BUCKS County Council writes to readers about how their family support service can help you:

Do you sometimes struggle to relate to your teen? Are you a young parent who sometimes feels isolated? Maybe you’re having difficulties with your primary school child’s behaviour.

Anyone and everyone struggles with parenting from time to time and it can be tough being a kid too! Buckinghamshire’s Family Support Service is here to help. We have a network of 16 family centres across Buckinghamshire and new timetables for all of them have just been released. The new spring timetables run from Monday, January 6, right through until Easter and there are different types of sessions at each centre.

Here are some of the courses and sessions on offer:

n “Incredible Years” parenting courses – for parents of children aged 4-10 years

n “Your Space” drop in sessions – for children in school years 7-13

n “Teen Triple P” sessions – a positive parenting programme for parents of teenagers

n “Strengthening Families” course for parents and children aged 10-14

n “Marlow Feel Good Group” for adults who’ve experienced mental health issues

n Many ‘universal’ ‘playgroup’ type drop in sessions for parents with babies and pre-school aged children

n Sessions for parents of children with disabilities or special educational needs

There are lots of other types of sessions available too – check out the Family Centre timetables at www.bucksfamilyinfo.org/familysupport. Some of the courses start later on in the term and some are bookable so take a look at all the details.

Warren Whyte is Buckinghamshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Children’s Services. He said:

“It’s great to see our new Family Centres offering such a wide range of support for local families. As people will see, we still offer lots of open sessions for parents and carers with babies and young children. But now we cater for families with children of all ages and our new timetables reflect this.We are continuing to develop what’s on offer at all of our Family Centres and are exploring the needs of all local children and families. We welcome feedback and we aim to carry on introducing new courses depending on what local people want and need.”