Stronger and more resilient families

Our members are concerned about the number of families falling apart after arrival in the region and the number of children being taken into care.

We advocate for 

• timely access to guidance on Parenting in the UK 
• for safeguarding and family support services to take whole family, holistic approaches that recognise the different challenges facing each family member
• and for anti-oppressive, anti-discriminatory, trauma informed and social justice-based practice

Here’s how we have been using the collective voice to influence policy and practice.

Helping to build the evidence base and recommendations for policy making and service design

We partnered with the North East Child Poverty Commission to co-produce the report ‘Written out of the Picture: the role of local services in tackling child poverty amongst asylum seekers and refugees’

We organise workshops for RCOs to dialogue with workers playing key roles in safeguarding and Early Help services. These sessions help services gain insight into the specific needs of the community, build mutual understanding of challenges and expectations and help broker pathways to local support and resources, so increasing RCO’s capacity to promote resilience within their communities.

Supporting newly arriving refugees and asylum seekers to adjust to unfamiliar systems, laws, norms, responsibilities and expectations and to know their rights

We were commissioned by the North East Migration Partnership to create a free video guide and key messages leaflet on Parenting and the school system in England for newly arriving families, translated it into 10 languages.  The guide shares information our members wish they had known when they first arrived in the UK. The resources are directly accessible for anyone to use, including agencies with a role in supporting new arrivals. 

Click here to go to the Welcome to the UK resources. 

While building the collective voice our members may identify knowledge gaps and learning needs. We  organise training to fill gaps and increase skills. One example is the safeguarding training we organised for RCOs in partnership with a local Family Law firm, enabling members to cascade information to their communities and increase awareness of parents’ rights and responsibilities.

Delivering key messages to front line staff with a role in supporting families and child safeguarding

We deliver training to front line staff  social work  and early help staff  to help them gain empathetic understanding and insight into specific challenges refugees and asylum seekers face that can undermine family resilience and which promotes a holistic approach to support.

Click here to read more about the training we offer and how to contact us if you would like to discuss the training needs of your team.

Our Voice