The Ready Steady Baby website is a great guide for everything you need to know about pregnancy, labour and birth. It also covers early parenthood up to when your little one is 8 weeks old.

Every child in P2 and P3 gets a free bag packed full of fun games and stories to help your child with their learning. You will get your bag through your child’s school. Find out more at the Scottish Book Trust's website. 

As a parent, you can make an enormous difference to your child's learning. Parentzone Scotland provides you with information and resources to help you to support your child’s education.

If you have, or are caring for a disabled child, and are looking for information and advice on matters such as financial support, childcare, accessing professional support, the law and your child’s rights, transitions and hobbies, this guidance has lots of information and advice.

Carers' centres are independent charities that offer practical support, advice and information for carers. You can find out where your local carers’ centre is on the Care Information Scotland website.

The National Parent Forum of Scotland provides a series of “In a Nutshell” guides for a large number of subjects to do with your child’s education and learning, all the way from early learning and childcare to highers. The guides can be downloaded online and printed copies can be ordered too.

The Transition Fund is available for young disabled people aged 16-25. The fund can provide up to £4,000, for up to 1 year, to support young people living with disabilities to improve their lives. This includes autism, learning difficulty, physical disability, mental health (e.g. anxiety or depression) or hearing or visual impairments. Visit the Independent Living Transition Fund's website to find out if you can apply, and find out more about who has applied before, and what they received funding for.

Your Health Visitor will be on hand to support you and your child from the time that they are a bump right up to when they begin school. You should be contacted before your child is born, and shortly after birth. Your Health Visitor will provide advice and support on things like infant feeding, access to wider community support, and child development.

They will also undertake child development reviews to help support your child’s health and wellbeing. If you have a Family Nurse, then you will meet your Health Visitor once your child is 2 years old. Make sure you’re registered with your health board and you’ll be assigned a Health Visitor.

Getting it right for every child (GIRFEC) supports families in Scotland by making sure children, young people and their parents/carers receive the right help, at the right time, from the right people.

Part of this is delivered through a “named person”. A “named person” is someone that children and their parents or carers can go to for initial advice and support. The named person will usually be your midwife until your child is born, and your Health Visitor until your child starts school. In school it is usually your child’s head teacher or a senior teacher.

A family may be offered direct support from their named person or help to access relevant services offered by the NHS, local authorities, and third sector or community groups. There is no obligation on children and families to accept the offer of advice or support from a named person.

For more information, please see the Scottish Government GIRFEC website.

If you or your partner is a first-time mother aged 19 or under you will have access to a Family Nurse. You should be automatically referred after your first appointment with your midwife. Your Family Nurse is there to support you throughout your pregnancy and until your child is 2 years old.

As well as supporting you in caring for your child, they will also work with you to provide advice on your health and wellbeing, and develop plans to support your life goals and ambitions.

Talk to your midwife if you haven’t been transferred to a Family Nurse.

Family Fund provide financial grants to families raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people on lower incomes. You can find out more about their eligibility criteria on their website.

They also provide information and signpost to other charities and services which families may find useful.

Family Fund also run free online workshops to help with:

• understanding the benefits of being online  
• navigating Scotland’s welfare benefits
• how to switch and save online  
• using online budget tools  
• completing an online grant search  
• supporting your young person into adulthood.

You can find out more about the workshops and sign up here.

They have also created a series of short interactive online guides to help families across Scotland feel more confident with their finances.