‘There was nothing locally for SEN children’

When Lisa and Jamie Henderson couldn’t find anywhere to host their son John’s eighth birthday party, it felt like they were being discriminated against.

John goes to a specialist school for children with additional needs and he and his friends wanted to go somewhere fun, but it also needed to be quiet and not too busy.

“There was nowhere in Sussex,” explains Lisa. “All the usual places weren’t suitable because they can be very overwhelming for children with special needs. It was very frustrating and upsetting.”

A missing space for families

John experienced developmental trauma in the first years of his life, and he also has moderate learning difficulties and sensory processing issues.

Now nearly 13, he is a smiley, engaging young man, full of questions and keen to help others. But life is not always easy.

“It’s hard work,” says Lisa. “He has a lot of angry outbursts. We give him high levels of support with what we call ‘scaffolding’ to get him to a point he can just about cope.”

“It can lead to stressful situations when you’re out and about,” explains Jamie. “People assume that children with SEN are badly behaved or the parents are bad parents. You get looks and occasionally you get comments. Families don’t want to put themselves or their other children through that.”

With nowhere to go for the party, Lisa bought a second-hand ball pit and other sensory toys and hosted it at their home.

“It worked really well – the kids really enjoyed it,” she says. But more than that, Lisa and Jamie could see they were offering something that families like their own were badly missing – a welcoming space designed just for them.

“The idea evolved from there,” she explains. “We decided to set up our own charity, Sensory Soft Play, to start providing for local families.”

Filling a gap in the community

With no background in running their own charity – Jamie runs his own software company and Lisa was an office administrator – it took nearly a year to get set up and register with the Charity Commission.

It was then that they approached the Big Local. The initial plan was to run soft play, sensory and messy play sessions in Ore Community Centre, a hall with several rooms for hire in the heart of North East Hastings.

At the time, Big Local North East Hastings was running a small grants scheme, giving out funds of up to £1,066 to local projects that aimed to improve the lives of residents. The very specific sum reflects how pertinent a number 1066 is in the area – the year of the Battle of Hastings.

It was the perfect first grant to apply for. Not only would it enable Lisa and Jamie to pay for the hire of the community centre, but the small grants scheme was also designed to help local community organisations grow and feel supported.

It wasn’t just about the money, it was about getting guidance, encouragement and validation.”

Jan Papworth, Community Development Worker at Big Local North East Hastings, explains: “I like small grants because we have a system that is compliant but informal, so it’s a good way of doing a lot of capacity building for smaller organisations.

“I encourage people to pick up the phone and talk to me. I’ve said, ‘Ring me up and ask me the daft questions because there are no daft questions.’”

For Lisa, this was invaluable. “Jan was really helpful to me,” she says. “It was my first grant application and I wasn’t sure what I needed to include. I remember I’d set everything up in my office in my bedroom, I was all ready to go. And then I thought: ‘What am I going to say?!’

“It wasn’t just about the money, it was about getting guidance, encouragement and validation that we were doing something worthwhile.”

Reaching families in North East Hastings and beyond

Fast forward five years and it’s clear that the support from Jan and Big Local in those first few months was just what Lisa and Jamie needed to set them off on a path for big things.

Since that first initial grant and the sessions in Ore Community Centre, Sensory Soft Play has moved into its own premises just outside North East Hastings.

They run respite sessions every weekend, where parents and carers can drop their children off for the morning or afternoon and have some much-needed time off.

(Left to right) Jan Papworth and Lisa Henderson interact with a sensory board at Sensory Soft Play, North East Hastings. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91

They also offer sessions during the week where families can hire a special sensory room to enjoy together, as well as the opportunity to take part in art and craft activities. They also run holiday clubs and have funded trips to places like a pantomime, zoo and farm.

With such a lack of services like these, it isn’t just families from North East Hastings who are benefitting. People come from all over Sussex and even Kent to use the centre, and Sensory Soft Play has now reached nearly 200 families.

These days, Lisa has gone from needing Jan’s help filling in that first small grant application to successfully bidding for a £313,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Fund.

They now employ 10 sessional workers and have five regular volunteers. “It has got a lot bigger than we ever expected,” says Jamie. “And it just gets bigger all the time.”

A lifeline in the community

Sam Peck is the mother of two girls who have been coming to Sensory Soft Play every week for the last three years. Her older daughter, nine-year-old Scarlett, has chromosome 22 duplication, which can present as autism and includes sensory and attachment issues.

Before they found Sensory Soft Play there was nowhere the family could go where Scarlett felt safe enough to spend any time away from Sam’s side.

“This is the only place where she can be herself and is confident to go off by herself,” explains Sam, who still stays on site when they visit, but can be in a different room. “It’s a lifeline for us.”

(Left to right) Poppy, Scarlett and John play together at Sensory Soft Play, North East Hastings. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91

For Jan, Sensory Soft Play is an example of exactly what Big Local North East Hastings set out to do.

“It’s a niche project you might say, because it’s not going to benefit the whole of society, but it’s an important one, offering services that have a hugely beneficial impact on people who can’t get help elsewhere.

“Big Local was quite important in their foundation years. Hopefully we gave them some confidence and now they are flying.”

By Sarah Raymond

Top photo: John in the sensory room at Sensory Soft Play, North East Hastings. Photo: Local Trust/Ben Langdon, Mile 91

You can find guidance on designing your own community grants programme in our action plan, which includes reflections from four Big Local areas.