Hackney Family Backup (HFBU for short) is a local organisation which supports families of children and young adults with disabilities and/or disabling medical conditions.

Our mission is to improve the quality of life of Disabled children aged 0-19 and their families, by promoting community support and social inclusion.



To achieve this, our aims are:

• to maintain and improve the quality and range of community based support services available to local families.
• to encourage community involvement and development of volunteers.
• to encourage the involvement and consultation of children, families and volunteers.
• to promote the needs and rights of Disabled children and their families.
• to promote the organisation and build partnership links.

The services we currently provide are:

• Community based short break care services.
• Family support volunteering services, to support families at home, or to access community resources.
• Information, advice and support for families to access other services.
• Volunteering opportunities, giving people from the community the opportunity to volunteer their time and skills, and in return to receive training and ongoing support to learn new skills for their personal development.
• Specialist toy and resource library.

About short break care services:

• Hackney Children & Young People Services commission us to provide short break care to 25-30 children. With additional funding from Hackney we have expandd our short break care to reach a further eight families.
• Referrals for the short break service come from Hackney Children with Disabilities Team and the Social Worker at the Donald Winnicott Centre. Families do not pay for the service.
• As an agency providing short break care, HFBU is legally required to meet National Fostering Minimum Standards. This ensures children receive good standards of care.
• Short breaks are flexibly designed to meet the individual needs of each child and their family. This means 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.
• The aim is to give parents short, regular breaks from caring and allow Disabled children, and occasionally their siblings, opportunities for building new relationships and access to alternative environments which are safe, educational and fun.
• Short break care is provided by volunteer respite carers recruited from the diverse communities within Hackney, so care can be sensitive to children's religious, cultural and linguistic needs. Language skills within the project currently include - Arabic, Amharic, Bengali, Bini, Creo, Dutch, French, Ga, Gujarati, Hebrew, Hindi, Ibo, Italian, Lingala, Makaton, Marati, Nubian, Slovak, Somali, Swahili, Swedish, Tigrigna, Turkish, Twi, Urdu, Yiddish and Yoruba. Carers get paid a fostering allowance to cover costs of care they provide, which does not usually affect benefits or tax.
• Carers are assessed by HFBU staff, under fostering regulations, and approved by an independent panel called the 'Hackney Family Backup Fostering Panel'. Each year carers have a review to ensure they are still able to provide good quality care, and to support their development. We currently have 19 registered carers.
• All our carers attend ongoing training and some of the courses we run include First Aid, Food Hygiene, Child Protection, Health and Safety, Autism, Moving and Handling, Behaviour Management, Communication Skills, and more. Carers are also encouraged to develop their skills through supervision and support.
• Our carers normally work with just one or two families over an extended period of time. This is important, as trusting relationships take time to build. We see it as a real success when a child has had the same carer for several years.

About family support volunteer services:
Families can refer themselves to these services, which have been developed recently because families told us that sometimes, instead of short break care, they need different kinds of support, such as:

• help with times when two adults are better than one, eg to go shopping or to hospital appointments.
• help and company to make it easier to go to leisure places like swimming, the park or community events.
• help with thinking up creative things to do at home to stimulate children.
• support to keep children occupied while parents get on with everyday tasks or have a bit of space for themselves.
• enabling parents to spend quality time with their other children.

Funded by the Children's Fund and through Hackney Children & Young People Services, we recruit volunteers and link them up to provide support like this to families. Like our short break carers, family support volunteers have police, social services, and medical checks undertaken before they start providing support, and have induction training, as well as being able to access the main training programme.

Toy & Resource Library
We have a small but expanding toy and resource library which is available to any disabled child living in Hackney. We have a variety of specialist and sensory toys to entertain children with a wide range of needs and interests.

We are always trying to improve our services:
We really want to ensure our services are positive for children, families and volunteers, and we always welcome your views. Please contact us if you have ideas or comments on how the organisation and its services are run, or how you feel they should develop.

We don't always get it right and as well as listening to your views, we operate a complaints procedure, which gives an opportunity to raise any problems and concerns that come up. Anyone using the service will be given a copy of the complaints procedure and will be supported to use it where necessary. In the last year we have not had any formal complaints, but have had a lot of constructive comments and feedback from parents and professionals which help us in making sure we improve our services.

If you are still unhappy with something to do with the service, you can contact Hackney Children & Young People's Services (020 7241 0900) or the Commission for Social Care Inspection, at Gredley House, 1-11 Broadway, Stratford, London E15 4BQ (020 8221 3360), or the Children's Fund at The Learning Trust, 1 Reading Lane, London, E8 1GQ (020 8820 7109).

HFBU is a limited company and registered charity, managed by a Board of Trustees called 'The Council of Management'. The Chairperson, Ben Corrigan, can be contacted through the HFBU offices. The Council are responsible for supervising the management of the project, and for ensuring the company meets its legal duties and is financially viable. An annual report of the organisation's activities and audited accounts is prepared. The Council of Management employ staff to undertake the day-to-day management and running of services.

Hackney Family Backup staff are:

Sheila Ramdular - Director. Since graduating Sheila has worked in the voluntary care sector including 6 years as the Director of a charity in Islington. She has a management diploma and is the mother of a young person with ADHD.
Christine Addison - Deputy Director. Since qualifying as a social worker in 1994 Chris has worked in a children with disabilities team and then for the National Autistic Society as a manager of a residential unit. Chris has been at HFBU since 2003.
Gillian Goodchild - Homesitting & Volunteer Co-ordinator. Gillian is a psychology graduate with many years experience of coordinating volunteers working with disabled or sick children. She is also a qualified librarian who worked for a while in a specialist SEN library.
Catherine Love - Volunteer Co-ordinator has worked in the health care sector for over 8 years and as a team leader for a domiciliary care agency for 2 years. She has a degree in social science and regularly babysits for her nephew and niece with Cystic Fibrosis.
Martina McLachlan - Admin Worker. Martina joined the team at HFBU after working for an educational charity for over five years. She is in the office daily from 9.15am - 2.45pm and will be your first point of contact. She has two young children and lives in Hackney.
Deborah Walsh - Office Manager. Deborah has 9 years experience of working with children and adults with special needs, including being Project Manager at the Federation of Artistic and Creative Therapy. She holds a degree in Sociology and has completed a Project Management course.
Elizabeth Narasimha - Family Placement Social Worker. Elizabeth has a degree in Social Work and a masters in International Social Work and Refugee Studies. She has a range of experience including working with children with disabilities and with families in crisis.
Tess Pearson - Toy Library Worker. Tess also works with children & young people with disabilities & their families as an Outreach Playworker for KIDS, as well as at two adventure playgrounds. Tess has a degree in Fine Art and is currently studying Applied Psychology.

Our office is in the heart of Dalston and is accessible to wheelchair users. Our address is:
The Print House,
18 Ashwin Street,
Hackney,
London E8 3DL.
Tel: 020 7275 0088
Fax: 020 7241 6121
E-mail: admin@hfbu.org.uk
Web: www.hfbu.org.uk

Please contact us if:
You have a Disabled child and would like to use one of the services, if you are interested in becoming a volunteer, or if you feel you have management skills and are interested in joining our Council of Management.

We're interested in your involvement and look forward to hearing from you!