Freedom Fostering is one of the leading independent fostering agencies in the West Midlands, serving much of central England.
Help and Support
— Listed below is a range of external services who can give you the support you need
The Anna Freud National Centre is a UK charity who have a team of therapists and professionals who are able to support children and families that are struggling with trauma, behaviour problems, parental separation or divorce, neglect, learning disabilities and more. They offer community-based support in terms of: 1-2-1 therapy, group therapy, family working and more.
Contact: 01902 444 021. bchft.wolvescamhsspa@nhs.net. Wolverhampton CAMHS, The Gem Centre, Neachells Lane, Wednesfield, WV11 3PG. Based in Wolverhampton.
Kalm Community is a mindfulness based emotional wellbeing support service for children aged 5-16. They run weekly group sessions, 1-2-1 mentoring, after school clubs and holiday clubs.
Contact: 07376 912320. info@kalmcommunity.co.uk
Based in Tamworth.
The Sandbox is an 'online hub' for children and young people in South Staffordshire where they can feel safe and take care of their Mental Health. The Sandbox is powered by Cerebral, contracted by Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust. The Sandbox is a useful tool for your children and young people to understand how to manage their mental health and wellbeing.
Sandbox also hold regular livestreams on Twitch for the young people to watch the hosts play child friendly games and discuss mental health related topics like stress, relationships and social media. Through the Sandbox website you can also complete an assessment for your child to access NHS funded therapy. An online service.
IPSEA is a charity offering free and independent legal information, advice and support to help get the right education for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND). Their services include:
- An Advice Line - to get next step advice on any education issue for children with SEND
- Tribunal Helpline - where you can book an appointment for next step advice on appeals and disability discrimination to the SEND tribunal
- Call-in Helpline - Their helpline is open every Friday from 9:30 am - 3 pm for advice
- Tribunal support service - IPSEA can make referrals for more extensive support from a volunteer, including representation for a hearing
- Information service - For general legal advice and signposts you to fact sheets and resources on their website.
Contact: 01799 582030. This is an online service.
Central England is an organisation that provides free specialist legal advice to those who are in most need. Their specialist advice and representation covers a variety of matters regarding child and family law.
Contact: enquiries@centralenglandlc.org.uk or call 02476223053. Based in Birmingham.
Spurgeons Children’s Charity gives a range of support to families including:
- Health and wellbeing for Early Years
- Children’s centres
- Domestic violence/abuse support
- Young carers support
- Prisoner family services
- Specialist support for girls in gangs
- School counselling and support (through online provision)
Contact: 01933 412412. info@spurgeons.org An online service.
Citizens Advice is a national charity that gives people the confidence to move forward in life. The advice they give covers:
- Benefits
- Work
- Debt and money
- Consumer rights
- Family
- Housing
- Law and courts
- Immigration
- Health
Contact: You can use their website to find a Citizens Advice office local to you. Call 0800 144 8848.
Money Heroes is a website that offers FREE educational resources to parents/carers who want to help their children get a better understanding of money.
Through their parent hub, you will find lots of resources with stories, games and podcasts covering topics like:
- How to manage money
- Becoming a critical consumer
- Managing risks and emotions associated with money
- Understanding the role money plays in our lives.
These resources are perfect for children aged 3-11. An online service.
The Money Charity is the only UK charity that specialises in independent expert education in finance for people of all ages.
Through their website you can access lots of resources covering a range of financial topics from:
- Understanding the benefits system
- Learn what income tax is
- How to manage debt
- How to manage money whilst at university
- What credit cards are and how they work.
They also have a Budget Builder tool on their website for you to try out, this could be useful when showing young people where your money goes when paying bills and other expenses.
An online service.
The Fostering Network have pages on their website dedicated to understanding how finances work as a foster carer in terms of:
- Fees and allowances
- Tax and national insurance
- Claiming benefits
- Helping children and young people to save money.
You will be able to access policies, a list of additional services for further support, and other resources to help you make more informed decisions on how to support young people with money.
An online service.
