Are you a kinship carer living in Middlesbrough or Redcar and Cleveland and in need of support, information or advice?
Grandparents Plus can help through their Kinship Response Service.
What is it?
Kinship Response has been developed as a direct result of the concerns and worries many kinship carers have raised as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Covid-19 has exacerbated the already precarious situation of many special guardians and other kinship carers who are often older, with health concerns and raising children in difficult circumstances. Since the 'lockdown' began, Grandparents Plus has been surveying kinship carers’ concerns and have quickly developed Kinship Response.
The main issues raised by kinship carers are:
Health concerns – what will happen to the children if they get coronavirus or die?
Financial concerns – loss of income due to reduced hours or jobs being cut and higher energy and food bills.
Lack of support – less support now, less able to work with the schools closed.
Child’s well-being – mental & physical health, routing, the pressure of homeschooling and keeping children occupied.
Self-isolation – how to manage with children, confusion and conflicting advice.
Getting basic supplies – effects of panic buying and getting prescriptions.
Lack of information – confusion on what they should do and how to manage.
Contact with family members – maintaining hygiene and effect on arrangements.
How can Kinship Response help?
Thorugh Kinship Response you will get:
- Priority access to their dedicated Advice Service (within 3 days).
- Priority access to their grants programme.
- Priority access to their Someone Like Me programme for peer support.
- Access to peer support groups - regional and localised.
- Project worker support.
We are here for you and your family over the next few months, helping to ease your worries and support you through these strange times." Grandparents Plus 2020
How can I access the service?
To access this support you can refer yourself, which is easy to do by completing a form on the Grandparents Plus website which you can access here. The form asks you to tell the team a bit about your situation and usually takes around 5-10minutes to complete.
Alternativly you can give the team a call on 0300 033 9851.
Referrals for this service are open until 31 October 2020 however, referrals for *Special Guardians will remain open until 31 December 2020.
*What is Special Guardian?
Special Guardians take on the legal powers and responsibility of parenting a child until their 18th birthday. Birth parents do not lose their parental responsibility. Special Guardians make most decisions to do with the child’s upbringing, including where the child lives, goes to school and medical treatment they receive.
