Making a Referral

If you would like to come to Waterside, please ask your Health Visitor and other professional to complete the referral form and return this to us.

Please note Waterside Parents’ Centre was set up to provide early intervention and prevention support to families. Therefore we are unable to accept referrals for:

-Families requiring specialist intervention (Level 4) should be referred to Children’s Social Services https://www.kent.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/report-abuse 

Please be aware that we do not accept referrals for children who are subject to a Child Protection Plan as our service focuses on early intervention and prevention. If receiving statutory input, the support the family needs is beyond what Waterside can provide.

With regards to Child Protection, referrals will only be considered if it has been 2 years or more since a Child Protection plan has been in place.

-Families requiring intensive support (Level 3). Families who need intensive support should be referred to Early Help and the local Family Hubs in the first instance, we will accept step down from these services:  http://(https://local.kent.gov.uk/kb5/kent/directory/results.page?qt=&term=gravesend&youthchannel=9&sorttype=distance)

-Parents suffering with drug and alcohol addiction. Please refer to CLG: https://www.changegrowlive.org/local-support/find-a-service

-Parents suffering with severe clinical depression. Please refer to back to the GP or Mental Health Together:  KMPT | Mental Health Together)

For Parents diagnosed with a Personality Disorder, we recommend referring to MEGANCiC.  MEGANCiC staff have received specific training and have lived experience and would be the best placed service to support:  https://megancic.org.uk/.  

We are experiencing a high number of referrals at the present time but we will be in contact as soon as we can.

What happens next?

When your referral form is received, a member of the team  will contact you to arrange to go through our services in more detail.  Waterside is a voluntary service so you will be given some time to think about whether you would like a place.  If you do wish to come along, we will work with you to find a session which is most suitable and convenient for you.  If after one month, we have not heard from you, we will check in with you. If you do not attend thereafter, we will assume that you do want wish to attend at the present time. You can always be referred in again at a later date when you feel ready.