Please keep in mind that all children must be supervised by their parent/carer at all times.
New to Little Hiccups? Register below:
Relevant Info
Can siblings attend? Do I need to register them?
Yes they can! Siblings are welcome to Stay n Play and Family Fun Days. For Stay n Play we just need to make you aware that it is aimed at the very young and mainly under 5’s and our objective is to give them a safe place to learn about their environment. We just ask that if you have a boisterous child over 5 that you think about the suitability of the session for them and others. We do however, tend to open up to all ages during the school holidays so that siblings normally at school and attend. We also try to make these sessions a little bit more special and hold events such as music sessions at the venue. I’m afraid that siblings cannot attend for Hydrotherapy and Yoga sessions due to the space constraints and costs involved. There is also no need to register siblings. Just book them onto the event along with you and the registered child.
Behaviour Statement
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.
How do I join Little Hiccups?
If you have read our Eligibility criteria and would like to join Little Hiccups, you can do so online here.
Am I eligible to join Little Hiccups?
Little Hiccups is a charity that supports families that have a child(ren) under 16 with additional needs or a disability. The Education Act 2002 defines ‘additional needs’ as:
“the new concept of additional support needs refers to any child or young person who, for whatever reason, requires additional support for learning. Additional support needs can arise from any factor which causes a barrier to learning, whether that factor relates to social, emotional, cognitive, linguistic, disability, or family and care circumstances and learning environment.”
Our remit as a Charity is to support additional needs that are specific to a disability, regardless of whether or not they are registered disabled or have an official diagnosis.
Within this remit, Little Hiccups does not want to put a label on what classes as an ‘additional need’ or ‘disability’ as the definition and range is so broad. Our emphasis will instead be on whether the family feels they need the support of the group.
We are however, completely self funded so need to ensure that the monies raised are getting to the right families that need the support the most. Consequently, we ask that families are honest and decide themselves that they feel that they are in need of the support of Little Hiccups.
Very occasionally 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.
We also ask that new members read our Behaviour Statement before joining. By joining Little Hiccups you are agreeing to abide by the Guidelines.
I’ve registered. What happens now?
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The Privacy bit…
All information and photos will be stored according to the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the General Data Protection Regulation 2018 (GDPR). Information collected will be used for Little Hiccups purposes only. We will not share your information with any other companies or organisations.
Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy notice or information we hold about you. You can contact us by email at info@littlehiccups.co.uk
You can see the full privacy notice here.