General Information for Parents & Carers

If you visit the National Careers Service you find information and links to support you.

If you visit the National Careers Service you find information and links to support you.

You could find some useful information on the BBC Learning Parents pages and the BBC Learning Schools website.

• North Yorkshire is at the forefront of efforts to make life better for young people with special educational needs and disabilities.  This article tells you what is happening 
• Support for transition
• Special issues; disabilty help and advice

The Transition Information Network is a website for parents, carers and people who work with and for disabled young people in transition to adulthood. The Transition Information Network (TIN) is an alliance of organisations and individuals who come together with a common aim: to improve disabled young people's experience of transition to adulthood.

Visit Directgov where you will find this information.

Looking for your first 'real' job is a big step, especially in the current economic climate. There are lots of opportunities for those leaving school, college and university, but positions will be in demand - so it's vital to get good advice and to follow up on all options available.

• This DirectGov website, Getting your first job, gives you useful information and links to sites where you can find out more
• You could visit the Apprenticeships website where you will all the information that you could need about all the opportunities that are available.
• A new section is being developed on this website in the Careers and work section called How can I find out about working in...? .  There is information for a variety of careers and if the one you want is not there, come back again because this is work in progress.

Over the last few years Careersbox has been providing an excellent free careers service to schools and careers professionals and now they have set up a Parents' Careers Club, so that you can know more about the options available to your children as they leave school and college.

The Parents' CareersClub provides free work related film content, covering hundreds of different employment and training opportunities throughout the UK. 

Careerbox wants to ensure the best in Careers information, advice and guidance for parents;  with film covering over 20 employment sectors, there is always something new to learn about the world of work and training.

A new careers resource for parents from Netmums

Careerbox is very excited to tell you of their new partnership with Netmums, the local network for parents offering information and advice. Netmums have now launched a free careers resource on their site packed full of films and news for parents and teenagers.

Netmums is the UK's fastest-growing online parenting organisation with over 950,000 members. The site offers local information on everything from where to find playgroups to where to meet other mothers. To access all this and more discover Netmums yourself today.

Relate for Parents & Families - Free online relationship advice for you and your family.

If you look at the UCAS website in the parent's section you will some useful information.

Informed choices - Post-16 subject guidance for aspiring university students published by Russell Group, with ICG input. The Russell Group of 20 leading UK universities has published its first ever guide to post-16 subject choices. Informed Choices, produced in collaboration with the Institute of Career Guidance, is aimed at all students considering A-level and equivalent options. It includes advice on the best subject combinations for a wide range of university courses as well as advice on the best choices if you child doesn't  know what to study after school and needs to keep their options open.

Check the new 'Your future' website to find out what your son/daughter needs to know about going to university from September 2012.

2010 edition of What Do Graduates Do? (WDGD) presents the destinations of UK-domiciled first degree and Foundation degree graduates from the 2008/09 academic year. It provides a profile of: 

• How many leavers entered employment
• The type of work they were doing
• The numbers going on to further study,
• The numbers unemployed six months after graduation.

To complement the data, there is an editorial for each subject area where the data is discussed and case studies are presented.

The publication aims to help those who are considering entering higher education, as well as teachers and advisers with responsibility for careers guidance, and you, as parents/carers, who may be concerned about your child's future prospects.

There is also a table which was published in May 2010 called What do graduates do? 2011.

Get all the most up to date information about financial help, benefits, student loans and sponsorship from the Making Preparation page.

You will find information on pay rates across sectors on this website.

You will find this information here.

Children and young people can work on a part time basis. However there are restrictions depending on their age, on the number of hours they can work and the type of employment. For more information, go to the North Yorkshire County Council website or visit your local Integrated Youth Support hub/centre where a member of the Connexions' team can give you a leaflet.

Talk to other parents and carers online about subjects like depression, school and family problems, behaviour and mental health problems. Find out what strategies they have used, who helped and what got results. Or just get your feelings off your chest in a sympathetic space...

It’s free to register. Log on now at ShareyourStory.

If you visit this area of the website you should find some useful information.

You can also visit gimi - the activities, information and advice website for young people in North Yorkshire.

YoungMinds is the UK's only national charity committed to improving the mental health and emotional well-being of all children and young people and empowering their parents and carers. Visit YoungMinds. The number is 08088025544 and it is free to landlines and mobiles.

At 4Children they believe you should get support when it is needed, to enable you to develop both your own, and your children's, lives. They will continue to campaign to keep parents' needs at the heart of all national and local childcare strategies.

There is a new wesite Families in the Foundation Years which has information for all families in England with children under the age of 5 and this is the section for parents/carers. 

North Yorkshire County Council has a dedicated specialist team to support you and your family.  They have just produced this leaflet outlining the support services that they offer.

Every young person on Facebook needs the ClickCEOP app - and most of them will be using Facebook. You might even be using it yourself... if so, you will want to know about a new, free application in Facebook that is designed to keep your child safe while they are having fun networking online.

ClickCEOP is an app which links the young user directly from their Facebook profile to help, advice and reporting facilities of the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre - the police agency set up to tackle child abuse. By adding the app, you and your child can get support from CEOP on a range of issues - viruses, hacking, dealing with bullying online and you can report someone who is acting inappropriately towards them online.

If you have a Facebook profile, app and bookmark the app. If children in your care are on Facebook, get them to search 'ClickCEOP' in Facebook and give them to chance to be one click away from help - if they should ever need it.  To find out more about protecting children online go to the CEOP website.

You can brush up on your online security skills by visiting Get Safe Online for clear, jargon-free advice, videos and step-by-step guides.

How can I protect my child online?

You may find this document useful:

For sexual health go here to find out details of local services. There is also this site for information and advice.

For substance misuse go to the Frank website

Flexible working opportunities can benefit everyone - employers, employees and their families.

Most employers now recognise that it makes good business sense to provide flexible working opportunities for their staff. Find out if you have the right to request a flexible working pattern.

If you are a new dad and your partner is returning or has returned to work, you could have the right to up to 26 weeks' Additional Paternity Leave. Find out if you qualify.