In Your Area

In Your Area (IYA) is a directory of services across the UK and in your local area; made by parents, for parents!

WellChild worked with members of the WellChild Family Tree and found that in between caring for their child and fighting statutory services, parents have little time to research other sources of help for their family.

When parents and carers find the time to look for other help, it frequently results in being unable to find suitable services. This means that families are missing out on support!

After a successful funding bid from Comic Relief, WellChild undertook further research. During our investigations, we found:

• 79% of parents said they trusted the views of another parent/carer who had used a service over any other information.
• 44% of parents had never heard about Local Offers, and of those who had heard, just 17% said they found them useful.

Due to this, WellChild set about creating a nationwide directory of services and activities for families with children who have complex medical needs.

The platform enables you to search for activities and services that are near you. To use the platform you just need to enter your postcode and search!

You can search and filter results by:

• Postcode
• Search bar
• Type of service
• Accessibility needs

Once you have entered your search criteria, results will be shown in distance order from your location.

Click on the yellow boxes below to see which service categories and accessibility needs are on the In Your Area platform:

If you know of a service or activity that is not on In Your Area, you can request for it to be added by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking the ‘Add Service’ button, or by clicking this link.

You can also request to change the details of services already on the platform by clicking on the ‘Request Content Change’  button at the bottom of any listing.

Most importantly, you can review and comment on a service to let others know how well it meets your needs. This helps others decide if the service is for them.

Comments are moderated by WellChild staff to make sure they are appropriate. You can view the IYA User policy here.

If you have any comments, ideas, or suggestions about this article or the In Your Area platform, please contact us at [email protected]

Please don’t forget to leave feedback on this article!