Never underestimate the power of listening!

How listening in lockdown has shaped our new ‘Get Sensory’ campaign.

Trudi Beswick, Champion for Disabled Children & Families, CEO - Caudwell Children, Board Member – Design In Mental Health Network, Steering Group Member - The British Standards Institution, Board Member – Children’s Activities Association

I’ll let you into a little secret; when we first started Caudwell Children I didn’t know anything about running a charity for disabled children!

But 20 years on and the result of my inexperience back then has become one of the charity’s core values and, I believe, one of our greatest strengths. 

Back in 2000, after John Caudwell explained his inspirational vision for a new type of charity and we discussed who the charity was going to benefit, I embarked on a steep learning curve to better understand who and how we were going to help.

Rather than burying my head in books or enrolling on a HND in disability studies, I used my commercial experience and went directly to our new ‘customers’ – the children and families we wanted to help.

Visiting the homes of disabled children around Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire listening to families explaining what life was like and what help they did or, more importantly, didn’t get from elsewhere I learnt exactly what difficulties they faced on a day-to-day basis and what support they needed. 

Based on these early lessons we shaped the charity and launched in March 2000 offering practical support to access equipment, treatment and therapy which was not available on the NHS. 

Our services have grown and evolved over the years but any changes have always been driven directly by the children and families they are designed to support.

Whether through routine feedback and evaluation of our services, organised consultation activities, or more informal conversations that form part of our daily interaction with families; we are dedicated to listening and delivering services that children and families need.

More recently, as the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic became a reality and the UK was placed in a nationwide ‘lockdown’, once again we turned our attention to listening to families to better understand the consequences of these unprecedented set of circumstances.

I personally spent a lot of time speaking directly to parents, both via social media or on the phone, and listened to their concerns and worries for the children while the world was trying to deal with the wider impacts of the pandemic.

One message that was echoed by most parents was their inability to access some of the practical support or facilities that children would normally get to routinely use at school or at specialist centers.

Parents were worried that without some of the daily stimulus their children normally enjoyed they would not have the same quality of life, and some of the cognitive or behavioural progress they had made would be lost.

These worries added to what was already a stressful time for both parents and children, the majority of whom were in the ‘high risk’ category due to their pre-existing medical complications and were therefore experiencing the strictest form of isolation for their own safety.         

As we had done with several of our other services already, I set about tackling the challenge of adapting our existing sensory equipment provision to help re-introduce some of the occupational therapy and sensory support children would normally receive into their homes.

 Working with the charity’s brilliant clinical team, our creative marketing department and the dedicated applications team we devised our new ‘Get Sensory’ campaign, which I’m delighted to say has now launched and received a fantastic response.

‘Get Sensory’ offers families a 360° service which incorporates:

• a package of carefully selected sensory equipment delivered to their home
• practical occupational therapy support and advice via a handbook and suite of online videos
• family support advocacy and advice (including free legal advice from our partners at Irwin Mitchell)
• access to the charity’s other services and complementary support.

This service enables families to once again benefit from access to sensory equipment with professional clinical advice and the friendly support of a wider team who are available to answer any questions.

Within the first few hours of launching the applications we had already received hundreds of requests from families who had missed this kind of support.

Launched with funding available for 2000 sensory packs and facing the very dramatic downturn in fundraising income due to the cancellation of all face-to-face events, Get Sensory also calls upon our supporters and the wider public to help us continue this innovative service.

Whether funding a single piece of sensory equipment for as little as ￡5, or contributing to deliver multiple packs to children across the country, we call on everyone to support this worthwhile and important campaign.

To find out how to apply for a Get Sensory pack or to donate and help provide packs for as many children as possible please visit https://getsensorypacks.com/

To discuss how you can support Caudwell Children in more detail please contact me on [email protected] follow me on Twitter @trudibeswick or connect with me on LinkedIn https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/trudi-beswick/