Since 1990, this charity has helped thousands of families across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland, providing groupwork and one-to-one sessions for young people, and supporting parents through the challenges of family life.

Much has changed in the last thirty years, and the work the charity does has evolved significantly. The new name will better reflect their work and the sort of work they will be doing going forward. Their vision and purpose remains the same. They continue to support families across the Midlands area offering information, guidance, tools and techniques that make a real difference. With a stronger focus on providing early intervention mental health support for young people and families, Heads Up Leicester will help local people to better manage family relationships, understand challenging behaviour and build emotional resilience and coping mechanisms when times are tough.

​Lindsay Woodward, CEO, said: ‘At Heads Up Leicester we are building on 33 years’ experience of working with local parents and young people, supporting families. This is a really exciting time for us, we are working hard developing new services that will benefit local people. Helping children and young people to get the best start in life is what matters to us. Supporting families through life’s challenges is what we do. In addition to reassuring our funders, partners and stakeholders that the business of supporting families continues as usual, we are up looking to develop proactive new services. Heads Up Leicester will continue to be a trusted local charity that will stay relevant and continue to evolve.’  

Supporting CFF couldn’t be simpler this winter thanks to Give as you Live Online’s winter giveaway, and here’s how you can take part.

​Give as you Live Online are giving you the chance to earn a £10 bonus donation on top of the regular free donations you can raise by using their free shopping tool. When you sign up to support CFF on Give as you Live Online and complete 3 fund-raising shops by the end of the year, they’ll pay us a bonus £10 donation.

Plus, when you use Give as you Live Online, you’ll raise a free donation with almost every purchase you make at over 6,000 stores, including John Lewis & Partners, Argos, Sainsbury’s, Wilko and Booking.com.

For example, if you were to click through Give as you Live Online to do your monthly grocery shopping at Sainsbury’s, you could raise up to 7.5%* of your spend back as a free donation for us. Based on a click and collect shop of £100 per month, you could raise an extra £35 a year for us, for free! Plus, there’s no limit to how much you can raise.

Getting the free £10 donation

Signing up is easy:

1. Click the button below to be taken to our charity page on Give as you Live Online, and click ‘Sign up’
2. Sign up for an account. You’ll only need to provide your name and email address
3. Complete 3 shops by the end of December. As well as a £10 bonus donation, you’ll earn a donation on each shop.

​At CFF we strive to ensure that our programmes are regularly reviewed so that the families we work with continue to receive relevant and up to date information and support.

Hattie Allen, one of CFF's Youth Workers, will be working with the Leicester Youth Forum to offer support and guidance to young people who are attending the group.

By Kate Harris, Project Manager at CFF

We need your help to spread the word to all pregnant working women about their employment rights.

By Daisy Edwards, Student Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner

​The Young People’s Groups at CFF provide lots of psychoeducation for the young people and most importantly, it helps them feel less alone! The majority of the young people who attend the groups have anxiety around school. 

Some examples of what the young people have said are:

• Worry about doing well in their subjects
• friendship groups
• Getting on the school bus
• Too many people
• Being bullied
• Talking in front/ out loud in class
• Peer pressure
• Thinking that people are judging them

 
Young people have to learn quickly how to take responsibility and become independent once they start secondary school. Some find the school experience difficult and we can easily forget that the school environment is not as straight forward for everyone.

Sometimes it can be difficult to know if the young person is showing ‘typical’ teenager behaviour or if they are struggling with their mental health. When parents attend the parenting groups with us they also say how reassuring it is to know that their child is not the only one having difficulties at school. We help parents recognise what is ‘typical’ teenage behave and if their child is in fact struggling with their mental health. The Young People's groups provide knowledge and skills for young people to be able to understand their own mental health and skills that they can use in school and take into adulthood.

If school is causing anxiety we can help - take a look at our list of groups for the next dates available. 

By Henry Charles, Project Manager 

As you may or may not know,  CFF was established in 1990. Over the years, CFF have not only worked directly with Young People, but also offered parallel services to their parents/carers. From the original long standing ‘Living with Teenagers’ groups to the more recent anxiety sessions,  the ‘ABC model’ has remained a core concept used within all of the parenting groups.

