WIREDGOV

What is Help at Hand? 

The Children’s Commissioner has the statutory power to provide advice and representation to children in care, children with a social worker, children living away from home (often in hospital or custody) and care leavers up to 25. The Commissioner does this through her Help at Hand service.  

Help at Hand is staffed by child rights experts. Children and their advocates can contact Help at Hand via the website, freephone telephone line or by email, about any child rights issue.  

The team aims to resolve these issues co-operatively with those responsible for children’s care and wellbeing. One such case is of Georgie*, who is disabled, non-verbal and in care. Her carers called Help at Hand because she had been out of school for a very long time. Eventually a school had been found that could meet her needs and she was very excited to start – but, despite having a school place, she could not go because of a funding dispute about transporting her to school. Help at Hand made representations on Georgie’s behalf to senior leaders in charge. This expedited a solution and Georgie was able to go to school the next day.

“This year, it’s impacted me so much, with the cost of living crisis and everything I’ve been going through with the local authority, and honestly [Help at Hand] came in and just managed to solve the situation, and you know, just literally tell people what’s right and wrong.” – Care leaver, 23

New look service  

Last year (April 2023 to March 2024) Help at Hand received 1,050 enquiries – a substantial increase from the previous year when it received 796. It follows a review of the service in 2022 which made recommendations to maximise its reach.  

One of these recommendations was to rebrand Help at Hand to make it more accessible, including by commissioning an accessible video to be hosted online that explains the service to children with learning disabilities.  

This video is now hosted on Help at Hand’s newly-designed website – complete with fresh new logo, clearer explanations and simpler navigation. It has been done in direct response to children telling us they wanted the service to have a more accessible online presence. Please take a look! 

Follow the following links to our homepage, resources for professionals (including leaflets and posters to download, our bespoke video and our annual report).  

This week we will be showcasing the range of work Help at Hand does, from the daily calls with young people and professionals, from the escalation to solve some of its more complex cases, to the data work with Ofsted. 

If you are a child or family member of a child that needs Help at Hand, please call 0800 528 0731 or email help.team@childrenscommissioner.gov.uk.

* identifying details have been changed