Support beyond this library

Where to start

For almost everything, the NHS is the right first move, and it costs nothing.

• Your GP. The gateway to everything the NHS offers a child: paediatric assessment, a referral to CAMHS, and support for you as the parent. Ask for a double appointment. Describe the pattern over weeks rather than the worst single day, and say plainly what you are worried about. Bring a written list; the ten minutes go quickly. www.nhs.uk/service-search/find-a-gp
• NHS 111, and Lifeline in Northern Ireland. The mental health crisis line for your area. Free, confidential and answered twenty-four hours a day, every day of the year. When you or your child is in mental health crisis and it will not wait for a GP appointment. England, Scotland and Wales: call 111 and choose the mental-health optionNorthern Ireland: call Lifeline on 0808 808 8000
• NHS Talking Therapies. Free NHS therapy for adults in England, for anxiety and low mood. You can refer yourself; you do not need to go through your GP first. For the parent. A great many of the parents we sit with are carrying something of their own, and waiting for someone to ask. www.nhs.uk/service-search/mental-health/find-an-NHS-talking-therapies-service
• Your child’s school. The pastoral lead, the head of year, or the form tutor. Free, already knows your child, and often the fastest route to a change that helps. Before or alongside anything else. A school cannot act on what it has not been told, and what you bring is often what it did not have.

Find help by subject

Every subject has its own sheet, naming the organisations that help with that specifically, and the situations in which each one is the right call.

If you are considering private therapy

Waiting lists are long. If you can meet the cost, a registered therapist can usually be seen in weeks rather than months. Both registers below are accredited by the Professional Standards Authority, which is the thing to check before anything else.

• BACP Therapist Directory. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy’s public register. Search by area, by what you are bringing, and by whether the therapist works with children. www.bacp.co.uk/search/Therapists
• NCPS Therapist Directory. The National Counselling and Psychotherapy Society’s register. Every therapist listed is qualified, supervised, insured, and accountable to a code of ethics. ncps.com/find-a-counsellor
• Kensington Square Therapy. Our own practice. We work with children, young people and parents, in the room at 23 Kensington Square, online, and inside schools we partner with. www.kst.ltd

What to look for in a therapist, what a first session is like, and the questions worth asking before you commit, are set out at theparentbook.com/finding-a-therapist

Every organisation we would send a parent to

• 5Rights Foundation. UK-founded NGO working on children’s rights in the digital environment. Their Children and AI Design Code and policy work on companion chatbots is the most carefully reasoned UK source we know on the clinical risks of new AI categories. When a parent wants to understand the policy and design context behind a worry about AI chatbots, algorithmic feeds, or platform manipulation. Less for individual-handle advice; more for understanding the landscape. 5rightsfoundation.com
• Adfam. The leading UK families-and-addiction charity in England. The right pointer for families affected by someone else’s drinking, drug use or gambling, including parents in recovery thinking about how to talk to their children. Quick tips and chapters on substance use in the family system, including the parent in recovery and the family living alongside active addiction. Adfam runs one-to-one support sessions and signposts to local services across England; their resources on conversations between recovering parents and their children are the cleanest UK source we know. Mainly England. In Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland the national equivalents may be the better route. adfam.org.uk
• ADHD Foundation Neurodiversity Charity. The UK’s leading neurodiversity charity, based in Liverpool. The cleanest UK source for the lifespan, strengths-based framing of neurodiversity that we want chapters in this territory to sit within. Any chapter touching on neurodiversity, ADHD, autism, or the wider neurodevelopmental cluster. Their parent-facing resources on early signs in school-age children, on sensory differences, and on talking with siblings are the strongest sub-resources to name. The largest UK provider of training to professionals; their authority in the territory is real. www.adhdfoundation.org.uk
• Adoption UK. The UK’s leading peer-led charity for adoptive and kinship families. The right pointer for the parent-and-peer-support layer of post-adoption life. Adoption tips and chapters where peer support, school-curriculum sensitivity, and the everyday textures of adoptive family life are the territory. Their resources on school assignments and on adopted teenagers searching for birth family are the cleanest UK parent-facing source we know. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Adoption UK Helpline 0300 666 0006 · Mon-Fri 10am-2.30pm; Northern Ireland Mon-Fri 9am-5pm www.adoptionuk.org
