Together for Children

Case study from the NE Child Poverty Coalition: Project to provide information on which children’s centre services are most effective in retaining parents’ interest/involvement and whether length of courses or activities affects this.

An asylum seeking single lady with a six month old child accessed a Sure Start support group to seek support since she had been granted refugee status. The lady could not speak any English and found it very difficult to communicate.

Social English supports parents who are new to the country or who have basic English skills and wish to develop these further. Sessions are delivered through a range of tools, using pictures, worksheets, games and small group work.

Outreach Jobcentre Plus advice at Centre Place Family Centre, Southend on Sea. The customer was a Lone Parent with one young son and employed full time. When she arrived in the UK she was supported by her mother and then found work, applying for Child Benefit and Child and Working Tax
Credits which had not materialised.