We provide sleep support to families via workshops, online support, face to face support from our sleep practitioners. We provide training to practitioners to deliver sleep support to families
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0Due to cuts in funding our sleep service in Doncaster will no longer be able to run from 1st April 2024. We need support to ensure families across the city can continue to access vital one to one sleep support to support their physical and mental wellbeing.
The Background
Established in 2012 by our CEO and founder, Vicki Beevers, The Sleep Charity was first commissioned by the Doncaster Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) in 2016 to provide a tiered sleep intervention programme. The model that we developed in partnership with the CCG was the first of its kind in the country and has subsequently been our flagship service. The sleep service was featured on Panorama in March 2017, the programme outlined the cost saving nature of our work. Independent evaluation of the techniques used have been carried out and published, demonstrating that on average vulnerable children gain an additional 2.4 hours sleep per night. Parents and carers wellbeing also improved across all areas measured. (Elphick HE, Lawson C, Ives A, et al Pilot study of an integrated model of sleep support for children: a before and after evaluation, BMJ Paediatrics Open 2019;3:e000551. doi: 10.1136/ bmjpo-2019-000551)
The Impact
Our support quite simply changes lives. With 4 out of 10 children having a sleep issue and the figure rising to 8 out of 10 children who have a Special Educational Need or Disability, there is a huge demand for our successful service.
We have provided support to over 400 children and their families in the city over the last 2 years. Demand for our service has increased since Covid-19 with youngster's sleep issues becoming more severe and more complex. Left untreated these can impact negatively on mental health as well as physical wellbeing and attainment in school.
On average children's sleep increases by 2.35 hours per night thanks to our intervention . . that's a night a week's extra sleep!
Success Stories
We have many! Iona's story was recently featured on the national news and showed her and her mum discussing the life changing impact that getting sleep back in their lives had on them. Iona has recently been made our first Young Person's Sleep Ambassador.