Little Hiccups provides opportunities for therapy, fun, friendship and enjoyment for children with additional needs, their brothers and sisters and parents, grandparents and carers and other supporters. Our aim is to be a fully inclusive and transparent charity.

We want to provide a safe, welcoming and fun environment for the whole family and therefore we expect that all staff, volunteers, parents, carers and children show respect, acceptance and tolerance to all who attend Little Hiccups sessions.

Very occasionally, some sessions might not be suitable for some children. Either for a particular child on a particular day or at that particular stage of their development. This might be obvious to the parents, staff and volunteers just from the description of the experience provided by the session, and the parents/carers experience of their child’s reaction to similar environments. But it could also become gradually obvious during a session containing new and different experiences.  If the environment and experience we were able to provide on that occasion were causing a child to be distressed or to behave in a way likely to cause distress for the other children in the session, it might be necessary to end the child’s participation on that occasion. If a child’s reaction was thought to be likely to cause a risk to their own safety, or to the safety of others during the session, we might also need to ask for the child to be withdrawn on that occasion.

We would hope to be able, through discussion with the child, family and anyone with information about or experience with different alternatives for the child concerned, to provide a more suitable offer on another occasion if our resources can meet the requirements. For example, we could try to find extra staff or volunteers with relevant experience for additional support during a session. Or we could modify the experience provided in the session, on a planned future occasion, to better meet the child’s needs.  In extreme circumstances, we may have to admit that Little Hiccups is not the right environment for a particular child or family at that time; where this is the case, we will work with the family to find another suitable provision if possible.

Everyone at Little Hiccups wants to make attending Little Hiccups sessions a great experience for all the children who attend and their families. We have gained lots of experience over the fifteen years that we have been running sessions, but we really do need your expertise as parents and carers to help make this happen. So we would welcome any advice or feedback about services we offer, what we could provide in the future, and what we could try to do differently or as extra support for your child or other children with similar additional needs, to make it a better experience. It might take some time or even a bit of extra fundraising, but we will do our best to make it possible for everyone who comes to Little Hiccups to take away a great experience.