• Age UK. The UK’s leading charity for older people. The right line for the parent caring for an unwell elderly relative while still parenting children, and for the grandparent who is structurally part of the family and now navigating her own changes. Quick tips and chapters where a grandparent’s role, illness, or bereavement is in the room, or where the parent reading is herself becoming a carer for her own parent alongside parenting her children. The daily 8am-7pm window matters; few other adult-facing lines run that consistently. Age UK Advice Line 0800 678 1602 · Daily 8am-7pm, 365 days a year www.ageuk.org.uk
• Anna Freud. A research-led mental health centre. I send parents here when they want to read from a clinically authoritative source. Chapters touching attachment, trauma, neurodevelopment, or any concern where the parent benefits from reading from a centre with research credibility. The right pointer when YoungMinds feels too light. www.annafreud.org/parents-and-carers
• Anxiety UK. A specialist national anxiety charity. The right inline signpost in anxiety chapters where the parent wants reading anchored in a charity whose single subject is anxiety. Anxiety chapters where the reader benefits from material written from a place that does only this. Their parent-facing pages on anxiety in children and young people, and on supporting an anxious child, are the right specific sub-resources to name. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Anxiety UK Infoline 03444 775 774 · Infoline 24/7 · Email support@anxietyuk.org.uk; live chat via website www.anxietyuk.org.uk
• BBC Action Line. The BBC’s helpline directory, organised by topic and by programme. The first place to go if you have just watched a programme on a topic that affects you and want to know which UK organisation is the right next call. Where the parent’s concern has been surfaced by a recent BBC programme, documentary, or storyline, and the family wants a calm, broadcaster-vetted entry point into the relevant UK support landscape. Also useful where the topic does not yet have a clear name in the family’s vocabulary and the parent wants to read a short, neutral page that points her to several specialist organisations rather than committing her to one. Topic pages span mental health, bereavement, abuse, eating disorders, addiction, neurodiversity, and family difficulty. A signpost rather than a service. It points you to the organisation that does the work. www.bbc.co.uk/actionline
• BEAT (Beat Eating Disorders). The UK’s eating disorder charity. The early signpost in any chapter touching on eating disorders or restrictive behaviour. Any chapter where eating, body image, or food anxiety has tipped into restrictive or compulsive territory. Signpost early in the chapter, not at the end; the youth helpline matters. BEAT Helplines England 0808 801 0677, Scotland 0808 801 0432, Wales 0808 801 0433, Northern Ireland 0808 801 0434 · Mon-Fri 3pm-8pm · Webchat, social media DM, email via website www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk
• Blue Cross Pet Loss Support. The UK’s specialist pet bereavement support service. The right line for the family whose beloved pet has died and where the child’s grief is being met as the real grief it is. Quick tips and chapters where a pet has died and the family is holding the loss as a first significant bereavement in a child’s life. Volunteers have themselves experienced pet bereavement and complete eight weeks of accredited training. The line has been running for thirty years. Pet Loss Support 0800 096 6606 · Every day 8.30am-8.30pm · Webchat and email via bluecross.org.uk/pet-loss; Facebook support group; trained volunteer responders who have themselves experienced pet bereavement. www.bluecross.org.uk/pet-loss
• British Dyslexia Association. The UK’s specialist dyslexia charity. The right line for parents at the early stages of suspecting their child’s literacy struggle is more than a slow start. Any chapter or tip where dyslexia or a related literacy difficulty is the live question. Their parent-facing guidance on assessment, school support, and the daily textures of dyslexia in a primary household is the clearest UK source we know. Volunteer-staffed, so messages left outside the hours are answered when they can be. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. BDA National Helpline 0333 405 4567 · Tue 10am-1pm, Wed 1pm-3pm, Thu 1pm-3pm www.bdadyslexia.org.uk
• Brook. The UK’s national charity for young people’s sexual health and wellbeing. Their RSE pages are the cleanest single source we know for puberty, periods, and age-appropriate sex education at home. When a parent is preparing for or holding a puberty conversation, when a question about sex has arrived in the back of the car, or when a school’s RSE curriculum has prompted a follow-up at home. www.brook.org.uk
• CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably). The UK suicide-prevention charity that began as a male-focused helpline and has, over twenty years, broadened. The evening line for the parent whose hardest hour is between the bedtime story and the morning. Quick tips or chapters touching parental isolation, the heavier end of parental burnout, or any moment a parent has hinted at suicidal thoughts. The 5pm-to-midnight window matches the parental dread-hours better than Mind’s Infoline does. Not a 24-hour line. Overnight, use the numbers at the top of this sheet. CALM Helpline and Webchat 0800 58 58 58 · Daily 5pm-midnight, 365 days a year · Webchat via thecalmzone.net at the same hours www.thecalmzone.net
• Carers UK. The UK’s leading carers' charity. The right pointer for the household where a parent’s chronic illness or mental-health condition has shaped the family’s daily texture, and for the children growing up inside that household. Health-and-difference tips and chapters covering the disabled-parent and young-carer territory. Carers UK runs general-population resources; the Children’s Society Young Carers Service holds the child-specific layer alongside. Carers UK Helpline 0808 808 7777 · Mon-Fri 9am-6pm www.carersuk.org
• CEOP ThinkUKnow. The UK police’s national online safeguarding programme, delivered by the National Crime Agency. The right place for parents to report online sexual abuse, grooming, or any concern that may be a criminal matter. Any chapter where the online concern has tipped into something that may be criminal: sharing of intimate images, an adult contact who has been requesting personal information or images, sustained grooming patterns. The parents pages also carry age-by-age primers on what children are doing online, which I send parents to when they want a reliable, non-moralising overview from a source they can trust. To report something, use the CEOP Safety Centre at ceop.police.uk/safety-centre. The advice for families is at thinkuknow.co.uk. www.thinkuknow.co.uk/parents
• Channel 4 Help & Support (4Viewers). Channel 4's help and support directory, organised by topic and by programme. Practical, programme-anchored, with the topics that come up in the broadcaster’s documentary and drama coverage. Where the parent’s concern has been surfaced by a Channel 4 documentary, soap storyline, or current-affairs piece, and she wants the broadcaster’s curated list of UK-wide registered charities for the topic. Particularly strong for the topics Channel 4's editorial commissioning has covered carefully over time: domestic abuse, eating disorders, addiction, neurodiversity, bereavement, gender identity, and mental health crisis. The Hollyoaks help-and-support sub-pages, which run alongside soap storylines, are the route many younger viewers will have encountered first. A signpost rather than a service. It points you to the charity that does the work. www.channel4.com/4viewers/help-support
• Child Bereavement UK. Bereavement support for families where a child has died, and for grieving children up to 25. Bereavement chapters where the death is of a baby or a parent, or where the family system as a whole is grieving. Complementary to Winston’s Wish; they hold slightly different territory. Child Bereavement UK helpline 0800 02 888 40 · Mon-Fri 8am-8pm, except bank holidays · Live chat and email via website www.childbereavementuk.org
• Contact (for families with disabled children). The UK charity for families with disabled children. The warmest UK line we know for the parent in the early days after a diagnosis. Any chapter where a parent is holding a new diagnosis, navigating benefits, or contending with the wider system around a disabled child. No diagnosis required to use the helpline, which matters for families still in the assessment process. UK-wide. Contact Helpline 0808 808 3555 · Mon-Fri 9.30am-5pm (Tue opens 10.15am) contact.org.uk/help-for-families/information-advice-services/our-helpline
• Coram Kidscape. The UK’s specialist anti-bullying charity. The right line for parents who have not been able to resolve a serious bullying picture through the school. When the chapter is about bullying specifically and the parent needs specialist help. The Parent Advice Line is one of the few specialist routes in the UK that holds this territory well. Phone, WhatsApp, and email; advice-line hours are limited so the parent may need to leave a message and be called back. The phone hours are short, but WhatsApp and email are answered outside them. Kidscape Parent Advice Line 0300 102 4481 · Mon-Tue 9.30am-2.30pm; voicemail, email and WhatsApp accepted outside hours www.coramkidscape.org.uk
• CoramBAAF. The UK’s leading membership organisation for adoption and fostering professionals. The right pointer for adoptive parents who want to read at the policy and professional-framework layer. Adoption tips and chapters where the parent benefits from understanding the professional and policy framework her family is operating inside. Their resources on adopted adults, kinship care, and the records-access process are the right institutional reading. Written mainly for professionals. For support as a parent, Adoption UK and PAC-UK are the better first call. corambaaf.org.uk
• Council for Disabled Children. The umbrella body for the disabled children’s sector in the UK. The right pointer when a parent is reading more widely on the SEND landscape than a single specialist charity can cover. Chapters or tips where the parent wants to understand the wider SEND system, the local-authority routes, or the policy framework her family is navigating. Complementary to IPSEA’s legal focus; CDC holds the systemic and policy layer. councilfordisabledchildren.org.uk
