We have created and gathered together useful info and advice to help with your concerns. It’s all here, including the latest government updates, information on benefits, and staying healthy.
Official guidance
Government guidance: Check the government’s website for their latest guidance on coronavirus including:
- School closures
- Social distancing and protecting vulnerable people
- Stay at home guidance for households with a potential coronavirus infection
NHS advice: Stay up-to-date with the latest NHS advice about coronavirus
General advice
- Age UK have a whole section on their website with information about staying healthy, helping others and updates on coronavirus
- Cafcass have a section with specific coronavirus advice, including information about postponed court cases and contact centres
Adoption Support Fund
The Department for Education have sent us this update about the Adoption Support Fund:
Benefits
- Turn2Us have lots of useful information about benefits and coronavirus
Children and families
- Have a look at this book you can download as a PDF to help children understand coronavirus.
- Here’s some advice from Sam Cartwright-Hatton, professor of clinical child psychology at the University of Sussex about helping children cope with being at home.
- A useful article from the Child Mind Institute about talking to children about coronavirus.
Keeping children and the whole family occupied
- Free audio books: Audible has released lots of audio books for free for children
- New TV shows: Amazon has released lots of free shows for children
- Wildlife cameras: Here’s a suggestion of 12 free wildlife webcams you can watch at home, including farms and zoos
- Virtual museum tours: Lots of museums have virtual tours that everyone can enjoy exploring
- Tour America’s national parks: Google Earth have created virtual tours of some of America’s greatest national parks
- Kids news: First News is an independent children’s newspaper for 7-14 year olds. They are giving away their content for free while schools are closed. Every week they will put the latest issue on their website for anyone to download, so kids still have something at home to keep them up to date and informed.
- Online exercises and workouts: Online PE classes, home workouts for seniors, 5 minute move and lots more from Joe Wicks on his YouTube channel
- Opera and theatre: The Royal Opera House are launching a new programme of free, online performances that you can watch at home
Studying
- All ages: BBC Bitesize are now bringing you daily content to help with education at home
- GSCE and A Levels: Seneca have lots of free courses to help young people stay up to speed with their courses
- Learn to code: Tynker have free access to their premium online coding courses during school closures. Suitable for ages 5+
- Maths classes: Keep the kids up to speed with their maths with this website full of maths games
Contact with parents
- Information from our advice service about what to do with parental contact as a result of coronavirus.
Housing
- National Housing Federation released a statement saying the no housing associations should evict tenants because of coronavirus.
- The Government has announced a complete ban on evictions and additional protection for renters
Schools
- Our advice team have put together this information about school closures and what it means for kinship carers, including information on free school meals.
Staying in touch
- Find out about the different apps: WebWise has information about all the social media apps on their website, including an introduction to Whatsapp and Facebook
- Set up a WhatsApp group: One of the most popular apps for messaging and calling, WhatsApp is easy to use and great for staying connected
- Set up a Facebook group: Facebook’s help centre has all the instructions you need for setting up a group, along with help for anything else you might need
- Other apps: You might want to try other ways of staying connected. Some of the more popular at the moment include Skype, Houseparty and Zoom
- Tips for using video chats with children: A useful guide to help make the most of video calls with children
Well-being
- Young people who have experienced developmental trauma and attachment disruption may be struggling during this period. See our new advice pages with resources that may help you to support them through this.
- The campaign to end loneliness are keeping their website up to date with ideas on staying connected for those who are in self-isolation, quarantine or finding social distancing difficult.
- Mind have some good advice for anyone who is feeling a bit anxious about coronavirus.
- The NHS have an easy to follow 10 minute cardio workout to keep fit at home or try some of these ideas from This Girl Can.
