What to expect - Elmbridge Family Centres

Your family has been identified as one that would benefit from specialist support of a Family Centre. The information on this page can help you understand our role and will be provided to you at your first home visit. Alternatively, you can download a copy of our leaflet below.

Your Family Support Worker is based in the Elmbridge team. The Spurgeons team based in Elmbridge work from three family centres in Walton, West Molesey (Three Rivers) and Cobham.

Spurgeons Children's Charity provides this service on behalf of Surrey County Council. Spurgeons is a national charity with experience of providing targeted services for the most vulnerable children and young people.

We are a dedicated team of experienced Family Support Workers with a wide range of knowledge and experience. We will support families with children aged 0 - 11 years old to get the best start in life. Working together we will support you to build on your strengths as a family.

Our values:

• Hope: We believe that every child deserves a happy and hope-filled life.
• Inclusive: We recognise that every person is a unique individual, deserving of respect.
• Compassion: We won't walk away, even when that means making tough choices.

We want to build on your resilience as a family and empower you to be self-reliant. You will have a named Family Support Worker who will carry out work we agree with you, which could be short or long term. This could involve visiting you in your home, meeting you in the community, inviting you to group sessions such as parenting courses, domestic abuse programmes and other support. They may also see your children in school or nursery and attend meetings with you.

The things we do: 

• Support you to provide basic care, ensuring safety for your children
• Child behavioural development advice and support
• Supporting you with emotional, mental health and well-being
• Help you to build better family relationships
• Support you in accessing financial assistance or employment advice
• Support you and your family with meetings
• Signpost you to other specialist services in the community

Whilst we are working with you, we will have an electronic file where we will record the work we carry out with you and the information you provide us.

Recording and data handling will comply with the requirements of GDPR legislation.

Upon working with us you will be provided with a Fair processing consent form. This form will explain that we work closely with other services such as schools, nurseries, Health Visitors, Social Services and that we will share your information with them with your consent.

However, if we feel that you or your children are at risk of harm, we do not require consent.

For more information on our data sharing policies and how we keep your information safe please visit our Privacy Policy page.

• We agree to complete the work planned as discussed in our first meeting.
• We will let each other know if there is a change of arrangements or the need to cancel. This includes if a member of your household is unwell.
• We will also expect you to cancel if you have a visitor in your home who has no involvement in the plan we are working on together.
• Rebooking of cancelled appointments will be as soon as we can agree.
• You understand if you have decided that you no longer wish to work with us, that you let us know, so we may offer our support to someone else. If we do not hear from you despite our best attempt we will close your file.
• We have discussed with you that we believe there are positive ways to discipline children that are more effective and does not include smacking.
• You understand that we are obliged to share information if there are safeguarding and domestic abuse concerns.
• Any other agreements may be discussed at your first visit.

Spurgeons is committed to providing the best possible services for children, families and the community. If you are unhappy about something we are doing or have done, or feel there is something we should have done, but failed to, please tell us. Only with your help do we have the opportunity to put things right.

To request more information on feedback and complaints please contact elmbridge@spurgeons.org

You will be given a privacy notice at your first visit. If you wish to have information on the data we collect, store and use regarding you and your family or if you want to ask a question, please contact the Children's Services Manager (Sally Ruby) at Elmbridge Family Centres.

You can find contact information on our Where we work- Elmbridge Family Centres page.