Lloyds Bank Academy have lots of free resources for children aged 3+ to help them with develop a healthy relationship with money. Their resources include: interactive games, slideshows, guidance notes and more.
Topics vary from:
- How to keep your money safe
- How to make the most of what you have
- How to stay safe from ID theft and scams.
An online service.
Bollington Insurance supports foster carers by offering home insurance specifically for foster carers. Standard home insurance may not cover malicious damage by foster children in your care. Often, the personal belongings of foster children also aren’t covered. Not only do you benefit from typical home insurance cover for your buildings and contents, they also provide the following:
- Insurance against damage or loss caused by a child in your care
- Cover for the belongings of the foster child
- Legal liability cover for injury to the child
- Legal liability cover for injury or damage caused by the child (excluding criminal actions)
- Cover for any number of foster placements in your care, with no need to call to update them when placements change
Contact: 01625 365973. They cover Dudley and Birmingham.
Towergate Insurance offers up to £5 million in liability for a foster home. This covers intentional damage, theft, and attempted theft by foster children covered as standard. They also offer 10% discount for Fostering Network members.
Contact: 0345 266 1252. They cover Birmingham.
LGBTQ+ Youth in Care are dedicated to providing resources for LGBTQ+ children in care. The founders of the organisation have worked alongside a variety of LAs and young people in order to create effective guides that will be valuable for you and the young people who reside with you.
There are many leaflets, guides and videos on their website for you to use, either on your own or with your family to raise awareness of LGBTQ+. An online service.
New Road is a community support group for parents/carers to talk to other people about accepting their child's gender or sexuality after coming out. This is a peer-to-peer group, who provide guidance on how to forge a new, honest relationship with their children after coming out. They usually meet on the third Tuesday of every month and are based in South Birmingham/Worcester. Contact: 07864 397422. Email: newroadparents@gmail.com
BT Skills for Tomorrow gives people support with getting online for the first time, and helps those who are wishing to improve their current digital skills. Children can also use this to play educational games or activities in order to learn about coding, online safety, computational thinking, online wellbeing and much more.
There are also guides for parents/carers who want to learn more about supporting their child with online safety, understanding technical jargon, how to get started with using computers and apps and keeping your personal data safe. Other courses include online and mobile banking, how to use GP services online, and how to set up and use email for the first time.
The Skills Builder Partnership Framework provides a common language for building essential skills with children and young people. The site uses lots of worksheets and videos to teach children a variety of skills, including listening, staying positive, leadership and more.
Be Internet Legends is a platform created by Google that aims to teach children about keeping your personal information private, how to spot scams online, being kind online, and encourage conversations about being online. You can download lesson plans, watch animated series, and play games that help children to learn these vital lessons.
Google Family Link is an app that helps parents/carers to set ground rules for using apps and staying online. The app can guide young people towards good content, keep an eye on their screen time, and locate them when they're on the go.
Kids Space is a great way for young people to access online content safely as all of the content has been approved by teachers and media specialists. The app recommends content based on the individual’s interests and will keep them happy and engaged for as long as their screen time limits are for.
The app will show them a huge library of free books, apps and videos.
EE Phone Smart have created a SmartPhone Licence for young people to learn how to stay safe and be kind online. To get the Licence, they will have to do 1 hour of online training, where they read through real-life stories and play quizzes to test their knowledge. The app is aimed at ages 10-13, is free to use and available on any phone network.
BBC's Tiny Happy People has lots of activities and inspiration to help you build your child's communication skills. Aimed at ages 0-5, the site features videos and articles covering a range of issues you may come across as a parent/carer.
The Foster Care Training Hub provides useful training resources covering lots of topics within foster care, social work, and leaving care. The site uses games, videos, reading, writing and reflective practices to teach every subject, and each course finishes with an assessment for you to complete. What's great about this hub is that the majority of the resources are free to use.
The Skills Toolkit is run by the government which offers free courses to help you learn new skills to prepare for work. Courses include:
- Practical maths
- Computer essentials
- Personal growth and wellbeing
- Professional development
- Business and finance
- Digital design and marketing
- Computer Science
- Coding
These courses would be useful for helping your child prepare for their future.
