The NSPCC service centre in Warrington has been working hard to overcome the challenges of lockdown, and ensure children who benefit from the charity’s services still get the help they need.
Practitioners have been adapting services to ensure they provide ongoing support to children and families who have been in contact with the NSPCC.
The centre is continuing to offer two programmes developed by the NSPCC – Turn the Page, which helps children overcome harmful behaviour, and Letting the Future in, supporting a child to rebuild their life following sexual abuse.
Aside from virtual meetings and weekly check-ins, the practitioners have worked closely with the children and parents to design tools specially to help that child progress during very unstable circumstances.
Warren is one practitioner who has leant his creative talents to his work as a practitioner. When he first started holding virtual sessions, he noticed that some children were getting distracted.
As a result, he has started making arts and crafts along with some of them, with some giving him instructions of what they would like him to build out of cardboard during sessions.
He is also writing storybooks for children, where they are the protagonist.
Warren said: “Lockdown is a difficult time, especially for children. It’s important that we can still be here to support them in an engaging way, so that they have some consistency during what is a stressful time.
“Arts and crafts have proven to be a great resource for me to use with children and young people. That can be something as simple as drawing their feelings, or building a dinosaur that represents confidence and painting it in bright colours, many of which can be replicated outside of sessions.”
Meanwhile, Natasha is a practitioner who is working with older children in their mid-to-late teens. She’s been working with them to decide what app they want to use to talk.
She said: “I’ve been using things like signal to hold sessions with the young people, which they’ve found useful as it operates a lot like WhatsApp. They can send pictures from walks or emojis, and it’s something which is familiar to them.
“It’s common for young people to struggle with anxiety, especially over the phone, so messaging gives the option for them to communicate how they feel most comfortable.”
Services are usually delivered out of the Peace Centre, which is currently operating as an NHS Care Centre to support the employees of the Warrington and Halton Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
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