At Charter North Dulwich we work with a range of external services to get the right support for you and your child. There are details of some of the most common ones below. If you think you or your child would benefit from the support of these services you can refer yourself or contact a member of the safeguarding team who can complete a referral on your behalf.

Family Early Help

Family Early Help means providing support as soon as a problem emerges, at any point in a child’s life, from the foundation years through to the teenage years.

Early Help is the support given to children, young people and their families where they have additional needs that aren't being met by universal services (services that are available to everyone, like health and education). These needs may relate to anything from housing and financial support to medical provision and care.

The overall purpose of Early help is stopping problems and issues from escalating. It relies on accurate early identification of difficulties and intervention which is personalised, targeted and evaluated.

It may involve light touch support or more intensive intervention which is outlined in a support plan. When a plan is a place it will include actions, responsibilities and outcomes, which are reviewed after an agreed period of time.

For more information and to self-refer please see the links below:

Southwark

Lambeth

Lewisham

Children’s Social Care

Children's Social Care support families whose needs cannot be met by Early Help. This may be because their needs are more complex, or because their child is at risk of coming to harm.

Once a referral has been completed to Children's Social Care, a team of social workers will screen the information to determine the next steps and contact the referrer and the family  to discuss the concerns and proposed actions.

This screening will determine the level of support or intervention required to ensure children and families receive the right help at the right time.

We would usually seek parent/carer consent to complete a referral to Children's Social Care unless this would place the child at further risk of harm or unnecessary delay.

For more information and to self-refer please see the links below:

Southwark

Lambeth

Lewisham

Young Carers

A Young Carer is anyone aged 5-21 years old who helps to look after a family member who has an illness or condition. This could be a physical or mental illness, a learning disability, or some form of addiction.

The team offer, amongst other support:

·      Educational support

·      Meet ups

·      Trips & activities

For more information and to self-refer please see the links below:

Southwark

Lambeth

‍Lewisham

Change Grow Live (CGL)

CGL is a national charity which offers personalised support for those affected by substance misuse. This includes a drug and alcohol support service for people under 25 and specialist family support for children impacted by parental substance use.

For more information please see the link below:

CGL

Bereavement Services

There are lots of external services that students and their families can turn to for support.

Child Bereavement UK - free, confidential support by phone, or virtual

Hope Again - youth website from Cruse. Information and advice

Winston's Wish - expert teams offer advice and support, as a one-off or ongoing basis

Mental health support

The Nest‍

A Southwark based service providing early intervention for young people experiencing emotional difficulties such as worry, anxiety, and stress. They offer creative and talking therapies, virtual resources and signposting, parent/carer workshops and peer-support. They run a drop-in session for children and parent/carers on Saturdays 10.30am-2.30pm

The Nest | Mental Wellbeing Support in Southwark

The Well Centre ‍

A Lambeth based service offering free and confidential support for young people experiencing mental, sexual and physical health difficulties.

‍The Well Centre

Groundwork (affiliated with the Nest)

Groundwork provide early intervention for lower-level mental health difficulties, eg. low mood and anxiety.  They attend our school once a week and offer 1:1 intervention to young people based on the principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Referrals are made via our school counsellor.

The Nest - Groundwork

CAMHS

CAMHS is the NHS mental health service for children and young people. CAMHS support young people with issues like depression, anxiety, eating disorders, self harm and other difficulties. Parents/carers can self-refer to CAMHS or be referred by the school or their GP.

Guide to CAMHS | Mental Health Services | Young Minds

School Counsellor

Our school counselling service provides one to one therapeutic support for students and is managed by an experienced counsellor, with specialist training in counselling adolescents.

Referrals can be made by students, parent/carer and the school.

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Care and Support

Calm Harm App

Calm Harm is a helpful app designed to support young people to manage the urge to self-harm.

Housing support and advocacy

Citizens Advice

Home - Shelter England

Online Safety

Monitoring your child's internet use is a crucial part of keeping them safe. The links below contain further advice and support around this, including a guide on how to manage parental controls on your child's device.

Safer Internet

Childnet

Internet Matters

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If you have any concerns about a student at Charter North Dulwich, please do not hesitate to contact the safeguarding team on safeguarding@charternorthdulwich.org.uk