Providing Community Support and Social Inclusion for Disabled Children and Young People
Statement of Purpose 2009/10
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 0-17 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.
- 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.
The services we currently provide are:
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 expanded 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 Hackney Children & Young People's 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 were still unhappy with something to do with the service, you can contact:
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.
Hackney Family Backup staff are:
Sheila Ramdular - Chief Executive. 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.
Noni Khumalo - Family Support Manager. Noni has 12 year's post qualification experience in social work with children and families in South Africa, and since 2002 in London. She holds a PQ Practice Teaching Award.
Gillian Goodchild - Family Support 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 - Disability Backup Co-ordinator has worked in the health care sector for over 8 years and 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 a project worker and Project Manager at the Federation of Artistic & Creative Therapy. She has a degree in French & Sociology.
Alisa Goldstein - Family Placement Social Worker. Alisa has worked at the SEN Partnership Service in Birmingham, as well as volunteering at a similar charity to HFBU and supporting a family with a child with autism. She also has experience working with Older Afro-Caribbean Adults and homeless women, and has a degree in Social Work.
Tess Pearson - Family Support Co-ordinator. 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.
Please contact us if:
You have a Disabled child and would like to use one of the services, you are interested in becoming a volunteer, or you are interested in joining our Council of Management.
We're interested in your involvement and look forward to hearing from you!
Our office is in the heart of Dalston and is wheelchair accessible.
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
HFBU never make direct appeals to the public for funding. If you receive an e-mail requesting
financial assistance that you think might be from us please contact us immediately.