National Lone Parent Helpline
0808 801 0323

We operate the National Lone Parent Helpline, which was launched in partnership with One Parent Families.
The helpline is supported by the Royal Bank of Scotland as part of their Community Investor Programme.

Find out more on the helpline page...

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Disability Project: Parent Connections

Parent Connections is a unique information and support service for lone parent families affected by disability that is free, independent and confidential.
Our key objective is to ensure that lone parents and their children receive the services and support they feel that they need.
Find out more on the project page...

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Childcarev & Sitter Services

Sitter Services provide lone parents with childcare in the parent's own home. Some services have been established mainly to give lone parents a regular break from their caring responsibilities. More recently, OPFS has been developing Sitter Services, under the umbrella name of chilcare@home, to provide registered, accessible and affordable child care for working parents and students who need care outside the usual working week or where children are very different ages or have special needs.
Childcare@Home Dundee...
Childcare@Home North Lanarkshire...

A Scottish Executive Study of the Costs and Benefits of The Sitter Service in Scotland

Scottish Network of Sitter Services

In 1997 OPFS compiled a Directory of Sitter Services in Scotland including information on how to establish new services. In 1998 an informal network of Sitter Services was started by us.

This Network meets every 6 months to share experiences and to discuss ways of developing the work which we do. Through this Network we have successfully lobbied for official recognition of Sitter Services. As a result the New Opportunities Fund are prepared to fund Sitter Services to provide out of school and holiday care and the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care will officially register Sitter Services alongside other forms of childcare from April 2003.

OPFS is represented on the Working Party which is drawing up the standards for such services. We have also spread the word nationally to other agencies who are interested in establishing similar services and an e-mail list of interested people has been established. (contact suerobertson@opfs.org.uk)

The Daycare Trust have also featured our Childcare @ Home Dundee as an example of innovative provision for shift workers. Our example has also been taken up by Bradford Gingerbread (www.gingerbread.org.uk) and by Span in Bristol.

Sitter Services as Child Care

In 1998 OPFS was invited by City Of Dundee Social Work Department to submit a proposal to establish a Sitter Service to provide registered child-care in parent's own home. This we did and funding was initially granted for a 2 year period. The service was established in 1999 and has been running successfully ever since.
More on Childcare @ Home Dundee...

In 2001 OPFS was approached by the North Lanarkshire Childcare Partnership to tender to establish a Sitter Service for the whole of North Lanarkshire. A successful bid was submitted and the service started operating in June 2002.
More on Childcare @ Home North Lanarkshire...

In August 2002 Scottish Borders commissioned OPFS to do a feasibility study of establishing a service in their area.

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Information & Training

OPFS is now providing training to a wide range of voluntary and statutory bodies. With the Scottish Out of School Care Network we ran courses on Working Families Tax Credit for childcare partnerships, out of school care providers and a range of other bodies. Training of New Deal Lone Parent Advisers has continued and we are now delivering sign-posting training for the Child Support Agency with our English counterparts National Council for One Parent Families and Parentline Plus.

Our enquiry service has continued to develop, with a 37% rise in contacts from last year, to 2600. Most lone parents contact us by phone with a small number writing, e-mailing or visiting us. As the enquiry statistics show, the largest number of calls concern welfare rights and our IBIS system allows us to give computerised individual benefit assessments.

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Lottery Project

OPFS heard in August 2000 that the National Lottery Charities Board had awarded a grant for a new project to begin in October, allowing OPFS to work more closely with other voluntary agencies helping lone parents in Scotland. The Information and Training Officer (Susan Rew) responsible for the Project will identify local agencies that could be accessed by lone parents, and will publish a Scottish Directory of Organisations for Lone Parents. In addition, our information service will be actively promoted to voluntary agencies and we will run information sharing and training sessions for these groups.

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Men and Childcare

Peter Johnstone, a male childcare student and member of the Men and Childcare Scotland working group, conducted a survey in Spring 2000 which confirmed the low number of men on childcare courses at Scottish colleges. Twenty-five of the 3245 childcare students were male, less than one per cent and significantly below the UK figure. These survey results were presented at a Children in Scotland conference in May 2000, leading Equal Opportunities committee convenor Kate Mclean to agree to raise the matter in the Scottish Parliament. The findings were also included in a Scottish Executive report of childcare training. OPFS will continue to support the Men and Childcare network in providing training events and pressing for more support for male students and men working in childcare.
Find out more...