Parents and Carers

If you think a child is in immediate danger, call the Police on 999 or 101

• If the child is not in immediate danger, but you’re still concerned that they need risk support, you can make a referral to the integrated Front Door for Stoke-on-Trent Children and Family Services on the online portal: childrensportallcs
• If you have reasonable cause to suspect that a child has suffered or is likely to suffer significant harm, you can call the Integrated Front Door on 01782 235100 (Mon-Thurs, 8.30am – 5pm and Fri, 8.30am – 4.30pm), or call the Emergency Duty Team on 01782 234234 if you are calling out of office hours, at weekends or on bank holidays.
• Local Authority Designated Officer (LADO) – LADO referrals are made through the Integrated Front Door service on 01782 235100.

Most children enjoy happy childhood experiences within their own family, but unfortunately for some, this is not the case. During difficult times, everyone who knows the child must do the best they can to protect them from harm. The welfare and safety of children is everyone’s responsibility.

Abuse and neglect are forms of ill-treatment of a child. Somebody may abuse or neglect a child by inflicting harm, or by not taking action to protect a child from harm.

Children may be harmed at home, by people living near their home (in their community) or by an adult who is responsible for caring for them in any place away from home such as school, nursery, college, sports and leisure centres, after-school clubs, youth clubs, which is why it is really important to work together to keep children safe. Sometimes children are abused by a stranger they have met over the internet. They may also be abused by another child or children.

Abuse may be physical, sexual, emotional or neglect. Some examples of each type of abuse are described below;

Physical Abuse

• Unexplained injuries, bruises or marks
• Injuries which have an unusual fracture or are in an unusual place on the body
• Fear, watchfulness, over anxiety to please
• Small round burns or bite marks
• Frequent time off from school

Sexual Abuse

• Sexual knowledge or comments that you wouldn’t expect from a child
• Sexual behaviour that you wouldn’t expect from a child
• Unexpected reactions, fear or wariness of people
• Repeated urinary or genital infections
• Pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases
• Self-harming or recurrent abdominal pains

Emotional Abuse

• Withdrawn, anxious behaviour, lack of self-confidence
• Self-harm and eating disorders
• Demanding or attention seeking behaviour
• Not wanting to communicate
• Repetitive, nervous behaviour such as rocking, hair twisting or scratching

Neglect

• Dirty, scruffy or unsuitable clothes
• No one seeks medical help when the child is ill or hurt
• The child is smelly, unclean hair and dirty nails
• Dental issues (bad breath)
• The child is left alone or with unsuitable carers
• The child is thin, pale and lacking energy
• Lots of accidents happen to the child
• The child is exposed to risks or dangers, such as drugs or needles being left around

Children of any age can experience problems at times, and parents or carers can’t always meet their needs by themselves. When parents and children require some extra support it’s always best to put help in place as soon as it is needed, before things get worse.

Throughout your child’s life there are people around who you can go to for advice, guidance and support, for example:

• Midwives
• Health Visitors
• GPs
• Children Centre workers
• Nursery workers
• Teachers
• Other workers you might be in contact with such as Youth Workers, PSCOs or Housing Officers

If you are looking for support in Stoke-on-Trent you can use the Stoke-on-Trent Community Directory or refer to the Integrated Front door for a Service Request Early Help / Children Social Care.

Family hubs

Family Hubs are a network of places and spaces across Stoke-on-Trent for children, young people and their families. They are a place families can visit to receive information and guidance on supporting the health and wellbeing of their family and themselves.

• Digital family hub

Many accidents are a part of growing up and children need to explore and experiment within their environments. Minor accidents can be part of an active, healthy childhood. The child accident prevention trust has a range of useful safety advice materials to support you and can be found here: Safety advice Archives - Child Accident Prevention Trust (capt.org.uk)

Safe Sleeping

The Lullaby Trust provides simple steps for how you can sleep your baby to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) which is commonly known as cot death. lullabytrust

Sources for family support:

The Lullaby Trust - Offers confidential support to family, friends and carers affected by the sudden and unexpected death of a baby or toddler – Tel: 0808 802 6868, support@lullabytrust.org.uk. Calls to the Helpline are free from all landlines and most mobile phone networks. The Helpline is open: Monday – Friday, 10am-5pm. Weekends and public holidays  6pm-10pm (answered by trained befrienders, all with personal experience of bereavement)

The Helpline does not offer a formal counselling service but rather the opportunity to talk freely, for as long as required, with a sympathetic and understanding listener. They can also offer support through their team of befrienders.  Befrienders are themselves bereaved parents, grandparents and other relatives, who offer personal support which can be arranged via the Helpline.

Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood For those whose child was over the age of one year.

Child Death Helpline For anyone affected by the death of a child of any age from any cause.  Helpline available Monday – Friday, 10am – 1pm and Monday to Sunday, 7pm – 10pm Telephone: 0800 282 986

SANDS Support after neonatal death or stillbirth. Telephone: 0808 164 3332 helpline@sands.org.uk

Winston’s Wish Help and advice in supporting a bereaved child. Helpline available weekdays, 8am – 8pm. Telephone: 08088 020 021 ask@winstonswish.org

BLISS Support and Information for the family of a premature baby – do you need emotional support, information or have a question about your neonatal journey? hello@bliss.org.uk

Saying Goodbye  National remembrance services. Telephone: 0300 323 1350 support@sayinggoodbye.org

CRUSE Bereavement Care Helpline available Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday: 9.30am – 5pm, Tuesday: 1pm – 8pm Telephone: 0808 808 1677

ICON

Infants Cry, you can Cope provides helpful advice and information on how to support you as parents with young children: iconcope.org

Button Battery Safety

If swallowed button batteries, particularly big, powerful lithium coin cell batteries, can badly hurt or kill a child. If it gets stuck in a child's food pipe, it can cause catastrophic internal bleeding. It is important to keep any objects with easily accessible lithium coin cell batteries out of children's reach, as well as spare or 'flat' batteries. Act fast if you think you child might have swallowed one.

The child accident prevention trust provides more information about button battery safety: button-battery-safety - capt

Blind Cords

Lots of work has been done to raise awareness of the dangers posed to young children by blind cords. For further information around blind cord safety and free resources, please click on the following link how-to-fix-blind-cords-safety-devices - capt

NSPCC

Positive Parenting: learning.nspcc.org.uk

Child Death Overview Panel

Unintentional injuries in and around the home are a leading preventable cause of death and emergency hospital admissions for children, particularly for those under 5 years.

The Child Safety Booklet is brought to you by the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Child Death Overview Panel. It is designed to raise awareness of potential hazards and brings together advice from local and national campaigns.

Protect your little bundle booklet from birth and beyond - 2025

Private fostering is the term used when someone who is not a parent or a 'close relative' (e.g. great aunt, cousin, mum's friend or a neighbour) is looking after a child or young person under the age of 16 (under 18 if they are disabled) for 28 days or more in their own home. It also covers children who stay at a residential school for more than two weeks of the school holidays. 

A relative is defined in the Children Act 1989 as a grandparent, uncle or aunt (whether by full-blood, half-blood or by marriage or civil partnership), sibling or step-parent.

Watch our animated video here

Common Situations in Which Children are Privately Fostered:

• Children with parents or families overseas
• Children with parents working or studying in the UK
• Asylum seekers and refugees
• Trafficked children
• Local children living apart from their families
• Adolescents and teenagers
• Children attending language schools
• Children at independent boarding schools who do not return home for holidays
• Children brought in from abroad with a view to adoption

If you know someone that is privately fostering you will need to refer that individual to Integrated Front Door on 01782 235100 for an assessment.

Additional information:
CoramBAAF have produced a helpful Advice Note Private fostering (England and Wales). There is also a guide written for children Private fostering: what it is and what it means.

Private fostering information for Parents and Carers

The Stoke-on-Trent Youth Justice and Support Service is responsible for co-ordinating the provision of the local youth justice services, as set out in section 38 of the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. The responsibilities and aims are:

• Preventing and reducing offending/reoffending by children
• Reducing the number of children entering the criminal justice system
• Reducing the number of children receiving a custodial sentence

The Youth Justice and Support Service (YJSS) is a multi-agency team with a number of different professionals who work together to achieve the above aims.

There are a number of ways we help support victims, children and their families.

Prevention Service

Where there are concerns that children are displaying behaviour that may bring them to the attention of the formal youth justice system or anti-social behaviour in the community we offer support for the child, their family or carer and the professional network to ensure that the behaviour can be addressed.

Out of Court Responses

When a child has committed an offence, they may be eligible for an out of court response. This will be explained to you by the Police, but will involve an assessment with a youth justice practitioner and a multi-agency discussion about the appropriate sanction and any strengths and support needs that can be addressed through working with the Service.

Court Disposals

If a child has committed an offence for which they have to go to Court, a youth justice practitioner will be present to ensure that the child and their family or carers understand the process and are supported through it. The YJSS will then work with the child and family during any Court Order such as a Referral Order or Youth Rehabilitation Order.

Victim Services

All victims of offences committed by children will be contacted by a victim or restorative justice worker. This is to ensure that the voice of the victim is heard and discuss any safety or other support needs.