​The ABC model is unique to CFF and is based upon Social Learning Theory. This practical reflective model/tool enables parents to break down one-off behaviour incidents that may occur whilst their young person is with them, in order to understand what's happening. The model helps parents/carers to clearly identify the behaviour (B), (usually challenging or demanding) and then for them to explore what came before (Triggers (A)) and after (Consequences (C)); which are maintaining the behaviours.
 
The ABC model has proven to be effective not only with assisting parents to explore when a young person is behaving in a confrontational way, but also when there are mental health or anxiety difficulties for a young person.

So that's the model - but what do parents think? Parents frequently share positive feedback about the ABC model and are keen to use it at home in their parenting role, to begin to identify ways they can promote reductions in their young person’s unwanted behaviours and increase their wanted ones.

Need help with your young person's behaviour or mental health and wellbeing? Take a look at our programmes here. 

By Stacey Chambers - Project Manager 

For many years CFF have been supporting young people and families to manage their mental health and wellbeing. However, supporting the wellbeing and mental health of its staff and volunteers is also hugely important to CFF.

Over the years, I’ve seen (and eaten – yummy) many homemade cakes at meetings, samosas on a Wednesday, lunch dates all together, free pastries, arts and macramé making sessions open to all employees. All of which have been great! CFF now have a Wellbeing policy and budget that supports its staffs mental health and wellbeing. We conducted staff surveys to see how our staff are feeling and whether or not everyone felt supported as a CFF employee.

These surveys, and chats in supervisions etc. have helped CFF recognise the areas that we need to focus on and what we can do to improve and monitor staff wellbeing.

This year I was happy to join the staff wellbeing subcommittee and we have organised a range of different staff wellbeing activities, that all staff and volunteers are free to take part in. We have already taken part in a ‘Laughter Yoga’ workshop, which was great to get you feeling good (well after the initial awkwardness of just laughing for no reason). I felt great after that session and it gave me a real boost! We have organised a picnic in the park in August, reflexology session in September, Mosaic making in November and have decided to close again over the Christmas period, so we can all spend some extra precious time with family and friends.

As a small core team we have been working on streamlining our systems and processes, making it easier and quicker to do things. We are focusing on how we communicate as a team, looking at workload pressures and making sure staff are not feeling overwhelmed and/or overworked. As things get busier, we recognise the need to recruit more sessional staff as well as someone else within the core team. These additional recruitments will help ease the pressure on other staff. CFF encourage its staff to take back TOIL (time off in lieu) which allows staff to have more time for themselves. As lockdown restrictions finally lift, CFF recognise that this affects its employees differently. After completing one to ones with staff, CFF will be adapting to a more hybrid way of working. With some employees keen to return to the office daily, some choosing to go back into the office on occasions and some preferring to work from home. This new way of working will allow employees to feel they can work comfortably and safely moving forward.

Staff wellbeing and mental health is important, we have made a lot of progress but we could always do more! We are lucky enough to have a CEO and Service Director who are both always willing to listen. Our Board of Directors are keen for staff wellbeing to be a priority and to keep wellbeing on meeting agendas.

The pandemic has made CFF look at how we can work and support employees differently. If we don’t look after ourselves, how can we possibly help and support our service users. We all need to do our bit to help and support the wellbeing of each other, keep communicating about our mental health and look after ourselves. So catch up with a colleague over a bucket of coffee and let’s keep talking.

A happy workforce and a healthy work environment results in a business that can thrive!So who’s up for a visit to costa?! 

By Jayne Ballard, CEO 

Here at CFF we have recently attended essential safeguarding training. For some of us a refresh and for others attending for the first time. In my CEO and Designated Safeguarding lead role I was struck by three key areas, although not new I welcome the opportunity to reflect and consider how we can make the most of every contact and seize opportunities however small as we begin to navigate our way out of the very different behaviours that have established for us all during the pandemic. 

