86 - Helping pay for holiday child care - July 2022

We were recently asked to help out a family over the summer school holiday period. They have 2 children under 4 years old and have no access to benefits and no recourse to public funds. The 4 year old has benefited from her entitlement of 15 hours of nursery funding, but this will stop over the summer, and she will start school in September. She has autism and is non verbal. She is also very sensitive to sounds and cannot cope with the noise from the toddler . She becomes so distressed to the point that the parents try to keep them separated as much as possible. This is obviously not always easy or practical. Every morning as soon as the older daughter wakes up mum takes the younger one out of the house and dad gets the older one ready for nursery - as she cannot cope with the noise and get ready at the same time. It is hard to imagine the stress this must put on the family as a whole. The younger one will not be eligible for government paid nursery hours until she is 3 years old. Not surprisingly with the start of the summer holidays upon them, the family are really concerned about coping with both children at home all day every day. The family have been helped to find a nursery placement for the youngest child to access 14 sessions over the summer holidays, but they have no means to fund this. So when our member approached us to help out, we were only too pleased to send £500 to the family to put towards the nursery costs. This will give mum a break and the opportunity to spend some valuable 1:1 time with her older daughter. Many of us will know how hard it is to entertain young children over the long school holidays, especially with no family members to help out. Having a young child with complex additional needs makes the situation all the more challenging and stressful, so we really are pleased to be able to support this family and send them our very best wishes.