SEND Family Support (formerly Hillingdon DADS), founded by Kevin Bugler in September 2015. Originally a local support group for dads caring for children with special educational support and disabilities. After a only a few support meetings it was clear that there was a strong need for a group of its type both locally and nationally. Additionally it soon became clear that some of the dads wanted to do more to support not just dads but families caring for children with SEND and in September 2017 Hillingdon DADS started the organisation of the first SEND Santa’s Grotto & Christmas Market. The Santa’s Grotto and Christmas Market was and still is for children with SEND, their siblings and their carers. All children want to meet Santa and receive gifts in a way that meet their individual needs with no queues etc. While the children had fun & relaxed their carers could meet other carers and discuss info, support and services they may need for their families inclusively.
As we had no funds to run such an event we were helped by our local Carers Champion Becky Haggar with a carers grant. Our local Mencap (Hillingdon South) allowed us to use their premises for the event. We was also had the support and help to run the event by another fantastic UK Charity called Anna Kennedy Online.
Our first event was hailed a great success! Of course this only inspired us to do even more and thus since we have gone from strength to strength, with more and more help to run the events. Now we run 5 annual events all of which have had great feedback from attendees.
To see our events please go to our upcoming events page.
We also run a SEND Saturday Drop In Centre for families caring for children with SEND. The drop in centre takes place every second Saturday of every month at Mencap Hillingdon South, Harlington Road, Uxbridge UB8 3HD. all siblings are welcome to come along. During the drop in centre we offer a variety of information of support and services as well as advice from ourselves while the children play.
As the first year was such a success and we had such great support for what we was trying to achieve and by listening to what our families want from us, we decided we were ready to take the huge step of becoming a Charity. As we always listen to what we can do better, we wanted to make it clearer as to what we do and who we are. We chose to change our name to ‘SEND Family Support’ so we could meet the message of our main aim and objectives ‘offering support for families caring for children with SEND (special educational needs & disabilities)’.
Remembering how and why we came about through our founder we wanted to keep the original format too, so we have kept the DADZ forum now called DADZ4DADZ which is a closed social media forum. However, we also created the new MUMZ4MUMZ forum, to continue to show the balance and be inclusive of support for the family caring for children with SEND.
In September 2019 we received our Charity Status. 4 years after the original concept, but officially 3 years after we started to support families caring for children with SEND inclusively.
Now we have officially become a registered and recognised charity, we only want to do more of what our families on our database and forums to help meet any needs they may have.
To join our database go to contact us and to join our forums go to the Contact page on the website.
To keep more up to date with general SEND news please like our Facebook Page too – @SENDFamilySupport