1.Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

Remembering that half the people in England and Wales experienced 1 ACE as a child. 1 in 10 people experience four or more ACEs. Reducing ACEs in childhood is a priority and we all have a part to play as workers and as parents the more we know about ACEs the more we can help stop children growing up with ACEs in their lives. Plus those of us who have experienced ACEs in our own lives can better help ourselves and others who have suffered ACEs cope. This short YouTube link explains about ACEs and is easy to understand and  well worth a watch and sharing with others. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHgLYI9KZ-A

2. Missed appointments by Children

Whatever service we are providing it will often involve appointments with children and young people. When children and young people fail to attend it is often recorded as ‘Did not attend’ and often the case would be closed. We all need to stop and think about this, we need to recognise that in majority of cases it is not that they failed to attend, it’s because they were not taken to the appointment.

Children and young people are reliant on parents or carers taking them for appointments and if they are not there we need to be inquisitive and to follow up with a conversation with the adults in their lives to understand why the appointment was missed, plus any potential barriers that could be overcome to ensure attendance. Failing to attend health, school, wellbeing sessions can have a detrimental effect on children and young people’s mental health and wellbeing, they miss out on crucial help or support that has been offered.

Parents and carers need to know that they can talk to services and that they will understand and will work with them to overcome barriers as much as possible to ensure that appointments are attended, especially in the current climate where everyone’s lives have been turned upside down with the pandemic. Stresses, strains and worries are a bigger part of all of our lives as we look to return to some normality post the pandemic.

The short link below reinforces this point and is well worth a watch and sharing with others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAdNL6d4lpk

3. Offering support early when families are struggling

The importance of offering early help and support to children and their families where they are experiencing difficulties and challenges is really important. Often getting in early and preventing the problem from escalating is not only beneficial to the family it saves lots of time and money from the public purse.  Promoting the well-being of children at every opportunity can also reduce their vulnerability to harm or abuse. Seize the opportunity and use the principles of making every contact count (MECC) view the family as a whole, have an inquisitive mind and remember we have all being through (and are still doing so) very unusual and challenging times, we all need a little more reassurance and a listening ear maybe more than usual. MECC uses brief and very brief interventions, delivered whenever the opportunity arises in routine appointments and contacts. Very brief interventions take from 30 seconds to a couple of minutes.

A parent or young person can be encouraged to think about change and offered help such as a referral to another service or further information. A brief intervention involves a conversation, with negotiation and encouragement, and could lead to referral for other interventions, or more intensive support. Either way by having the conversation we are enabling the person to access support at an early opportunity as opposed to leaving the problem to escalate.

There are many resources available online that families will find helpful and we need to share with our children and families routinely as part of our work and conversations. As parents, carers and young people you need to be reassured that you can ask for support and information about your worries and be confident that whoever you are talking to will take time to ensure that you have appropriate information about next steps.
I will be thinking and reflecting more about my interactions, conversation and opportunities to offer help and support both at work and in a social context. We all need to appreciate each other and the impact of what we are experiencing exiting the pandemic.
 
Please check out our programmes page for groups and workshops that are available across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

By Daisy Edwards, Student Psychological Wellbeing Practitioner 

From time to time, everyone will experience the feelings such as stress, anxiety and worry. It can feel very overwhelming and can even take over our lives. Not only does this affect us emotionally, but also our thoughts, bodily symptoms and the way we behave. Therefore, we need to acknowledge when we have these emotions and take control! 

Our thoughts are the most powerful, just from having unhelpful thoughts; it can affect our bodily symptoms, emotions and our behaviour. This is when refocussing and grounding techniques can help. These techniques help refocus our thoughts, help us to relax and to be in the moment. Some examples are below.

5,4,3,2,1

• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can hear
• 3 things you can touch
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste.

Counting
Walking down the street/ looking out of the window- how many bikes can you see? What about buses? Red cars?
 
Breathing triangle
If you are someone, who struggles with their breathing when you feel anxious or stressed, doing something like the breathing triangle below may help you. This technique can help slow down and control your breathing. This is also a good technique to use if you experience panic attacks.

Mindfulness
Mindfulness is one of my favourite techniques to use when I am feeling anxious. An example I like to use in particular is explained below.  

​There are many more examples online that you could find. Allow time for yourselves to practise these techniques to find the one that best suits you.