Check out Hertfordshire's Spring 25 Parenting and Relationship Courses

Please download the latest Parenting and Relationship Support Offer Newsletter which will provide you with information and details on Parenting Courses and Relationship Support offer. Please can you ensure you cascade to your teams. If you have any questions please email CSStrategic.Partnerships@hertfordshire.gov.uk .

We have listed a few of the current courses below, but please visit the Hertfordshire Directory for the full listing.

In addition, you can find out further information below:-

Family Lives offer a variety of on-line workshops, courses and advice articles such as Understanding Children's Behaviour (online workshop), Understanding the importance of communicating with teens (article), parenting courses (online), Bullying on social media (article), and online forums for parents and carers to connect and share experiences. Download the Summer programme here.

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Supporting Links

NEW course dates added for our popular Talking Families Course.

Online on Zoom, Thursdays, 9.45 to 11.15am, 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th June, 3rd & 10th July 2025

This course is FREE to parents with children 0-11years old, who live or go to school in Hertfordshire

The course covers:

• Manage challenging behaviour with consistency
  • Encourage positive behaviour
  • Build your child's self-esteem
  • Set and maintain boundaries
  • Respond to tantrums and difficult feelings in children
  • Develop a strong parent/child relationship now and for the future

Parents can book by calling 07512 709 556 or email bookings@supportinglinks.co.uk (we will need to speak to you to confirm your booking) Please quote Course ID: 757

Professionals can refer parents through the same routes.

Free Relationship Support Courses for Hertfordshire Parents and Carers

Please share this information with parents/carers along with the flyer for the online Stronger Relationships
Online Course

Disagreements are a normal part of life. How you approach them can make all the difference to you, your co-parent, and your children. 

Learn skills to navigate changes in your relationships, develop positive communication skills and learn practical steps that you can bring into your child's life to help them cope during and/or after a separation or divorce.  

Stronger Relationships: A 6-week group based course for co-parents living together or apart that focuses on managing stress and enhancing communication.

Multiple group sessions are available to select one that suits you Register for a free account

Parenting When Separated: A 6-week group based course for separated parents that focuses on the emotional impact of separation and supporting communication between co-parents.

Upcoming course dates:

• Face to Face course at The Otley Family Centre, Otley Way, WD19 7TB

Every Friday between 6 Jun - 11 Jul 2025, 10am – 1pm

Parenting When Separated Referral Form (hertfordshire.gov.uk)

Co-Parenting with Care: A 6-week group-based online course for parents and carers of neurodiverse children seeking guidance, support, and strategies for co-parenting more consistently.

Upcoming course dates:

• Every Wednesday between 4 Jun - 9 Jul 2025, 9:30-11:30am
• Every Thursday between 10 Jun - 10 Jul 2025, 7-9pm

Co-Parenting with Care Referral Form

OnePlusOne’s digital interventions: 3 online courses aimed at new parents, intact parents and parents that are separated.

Arguing Better

For all parenting journeys
Disagreements are a normal part of life. How you approach them can make all the difference to you, your partner, and your children. 

Me, You and Baby Too

For new parenting journeys
Learn how to navigate the changes that happen in a relationship when a baby arrives.

Getting It Right For Children

For all co-parenting journeys
Learn how to develop positive communication skills that enable you to parent co-operatively and work out solutions together. 

The course can be completed at your own pace independently or with support from staff at your local Family Centre or Local School Partnership.
You can get started with this digital course as soon as you register for a free OnePlusOne account.

Early Help System Guide Survey

We have used the Early Help System Guide (EHSG) on an annual basis since it was introduced in 2022 to enable us to assess the maturity of our Early Help system. This has aways been an invaluable exercise and identifies both our strengths and areas for future developments. The key reason that this assessment is so helpful is because we always work in collaboration with all our partners to help our families to access good quality Early Help support. All responses to this assessment are noted and considered in our appraisal.

The EHSG includes a template with a set of questions that need to be given consideration as part of the assessment framework. The results of the assessment will be used by our Families First Partnership Board to prioritise further developments to our early help offer and to ensure that our Early Help Strategy is maintained. To help us with this assessment, we would be grateful if once again you can consider the questions in this survey.

Complete the survey

Please answer only the questions that you feel are relevant to your service and leave any that are not relevant blank.

All questions are optional. The closing date for completion is Friday 20 June 2025.

Capacity for new referrals - For Baby's Sake

For Babys Sake is Whole-family response to domestic abuse working individually with parents committed to co-parenting their unborn baby.

A Therapeutic programme delivered by highly skilled practitioners underpinned by a range of therapeutic models and in-depth, ongoing training.

Meaningful, trusting relationships consistently guarantee engagement and crucially, provide the framework for the deeper, therapeutic exploration that allows parents to understand the impact of their own parenting & childhood experiences

The quality of the relationship is the single most important factor for achieving successful outcomes and the Trauma-informed approach – encouraging unresolved trauma to be explored & processed to make sense of the emotions/feelings connected to the events within a ‘recovery framework’

Criteria

• Pregnancy, ideally 28 weeks or earlier
• Both parents willing to engage, although parents do NOT have to be together or in a relationship.
• There is DA in the relationship
• The mother resides in Hertfordshire.

For Baby's Sake currently has capacity for referrals in Hertfordshire and referral is by an online link,

       Direct link to refer 

       Or any questions please contact Steve Gibbs 07702 537074

 Referral can be self-referral or any professional working with the family.

