The leader of the UK’s largest children’s charity has made his first visit to Barnardo’s services in Carlisle.

Javed Khan, chief executive at Barnardo’s found out more about the high impact work carried out by support workers, volunteers, managers and other staff at several local Barnardo’s services.

Mr Khan also met with a number of families and individuals directly supported by the Cumbrian arm of the charity.

He made a home visit to a vulnerable family supported by Barnardo’s in Carlisle, in addition to meeting with a teenage girl that has been missing on a number of occasions and receives support from the charity’s local Missing service.

Mr Khan also got involved in a sensory and messy play session as he visited an early intervention service and met with children with additional needs and their families at Newtown children’s centre.

He said: "I have seen and heard first-hand how Barnardo’s services across Cumbria are having a real and positive impact on the lives of children, young people and their families in the region, and it is important that we celebrate this.

"It’s always hugely impressive meeting all those who contribute to this success, as well as speaking with the children, young people and families that we work with and listening to their experiences.

"I am extremely grateful to those families that gave their time to meet with me to share their stories and talk about some of the challenges they face day to day and the support they receive from us."

Barnardo’s has been supporting families across Cumbria since the late 1990s.

Today the charity runs a total of 18 children’s centres across the county, providing early years help, outreach work and targeted support to some of the region’s most vulnerable families and individuals.

The children’s centres provide an offering of 41 different services, ranging from targeted play sessions for children and therapeutic services for young people dealing with mental health issues, to parenting courses teaching life skills about everything from nurturing your child to cooking healthily on a budget and working with adult educational services to up-skill individuals and support them back into work.

Individual family support, intervention work and home visits are also made and specialist workers run recovery sessions for victims of domestic abuse and their children, teaching them life skills to deal with the trauma they have been subjected to.

Barnardo’s also works closely with Cumbria Constabulary to run a missing person support service and the charity provides help to children affected by parental imprisonment across the county.

In 2016, Barnardo’s provided support to more than 3,000 young people and families across Cumbria.