CAMHS Wolverhampton are a children and family service who have a large team of people who are able to help you with feeling unhappy, angry, difficult unwanted thoughts. They can teach you how to do things for yourself like washing, dressing or going to the toilet, and they can teach you how to get along with other people.
Contact: 01902 444021. The Gem Centre, Neachells Lane, Wolverhampton, WV11 3PG.
They are based in Wolverhampton. You can also access the Staffordshire CAMHS here.
Crisis Text Line is a service in the UK that provides free, secret support, 24/7 via text. You can use this service whenever you feel any kind of painful emotion and need someone to talk to. They will talk through your feelings with you by asking questions. The goal of any conversation is to get you to a calm, safe place. A conversation can last anywhere between 15-45 minutes. They may refer you to get additional help, as they are only volunteers who aren’t able to provide medical advice. Your conversations are private and won’t be saved as they care about your privacy.
Text this number: 85258. An online service.
Kooth is an online counselling service for young people aged between 11-25. They give advice for people with emotional or mental health problems. Kooth is free, safe and your conversations remain private.
The platform features articles, personal stories from other young people, and a daily journal for you to use, to write about how you feel. An online service.
BEAM is an emotional health and wellbeing service for young people under the age of 25. BEAM will recommend strategies and techniques to help improve your wellbeing, like how to manage panic attacks, how to improve your quality of sleep and more. Based in Shropshire.
Pause is another wellbeing service for young people under 25. They provide 1-2-1 sessions for you to discuss your feelings, you can attend group workshops, or read their resources to learn how to regulate your emotions better. Based in Birmingham.
Coram Children’s Legal Centre promotes and protects the rights of children and young people in the UK.
- They provide free legal information
- They provide advice and representation
- They research and produce evidence informing law, policy, practice and system reform.
- They build the capacity of professionals and practitioners through training and advice provision.
- They challenge laws and policies that negatively impact on children and their rights.
If you visit their website you can get information about a range of subjects including: police and law, children’s services, education, not born in the UK, your rights, and more. Their website is primarily for young people aged 10-25.
Contact: To ask for help from Coram you will need to fill in this form. This is an online service.
Base 25 is a charity that works with children, young people and families. They offer tons of support on a variety of topics such as: exploitation, emotional wellbeing, behaviour and more. They have a ‘Sanctuary Café’ which is a safe space for those who are over 18 where they can seek emotional and mental health support outside of their regular service hours.
Contact: 01902 572040. info@base25.org
29-31 Temple St, Wolverhampton WV2 4AN. They are based in Wolverhampton.
The Mix is an online support service for young people. They provide support for a range of different things, from homelessness, housing, money, work, relationships, crime, lifestyle and more. You can talk to them through their online community, on social media, call them on their free helpline or use their counselling service.
Contact: 0808 808 4994. An online service.
Runaway Helpline will help you if you are thinking about running away, have already run away, or when you’ve come back home after running away. You can also contact them if you think someone else may run away. Their website has lots of advice based on the various stages of running away. If you call their number, you lead the conversation. You’re able to tell them what you want in complete privacy. They will listen to you and support you with your decisions and they won’t judge you.
Contact: Call or text 116000. An online service.
Citizens Advice is a national charity that gives people the confidence to move forward in life. The advice they give covers:
- Benefits
- Work
- Debt and money
- Consumer rights (when you’ve bought something)
- Family
- Housing
- Law and courts
- Immigration
- Health
Contact: You can use their website to find a Citizens Advice office local to you. 0800 144 8848.
National Youth Advocacy Service (NYAS) is a charity that supports young people and their families. The staff at NYAS want to protect you by providing lots of different services to help you when you need it.
Here are some of the services they offer:
- Advocacy (to listen to your wishes and feelings)
- Independent Visitor Service (someone who comes and spends time with you)
- Helpline (an email to contact, an online chat, or a phone number that you can call for free)
- Care Leaver Support
- Living in Care
- Your rights and what you’re entitled to
- Running away from home
- Your care plan
Contact: 0808 808 1001. Email: help@nyas.net An online service.