• Council of British International Schools (COBIS). The membership organisation for British international schools, representing 331 schools in over 80 countries. The right institutional reference for international families navigating the British school sector inside or outside the UK. Quick tips and chapters touching the international family at a UK independent school, particularly around safeguarding standards, school accreditation, and the wider professional framework British international schools operate within. Written mainly for schools, so lighter for parents than the British Council pages. www.cobis.org.uk
• Cruse Bereavement Support. The UK’s largest bereavement charity. The right line for the parent who is grieving alongside her child, or for the family navigating suicide-bereavement or the loss of a grandparent who was structurally part of the parenting. Bereavement tips and chapters where the parent’s own grief is in the room alongside the child’s, and the family needs a UK helpline staffed by people trained in complex loss. Cruse’s suicide-bereavement training is particularly strong; their volunteer helpline staff are calibrated for that conversation in ways general grief lines are not. Cruse Bereavement Support National Helpline 0808 808 1677 · Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri 9.30am-5pm; Tue 1pm-8pm · Email, online chat, and local-branch face-to-face support via cruse.org.uk www.cruse.org.uk
• Diabetes UK. The UK’s leading diabetes charity. The right line for families navigating a paediatric diabetes diagnosis and the school care plan that follows. Health-and-difference tips and chapters where diabetes is the named condition. Their school care plan templates are the cleanest UK source; schools recognise the format. Their helpline holds both the clinical and the family-emotional layers. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Diabetes UK Helpline England, Wales and Northern Ireland 0345 123 2399, Scotland 0141 413 5148 · Mon-Fri 9am-6pm www.diabetes.org.uk
• Epilepsy Action. The UK’s leading epilepsy charity. The right line for families navigating childhood epilepsy and the daily texture of medication, seizure plans, and school adjustments. Health-and-difference tips and chapters where epilepsy is the named condition. Their school care plan templates and emergency response plans are the cleanest UK source we know. Helpline staff are specialist nurses and information officers. Epilepsy Action Helpline 0808 800 5050 · Mon-Fri 8.30am-5pm www.epilepsy.org.uk
• Family Lives. A free confidential helpline for any parenting concern. I send parents here when the question is about them, not about the child. When the chapter is about the experience of parenting itself, the family system, or a parent who needs to be listened to. Particularly strong for bullying and for the parent who is holding things together at the edge of their capacity. Family Lives confidential helpline 0808 800 2222 · Mon-Fri 9am-9pm; weekends 10am-3pm · Live chat Mon-Fri 10.30am-9pm; WhatsApp 07441 444125; email askus@familylives.org.uk www.familylives.org.uk
• Gingerbread. The UK charity for single parents. The first signpost for any chapter where the family structure itself is part of the concern. Any chapter about single parenting, co-parenting after separation, or where the family structure is shaping the concern. Helpline good for practical and emotional questions both. The advice service closed on 1 April 2025. The online information remains. · Webchat via website www.gingerbread.org.uk
• Home-Start UK. The UK’s family-support network of trained volunteers visiting families at home. The right pointer for the parent who needs the kind of help no friend can fully give, particularly in the early years. Quick tips or chapters touching parental isolation, single-parent burnout, illness in the family, or the parent simply finding the early years harder than expected. Local Home-Start charities operate across the UK and recruit volunteers from their communities. No central helpline; the right move is to find the local branch via the postcode lookup on home-start.org.uk. What is offered, and how long the wait is, vary by area. The local branch is the right first call. www.home-start.org.uk
• Internet Matters. The UK’s leading not-for-profit on children’s online safety. Co-founded by BT, Sky and other major UK ISPs. Their parent guides on AI tools, algorithmic feeds, and platform-specific settings are the cleanest practical primer we know. When a parent needs concrete handles on AI tools, social media platforms, gaming, screen time, or device controls. Their age-banded guides are particularly useful for parents new to a category. www.internetmatters.org
