'Early Support has given me confidence'

'My daughter is a lovely little girl, happy, cheerful, loves to draw – and she’s very cheeky. She’s determined that she wants to walk and now if you stick her in her walker she will move. Having help has brought her out a lot more.

'I was pregnant when I was told that she had spina bifida and hydrocephalus, and that she might never walk. I was worried, scared even, when she was born.

'It was someone who was helping us that put me on to Early Support. I wouldn’t be where I am now if it hadn’t been for having my Early Support key worker. It’s really helpful to have a key worker, they do lots of different things for you. She’s written all the letters for all the different people involved, and she helps you make phone calls. She was very supportive when my daughter was in and out of hospital for surgery.

'She also persuaded me to look round different schools. We’ve chosen one where the kids come over and play with the little children that have got other problems. It seems a really nice school for my girl to be at. She needs to be interacting with other children.

'I’ve dipped into the booklets, like the one on statutory assessment, which helped me to understand why I’ve got to do Statements to get my daughter into school. I wouldn’t have even thought of putting her into school before, because I would have said “I’m keeping her at home with me, I didn’t want her getting bullied”. Now it’s all been explained to me that kids with disabilities get on well at school and it’s changed my mind completely.

'Early Support helps you to understand what’s going on with your child and it helps you as well. It’s given me a lot of confidence in myself because I didn’t have any confidence at all when my girl was born. Two years ago I wouldn’t even have a new person in my house, I wouldn’t have gone to meet any new people.

'Early Support is absolutely wonderful.'

Parent, Yorkshire