from pregnancy until their child starts school. With SureStart's ongoing support, a child can do well at school and flourish at home.

Child Contact Centres

Child Contact Centres provide safe, neutral and child-centred environment in which children of separated families can spend quality time with the parent they no longer live with. The Centres are seen as a temporary arrangement when there is no viable meeting place for these families.

Child Maintenance Choices

Child Maintenance Choices provide impartial information and support to help you decide the best child maintenance arrangement for you and your family.

Education Authority

Education Authority NI (EA) manages the procedures for the enrolment of children in pre-school (age 2-4 years), primary school (age 4-11 years) and post primary school (age 11-18 years).

Each year staff assist parents and schools in enrolling approximately 70,000 children into various types of educational settings within the age ranges.

You need to contact the Education Authority Directly to :-

Apply for a School Place or Transfer Between Schools
Apply for Free School Meals/School Uniform/Physical Education Clothing Allowance
Apply for School Transport
Apply for Student Finance

Finding REGISTERED Childcare Providers

This website lists contact details for ALL registered childcare providers throughout Northern Ireland. You can best check for childcare by choosing type of childcare providers at Select Service Type

(use Drop-down bar) then input your (full) postcode – indicate within 1/5/10 miles.