• Internet Watch Foundation. The UK hotline for reporting child sexual abuse imagery online. Anonymous, free, and the right place when a parent has found something that needs to be removed from the internet. When the parent has discovered, on a child’s device or sent to a child, imagery that is illegal: sexual images of a child, including images of the child themselves. IWF will work to have the image removed. The report is anonymous; the parent does not need to identify themselves or the child. The 999 route is for immediate danger and ongoing abuse; the IWF route is for the image itself. The IWF takes down the image. Reporting the person who sent it goes to CEOP or the police, and the two usually need to run together. www.iwf.org.uk
• IPSEA (Independent Provider of Special Education Advice). The UK’s specialist legal charity for SEND. The right line when the school has stopped engaging or the EHCP process needs legal scaffolding. Any chapter touching on SEN support, the graduated response, EHCP applications or appeals, or the SEND tribunal. The lawyers we would put in the room with a school that has stopped engaging. Free at the point of use, which matters for families who are paying for private assessment in parallel. England only. The SEND systems in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland work differently. IPSEA Advice Line and Call-in Helpline 0300 222 5899 · Triage Tue 9.30am-12.30pm; Call-in Helpline Wed 9.30am-2.30pm www.ipsea.org.uk/advice-line
• Kinship. The UK’s leading kinship-care charity, formerly known as Grandparents Plus. The right line for the family that has, often gradually, found itself parenting again because the child’s birth parents cannot. Quick tips and chapters covering the kinship-care territory. Their advice line holds the legal, financial, school and emotional layers of kinship parenting; the Someone Like Me peer-support service connects new kinship carers with experienced ones. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Kinship Advice Line 0300 123 7015 · Mon-Fri 10.30am-1pm, excluding public holidays kinship.org.uk
• Kooth. Free, anonymous online mental health support for young people, commissioned by the NHS in many areas. The right pointer when a teenager will not talk to a parent. Chapters where the child or young person themselves would benefit from immediate, anonymous online support, particularly teenagers who will not talk to a parent. Check local commissioning before signposting; Kooth is commissioned regionally and not yet universal. Whether it is available where you live depends on your local authority, so it is worth checking first. explore.kooth.com/families
• Macmillan Cancer Support. The UK’s most comprehensive cancer support charity. Their pages on talking to children and teenagers about a parent’s cancer are the cleanest age-calibrated guide we know. When a parent has just had a cancer diagnosis and is rehearsing how to tell the children, or when a household is in the middle of treatment and needs practical scaffolding. Also their nurse line for clinical questions during treatment. Macmillan Support Line 0808 808 00 00 · Every day 8am-8pm · Online chat at macmillan.org.uk; nurse line within the same number for clinical questions www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/diagnosis/talking-about-cancer/talking-to-children-and-teenagers
• Mental Health Foundation. A research and policy charity with strong family-focused resources. The right signpost when the angle is parental wellbeing or the family as a whole. Chapters about parental burnout, isolation, parental mental health affecting the child, or the family as a system. Less useful for child-specific clinical concerns; that is YoungMinds territory. www.mentalhealth.org.uk
• Mind. The UK’s largest mental health charity. The right line for the parent who has begun to notice her own depletion and wants to talk it through with someone who is not the GP, the partner, or the friend. Any chapter or quick tip where the parent’s own mental health is in the room. The Infoline staff are trained to signpost rather than counsel, which is the right register for the parent who needs the next step rather than the therapy session. Their parent-facing pages on stress, sleep, and parental burnout are the cleanest UK source we know. Not a crisis line. If tonight is urgent, use the numbers at the top of this sheet. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Mind Infoline 0300 123 3393 · Mon-Fri 9am-6pm (except bank holidays) www.mind.org.uk
• MindEd for Families. NHS-backed e-learning hub written by specialists and parents together. The right pointer for parents who want to go deeper than a charity explainer. When the chapter calls for a substantial primer rather than a short article. Particularly useful for parents who are research-minded and want structured material they can work through. www.minded.org.uk
• Nacoa (National Association for Children of Alcoholics). The UK charity providing information, advice and support for anyone affected by a parent’s drinking. Helpline open to children, adults, and concerned others alike, six days a week. Quick tips and chapters where the child is, in the household, living alongside a parent’s problem drinking. Nacoa’s helpline is one of the few UK lines a child can use directly to talk about a parent’s substance use; the same line supports adult children of alcoholics, who may be the parent reading the tip. Nacoa Helpline 0800 358 3456 · Mon-Sat 10am-7pm nacoa.org.uk