The IMO Podcast is part of the Children’s Commissioner website, which is a podcast made by young people for young people. It’s an opportunity for care leavers to tell their story, and share that with others who have been in similar situations. They even won an award for being the best interview/talk show in 2020! Their website also has lots of stories you can read from care leavers if you prefer to read stories instead of listening to them. You can also find a selection of ‘life hacks’ with yummy recipes, interview tips or general advice.
An online service.
Become is a charity for children in care and care leavers whose goal is to encourage young people to believe in themselves and to unleash their potential to the world. They want care-experienced people to have the same experiences as everyone else. Become have created their own community called ‘Link-Up’ which is a virtual space where care leavers aged 18-27 can hang out in the evening and join in with some games and activities, crafts and quizzes with fellow care leavers, and share life experiences with each other. They meet every Tuesday evening from 5:30-7pm over Zoom. Together, they have created a wellbeing guide filled with exercises and activities for you to learn about managing your mental health.
An online service.
BBC's Own It website gives you advice on being safe online, how to use different devices, tips on how to handle friendships, relationships and online trolls, and how to cope with tricky situations.
The website has tons of quizzes, articles and videos to help you with being online. An online service.
Care Leaver Covenant provide support to young people aged 16-25 in living independently. To provide this support they focus on 5 key areas:
- Independent living
- Education, employment and training
- Safety and security
- Mental and physical health
- Finance
Through their website you can find all kinds of opportunities, ranging from internships and apprenticeships, to support with opening bank accounts, to discounts on your water bill or the next rugby game.
Contact: info@mycovenant.org.uk or call 0800 077 3557.
An online service.
Money Saving Expert is a website that provides loads of helpful advice about saving money, finding great deals, offers and more. This website would be beneficial for those who are looking for advice on saving for university, how to score freebies, or information on which bank account is right for you. An online service.
Dosh is a website that helps people with disabilities to manage their money better. They offer training and information to help you understand common words in banking, how the benefits system works, how to budget properly and more. An online service.
Shelter is a national charity that helps people when they are having housing issues, like not having somewhere to live. They have a free emergency helpline that you can call any day of the year to ask any questions you may have. They have lots of articles online that you can read through if you’re looking for specific information, and you can also contact them via their web chat if you don’t feel like calling them.
Contact: 0808 800 4444. An online service.
Sanctuary Supported Living offer a range of housing with support designed to meet individual people's needs and to encourage independent living. Some of the types of support they provide are:
- Maintaining a tenancy
- Managing finances
- Socialising and community involvement
- Maintaining health, safety and security
- Planning a successful move on.
They have a variety of supported housing based in the West Midlands to support young people aged 16 to 25 to encourage them to achieve their aspirations in life.
YMCA Supported Lodgings help vulnerable young people by providing a safe place to stay the night when they are in need. They offer lots of different types of accommodation depending on your needs. This service is open to people aged 16-35. Available in the Black Country.
Future Horizons provide high quality accommodation for care leavers. There are staff available for support 24/7, transitional support for those who want help with becoming independent, and a key worker to speak to if needed. Based in Staffordshire.
X2Y is a charity who support those who are LGBTQ+ or those who are unsure of their identity. They work with young people aged 11-25. They have a youth group you can join to get advice and make friends with like-minded people.
Contact: info@x2y.org 07563 396353. Based in Wolverhampton.
The Proud Trust is a charity that supports LGBTQ+ young people through youth groups, peer support, mentoring programs and their online chat service. Through their website you will find lots of information, stories and experiences that can help you with coming to terms with your gender & sexuality, plus lots of cool merch you can buy.
Contact: 0161 660 3347. An online service.
Emerge are a youth group for 13-19 year olds who are trans, questioning their gender or non-binary. They provide a safe space for conversation, learning and support. Their youth workers will hold an online session for 2 hours, which give you the opportunity to discuss topics that are important to you. 1-2-1 support is available too. They also run a range of activities and trips throughout the year.
