Local mum, Rosie, has shared how a healthcare support worker from the Children’s Learning Disability team at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust has gone above and beyond to support her daughter recently.

Rosie’s daughter is 14 and attends a local specialist school for pupils with a wide range of complex needs. The family started working with Angela from the Children’s Learning Disability team in 2021 and was so impressed with how well she got to know them before giving them advice and support on a range of topics.

The team works with children and young people from 5-18 years of age in Craven who have a learning disability on a short or long term basis as required. This can be at home, at school, in respite care and other community settings.

Rosie explained: “My daughter has got very specific needs and Angela really looked into the profile of her disability, what would work for her and what we could try, especially in terms of behavioural needs.”

“Angela is really warm and friendly and obviously wanted to help. You get the sense from her that she really cares; she goes into school to see my daughter, talks to the staff there and liaises with me too.

“She doesn’t just give generic information, she gives personalised support. I would say she’s gone above and beyond.”

After building work started at the school, Rosie’s daughter found the disruption it caused upsetting and needed some support from the team. Angela worked with her in one-to-one sessions, creating a booklet which helped to explain the different what the builders were doing.

Rosie said: “The building work was really upsetting my daughter, so Angela did some social stories with her which talked about builders, what they do and what sounds they might make.”

Angela commented: “I like being able to work with families and assist them with day-to-day routines, helping the children and young people to be less afraid of things like going to the dentist or going for blood tests. It was a pleasure to support Rosie’s daughter in this way, by providing desensitisation sessions for her one-to-one.

Angela also gave continence guidance to the family. Rosie explained: “My daughter is fullyincontinent and we needed support to find new products that would work for her. Angela spoke to us about what would meet her needs, and went through everything, giving us a lot of help in terms of ordering samples for my daughter to try.

“She spoke in depth about what she felt was good and made sure school knew how often to change products and everything.

“It’s not just a job for her, she really cares about the outcome of what she’s helping you with. Angela’s made a big difference to our lives.”

Find out more about the work BDCFT’s Children’s Learning Disability team does on their website nhsbdctstaging.wpenginepowered.com/services/childrens-learning-disability-team-craven/.