Our Family Support Offer

Our family support outreach service is designed to help families of children with SEND to navigate their child’s journey and access wider community support and information.

We have worked with and provided guidance to families of children in the early years with SEND for over 40 years. We understand that caring for a child with SEND can be isolating, confusing and challenging. We recognise the barriers which families face and our team work with families and respond to their individual needs to overcome the challenges and barriers they face, reducing isolation and improving confidence in the future.

ONLINE Resources For Families

The dedicated support we offer:

Home Visits

You Family Support Worker can visit you and your child at home and provide in person support or guidance you may need, such as emotional support, signposting and resources.

Online Information Sessions

These Teams meetings are open to all and will be held monthly. Sessions can cover topics such as sensory processing, potty training, sleep, and healthy eating, with particular consideration for preschool children with SEND.

Stay and Play Sessions

At our monthly sessions in the centres, children (and their siblings) will have the chance to make friends and play with their peers and parents/carers will have time to chat to the family support workers for advice and support if needed. 

Setting Visits

Family support workers can visit dual placement settings to support the provision with individual children’s needs and share strategies holistically across both home and learning environments.

 

Connect Sessions

Monthly connect sessions are intended to connect families from similar experiences together and encourage community building. 

Coffee Mornings

Coffee mornings are held in the centres each month and are intended to connect families in an informal setting.

When you reach out for support, we assess the best course of action to help you as a family. We work with you at an initial meeting to establish your current situation and needs, and tailor our support to each family and child.

We work collaboratively with local authority early years teams to ensure that we can provide timely support to the families who would most benefit from our outreach services and our family support offer responds to the needs of each local community and local authority team and processes for maximum impact.

If you would like to enquire about outreach support please contact our team.

Molly Harper

Senior family support worker covering:

  • Cheltenham
  • Droitwich
  • Gloucester
  • Worcester

Lacey Faulds

Senior family support worker covering:

  • Bournemouth
  • Christchurch
  • Poole
  • Southampton

Kathryn Wroe

Senior family support worker supporting:

  • Reading
  • West Berkshire
  • Wokingham
  • Tidworth
Contact Molly
Contact Lacey
Contact Kathryn
Contact Tanya

Tanya Spiers – Family Support Manager

Tanya is a specialist family support worker, qualified early years educator and training facilitator with over 12 years of professional experience in this field. She is an intensive interaction coordinator and SEND trainer with recent experience in delivering a groundbreaking national autism training programme. She has worked with a wide range of families and children and feels passionately about about ‘one size fits one’ approach to our support. Tanya is exceptionally proud of the growing Family Support Service and the impact they have in driving change towards a more inclusive, adaptive world. She loves her job and the fact that her team have the opportunity to give warmth, kindness and the right guidance to families when they most need it. She is a proud mum to three neurodivergent children who have been instrumental in educating and guiding her expertise in this field.

For enquiries about the family support service or to understand more about what we can offer, please contact Tanya.

“Our family support worker is an asset to the Dingley team. Nothing is ever too much and she always has a warm smile and knows exactly what to say. She provides support to all the families through various activities, stay and plays, information (this could be talked about for pages). Most importantly, she creates a safe space, directing individuals to the correct service where necessary, with a caring demeanor, and a personal understanding of so many of the struggles SEN families face.”

Dingley’s Promise family