If you have been in care, you may have experienced some loss, trauma or abuse during your childhood. This may still affect you in adulthood.
Your experiences may impact your relationships with others, for example, professionals, friends, family and intimate partners. If you're about to become a parent yourself you could be worried that your child will have similar experiences.
We can support you to understand what a healthy relationship is and how to make decisions about who you want in your life.
Talking about your relationships openly with your personal adviser will help us know how much support you need to help you find and maintain healthy relationships.
Relationship support
We may be able to offer you practical and emotional support, such as:
- where appropriate, continuing to support contact with the independent visitor you had while you were in care
- helping to maintain or regain contact with people special to you or who cared for you in the past, like former foster carers or social workers
- helping you maintain or regain contact with members of your family.
If you have lost contact with your family from your country of origin, we will support you by linking you with agencies who help to trace families, for example British Red Cross.
You should let your personal adviser (PA) know who is important to you as we are able to help you contact them. You should also tell us who you would like to have as your next of kin for emergency issues.
Parenting support
If you are a young parent and you want to get support with parenting, you can speak to your health visitor if your child is under 5 years old.
Our parent support practitioner can work with you if you are a parent. They can offer advice and guidance as well as fun groups with other parents. Speak to your PA or contact the duty email if you would like them to contact you.
If you have more than one need, you can ask your health visitor, or other involved professional, to complete an Early Help Assessment. This can be discussed at a multi-agency meeting to offer you and your family support.
You can access parenting courses and other support through the Early Help Hub, and it may benefit you socially too. These services are for everyone, as all parents need support.