• National Autistic Society. The UK’s leading autism charity. The first signpost for any family at the autism threshold. Any chapter touching on autism specifically. Their pages on what to expect from a child’s assessment, on talking with autistic children about their diagnosis, and on the home environment are the strongest sub-resources. The Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline, staffed by parents of autistic children, is the right line to send the parent who has started to wonder. By arrangement, requested through the website · Parent to Parent Emotional Support Helpline: confidential one-off call staffed by parents of autistic children; arranged via the website. www.autism.org.uk
• NCT (National Childbirth Trust). The UK’s leading early-years charity. The right line for families in the pregnancy and under-fives years, including the toddler tantrums, toilet training, language development, and the early aggression that the very-young-child tips hold. Quick tips and chapters across the 2-5 years cluster. NCT’s parent-facing resources are calm, evidence-anchored, and the cleanest UK source we know for the developmental sequence of the early years. The Infant Feeding Line holds the breastfeeding and early-feeding territory specifically. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. NCT Infant Feeding Line and Parent Support 0300 330 0700 · Daily 8am-midnight (Infant Feeding Line) www.nct.org.uk
• Netmums. A long-established UK parenting community. The right signpost when the parent needs community, not a clinician. Chapters where what the parent needs is to hear from other parents going through the same thing. Particularly useful for isolation, early-years bewilderment, and the everyday textures of family life. Treat with editorial care: peer support, not professional support. Support from other parents rather than professional advice. www.netmums.com
• Neuroinclusive Education Network, formerly the Autism Education Trust. A partnership between the National Autistic Society and Ambitious about Autism, funded by the Department for Education. The right pointer for school-facing material on autism. Where the chapter touches on the school’s role in supporting an autistic pupil, or where the parent is preparing for a SENCo meeting and wants to understand what the school should be doing. Their SENCo Bundle and Pupil-Centred Education Plan Tool are the cleanest UK resources in this territory. www.nen.org.uk
• NHS Every Mind Matters. The NHS self-help hub. Useful when you want to gesture at NHS-backed self-help in a parent-friendly format. Chapters about sleep, low mood, or general wellbeing where a short course or self-help quiz is a sensible next step. Reassures parents who want an NHS source specifically. www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters
• NSPCC. The UK’s leading child-protection charity. The right signpost any time the chapter touches on a child being harmed. Any chapter where safeguarding may be live, where a parent suspects abuse, or where the chapter touches on online safety. The adult helpline is the right line for parents; Childline is the line for children themselves. NSPCC Helpline (for adults) 0808 800 5000 · Mon-Fri 10am-4pm by phone; email 11am-4pm, seven days a week. An email sent when the service is closed is not received. · If the NSPCC service is closed and the concern cannot wait, call the police on 101. You can also contact the child’s local out-of-hours children’s social care, social work or social services team. If a child is in immediate danger, call 999. www.nspcc.org.uk
• PAC-UK. The UK’s leading specialist post-adoption support charity, part of Family Action. The right pointer when adoptive-family work has tipped beyond peer support and into specialist trauma-informed therapy. Adoption tips and chapters where the family needs trauma-informed clinical support, including the teenager searching for birth family. PAC-UK is the provider many UK local authorities commission for adoption-specific therapy through the Adoption Support Fund. PAC-UK Advice Line, part of Family Action 0300 1800 090 · Mon-Wed 10am-4pm; Thu 10am-7pm; Fri 10am-1pm family-action.org.uk/get-support/pac-uk-adoption-and-special-guardianship-support
• Papyrus. Specialist suicide prevention for under-35s. HopeLine 24/7 belongs in both the sidebar and the standing crisis block whenever the chapter touches suicidal ideation. Any chapter where suicidal ideation in a young person is live or possible. The 24-hour line is one of the most important numbers in the library. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. HopeLine 24/7 0300 102 2470 · 24/7, every day www.papyrus-uk.org/help-me/hopeline-24-7
• Place2Be. School-based counselling charity. Their Parenting Smart articles are written by school-based counsellors and are my default for primary-age concerns. When the chapter is about primary-age (5-to-11) social or emotional concerns, particularly anything school-anchored. The Parenting Smart articles on friendship, behaviour and routines are the strongest sub-resource. parentingsmart.place2be.org.uk
