FLEXICARE, an Oxfordshire charity offering flexible support and babysitting for families with disabled children, is on the hunt for volunteers.

Caring for a disabled child can make daily parenting duties, such as feeding, toilet training and getting children to sleep, more intense and exhausting for parents.

This is on top of the ‘normal’ pressures that all parents have around supporting schooling and provide a caring and rich environment for their children’s development.

Flexicare is a small charity operating around Oxford, Wantage, and Grove, first set up more than 35 years ago.

The charity matches volunteer babysitters with a disabled child to provide support to their family.

They are registered as a domiciliary care agency by the Care Quality Commission and supported by a grant from Oxfordshire County Council.

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The charity has a small core staff and a team of volunteers who are trained to care for children with disabilities.

The service they offer is flexible around each family’s needs but usually families have two to three volunteer support sessions per month.

This simple service can be life changing for families.

Having the support from someone else who can care for their child means that parents can practice some self-care, give some attention to their other children for a precious few hours, or can do other household chores.

Its founder Sue Kenrick says: "The aim was never to change the world, but to make that one week, perhaps that one day, a little bit easier for that one family.”

The families supported by Flexicare emphasise the importance of the charity’s work.

One parent who uses the charity commented: “They offer a unique service that no-one else does.

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“The volunteers are extremely professional.

“There can be families who have no other services to access – they do an absolutely amazing job.”

Another parent benefitting from their service added: “Flexicare will look after my son or they will take my daughters out.

“They will even take all three out.

“What they provide for me has been invaluable.”

Flexicare is always looking for volunteer babysitters to continue providing this support to families.

Volunteers can come from a variety of backgrounds.

Some have been nurses or special education teachers and some have had disabled children or grandchildren of their own.

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Others do not have any obviously relevant past experience but they do have a healthy dose of common sense and a desire to be of help to those who are struggling.

Whatever experience a volunteer brings with them, Flexicare enhances it with regular training.

They then carefully match up families and volunteers to ensure that both parties are equally confident that the children will be very well looked after.

To find out more about this and lots of other volunteering opportunities visit oxonvolunteers.org and type ‘Flexicare’ in the search bar, visit flexicare.org, email admin@flexicare.org, or call 01865 321881

This article was developed in partnership with the Volunteer Centre at OCVA.

If you would like a feature about your community group, charity or social enterprise email: vol@ocva.org.uk