Contact: emerge@blgbt.org Call either 07873 840288 or 0121 643 0821. An online service.
OutCentral are a youth group for LGBT young people aged 13-19. Whether you're questioning your identity or sexuality, you're welcome to join them at their sessions on a Thursday evening every week.
Contact: Ed Or Claire 0121 6224570 or 0121 4605870. Outcentral@birmingham.gov.uk or ed.wright@bayc.org based in Birmingham.
Educational Action Challenging Homophobia (EACH) is an organisation that provides a free and private service for young people up to the age of 18 who have received bullying for being LGBTQ+. If you have been a victim of this type of bullying, you can call their helpline at 0808 1000 143 (Monday to Friday, 9:00am – 4:30pm) or you can fill in a form on their website.
The team at EACH will provide you with support and guidance on what to do in your situation. An online service.
The Hideout is a website that provides a safe space for you to do some online activities when you need to de-stress at home. You can watch videos to learn about harmful behaviour, read short stories from people who understand what it's like to experience harmful behaviour, or try out a wordsearch or colour in a nice picture. An online service.
Kidscape is a website that tells you what bullying is, why it might be happening to you, and gives you top tips on how to handle being bullied. An online service.
Wolverhampton360 is a substance misuse service for young people. They will work with you to give you practical support on issues with drugs, alcohol, and general health problems. Their support includes 1-2-1 and group sessions, and more. They can work with you without your parents/carers knowledge, though they will check with you to make sure that you understand the consequences of not telling your legal guardian.
Contact: Wolverhampton360, 5-9 Pitt Street, Wolverhampton, WV3 0NF. Call 0300 123 33 60. Email Bsmhft.recoverynearyou@nhs.net They are based in Wolverhampton.
Aquarius offer specialist support services to young people who use substances or have been affected by relatives substance misuse, or gambling. Aquarius give either 1-2-1 or group support, information and advice, and opportunities to go on trips and take part in social activities.
Contact: Call 0121 622 8181 or use their online forms to make a request. They are based in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, and Telford.
Recharge Telford is an organisation that supports young people who have become addicted to drugs and alcohol. Recharge provide a safe space for you to talk about how you feel with trained mentors who have experienced the same types of issues. The team at Recharge also run workshops and projects to raise awareness for various issues in the local community.
Contact: You can call either 01952 660 000 or 07486 682 606. Brookside Community Centre, Burford, Telford TF3 1LP. They are based in Telford.
Prospects is a website that gives you advice on finding courses to study at college or university, how to create a CV and other career advice. They have a quiz on their website which matches your skills and personality to help give you an idea of what you could do as a job. An online service.
The Prince’s Trust helps young people aged 11-30 to get into work, whether that’s by providing training courses and work experience opportunities, or helping to start your own business. The courses can provide you with valuable qualifications, you get to meet new people, and you won’t have to pay! They have lots of resources on their website for you to look at too. Use their website to find a service near you.
NCS are an organisation that supports young people with improving their skills either through their 2 week seasonal activity adventures, writing content on their digital hub, delivering social action projects in your community, or taking on paid work placements. Use their website to find a service near you.
Digital Innovators are an award winning training provider who support young people aged 14-24 to build up their skills so they are ready to work. They specialise in teaching digital skills as these are essential for work in the modern day world. The programmes they run offer you the chance to work with a real employer on a short-term project, they will be able to provide you with a reference afterwards and they may even give you a job! They also provide you with lots of resources on their website and in their newsletter on how to create your CV, interview tips and much more! Based in Birmingham.
Propel is a website specifically for care leavers to find higher education options. The benefit of using this platform over others is that each college and university lists the support they offer solely for care leavers. Propel have a full list of each type of support you can have, so you can easily make a decision on what support means the most to you, making it easier for you to narrow down the options. An online service.
The Care Leavers Foundation is an organisation that specifically supports care leavers by supplying them with a grant to help with personal development needs, crisis payments, education, training or employment needs. Most of their grants are given to young people aged 20+ with the maximum age being 29. You will have to fill in an application form, and wait up to 13 weeks to get a response. An online service.