Campaigns

Kindred campaigns on behalf of parents of children with complex needs.

Some of our campaigns are in collaboration with other organisations such as The Scottish Children’s Services Coalition (SCSC).

With the SCSC we have been campaigning to reduce waiting times for CAMHS (Children and Adolescent Mental Health Services), and are also supporting a campaign to reinstate a bursary for trainee educational psychologists.

We have been working with Scottish Government NHS Scotland National Services Division and the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland to campaign for secure inpatient care for children and young people with learning disability.

Kindred is also campaigning for more special school provision across Scotland.

Families from Kindred have also met with Tam Baillie, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, to discuss complex care packages. The first meeting was in November 2014 and we will continue to campaign for these families over the foreseeable future.

Below are some of the media articles reflecting some of our campaigning work.

More media articles and information can also be found on the SCSC website.

Special Needs Schooling Campaign- Families of Children with Complex Needs

Recently, Kindreds director Sophie Pilgrim has been working to promote full time places for children in special schools to get back to classes. Sophie has taken to the airways to champion the rights of families whose children have been unable to attend their places of education for the last year and campaigned tirelessly with the Scottish Government and educational leaders. Sophie talked to parents and carers and other organisations across Scotland to highlight the importance of a return to school and vaccines for school staff.

Getting back to school also gives families respite from in many cases 24/7 care of their family member. You can read more about this in the article below, Covid-19 and Families of Children with Complex Needs.

You can read more on the BBC website about how the timeline of the return to school story unfolded here

Covid-19 and Families of Children with Complex Needs

During the pandemic, Kindred has been working with families to be their voice and has produced a report, Covid 19 and the Families of Children with Complex Needs, which is a response to the Scottish Government, outlining the devastating impact on families of children with high level medical needs, particularly with loss of support from schools. Many of our parents have been struggling with 5 hours of broken sleep a night

110 families provided with advocacy support by Kindred since 1 April 2020. Information from this work is used to design the survey and telephone interview.
42 parents complete the online survey.
16 parents who took part in the online survey are followed up with a semi-structured telephone interview lasting around 30 minutes.

Summary

Even in this small survey respondents spoke of a wide range of experiences directly related to the pandemic in addition to caring for a child with very high level medical needs. Some had struggled with their own medical treatment while others have lost relatives to Covid-19 and to other conditions. They had experienced difficulties with basic needs such as shopping and getting medications…

“We spent so long counting down until this was all over. Really hard because goal posts kept moving. We had to change our mindset to living like this”. Parent

Did you know:

Top 10 things which families said helped them through Covid

1. Working together with Family
2. Having a garden
3. Friends and carers
4. Carers coming to the home
5. Support from School
6. Help with shopping
7. Healthcare professionals
8. Help to collect prescriptions
9. Social Media
10. Social work

If you would like to share your own story, contact us via our

Tell us your story form.

If you have campaign ideas, why don't you contact us and start a conversation or head over to our social media to hear our latest news.

Latest

Press Release: People's Postcode Trust Award for Kindred

Players of People’s Postcode Lottery enable Kindred Advocacy to support parents of children with complex needs in Scotland! We are delighted to announce that the People’s Postcode Trust, a grant-giving charity funded entirely by players of People’s Postcode Lottery, have awarded Kindred £23,708 to support the running of the charity over the next year.
Kindred receives donation from Walter Scott & Partners Ltd Giving Group

Kindred are delighted to announce receipt of a £15,000 donation from the Walter Scott & Partners Ltd Giving Group.
Kindred Fife receives grant towards supporting parent mental health

Kindred’s Fife service is delighted that their project has been supported by the Communities Mental Health and Wellbeing Fund through Fife Voluntary Action and Scottish Government, with a recent grant of £3000.
E-PAtS and positive support for Kindred families

Kindred, along with NHS Lothian and Tizard, University of Kent , has recently started to offer Early Positive Approaches to Support (E-PAtS) groups to families, developed for parent/carers of a child aged 0 to 5 years with learning disability, global developmental delay or autism.

Social Work Assessment (Section 23)

If your child has a disability or long-term health condition then you are likely to require additional help with family life. The Social Work department of your local authority has a duty to assess the needs of your child. This is called a Section 23 Assessment.
Our vision and aims

Kindred's vision is to transform the lives of families of children with complex needs in Scotland.
Accessing grants

Details of different funds and grant-giving trusts/charities that you can approach if needed, and some handy hints on applying.
Benefits

There are many different sources of financial support available to children with disabilities. Kindred may be able to support parents to apply for some of these benefits.
Contact us

You can contact Kindred by phone, email and by post.
Education

Children with additional needs may need extra support in school, or you may feel that your child needs to attend a different school provision such as a language unit, another mainstream school or a special school. Depending on where you live, Kindred may be able to assist you with finding the right provision for your child.
Fife Team

Kindred's Fife Team is based in Dunfermline, providing a service throughout Fife to parents of children with complex needs including advocacy, information and emotional support.
Child’s Planning Meeting (and YPPM)

CPM stands for Child’s Planning Meeting and YPPM stands for Young Person’s Planning Meeting.
Refer to us

For a referral please contact us by phone or email.
Our history

Kindred began supporting families in 1991 from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children, Edinburgh. We were known then as SNIP or Special Needs Information Point. We started with a founding team of two parents who each had a child with additional needs, keen to share their knowledge. Now we have a team of 12 staff over three bases in Scotland, and we are still a parent-led organisation.