Manchester celebrates the launch of new service centre for local children and families

The Manchester service centre opened recently with former NBA basketball star John Amaechi OBE cutting the ribbon.

He was joined by Katie Cragg, a young person from the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People gave a key note speech to 50 guests from the Manchester business community and other key NSPCC supporters from the region.

She said: "A lot of the young people I work with actually forget that they can enjoy life because of the sheer amount of effort it takes to be given the chance to participate in things other people take for granted. I feel the NSPCC gives me a great opportunity and platform to inform and change the way service providers, parents, and young people see disability as a whole."

Bernadette Oxley, regional head of service in the North West said: "This is a very exciting time for the NSPCC in Manchester. We have always had a presence in Greater Manchester but it's great to be back in the heart of the city centre where we hope to be accessible to even more children and families from across the region.

"Our new specialist team will be made up of social workers, psychologists, speech and language therapists, education professionals, play therapists and Children's Services Practitioners.

With their combined expertise we will improve the protection of children with learning disabilities, children whose parents have mental health problems or those who misuse drugs and alcohol. We will also be offering therapeutic sexual abuse services to help protect and prevent children from suffering abuse."

The new centre in the city will deliver the following programmes:

• FEDUP (Family Environment: Drug Using Parents) aims to protect children living with adult substance misuse.
• Family SMILES (Simplifying Mental Illness plus Life Enhancement Skills) works with children who have at least one parent living with a mental health problem to reduce the risk of harm and boost their self-esteem.
• Letting the Future In provides therapeutic services to help children move on with their lives after sexual abuse.
• The Treatment of Young People with Harmful Sexual Behaviour: a Manual Based Approach will prevent sexual abuse by working with children and young people who show harmful sexual behaviour.
• A new Multi-disciplinary team for children with learning disabilities will work with children with severe and profound multiple learning difficulties.