• Resolution. The UK family-law professionals' body, committed to a non-confrontational and constructive approach to family disputes. Members (lawyers, mediators, financial advisers, family therapists) sign up to a Code of Practice that prioritises children’s interests. Quick tips and chapters on co-parenting, blended-family arrangements, the wedding the children are in, the rules that vary across two homes. Resolution’s parent-facing resources hold this territory with care. The membership directory is the right route for families looking for a family lawyer or mediator who works under the Code of Practice. The material on the site is free. Engaging a member for legal work is not. resolution.org.uk
• Royal College of Psychiatrists. The main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the UK. The right institutional reference for parents seeking authoritative, clinically careful descriptions of children’s mental health conditions, written by psychiatrists in partnership with young people. Quick tips and chapters where a child has received a clinical mental health diagnosis and the family wants the calmest, most institutional UK reading available. The College’s parent-facing leaflets are certified by the Patient Information Forum’s PIF TICK accreditation scheme; their reading level and clinical framing sit slightly above YoungMinds, slightly below Anna Freud. www.rcpsych.ac.uk
• Self-Injury Support. The UK’s leading self-harm and self-injury specialist charity. The right line for the parent who has just found a mark and needs to talk to someone who has heard this conversation before. Quick tips or chapters where self-harm is the disclosure being held, particularly in the first conversation with a child who has begun. Their text support service is specifically calibrated for women and is the right route where a young woman in the household needs an option that is not voice-based. Helpline hours are short. Outside them, the numbers at the top of this sheet are open. Self-Injury Support Helpline 0808 800 8088 · Helpline and text support Mon and Thu 7pm-10pm www.selfinjurysupport.org.uk
• Sibs. The UK charity for people who grow up with a disabled brother or sister, or a sibling with a serious long-term condition. The specialist line we send parents to where the well sibling has begun to need her own support. Any chapter or tip on the experience of the well sibling: the quietness, the explanations not given, the resentment at eleven, the older sibling’s eventual carer-role. Sibs also offers information services calibrated for children aged 7-17 at youngsibs.org.uk. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Contact by web form www.sibs.org.uk
• StepChange Debt Charity. The UK’s leading free debt-advice charity. The right line for the parent whose financial circumstances have changed and who needs both the practical advice and the calmer framing to have the household conversation. Quick tips and chapters on money and the family, including talking to children about money, the conversation when a job has gone, and the unembarrassed naming of what the household cannot afford. StepChange’s parent-facing material sits alongside Citizens Advice for the wider family financial layer. Debt advice is the main service here. For wider money guidance, MoneyHelper is the other place to look. StepChange Helpline 0800 138 1111 · Mon-Fri 8am-8pm; Sat 9am-2pm www.stepchange.org
• The Black, African and Asian Therapy Network (BAATN). Home to the largest UK directory of counsellors and psychotherapists of Black, African, Asian and Caribbean heritage. The right pointer for families looking for a therapist who shares the cultural reference points. Quick tips or chapters touching identity, cultural register, intergenerational difference, or any moment where a parent has indicated that finding a therapist who understands the family’s cultural background matters. Therapists in the directory hold relevant qualifications and are registered with accrediting professional bodies (BACP, NCPS, UKCP, BPS). A directory of therapists rather than a helpline. BAATN does not provide the therapy itself. www.baatn.org.uk
• The British Council. The UK’s international organisation for cultural relations and educational opportunities. The right institutional reference for international families newly arrived in the UK and for households raising bilingual children. Quick tips and chapters on bilingualism, third-culture children, international families at UK schools, and the wider work of navigating UK systems from outside. The Partner Schools programme holds the international school sector; the general parent-facing pages hold material on raising bilingual and bicultural children. www.britishcouncil.org
• The Children’s Society Young Carers Service. The Children’s Society’s flagship young-carers programme, with a UK-wide local-service finder. The right pointer for the child-specific layer of family-with-illness territory. Health-and-difference tips and chapters where the child has, in the household, taken on caring responsibilities. The local-service finder connects families to community-based young-carers groups in their area, which is often the support that lands best with the child. Charged at your standard call rate, not free. Include (Children’s Society Young Carers) 01962 711 511 · Mon-Fri 9am-5pm www.childrenssociety.org.uk/information/young-people/young-carers
