Discreet support · out of hours
It’s not difficult
to get into trouble.
Steve Kenny spent twenty-six years in the police watching how easily it happens. Parent 999 is him, and the family support workers he works with — for parents of teenagers in trouble. No judgement, and open at the hours when it actually happens.
- Discreet
- No judgement
- Out of hours
Start here
What’s actually happening?
Pick the closest one. It opens a conversation already pointed at the right thing, so you don’t have to start by explaining yourself.
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The police have been to the door
Once, or more than once, and you don’t know what happens next.
Start here → -
They’ve stopped coming home
Missing hours, then missing nights, and nobody will tell you where.
Start here → -
You’re frightened of your own child
The aggression is pointed at you now, and you can’t say that out loud.
Start here → -
The school has run out of patience
Exclusions, meetings, and the feeling that nobody is on your side.
Start here → -
They’ve fallen in with someone
You can see exactly who’s pulling them, and you can’t reach them.
Start here → -
You haven’t told anyone
Not family, not friends. This is the first time you’ve typed it.
Start here →
None of these quite it? Just say it in your own words →
How it works
No referral. No waiting list.
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Say the difficult bit
The bit you haven’t told your mum, or the school, or your friends. Nobody here is going to be shocked by it.
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Get something you can actually do
From people who have sat in these houses and stood at these doors. One or two things to try, not a parenting philosophy.
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Come back when it changes
This rarely resolves in one conversation. We’re open at 2pm on a Wednesday and at midnight on a Saturday, for as long as it takes.
The person behind it
He has seen where it ends up.
Steve Kenny went into a Barnardo’s children’s home at three months old and stayed until he was ten. He is still in touch with some of the people who looked after him.
He joined Greater Manchester Police a month before his twenty-fifth birthday and served twenty-six years — Oldham first, then sergeant in Tameside. He was already mentoring teenagers in Stretford years before he retired.
He set up UCAN North West and Parent 999 in 2018, to reach families before anybody has to call anybody.
“We’ve all been unlucky in life, and it’s not difficult to get into trouble. So there’s no judgement from me.” Steve Kenny
- 10 yrsin Barnardo’s care
- 26 yrsGreater Manchester Police
- 2018UCAN North West founded
Since 2018
Not a start-up. Eight years of sitting with families in Greater Manchester.
- 200+families supported
- 500young people through group workshops
- 8 yrsdoing this work
Workshops
Small sessions, real questions.
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In person
Group workshops
Sessions with young people in schools and community settings across Greater Manchester.
500 so far -
On demand
The course library
Aggression, arrest, school, drugs, and what the whole thing does to you. Part of Enhanced Support.
15 sessions -
Ask us
Booking a session
Workshops are arranged as they come up. Tell us what is going on and we will say what is running.
Get in touch
Watch
It can go another way.
It’s late, and they’re still not home.
That is exactly the hour this was built for.
Talk to SteveDiscreet. Non-judgmental. No referral needed.