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Early Help: Support when you need it

Message from DV services - Notification of Families Experiencing Domestic Violence

We are conscious that the current ‘lockdown’ situation, whereby families are to stay inside the home together for prolonged periods, poses an increased risk to adult and child victims of domestic violence.

The borough’s DV services are asking for your help to identify families who are known to be affected by abuse within the home, in order that support can be offered and action taken to protect victims where necessary.

We would be grateful for your assistance in completing the attached form to let us know about families in this situation. Please note that if you have already requested a welfare call to a family from the Early Help Hub, you do not need to resend this information.

For further information or support, please contact earlyhelphub@hounslow.gov.uk or call 020 8583 6653.

The council has produced a leaflet which provides contact numbers for support services and safety advice for people experiencing domestic abuse during lockdown which can be downloaded from here.

 

Hounslow Council launches Community Support Hub

Hounslow Council has launched its Community Support Hub to ensure vulnerable residents get the support and supplies they need throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The priority of the Hub for now is to protect the most isolated and vulnerable individuals identified and contacted by the NHS to be ‘shielded’.

These residents have serious long-term health conditions and it’s vital we ensure there are support networks in place, so they’re looked after. The Hub, which started operating on Thursday, is also there for anyone else vulnerable and isolated who may not have been contacted by the NHS.    

For more information and to volunteer to help, please go to www.hounslow.gov.uk/hub. If someone you know needs this urgent support, the Community Support Hub can be contacted on 020 7084 9697 or hub@hounslow.gov.uk

 

Additional support available from the Early Help Hub to schools, playgroups and day nurseries

The Early Help Hub is offering to undertake welfare calls to families where schools are particularly concerned about vulnerability, and are unable to maintain contact due to partial closure. Where families already have an allocated Social Worker they should remain the point of contact during this time.

Calls will consist of:

-  Check-in on the family’s situation

- Signposting and linking to services/community resources

-  Providing information, advice and guidance

- Linking with children’s social care or other appropriate service if there is a safeguarding concern or the family is in crisis

-  Arranging follow-up calls if required

The Hub will NOT be able to offer:

-       Money

-      Food

-      Accommodation

-       Family support in the home

If you would like the Hub to check-in with a family, and the family have consented to this, please complete the attached form letting us know details. The Hub is a small team and there are a large number of schools and Early Years Settings in the borough. Therefore, we suggest that secondary schools nominate no more than 10 families, and primary schools no more than 5. Playgroups and day nurseries can nominate up to 2 families each.

If you have questions or would like to discuss, please contactearlyhelphub@hounslow.gov.uk

 

Birth and Beyond Community Support

Birth and Beyond Community Support are there for mothers to be or mothers who have a child under 2 who need support for social isolation, mild anxiety and depression, low engagement with health professionals or otherwise feel that they need support.

We can currently only support women living in TW3,4,5,13 & 14.

Our volunteers are mothers who want to donate their time to help other mothers in the community. Each volunteer completes training in which they have lots of time to practice active listening and signposting. As well as learn about safeguarding and mental health challenges.

Our project has had to temporarily change the way that we support mothers due to the COVID-19 restrictions but we are still supporting. Our volunteers have adapted to ensure that we can still provide the best support possible for the mothers.

We are currently offering phone and/or messaging support for the mothers and if they want to we can also accommodate video calls if they would prefer something more face to face.

There are pregnant women and new mothers in these areas who are struggling at the moment who need this support. We can accept self-referrals or referrals from others with the mothers permission.

Please go to our website for the referral pathway: https://www.nct.org.uk/about-us/commissioned-services/birth-and-beyond-community-support-bbcs. Please also see ‘Flyer for mother’ attachment which can be shared with families.

No mother should feel alone.

 

Grace Milstead, Perinatal Peer Support Project Manager Grace.Milstead@nct.org.uk