Parentline, Celebrating 20 Years of Volunteer-led Family Support

That the Parliament congratulates the many volunteers and supporters who have enabled Children 1st, Scotland’s national children charity, to deliver its Parentline service for the last 20 years; understands that the service, which is based in Bruntsfield in Edinburgh, supports parents and carers across Scotland, including through the provision of trauma-informed family support to any adult who is caring for a child, working on the basis that helping children starts with helping families; understands that it provides support on issues as diverse as abuse and neglect, drugs and alcohol, kinship care, bedtime routines and parental separation; pays tribute to the courage, determination and passion towards supporting families that has been shown by its hundreds of fully-trained and highly-skilled volunteers, without whom the service would not be celebrating this anniversary; acknowledges the importance of investing in early help and support for families, which is based on establishing relationships and building trust so that problems do not become insurmountable and that allows families to draw on their own skills, resources and resilience; understands that Parentline can provide support through phone calls, webchats, email and online advice; welcomes its digital development to help ensure that, over the next 20 years and beyond, every family in Scotland in need of help can get support at the touch of a button, and believes that the helping hand that Parentline has offered to so many parents and carers exemplifies best practice in volunteer-led whole family support.