 

Support for revision and exam related stress:

April's Stress Awareness month is now over, but stress can affect people all year around, especially at this time of year for young people with exams looming. Revision and exam time can feel overwhelming, but there are things young people can do before, during and after exams to help manage their worries. Find advice and signposting from Just Talk Herts at:  Exam and Revision Stress

 

 

In addition and in partnership with HCC, Togetherall can support people aged 16+ with clinically moderated, peer-to-peer support, 24/7 and provides a safe space to share concerns and learn coping strategies.  Togetherall work in partnership with universities across the UK to provide students with Free Togetherall access.  Through their website, Togetherall offer the opportunity for people to explore the community, either sharing thoughts or reading thoughts of others, access to resources such as self-help courses to expert articles, anonymous engagement where open conversations can be shared as much or as little as wanted and 27/7 support.  Best of all, it's free to join!  Watch a short YouTube video  for more information.

Suicide Prevention and Postvention readiness pack

HCC Mental Health and Children and Young People Team are excited to launch a new resource to provide our Hertfordshire Community settings with mental health, suicide prevention and postvention information and support.

On Suicide Prevention day 2024 we launched the Suicide Prevention and Postvention Readiness pack for Education settings in Hertfordshire.  A resource to help ensure that all education settings have the timely information needed, developed in collaboration with system professionals to support and fill the gaps, to aid education settings support the wellbeing of their school community, staff and pupils. Providing details on the available services, information and guidance for mental health, suicide prevention, and postvention in one place to access. This pack is hosted on the Hertfordshire GRID for Learning.

Following this, we have become aware of the need to develop a community version of this pack, to support the wellbeing of extracurricular and enrichment activity organisations working with young people, for example youth groups, grass root clubs and sporting establishments with information and signposting. 

Incidents of suicide attempts and deaths are not something we have to deal with often, but unfortunately are a reality that have a profound impact on those close to individuals, as well as the wider community. Finding the correct information for support in the midst of an incident can be difficult as it is often spread across multiple websites, emails, and leaflets, making it more challenging for group leads to access. The community pack has been put in place to improve the support available to individuals to support their wellbeing when they need it.

Download the community version of this pack here.

Find out about the new body image group from First Steps ED for boys and men.

First Steps ED have introduced a brand-new four-week group workshop for 12–17-year-olds to help address the distinctive challenges that males face with body image.

Developed by staff and volunteers with first hand experience, each week will look at a specific topic: masculinity and expectations; social media, gym culture and diet culture. Find out more: Workshops & Support Groups for Eating Disorders | First Steps ED: 

Don't wait - find self-help or early help now!

First Steps ED offer various free early help support options for 5–18-year-olds in Hertfordshire with eating disorders/disordered eating. This includes group workshops, one-to-one sessions, and easy-to-access self-help guided resources. Children and young people don’t need to be physically unwell due to their eating behaviours to ask for support – it’s always best to ask for help as soon as possible. Eating disorders can happen to anyone at any time. First Steps ED support is on hand for anyone regardless of ability, background or identity.

Find out more on their website: Services & Support | First Steps ED 

Important service update: Herts Haven Cafes

Please see the message below from Hertfordshire Mind Network regarding the Herts Haven Cafes for children and young people, ages 10-18:

There are planned changes within our provision of Herts Haven Cafés that provide open-access drop-in spaces for children and young people across Hertfordshire to access support for their emotional wellbeing.

We want to let you know that the Stevenage Herts Haven Café has closed now with no further cafes planned for the area.  However, our cafes in Hemel Hempstead, Watford, and Ware remain open, with our Hemel Hempstead Café opening for an extra day each week on Wednesdays as well as Thursdays and Saturdays.

We are reaching out to those children and young people affected, to explain the situation and signpost them to suitable alternative support services.

If you have any concerns or questions please do not hesitate to contact us: You can call us on 0208 189 8400, email cyp@hertsmindnetwork.org, or visit www.withyouth.org

Drug & Alcohol E-Learning & Training

Public Health is working with Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust’s (HPFT) Learning and Development team to develop an online Drug & Alcohol e-learning package. As well as being rolled out to staff across HPFT, this training will be available for free to all providers to access. The e-learning package will include:

• An overview and recognition of drug and alcohol addiction
• Developing confidence to work with people who use drug and alcohol
• Techniques to support individuals through the recovery process

We will share further information once the e-learning is available, we anticipate this to be in Autumn 2025.

In the meantime, CGL in conjunction with Public Health have produced a number of Drug & Alcohol bitesize videos covering the following topics:

• Why do people use drugs and alcohol
• Alcohol awareness
• Drug awareness
• Ketamine – What’s there to know?
• Cannabis – What’s there to know
• The impact of trauma and drugs and alcohol
• How to have a conversation with someone about their drug or alcohol use

You can access these videos via Drugs and alcohol (professional) | Hertfordshire County Council where a wealth of other D&A information is also available

In addition, the following dates are available from CGL for their online training for drug and alcohol awareness 2025/06, open to all professionals in Hertfordshire.

 17/07/2025 (Q2)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1244829451399?aff=oddtdtcreator

20/11/2025 (Q3)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1244833834509?aff=oddtdtcreator

18/02/2026 (Q4)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1244834937809?aff=oddtdtcreator

Free and confidential Gambling Support

Health in Herts are running a campaign to help anyone affected by gambling, either if you are struggling personally or affected by someone else's gambling. They offer confidential support and useful resources available here:-

There is information on the support services in Hertfordshire, national support services and self help options.

 

Multi-agency practitioner survey

The Hertfordshire Safeguarding Children Partnership have released a multi-agency practitioner survey regarding our priorities for 2025/28.

We very much welcome your feedback and views to ensure that we are consistently working toward improving and developing our focus across the Partnership.

The survey should only take a couple of minutes of your time, and you can remain anonymous if you so wish.

Please share this survey widely with your teams and colleagues: https://surveys.hertfordshire.gov.uk/s/HSCPPriorities/

The survey will close on 6^th June 2025.