The Parenting Team
Parenthood can be extremely rewarding and enjoyable. It can also be demanding, frustrating and exhausting. Our Parenting Team is here to offer help and support to parent and carers to raise healthy, well-rounded children in a loving and stable environment.
The Parenting Team provides a variety of services to families across Shropshire, as described on this page. To find out more you can also give us a call on 01743 250950, or email parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk
The Parenting Team provides a variety of services to families across Shropshire depending on their level of need. All of our interventions are based the Solihull Approach. Take a look at the video on this page explaining what the Solihull Approach is.
Parenting practitioners offer the following:
Parenting help and support line
Do you have any questions around child development and parenting?
You can call our support line, where one of our trained parenting practitioners will be ready to listen to you. The line is open Monday to Thursday from 9:30am to 4:30pm, and Friday from 9:30am to 3:30pm. Call 01743 250950. If you have concerns about a child’s safety or wellbeing, please call First Point of Contact on 0345 678 9021.
Understanding Your Child – from Toddler to Teen groups
“Because we're committed to supporting our children to thrive and we all need a bit of headspace and thinking time occasionally.” (Taken from Solihull Approach)
The Parenting Team is delivering ten-week Understanding Your Child with SEND – from Toddler to Teen groups.
These groups have been developed by a team of clinical psychologists, child psychotherapists, health visitors, child and family practitioners and most importantly parents/carers. Everything you'll follow and learn in the group has been informed by experience and is designed to be practical, to help you and your family in your everyday interactions.
The groups:
- Promote understanding of children’s behaviour within the context of how a child develops
- Promote the development of parent/child relationship
- Increase confidence and self-esteem in both parents and children
- Give parents a strategy for repair when things go wrong
- Promote reflective, sensitive and effective parenting
For further information on these groups please email parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk or take a look at the Shropshire Family Information Directory.
Sleep Tight workshops
"Quality sleep is essential for children’s growth and development. A decent night’s sleep will help them to do better at school, allow them to react more quickly to situations, have a more developed memory, learn more effectively and solve problems. It will also make them less susceptible to colds and other minor ailments, less irritable and better behaved! There are so many different factors which can affect children’s sleep." (Taken from The Sleep Charity)
The Parenting Team is delivering five-week Sleep Tight SEND workshops. These workshops have been developed by The Sleep Charity, and our parenting practitioners have been trained to deliver these to parents and carers. If you'd like to meet other parents/carers and explore how you can support your children and your family to have quality sleep or to address specific challenges you're experiencing, these workshops are for you.
At the end of this course parents/carers will be able to:
- Recognise the role of sleep hygiene to improve sleep
- Identify causes of sleep issues and appropriate practical strategies to try
- Interpret sleep diaries to identify potential sleep issues
For further information on these workshops please email parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk or take a look at the Shropshire Family Information Directory.
Free online courses
We offer free access to online courses expertly designed for parents, carers, grandparents and teens living in Shropshire. These courses can also support the work of all professionals working with families.
Sign up to 'Understand your child's feelings', as well as your own, as you go through life as a family and through puberty. Learn to understand the changes in your child’s development and how to support them, whilst also strengthening your relationship.
Online courses are a great way to access support at a time and place which suits you and your family. The courses are all split into short modules, each around 20 minutes long, and you can access the courses whenever you like. Your access doesn't expire.
If you're a teenager you can sign up for free for either the 'Understanding your brain' or 'Understanding Your feelings' courses.
We're always interested in your views and feedback to develop and improve our service offer, and for anyone who does undertake one of the online courses we'd appreciate it if you could complete a short (less than five minutes) survey. The online evaluation is completely anonymous and none of your details will be accessible to us.
Below are the courses you can access once the foundation training has been completed.
Play practitioners
Play practitioners in the Parenting Team work with families where parents/carers need support to strengthen their relationship. The work aims to build a nurturing connection through understanding how to interact and play with children in the context of their individual developmental needs. They also support children and young people where gaps in their social and emotional development, due to trauma, have been identified.
Solihull Approach professional training
In Shropshire we deliver a variety of free training, based on the Solihull Approach, to all professionals working with families. The Solihull Approach is a highly practical way of working with families within a robust theoretical structure, and is an evidence-based approach. Find out what training is available if you work with families.