Shropshire Council

Parenting support

In Shropshire, we recognise how important the role of parents and carers is. Parenthood can be extremely rewarding and enjoyable. It can also be demanding, frustrating and exhausting. The aim for all parents is to raise healthy, well-rounded children in a loving, stable environment. It's our hope that we can support parents, carers and communities to do this. This section is for any parent and carer who would like to know more about parenting and how children and teenagers develop, as well as families who feel they need additional support to understand and manage their child’s behaviour and how they can support their child/ren through transitions and difficult times.

The support, groups and courses the Parenting Team offers are all underpinned by the Solihull Approach. Find out more about this well-established and evidence based approach.  

Parenting Helpline

Parenthood can be extremely rewarding and enjoyable. It can also be demanding, frustrating and exhausting. Shropshire Council’s Parenting Team is here to support parent and carers to raise healthy, well-rounded children in a loving and stable environment.

Do you have any questions around child development and parenting?

Why not call our Parenting Helpline where one of our trained Parenting Practitioners will be ready to listen to you.

The Helpline is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9am to 12:30pm. Call 01743 250950.

If you have concerns about a child’s safety or well being please call First Point of Contact on 0345 678 9021.

If you would like to find out about other services the Parenting team offers please email parenting.team@shropshire.gov.uk

Free online courses

We have a multi-user license for a variety of online course for parents and carers which enables all residents of Shropshire to access any of these courses for free.

Online courses are a great way to access support at a time and place which suits you and your family. The courses are all split into short modules, each around 20 minutes long, and you can access the courses whenever you like. Your access doesn't expire. Why not try out the taster course - 'Understanding your Child’s Feelings'?

Get started on accessing the courses. Simply enter access code DARWIN18 to gain free access to any or all of the courses below:

  • Understanding pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby
  • Understanding pregnancy, labour, birth and your baby: for women couples
  • Understanding your baby
  • Understanding your child
  • Understanding your teenager’s brain
  • Understanding my brain (for teenagers only)
  • Understanding your child with additional needs
  • Understanding your child’s feelings (taster course)

We're always interested in your views and feedback to develop and improve our service offer, and for anyone who does undertake one of the online courses we would appreciate if could complete a short (less than five minutes) survey. The online evaluation is completely anonymous and none of your details will be accessible to us.

Sleep tight workshops

"Quality sleep is essential for children’s growth and development. A decent night’s sleep will help them to do better at school, allow them to react more quickly to situations, have a more developed memory, learn more effectively and solve problems, plus it will make them less susceptible to colds and other minor ailments, less irritable and better behaved! There are so many different factors which can affect children’s sleep." (Taken from The Sleep Charity)

The Sleep Charity webpage has a lot of resources and information on how to support a good night’s sleep for adults, children and teenagers.

The Parenting Team is delivering five-week ‘Sleep Tight’ workshops. These have been developed by The Sleep Charity, and our parenting practitioners have been trained to deliver these to parents and carers. If you'd like to meet other parents/carers and explore how you can support your children and your family to have quality sleep or to address specific challenges you're experiencing, these workshops are for you.

At the end of this course parents/carers will be able to:

  • Recognise the role of sleep hygiene to improve sleep
  • Identify causes of sleep issues and appropriate practical strategies to try
  • Interpret sleep diaries to identify potential sleep issues

For further information about the range of parenting support available please visit the Family Information Service Directory.