A new hub offering vital services for children has opened in Leeds with a big refurbishment ready to welcome local Leeds families in.
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) has unveiled its new look in Leeds City Centre. Their redone Leeds hub allows families from across Yorkshire to come into the hub directly and access support and services.
The vital services the hub provides includes supporting families through the impact of sexual abuse and domestic abuse, expecting parents with their mental health and a hub for Childline. The new NSPCC hub has dedicated spaces for each of its services that are full of activities and information for the families that go in.
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NSPCC Assistant Director Debra Radford for our region told LeedsLive: "We moved in here at the end of the June and we've been making the building more homely and moving resources in for our direct therapeutic work with children and families.
"We now have services like the Letting the Future in service, which is a new service for children who have been sexually abused to help with their recovery. It's a really important service for them and also for their parents and carers as it affects all of them.
"We find often parents come in with the fears the future could be bleak for their children but this service has been evaluated and it does work and help kids to process the worst impacts of the abuse they've suffered. With the right help and support, many children are able to be hopeful about the future again.
"So we're really thrilled to be able to bring this service and the other ones to Leeds. We're really focusing on prevention at the NSPCC, and moving into Leeds means we can start connecting with families and children - it's so important to us to be able to deliver all these services together now."
The Childline hub in Leeds has now expanded in size, and talks to young people about a range of issues they are dealing with across the region. Team manager Charlotte told LeedsLive: "We have regular shifts where we have one-to-one chats with young people that ring in. We're here for every child - any child can contact us up until their 19th birthday about anything.
"It is primarily mental health they're talking to us about at the moment. I think people have the perception Childline is just for talking about abuse, but the kids we speak to log into talk about all sorts of things. Sometimes they just want to log in to tell us about something good that's happened and sometimes it's a lot more serious."
Childline now has a website that young people using the service can log onto to access resources and use moderated message boards to help each other out too.
Charlotte and volunteer Sally said: "There's a lot of anxiety, particularly since the pandemic, it's really peaked. There's been so much change around schools and that's definitely having an impact.
"We do speak to young people who have experienced suicidal ideation and thoughts of self harm. We signpost them on to helpful services if needed, and make referrals in the case of threat to life. We do have really strong confidentiality policy though - for some young people, they're very clear they're not going to do anything, they just need a space to talk about how they're feeling."
In July 2021, one out of six children aged five to 16 was identified as having probable struggles with their mental health, according to Young Minds. This is large increase from one in nine children back in 2017. It's also well-documented that more children struggled with their mental health during the pandemic.
Some of the NSPCC's services have been running for years, such as its Pregnancy in Mind service to help expecting parents deal with their mental health, but others are entirely new or opening in Leeds for the first time. This includes the Letting the Future in Service, which works with young people who have experienced sexual abuse and their families, and DART (Domestic Abuse, Recovering Together), which supports families as they recover from the impact of domestic abuse.
With the newly refurbished hub, families across Yorkshire will be able to come in to access support in group sessions, individual sessions and check-ins, depending on the service they are using. It also provides a base for services like In Control, which works with vulnerable children to help them be online safely, the schools outreach programme and the campaigns centre, which at the moment is particularly focusing on campaigns like promoting what healthy relationships look like for children who might not have experienced them.
Social worker Graham Carey-Briggs will be one of the people running the new DART service in Leeds, which has just opened for referrals. He said: "We use therapeutic group work to help parents and children repair relationships post-domestic abuse, as we know often families find it hard to speak about afterwards.
"There was an increase in domestic abuse during the pandemic. We know there was a spike in calls to domestic abuse helplines. Our key message is that this service works to strengthen the mother and child relationship as they recover from abuse in the family."
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), the number of police recorded domestic abuse crimes rose 6% in the year ending March 2021. This was after a 9% increase was recorded for the year ending March 2020.
If you would like to find out more about the services NSPCC is offering in Leeds and contact them about eligibility to attend, give them a call on 020 7825 2505. If you believe a child is at immediate risk of harm, contact the NSPCC helpline on help@nspcc.org.uk or 0808 800 5000.
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