Worried about your child and crime?
Parents who feel their children may be at risk of becoming involved in crime or anti-social behaviour are being invited to call a special phone-in.
On Thursday 1 May from 4pm-7pm dedicated parenting practitioners from Warwickshire County Council’s Youth Offending Service will be waiting on the line to answer any questions or help provide support. If your child is aged between 10 and 17 and you would like to talk to one of the team you can call in confidence on 01788 331 256.
The Youth Offending Service provides specialist support under its Parents Matter programme and would like also like to use the phone-in to get feedback, either from parents whose children may have already been involved with the service or parents who just want to have their views heard and acted upon.
The Youth Offending Service works with children and young people believed to be at risk of becoming involved in crime or anti-social behaviour. It aims to divert children and young people from developing patterns of persistent or more serious offending.
Warwickshire’s Youth Offending Service has three specialist workers who work with parents and family members of young people who have offended. The Parents Matter service operates on a voluntary basis and is open to everyone with a child aged between 10 and 17 years, regardless of whether their child is involved with the Youth Offending Service or not.
Parents can either self-refer or be referred by an agency that they may be already working with such as health, police, victim support, education social work service or children’s centre. The service also offers a lunchtime drop-in, parenting support, educational groups and one-to-one support in addition to providing links to many other services.
Vicki Barnes, Team Leader for Warwickshire’s Youth Offending Service, said: “It can feel like a huge problem being a parent and having to deal with your children when they are causing problems in the home or getting into trouble. Our Parents Matter service can offer help to any family who are having issues with their teenagers or just need a space to let off steam.”
She added: “The purpose of the parents’ phone-in is to offer parents and family members support as well as receiving feedback on the service and enabling the wider community to input into the delivery of the service.”
If you are unable to ring the phone-in but would like to contact the Youth Offending Service email your comments to parentsmatter@warwickshire.gov.uk