• The Fostering Network. The UK’s leading fostering charity. The right line for foster carers across the placement lifecycle, from the first 72 hours of a placement through the harder conversations and the eventual move on. Quick tips and chapters on the fostering family. The Fostering Network’s parent-facing resources on placement settling, on the careful handling of a fostered child’s history, and on placement endings, are the cleanest UK source we know. Foster carers who are members can also use a 24-hour legal helpline. Fosterline (England) and The Fostering Network advice lines 0800 040 7675 · England Mon-Fri 9am-5pm; Scotland 10am-4pm; Wales 9.30am-12.30pm; Northern Ireland 9.30am-1.30pm www.thefosteringnetwork.org.uk
• The Giaroli Centre. A private London clinic at Harley Street, founded in 2014 by Dr Giovanni Giaroli, Consultant Child, Adolescent and Adult Psychiatrist. The private centre we most often hear named by London parents who have chosen the private assessment route. Chapters or tips where the private route is being discussed. The multidisciplinary children’s pathway, conducted by psychiatrists, psychologists and paediatricians together, is the structure of assessment we would look for in any private provider. Useful as a named reference when distinguishing thorough multidisciplinary assessment from single-clinician work. A private fee-paying clinic, named in our chapters as an example of how a good multidisciplinary assessment is put together, not as the only one. www.dr-giaroli.org
• The Mix. A UK charity providing free, confidential support to under-25s on any issue. Powered by the same organisation that runs Shout. The right pointer for a teenager who would benefit from a youth-facing service that is not framed around mental health specifically. Quick tips and chapters where the young person themselves is the right user of the service, not the parent. The 24/7 crisis text messenger (THEMIX to 85258) is the right pointer for a teenager in distress at night. Phone and webchat hours vary; check the website. Crisis text messenger 24/7; webchat and email vary by service www.themix.org.uk
• Twins Trust. The UK’s only charity dedicated to families with twins, triplets and more, formerly known as Tamba. The right line for the parent doing twin-parenting in a way her friends with one child cannot quite read. Quick tips and chapters where twin-specific dynamics are in play: the early-years exhaustion, the comparison trap between twins, the moment one twin is going through something the other is not. The helpline is staffed by twin parents themselves, which is the texture this audience needs. Staffed by parents of multiples. You do not need to be a member. Twins Trust Helpline 0800 138 0509 · Mon-Thu 10am-1pm and 7pm-10pm. No longer open on Fridays. twinstrust.org
• UCAS. The UK’s central post-18 admissions service. The right institutional reference for families navigating the GCSE results, A-level choices, university applications, and the wider post-16 routes including apprenticeships. Quick tips and chapters on the school-leavers cluster, including GCSE results day, the decision not to go to university, and the apprenticeship conversation. UCAS holds the university pathway calmly; the parent-facing material on the wider routes (apprenticeships, gap years, further education) sits alongside. University admissions is the main focus. For apprenticeships in depth, apprenticeships.gov.uk is fuller. www.ucas.com/parents
• UK Safer Internet Centre. The UK’s hub for online-safety guidance, run by a partnership of three charities. Their parent-facing pages on age-banded online safety are clear, calm and current. When the chapter is about the everyday textures of online life, age-by-age platform guidance, or the parent who wants a UK-anchored, evidence-based primer that is not pitched at the crisis end. The Professionals Online Safety Helpline is open to parents and is, in my experience, a particularly useful line for situations that are serious but not criminal. Call cost depends on your phone package, so it may not be free. Mon-Fri 10am-4pm, email only saferinternet.org.uk
• Winston’s Wish, now part of Child Bereavement UK. The UK’s leading bereavement charity for children. The first signpost for any chapter where a child is grieving. Bereavement chapters where the focus is the child’s grief and how parents can hold them through it. The helpline is warm and unhurried. Merged into Child Bereavement UK · Now part of Child Bereavement UK. The line to ring is the Child Bereavement UK Helpline, 0800 02 888 40. winstonswish.org
• YoungMinds. The leading UK youth mental health charity. Their A-Z is the first place I send parents asking about a named concern. When a parent needs a clear, accessible primer on a specific emotional or mental health concern in their child or teen. Default first signpost for the 11-to-18 age range. Parents Helpline 0808 802 5544 · Mon, Thu, Fri 9.30am-4pm; Tue, Wed 9.30am-6pm · Webchat Mon-Fri 9.30am-4pm; email parents@youngminds.org.uk www.youngminds.org.uk/parent