Stork Support - Make a referral
October 2023 update:
We are now open for limited referrals thanks to funding from MSV Housing and Salford CVS. The form will open on Monday 2nd October at 9am. We process referrals on a Wednesday at 2pm and our volunteers will deliver by Sunday, depending on availability. We can only provide essentials to families with Manchester or Salford postcodes. We are NOT accepting repeat referrals for anyone within one calendar month at the moment.
Please fill in the form below and press submit – it will say ‘thank you your response is recorded’. You can choose to have your responses sent to you – please check the box and this will be sent automatically.
Please note we do not accept referrals via email anymore as our processes have changed. We now process referrals on a Wednesday from 2pm and our volunteers deliver to clients from Thursday – Sunday. We only store data for the purposes of delivering packages and contacting clients for this project, and will never give any information to a third party without the client’s permission (even for signposting etc). We need as much information as possible from referrers to ensure we can deliver to the client quickly.
Please be aware that our average spend for a client that needs formula milk, nappies and wipes for one child is around £20 even without any extra items. We are temporarily restricting what you can request so we can prioritise being able to help more families.
Some FAQ's about our service
Due to really high demand, we have changed to a professional referral only system. If you need help, please contact any one who knows you in a professional capacity such as Health Visitor, Support worker, Social worker, Early Help team, midwife, housing team or even someone at Citizens Advice Manchester or Salford to complete the referral form available below.
If you don’t have a contact such as the above, please call the Manchester Emergency response hub on 0800 234 6123 or the Salford Assist Spirit of Salford Helpline on 0800 952 1000 and they will make a referral to us.
We have been funded to provide the following items:
- Nappies/Pull ups sizes 0-6,
- Wipes
- Formula milk stage 1 ONLY as it is suitable for anyone up to 12 months.
As of October 2023 we are unable to provide extra items such as toiletries, nappy cream, jars of baby food or blue top milk. We can still make referrals to foodbanks.
Yes, but we ask for a referral to be sent to us each time from a professional, as we have limited funds and we want to make sure items get to the families most in need.
There are situations where we will prioritise families for repeat referrals – such as those with no recourse to public funds, living in temporary accommodation or fleeing domestic violence. Please speak to us about the reasons for needing repeat deliveries.
We have now started a wraparound service, supporting families with extra practical support or advocacy, focusing on those who need long-term support from us with the nappies. Please let us know if you’d like more info.
Sorry, we cannot promise to guarantee any specific brands of nappies, toiletries or formula milk. This is because of cost and availability in the shops and our service is run by volunteers, who all live in different areas of Manchester and will therefore be shopping in the closest supermarket to them. We want to reduce risk to all staff and volunteers and will therefore only buy what is available. However, we know there are occasional times when certain brands of nappies cause rashes or babies need sensitive baby wipes or have specific dietary requirements etc so please talk to us if this is the case.
In addition, we have had a lot of clients asking for specific brands of formula milk. We cannot honour brands of formula milk for the same reasons as above but we will of course make sure the formula milk that we buy is suitable for your baby. E.g stage 1 milk for a child under 12 months. Under laws and regulations in England, Formula milk has to be the same ingredients so will cause no harm to your baby if you have to change brand. Please see this statement from First Steps Nutrition Trust via infantmilkinfo.org for more information about First Infant milks.
Here’s some more information about the different brands of formula milk we have bought for clients; all brands contain the same ingredients but bigger brands add other non essential ingredients in to the milk.
First milks we tend to buy due to cost and availability are
Aldi Mamia , Cow & Gate & SMA little Steps
Both SMA Little Steps and Cow & Gate are Halal certified.
Information about other brands;
Aptamil, Arla Organic, Hipp Organic
If you are concerned about changing brand, please consult your Health Visitor or other healthcare professional.
We have limited stocks of clothing available for newborn to 8 years+ but these are not guaranteed. We also have toys and sometimes have equipment such as Moses baskets and baths etc. We will soon be introducing a separate referral form for families who need clothes etc as they will be able to visit our hub and choose them. There will be more information on this soon.
Families are welcome to visit our Stork Store community hub on a Wednesday morning at Emmanuel Centre, 174 Langworthy Road, M6 5PN. We are open 10 am to 1pm and have clothes available from 20p. We also have a free items section including School uniform.
You can also visit Salford Step Into Action in Walkden who have a shop full of equipment and other items. For newborns, Early Essentials, Baby Basics and Salford Baby bank all provide Moses Baskets / Clothes / other items through a referral service.
I’m a professional looking to make a referral, whats the process?
Please make a referral through our form below
Please include all information requested (nappy sizes are very important!!) as without this information the referral can be delayed.
If you are requesting extra items such as clothes or want to speak to us about a particular family, please email claire@visitfromthestork.co.uk (our Project officer) with the details and your phone number so we can call you back if needed. You’re welcome to copy in kim@visitfromthestork.co.uk
We are NOT able to accept requests for repeat referrals at this time as we have very limited funding and want to save it as much as possible – to help as many families as possible. Formula milk, jumbo packs of nappies and wipes already cost us up to £20 per child.
We are open for referrals all week, but we now process referrals on a Wednesday afternoon at 2 pm. The list of referrals sent before this time gets sent to our team of volunteers and they then deliver the items to the clients between Wednesday evening and Sunday.
As we are a very small team, this now means referrals sent in on Thursday and Fridays do not get processed until Wednesday and it may take up to a week for the items to be delivered – as we are no longer working in ’emergency’ mode.
Please note we can’t guarantee urgent deliveries of items but please speak to us if the need is urgent (for example for a very vulnerable family or new mum).
Call Kim on 07402630671 for urgent requests only and we will do our best to help.
Once we receive a referral with all the correct information, we process the information on our secure system. We send the jobs to our volunteers via Whatsapp. They go to the shops to buy the items or pick them up from the office.
We are currently funded by MSV Housing, Salix Homes and Salford CVS.
Yes! You can make a monetary donation to our project via Square – our payment processing system here
or via Paypal – paypal.me/vfts
or via BACS – please email us kim@visitfromthestork.co.uk to ask for our bank details to donate via bank transfer.
If you wish to donate items, we accept donations of nappies, toiletries and wipes on Mondays and Wednesdays at our offices. We also accept donations of equipment, toys and clothes (although currently full for clothes)
