Together for Short Lives
Call the Helpline 0808 8088 100

Helpline

Baby with mum and brother

About the Helpline service

Are you a parent, carer or professional who looks after or knows a child or young person up to the age of 25 who is expected to have a short life?

If you have questions or would like a helping hand, please contact our Helpline free on 0808 8088 100, leave a message and we will get back to you within 48 hours. Alternatively you can email: helpline@togetherforshortlives.org.uk.

We provide support and information to help you to find the support and services you need in your local area.

We embrace diversity and support all parents including disabled, LGBTQ+, adoptive and foster parents, and parents from all ethnic, religious and cultural groups. We use LanguageLine interpreters where needed and can access Relay UK for callers with hearing and/or speech difficulties. We encourage callers to tell us how we can make our service more accessible.

Please note we are not the disability allowance helpline.

Helpline Confidentiality

Confidentiality means that we won’t tell anyone that you’ve called us or what you’ve called us about unless we have serious concerns that someone is at risk, as detailed in our Safeguarding Policy.

You do not have to identify yourself when you use our Helpline, but to help us answer your queries and guide you to appropriate support, you may want to give us information such as where you live, about your family circumstances and the age and medical condition of the child you are caring for.

We will not share any identifiable information outside the organisation without your permission. We sometimes share examples from our helpline service to help us to reach other families caring for a seriously ill child if we do this all identifiable information is removed.

Exceptions to our confidentiality policy

In exceptional circumstances we may need to break confidentiality, for example if:

  • A child or young person is at risk of harm
  • An adult is at risk of immediate and significant harm either to themselves or others
  • We are required to share information as ordered by the courts
  • A threat of terrorism has been made
  • A caller is being threatening or abusive to staff or is deliberately misusing the service preventing the helpline being available to support others.

We would usually want to tell you first if a decision is made to break confidentiality.

Calls are free from UK landlines and UK mobiles.

To contact the helpline team using Live Chat just click on the blue icon at the bottom right of this page. If an adviser is available you will be connected or added to a waiting queue.

If you prefer, or if you’re a professional, you can email our team at any time.

We do not provide counselling, medical information or advice and are not an emergency service. If you need urgent help call 999.  The Samaritans are available 24/7 on 116 123 for listening support.