Services offered by firsthand
Sitter Service
Eva Schonveld
“It’s a lifeline!”
Families are matched with a sitter who looks after the child(ren) at home, giving parent(s) free time to use as they choose: perhaps on courses, sport, meeting friends. Meanwhile the children get real benefits from a relationship with another supportive adult.
Parents who live in the City of Edinburgh, and don’t have a regular or reliable means of getting a break, are eligible if they are: a lone parent or a couple caring for a disabled child. The categories may overlap: many lone parents care for a disabled child. In some of the families using our service more than one child may be diagnosed as having a disability.
The service is free to families. We match families with sitters depending on their needs and experience – this means that there may be a bit of a wait before the sits can begin. Families can expect to receive our sitter service for a year in the first instance – we may continue this for longer if our support is still required.
Funding from Sure Start allows us to employ sitters with special experience of working with children under three. They sit regularly for a year, offering support and parenting advice.
We can also help to support families with experience of domestic abuse or homelessness – our service has been particularly useful to families setting up again in a new home.
We work to meet the individual needs of disabled children and young people. Thanks to specific funding some of our sitters have the training and experience required to sit for children who have complex care needs such as epilepsy and autistic spectrum disorder.
Click here for information on using the Sitter Service.