To apply for a family fund grant?

[SinkGirl]

I have two year old twins, one has very complex needs. Multiple diagnoses (metabolic affecting blood sugars, neurological, visual impairment that cannot be treated) and assessments ongoing - possibly fragile X syndrome, possibly ASD, etc.

Today I’ve had word that he’s been granted DLA - middle rate care. To be honest I’m surprised and have a bit of imposter syndrome I think - I know objectively that he is disabled and needs more care than his twin, but I’m still struggling with the term.

The garden of our house is really dangerous for him - there are multiple levels, a raised pond, lots of things that need fixing. We need to excavate and level it and have a proper safe area for him and his brother - because there are two I can’t take them outside on my own so we rarely ever use the garden.

Just been talking to DH about applying for a family fund grant for help towards fixing the garden as it’s a big job but I think we both feel uncomfortable with it. We both worry that it could take funds away from a child with much more severe difficulties.

With this help we could afford to do the work sooner. Without it, I’m not sure we could afford to do it in the next 12 months or maybe longer. It still feels wrong for some reason. We do own our house (with a big mortgage still).

What do people think?

If the Family Fund can't help with making the garden safe, you can always apply to your local Rotary club or Lions club. As they do grants towards things like that. There is also a website called Turn2us who have loads of information about charities too.
www.turn2us.org.uk

we had family fund provide a fence for our garden as the old fence was unsafe and child was escaping etc.
it was a quick application, and made a huge difference for us. our garden is now fairly toddler unfriendly and needs looking at, but they are contained at least!

We got fencing put all round our garden to keep DS safe, it was arranged through the OT (occupational therapist). We hadn’t been involved with her before or since really, although she did loan us a weighted blanket. Not sure if your HV could see if they could’ve refer you to the OT?

Amazing charity. They come out to assess if you meet their criteria and are so nice. My son was awarded an iPad last year and they even sent someone out to give me one to one training on all the things you can do with it. They do have far smaller budgets than in the past and £500 seems to be their cut off value. They were very apologetic at not being able to give both of my children an iPad even though we only applied for one!

It sounds like work you could do yourselves tbh. Why can't you and your husband dismantle the decking? You could also level it yourselves with a couple of shovels.

For higher cost grants you can apply to the Council for a disabled facilities grant. We were turned down for Family Fund, but were granted £15k through the council for home adaptations. They put a charge on your home, and it is repayable if the property is sold within ten years.

Thanks for the advice everyone - will look into all these options.

It’s not something we could do ourselves because of the different levels - the neighbours garden on one side is lower and the other side higher, it obviously sloped at one point so they’ve put levels in to make it usable. I think it’s going to be complicated to sort it, but will get some landscapers round and see what they think.

@Knittedfairies All I've done is quote what is written on their very own website?

That’s strange @Powerless - I was quoting from their website too!
www.familyfund.org.uk/FAQs/are-the-family-eligible-to-apply