As a professional working with a disabled child in Hackney, you might be interested to find out more about the services we offer.

Short Break Carers

Hackney Family Backup recruit and train carers from the local community who provide care on a regular basis to Disabled children. Short breaks are flexibly designed to meet the individual needs of each child and their family. This means that children can be looked after in their own home (homesitting) or in the carer's home. Parents and children can choose for themselves - anything from a few hours to weekend breaks or sometimes longer. Carers are assessed by HFBU staff under fostering regulations and approved by an independent fostering panel that meets four times a year. For more detailed information about the role of Short Break Carers, please see our page on carers.

Who can be referred?
The Short Break Care service is funded by Hackney's Children with Disabilities Team and HFBU are contracted to provide the service. Referrals for the short break care service must therefore come from a social worker at either the Children with Disabilities Team at Hackney Social Services or the Donald Winnicott Centre. They will carry out an assessment of the family's needs and decide whether the family are eligible for referral.

If you are a social worker from the CDT or DWC, and would like to make a referral for the Short Break Care service, please follow this link.


Family Support Volunteers

Family Support volunteers work alongside families and offer support at times when two hands are better than one. Volunteers might accompany the family to a hospital appointment or offer support to make it easier for the family to go to the park together. They might think up creative play activities to keep the child entertained at home while the parent takes a break. Volunteers do not provide lone care for the child.

Who can be referred?
The child must be between the ages of 0-19 and have a sensory, physical or learning disability and be resident in the borough of Hackney. In addition to this, children who have a life limiting or life threatening medical condition can access the service.

Anyone can make a referral for the Family Support Volunteer service. If you would like to make an online referral, or print off the referral form, please click here.


Toy library
HFBU have a Toy and Resource Library which is free and available to any family with a disabled child living in Hackney. We have a whole range of different toys, including sensory equipment, massage mats, musical instruments, Makaton puppets, books, etc. For more information, see our page on the Toy Library.