Below are external links and services available to support children and families.

Support for Children	Support for Adults
NSPCC	Gingerbread
Childine	Family Action
Young Minds	Action for Children
Emerge Youth Charity	Domestic Violence Support
CEOP	Mental Health UK Support

 Self-referrals

Please click here to access the School Nurse self-referral.

Please click here to access Medway Early Help referral site.

Keeping Safe Online

Click here to view government guidance on support for parents and carers to keep children safe online. It contains resources that will support you to talk to your child about a range of online safety issues, set up home filtering in a child-friendly way and set up age-appropriate parental controls on digital devices; it also contains information about types of abuse that can occure online.

Employment and benefits:

These pages have additional information and will help answer lots of the questions that are being asked. Visit the new Employment and benefits support site (link is external) regularly to keep up to date with the latest guidance and messages on sick pay, existing benefit claims, new claims to benefit, self-employment, housing and more. This site covers all the changes Department of Work and Pension are making to respond to coronavirus – not just to Universal Credit. It also includes a Frequently Asked Questions section.

Free School Meal Checker

FSM

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic the government announced on 5th May 2021 that there is a temporary extension of free schools meal eligibility to NRPF groups. Please see the link below to see if you qualify or fall into that category. Please let our school office staff know if this is the case. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/guidance-for-the-temporary-extension-of-free-school-meals-eligibility-to-nrpf-groups#who-is-eligible

Food banks:

• The Food Bank (Medway)
• Medway Street Angels (email only - themedwaystreetangels@gmail.com)
• Gillingham Street Angels are situated at 43 Skinner Street, Gillingham and can be accessed from 10am -1pm daily 
• The Hygiene Bank for families that need help with personal products like sanitary items / personal washing products (phonecall - Emma Thomas on 07940329994)

Medway Child Health Team have put together a bulletin that contains links and advice for children and young people in Medway - click here

Apps to help children stay safe online

Online safety and guides to using apps and games safely (it might be worth uploading the guides relevant to the context of the school) https://nationalonlinesafety.com/guides

The BBC have a website and app called Own It. The website has a lot of content for children to help them navigate their online lives, and the free smartphone app comes with a special keyboard which can intervene with help and support in the moments that children need it the most. It can be downloaded for free in the Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

SafeToNet is an app for parents to help them safeguard their children from online risks like cyberbullying and sexting, whilst respecting their child’s rights to privacy. The SafeToNet Foundation is providing UK families with free access to 1 million licences during coronavirus.

Adult Wellbeing

Here is a public document providing wellbeing tips for adults and families during this time.