Find help and support if you're worried about your child's health and wellbeing.
On this page
- If you need immediate support
- Health and wellbeing support for families
- Mental health support for older children
- Domestic abuse and substance misuse, support and advice
- Bullying
If you need immediate support
If you or your child need immediate help and are injured you need to call 999.
If your child is thinking of harming themselves, the Nottinghamshire Mental Health Crisis Line is available available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Call the Mental Health Crisis line on 0808 196 3779.
You can also contact your GP or contact the Healthy Families Team (Directory listing)
Health and wellbeing support for families
Family Lives
Family lives offer emotional support, information, advice and guidance on any aspect of parenting and family life. A confidential helpline, text message and email service for parents in England and Wales with children under 5.
Visit Family Lives to learn more
Happy Maps
Happy Maps is a hub of information on young people's mental health, for parents, professionals and young people.
Happy Maps may be able to help if you:
- are worried about your child's behaviour or mental health and not sure what's normal
- are wondering whether to see your GP
- have been referred to specialist services but there is a long wait
- have been told the problem isn't quite serious enough to be referred
Visit Happy Maps to learn more
Ann Freud (National Center for Families and Children)
Anna Freud National Centre for Families and Children have produced a self-care top tip guide for parents and carers to help you support a child or young person experiencing poor mental health or wellbeing.
The guidance includes:
- Adoption and Foster Care
- In conflict
- Self-care
- Shared Decision Making
Download the self-care top tip guide (Ann Freud) [PDF]
You can find out more on the Anna Freud website.
Home Start
Home-Start is a local community network of trained volunteers and expert support helping families with young children through challenging times.
Autism East Midlands
Austism East Midlands offers support and information for families and individuals, play and leisure services, outreach, and training for parents and carers.
Learn more at Austism East Midlands
Place2Be
Place2Be is a children’s and young people’s mental health charity, working in schools across the UK to provide counselling, mental health support and training.
Place2Be partner with schools and offer resources for parents and carers, including:
- Parenting Smart – Practical tips and advice videos to help you navigate everyday parenting challenges.
- The Art Room – Creative activities designed to boost wellbeing for children and families at home.
- Transition Support – Guidance for starting primary or secondary school.
- Exam Season Tips – Helping young people stay positive during stressful times.
- Support for Young people’s wellbeing and mental health
Explore their tools and advice to support your child’s mental health and wellbeing:
Services for parents and carers (opens in new tab)
Services for young people (opens in new tab)
Mental health support for older children
NottAlone
NottAlone has local mental health advice and help for young people in Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, all in one place.
You can find information, advice and where to go to get help locally if you are:
- under aged 25 years
- a parent or carer
- a professional that supports young people
Visit the NottAlone website to learn more
Be U Notts
Be U Notts is a free, accessible and convenient mental health and emotional wellbeing support service for Children and Young People (CYP) between age 0 to 25 years and their parent and carers in Nottinghamshire County (except Bassetlaw) and Nottingham City.
People in the Bassetlaw area can access mental health and emotional wellbeing support via NottAlone.
Call the Be U Notts helpline on 0115 708 0008.
Talkzone (for Bassetlaw)
Talkzone offers free, confidential mental health support and counselling for children and young people aged 11 to 25 years in Bassetlaw.
Young people aged 13 or over can contact the service directly. For young people under age 13, the referral will need to be made by soneome over the age of 18. This could be a family member or relevant professionals.
Contact Talkzone by:
Telephone helpline: 011909 530 943
Email: info@talkzone.org.uk (opens in new tab)
Visit the Talkzone website to learn more
Reading Well for Children
Reading Well for Children, from the Reading Agency, is a collection of stories, information and advice books to support the mental health and wellbeing of children. The collecton is aimed at children aged 7 to 11 years.
They have been chosen by health professionals and alongside children and families.
Learn about Reading Well for Children (Reading Agency)
You can find these collections at some on our larger libraries in Nottinghamshire.
Find a Reading Well collection near you (Inspire Libraries)
Domestic abuse and substance misuse, support and advice
Supporting survivors of domestic abuse
- Nottinghamshire Police
- Nottinghamshire Womens Aid
- JUNO Women's Aid
- Nottinghamshire Independent Domestic Abuse Services
- Equation Help for Men
- Mens Advice Line
- Imara - Nottingham based charity supporting children, teenagers, and their families affected by abuse.
Substance misuse
- Change, Grow, Live Nottinghamshire
- Hetty’s charity - provides emotional help and support to families in Nottinghamshire affected by a loved one’s alcohol or drug use
Bullying
Bullying can take place anywhere, in schools, in the wider community and on-line. It can be particularly distressing not only to the person being bullied but also the individual's family.
Bullying is often targeted at certain groups of people, perhaps because of their disability, race, religion or sexuality.
Bullying can take the following forms:
- verbal - name calling, insulting, teasing
- physical - pushing, shoving, hitting, kicking, damage to personal property and belongings
- indirect - spreading nasty stories or rumours, exclusion from friendship and social groups
- cyberbullying - sending hurtful text messages or e-mails, using social media to insult, tease or spread rumours, sharing photos online a way that is designed to hurt an individual
Disabled children may also experience the following forms of bullying:
- manipulative bullying - where a person is controlling someone
- conditional friendship - where a child thinks someone is being their friend but times of friendliness are alternated with times of bullying
- exploitative bullying - where features of a child's condition are used to bully them
If you are concerned your child is being bullied
If you are concerned that your child is being bullied at school you should make contact with the school as soon as possible to speak to their class teacher, head teacher, or head of year, if they are in secondary school, to raise your concerns.
Some forms of bullying are illegal and should be reported to the police, these include:
- violence or assault
- theft
- repeated harassment or intimidation, for example name calling, threats and abusive phone calls, emails or text messages
- hate crimes
By law, all state (not private) schools must have a behaviour policy in place that includes measures to prevent all forms of bullying among pupils.
This policy is decided by the school. All teachers, pupils and parents must be told what it is.
Schools must also follow anti-discrimination law, learn more at Discrimination Your Rights (GOV.UK)
This means staff must act to prevent discrimination, harassment and victimisation within the school. This applies to all schools in England
More information can be found at: