A to Z Directory of benefits, grants and funding support groups and organisations - 0 to 5 years old
The benefits, grants, and funding-related support groups and organisations shown below all help support Plymouth's Local Offer for young people between 0 and 5 years old.
Support from national organisations and charities
In addition to the information and advice shown below, you might find the following organisations can help support you:.
- Family Fund is the UK's largest charity, providing grants for families raising disabled or seriously ill children and young people.
- Turn2Us is a national charity that helps people when times get tough. They provide financial support to help people get back on track.
- Disability Grants provide computer and assistive technology grants.
- CrackerJacks Children's Trust provides grants to disabled children and young people throughout the UK. It's able to offer grants for specialised equipment. This might include a specialised wheelchair, bikes and trikes, and sensory toys.
- CHIPS is the charity of the casino and gaming industry and provides specialised powered wheelchairs for children and young people with varying disabilities. It will only fund powered wheelchairs that are not provided by the NHS.
- The Children's Hope Foundation helps improve the lives of children and young people affected by illness, disability, or poverty. It provides funding for anything (with a few exceptions) that will benefit the child, such as medical equipment, computers, holidays, and days out. The charity also has a caravan holiday home in East Sussex for children (and their families) between the ages of 3 and 17 who have special needs.
- Children's Heart Federation provides information and practical support to children and young people with congenital and acquired heart conditions and their families. Professionals, such as cardiac nurses, social workers, or advice workers, are able to apply for grants towards specialist equipment and unexpected family costs, such as travel expenses to the hospital.
- Children Today helps disabled children and young people up to the age of 25. It provides grants for specialist equipment and aids such as communication aids, educational toys, trikes, lifting equipment, and electric wheelchairs.
- Caudwell Trust provides grants for children with special needs for things like specialist equipment.
- Lifeline4kids provides essential equipment to help improve the lives of children with disabilities or special needs.
Grants and funding from national organisations
The following information and links to organisations are based on a resource that was originally created by Friends and Families.
Contents
- Grants for equipment
- Grants for essential items
- Grants for educational aid
- Grants for day trips, short breaks or respite
- Wish making grants
- Equipment to buy or loan
Grants for equipment
AFK
AFK helps children and young people with disabilities and autism live independent, fulfilling lives. They provide mobility equipment that is not available on the NHS, such as bespoke powered wheelchairs, specialised trikes and walkers, terrain wheelchairs such as sports or beach wheelchairs, specialist buggies, and car seats.
The Boparan Charitable Trust
The Boparan Charitable Trust aims to improve young people's lives through funding for children with disabilities, life-limiting illnesses, and those who are in extreme poverty across the UK. They will provide grants for specialist equipment not available on the NHS, such as wheelchairs, trikes, and sensory toys, as well as treatments such as speech and language therapy.
Buttercup Children's Trust
buttercupchildrenstrust.org.uk
The Buttercup Children's Trust supports children under the age of 18 in the UK who suffer from a wide range of life-hindering illnesses, including, but not limited to, leukaemia, the deaf, the blind, cystic fibrosis, and all other serious or terminal illnesses. They will provide grants to help with hospital travel, respite, medical equipment, and travel expenses.
Caudwell Children
Caudwell Children aims to improve the lives of disabled and autistic children by providing diagnosis, equipment, services, and support. For households earning less than £45,000 a year and having a child between the ages of 4 and 11, they can provide an 80% charity-funded autism assessment. They will also provide funding for life-changing equipment for children with a wide range of disabilities or chronic illnesses. This includes mobility, sports, and sensory equipment.
Child Brain Injury Trust
They provide small grants of up to £125 for social activities for the child and sibling with acquired brain injury. The grant can also be used for equipment and items that will make life more comfortable for families. They have funded dance lessons, weighted blankets, family outings, and music lessons.
Children Today
Children Today helps children and young people with disabilities up to the age of 25 in the UK by providing specialised equipment. This includes things such as adapted buggies, car seats, trikes, power packs for wheelchairs, and sensory equipment.
The Children's Hope Foundation
childrenshopefoundation.org.uk
They aim to improve the lives of children and young people affected by illness, disability, or poverty up to their 25th birthday. They will provide funding for specialist medical or mobility equipment, educational equipment, holidays, respite breaks, or days out to help improve their health and well-being and/or quality of life opportunities and to help fulfil their full potential.
CHIPS
The CHIPS charity aims to raise funds for young people with varying disabilities to provide specialised powered wheelchairs. They will accept applications from those who have tried but have been unsuccessful in getting a wheelchair on the NHS or through the local authority.
Crackerjacks Children's Trust
Crackerjacks provides grants to disabled children and young people throughout the UK. It can offer grants up to a maximum of £700 for specialised equipment. This might include a specialised wheelchair, bikes and trikes, and sensory toys. They also provide respite breaks to their 'Ray's Sunshine Holiday Home' for families with a child under the age of 17 with a registered disability.
The Elifar Foundation
The Elifar Foundation aims to improve the care, facilities, and equipment available to profoundly disabled children and young adults, both at home and in residential care. They provide grants for items such as electronic wheelchairs, specialised seating, eating aids, adapted beds, trikes, hoists, communication aids, sensory equipment, and specialist holidays.
Family Fund
The Family Fund helps families with a disabled or seriously ill child or young person under the age of 17 across the UK. They provide grants to help with essential items such as washing machines, fridges, and clothing, as well as sensory toys, equipment, family breaks, and computers.
Family Fund Mobility Support
Family Fund Mobility Support is a car lease scheme to help families raise a disabled or seriously ill child under the age of three. They can provide a grant to lease a car through Motability Operations Limited until the child turns three.
Fashion and Textile Children's Trust
The Fashion and Textile Children's Trust supports families struggling financially. They will provide funding for essential items such as clothing, bedroom furniture, and appliances, as well as mobility equipment and educational support, for families where the parent or carer has worked in the UK fashion and textile industry. This includes retail and wholesale, design and manufacture, sportswear and outdoor clothing, supermarkets selling clothes, laundry and textile services, textile production, soft furnishings and interiors, carpets, distribution, haberdashery, footwear, and mattress manufacture.
Florence Nightingale Aid
The charity provides life-enhancing grants to help people of all ages who are ill, convalescent, or disabled in the UK. The grants will fund medical and household aids to alleviate sickness and help their ability to manage at home and live as independently as possible. This includes items such as wheelchairs, mattresses, mobile hoists, sensory equipment, and communication aids. They can also provide grants towards respite and convalescent breaks in nursing and convalescent homes and organised specialist breaks for children and young adults to give the carer at home a well-earned rest.
Independence at Home
The charity provides grants for people of all ages who have a physical or learning disability or long-term illness and are in financial need. They can provide grants towards mobility and travel equipment, special disability equipment, home adaptations, communications equipment, house repairs, kitchen equipment, beds and bedding, and general furnishings.
Linking Help with Hope
Linking Help with Hope provides grants to those on low incomes with a physical or diagnosed mental health condition, a learning disability, carers, or an adult or child with a disability. They can provide one-off grants of £250 towards essential household items and specialist equipment and towards a carer break.
Lifeline 4 Kids
The charity will provide equipment to help improve the quality of life for children with disabilities up to the age of 18. They can provide electric wheelchairs, mobility aids, specialised computers, and sensory toys. They can also help organisations, such as schools, have a soft play area and multi-sensory equipment.
The Matthew Trust
The Matthew Trust provides grants to those experiencing mental health difficulties aged 8 and older. Grants are provided when all other avenues of funding have been exhausted. They will provide grants for counselling, medical equipment, household goods, clothing, and respite breaks.
Naval Children's Charity
The charity supports children and young people up to the age of 25 who have at least one parent who has served or served in the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Women's Royal Navy Service, the Reserves of those Forces, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, or the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. They have an Emergency Essentials Grant Scheme to provide items such as clothing, beds, furniture, white goods, and buggies. They will also provide funding for assessments for educational needs. They will also purchase medical equipment for the child.
Newlife
Newlife provides equipment grants to disabled and terminally ill children in the UK. Grants can be for wheelchairs, buggies, seating systems, and more. They can also offer a free loan of emergency equipment for children at significant risk of injury and in urgent need because of unstable life-threatening or limiting conditions or terminal illness. They can also deliver Play Therapy Pods of specialist toys.
The Nihal Armstrong Trust
The charity provides grants for equipment, communication aids, or specialist services for a child up to the age of 18 with cerebral palsy. You must be in receipt of means-tested benefits and be able to provide evidence of this.
Pyramid Educational Trust
The charity supports people with autism and communication difficulties to learn and communicate through Picture Exchange Cards (PECS). They will provide grants for PECS training for parents and carers, home visits by a Pyramid Educational Consultant, a consultation, and PECS summer school.
Pirate FM
Their Cash for Kids Grant is available for children up to the age of 18 across Cornwall who are vulnerable, come from disadvantaged backgrounds, or are living with an illness or disability. They can fund specialist equipment, laptops, tablets, essential items, music lessons or therapy, specialist therapy, respite breaks, vouchers for fuel poverty, and assistance dogs.
REACT Charity
The charity works to improve the quality of life for children with life-limiting illnesses living in financially disadvantaged households throughout the UK. They will fund specialist equipment, domestic items, educational aids, respite breaks, hospital travel, and end-of-life/memorial costs.
Sunny Days Children's Fund
Sunny Days Children's Fund provides small grants to help children under the age of 18 with a wide range of adverse medical conditions, including leukaemia, cerebral palsy, the deaf and blind, terminal illnesses, and all other life-hindering conditions. Grants you can apply for are day trips, medical equipment, respite, hospital travel, or making children's remaining time as comfortable as possible, to include, where achievable, children's last wishes. They also have two holiday homes, which you can apply for for a week-long break.
Variety, The Children's Charity
The charity awards grants to support children under the age of 19 who have a recognised disability or long-term health condition. Grants can be for wheelchairs and specialist equipment such as hoists, beds, car seats, sensory and play equipment, and assistive and medical technology.
Whizz-Kidz
Whizz-Kidz provides wheelchair and mobility equipment to children and young people under the age of 18 across the UK who have a physical disability that permanently affects their mobility and participation. Equipment includes manual wheelchairs, powered wheelchairs, sports wheelchairs, trikes, and buggies.
Grants for essential items
BBC Children in Need Emergency Essentials Programme
familyfundservices.co.uk/emergency-essentials
Delivered by Family Fund to provide grant items that meet a child or young person's most basic needs or are critical to their wellbeing. Applications will only be considered up to the child's 18th birthday and those who are living in severe poverty and suffering deprivation as a result, and who are affected by additional social issues such as domestic abuse, substance misuse, estrangement, disability or serious illness, mental health or behavioural difficulties, abuse, or neglect. They will provide grants for household items such as a cooker, fridge-freezer, bed, washing machine, appliances, clothing, and baby equipment.
Buttle UK
Buttle UK helps children and young people across the UK. They provide small grants for items intended to make a positive impact where the child's health or development is at risk. They can fund items and activities to support learning and development, such as laptops, books, 12 months of broadband, educational toys, tuition, clothing and school uniforms, social, sporting, and leisure activities, family activities, items for children's bedrooms, and other household items that are not available from sources such as Emergency Essentials or local authority welfare schemes.
Catholic Children's Society (Plymouth)
They provide an Essentials Grant Programme to relieve the urgent material needs of children, young people, and families by providing essential household items and clothing, such as cookers, washing machines, beds, and school uniforms. They can support any family living within Plymouth and caring for a child under the age of 16.
Family Fund
The Family Fund helps families with a disabled or seriously ill child or young person under the age of 17 across the UK. They provide grants to help with essential items such as washing machines, fridges, and clothing, as well as sensory toys, equipment, family breaks, and computers.
Fashion and Textile Children's Trust
The Fashion and Textile Children's Trust supports families struggling financially. They will provide funding for essential items such as clothing, bedroom furniture, and appliances, as well as mobility equipment and educational support, for families where the parent or carer has worked in the UK fashion and textile industry. This includes retail and wholesale, design and manufacture, sportswear and outdoor clothing, supermarkets selling clothes, laundry and textile services, textile production, soft furnishings and interiors, carpets, distribution, haberdashery, footwear, and mattress manufacture.
Linking Help with Hope
Linking Help with Hope provides grants to those on low incomes with a physical or diagnosed mental health condition, a learning disability, carers, or an adult or child with a disability. They can provide one-off grants towards essential household items, specialist equipment, and a carer break.
The Matthew Trust
The Matthew Trust provides grants to those experiencing mental health difficulties aged 8 and older. Grants are provided when all other avenues of funding have been exhausted. They will provide grants for counselling, medical equipment, household goods, clothing, and respite breaks.
Naval Children's Charity
The charity supports children and young people up to the age of 25 who have at least one parent who has served or served in the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Women's Royal Navy Service, the Reserves of those Forces, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, or the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. They have an Emergency Essentials Grant Scheme to provide items such as clothing, beds, furniture, white goods, and buggies. They will also provide funding for assessments for educational needs and purchase medical equipment for the child.
Pirate FM
Their Cash for Kids Grant is available for children up to the age of 18 across Cornwall who are vulnerable, come from disadvantaged backgrounds, or are living with an illness or disability. They can fund specialist equipment, laptops, tablets, essential items, music lessons or therapy, specialist therapy, respite breaks, vouchers for fuel poverty, and assistance dogs.
Well Child
Well Child works with teams of volunteers to create safe, accessible, and sensory garden and bedroom spaces for children and young people with complex health needs.
Grants for educational aid
Able Kidz
Able Kidz works to make a disabled child's educational journey a fulfilling and positive experience. They provide specialist equipment, computers, and software to the children or school and also assist in funding the extra tuition needs of the child.
Buttle UK
Buttle UK helps children and young people across the UK. They provide small grants for items intended to make a positive impact where the child's health or development is at risk. They can fund items and activities to support learning and development, such as laptops, books, 12 months of broadband, educational toys, tuition, clothing and school uniforms, social, sporting and leisure activities, family activities, items for children's bedrooms, and other household items that are not available from sources such as Emergency Essentials or Local Authority welfare schemes, etc.
The Children's Hope Foundation
childrenshopefoundation.org.uk
They aim to improve the lives of children and young people affected by illness, disability, or poverty up to their 25th birthday. They will provide funding for specialist medical or mobility equipment, educational equipment, holidays, respite breaks, or days out to help improve their health and well-being and/or quality of life opportunities and to help fulfil their full potential.
Fashion and Textile Children's Trust
The Fashion and Textile Children's Trust supports families struggling financially. They will provide funding for essential items such as clothing, bedroom furniture, and appliances, as well as mobility equipment and educational support, for families where the parent or carer has worked in the UK fashion and textile industry. This includes retail and wholesale, design and manufacture, sportswear and outdoor clothing, supermarkets selling clothes, laundry and textile services, textile production, soft furnishings and interiors, carpets, distribution, haberdashery, footwear, and mattress manufacture.
Jessies Fund
Jessies Fund can provide grants for children up to the age of 19 with disabilities or long-term illness for therapy with fully qualified music therapists.
Naval Children's Charity
The charity supports children and young people up to the age of 25 who have at least one parent who has served or served in the Royal Navy, the Royal Marines, the Women's Royal Navy Service, the Reserves of those Forces, the Royal Fleet Auxiliary, or the Queen Alexandra's Royal Naval Nursing Service. They have an Emergency Essentials Grant Scheme to provide items such as clothing, beds, furniture, white goods, and buggies. They will also provide funding for assessments for educational needs. They will also purchase medical equipment for the child.
Pyramid Educational Trust
The charity supports people with autism and communication difficulties to learn and communicate through Picture Exchange Cards (PECS). They will provide grants for PECS training for parents and carers, home visits by a Pyramid Educational Consultant, a consultation, and PECS summer school.
REACT Charity
The charity works to improve the quality of life for children with life-limiting illnesses living in financially disadvantaged households throughout the UK. They will fund specialist equipment, domestic items, educational aids, respite breaks, hospital travel, and end-of-life/memorial costs.
Grants for day trips, short breaks or respite
The Adamson Trust
The trust provides financial support with the costs of holidays or respite breaks for disabled children between the ages of 3 and 17 with physical, mental, or emotional impairments.
Buttercup Children's Trust
buttercupchildrenstrust.org.uk
The Buttercup Children's Trust supports children under the age of 18 in the UK who suffer from a wide range of life-hindering illnesses, including, but not limited to, leukaemia, the deaf, the blind, cystic fibrosis, and all other serious or terminal illnesses. They will provide grants to help with hospital travel, respite, medical equipment, and travel expenses.
Buttle UK
Buttle UK helps children and young people across the UK. They provide small grants for items intended to make a positive impact where the child's health or development is at risk. They can fund items and activities to support learning and development, such as laptops, books, 12 months of broadband, educational toys, tuition, clothing and school uniforms, social, sporting and leisure activities, family activities, items for children's bedrooms, and other household items that are not available from sources such as Emergency Essentials or Local Authority welfare schemes, etc.
Child Brain Injury Trust
They provide small grants for social activities for the child and sibling with an acquired brain injury. The grant can also be used for equipment and items that will make life more comfortable for families. They have funded dance lessons, weighted blankets, family outings, and music lessons.
The Children's Hope Foundation
childrenshopefoundation.org.uk
They aim to improve the lives of children and young people affected by illness, disability, or poverty up to their 25th birthday. They will provide funding for specialist medical or mobility equipment, educational equipment, holidays, respite breaks, or days out to help improve their health and well-being and/or quality of life opportunities and to help fulfil their full potential.
Crackerjacks Children's Trust
Crackerjacks provides grants to disabled children and young people throughout the UK. It can offer grants for specialised equipment. This might include a specialised wheelchair, bikes and trikes, and sensory toys. They also provide respite breaks to their 'Ray's Sunshine Holiday Home' for families with a child under the age of 17 with a registered disability.
Family Fund
The Family Fund helps families with a disabled or seriously ill child or young person under the age of 17 across the UK. They provide grants to help with essential items such as washing machines, fridges, and clothing, as well as sensory toys, equipment, family breaks, and computers.
Florence Nightingale Aid
The charity provides life-enhancing grants to help people of all ages who are ill, convalescent, or disabled in the UK. The grants will fund medical and household aids to alleviate sickness and help their ability to manage at home and live as independently as possible. This includes items such as wheelchairs, mattresses, mobile hoists, sensory equipment, and communication aids. They can also provide grants towards respite and convalescent breaks in nursing and convalescent homes and organised specialist breaks for children and young adults to give the carer at home a well-earned rest.
Happy Days Children's Charity
The charity will fund family day trips and holiday breaks for families who have a child or children with special educational needs, who have been victims of abuse, or who have a life-limiting condition and are aged 3-17.
Honeypot
Honeypot provides respite breaks and ongoing outreach support for young carers aged 5-12.
Linking Help with Hope
Linking Help with Hope provides grants to those on low incomes with a physical or diagnosed mental health condition, a learning disability, carers, or an adult or child with a disability. They can provide one-off grants towards essential household items, specialist equipment, and a carer break.
The Matthew Trust
The Matthew Trust provides grants to those experiencing mental health difficulties aged 8 and older. Grants are provided when all other avenues of funding have been exhausted. They will provide grants for counselling, medical equipment, household goods, clothing, and respite breaks.
Merlin's Magic Wand
Merlin's Magic Wand provides days out to one of their Merlin attractions for the immediate family of the child. The child must be aged 2-18 years, have a serious or long-term illness or disability, be terminally ill, be impacted by domestic abuse, or be a carer.
Pirate FM
Their Cash for Kids Grant is available for children up to the age of 18 across Cornwall who are vulnerable, come from disadvantaged backgrounds, or are living with an illness or disability. They can fund specialist equipment, laptops, tablets, essential items, music lessons or therapy, specialist therapy, respite breaks, vouchers for fuel poverty, and assistance dogs.
REACT Charity
The charity works to improve the quality of life for children with life-limiting illnesses living in financially disadvantaged households throughout the UK. They will fund specialist equipment, domestic items, educational aids, respite breaks, hospital travel, and end-of-life/memorial costs.
Sandcastle Trust
The Sandcastle Trust supports families living with a rare genetic condition in the UK to build lasting positive memories. They will fund respite breaks, annual attraction passes, and day trips.
Sunny Days Children's Fund
Sunny Days Children's Fund provides small grants to help children under the age of 18 with a wide range of adverse medical conditions, including leukaemia, cerebral palsy, the deaf and blind, terminal illnesses, and all other life-hindering conditions.
Grants you can apply for are day trips, medical equipment, respite, hospital travel, or making children's remaining time as comfortable as possible, to include, where achievable, children's last wishes. They also have two holiday homes, which you can apply for for a week-long break.
Wish-making grants
Barrie Wells Trust
The charity provides VIP experiences for seriously ill and disabled children through their Box4Kids initiative. They work with clubs, companies, and individual businesses across the UK, inviting children from local hospitals to watch their favourite sports team or concert from the comfort of an executive box.
Dial a Dream
Dial a Dream aims to make the dreams of children between the ages of 3 and 18 with a life-threatening or limiting illness a reality.
Dreamflight
The charity takes children with a serious illness or disability on a holiday of a lifetime to Orlando.
Dream Makers
dreammakerschildrenscharity.com
Dream Makers grant dreams from small requests of TVs and bedroom makeovers to holidays of a lifetime to Disney World Florida, swimming with the dolphins' therapy trip, Lapland, holidays in sunnier climates, and opportunities to meet pop stars. They are not limited in who they grant dreams to. They offer holidays to children who are disabled, terminally ill, underprivileged, or have special needs.
Dreams Come True
The charity delivers dreams to children aged 5-18 who are living in the highest areas of deprivation in the country and are living with a disability, a serious illness, or a life-limiting condition. They will do home makeovers, community makeovers, and UK holidays.
Rays of Sunshine
Rays of Sunshine is a national charity that grants wishes and provides ongoing support in hospitals for seriously ill children between the ages of 3 and 18. Wishes have included meeting a fireman, being a mermaid or princess, being a train driver, or meeting their favourite celebrity.
Round Table Children's Wish
The charity grants handcrafted wishes to children and young people aged 4-17 with life-threatening illnesses. Every wish is chosen by the child; it can be a trip away, meeting their hero, or a celebrity.
Starlight
Starlight uses the power of play to make the experience of illness and treatment better for children and their families. They hold starlight escape days and breaks throughout the year. This has included boat parties, summer fetes, concerts, and breaks away at Centre Parcs.
When you Wish Upon a Star
The charity grants wishes to children aged 4-16 with a life-threatening illness. Wishes have included being a princess for the day, meeting celebrities, and taking a trip to Disneyland. They also organise days out, such as a Harry Potter experience and a sleigh ride in December in Lapland.
Willow
Willow supports adults aged between 16 and 40 with life-threatening conditions. They provide unforgettable moments and experiences for each family. They will provide days and short breaks tailored to each individual.
Equipment to buy or loan
CALL South West
CALL South West provides communication aids for speech-impaired people in Plymouth and West Devon.
Fledglings
Fledglings is part of the Contact charity. You can buy a variety of products, such as swimwear and accessories, body vests, sleepwear, clothing, toileting products, sensory toys, communication aids, and so much more.
Friends and Families
The charity has a lending library of various sensory toys and equipment available to borrow at a low cost. Items include weighted blankets, a beach wheelchair, a tomato buggy, and so much more.
Plymouth Parent Carer Voice
Plymouth Parent Carer Voice has a library of various sensory toys and equipment. To borrow an item, you will need to become a member.
Rompa
Rompa provides a range of sensory products and can help build a sensory room at home.
Wizzybug
Wizzybug is an innovative powered wheelchair provided free of charge for physically disabled young children. It is intended for preschool children with a minimum age of 14 months and a maximum weight of 20kg.
Disability Information and Advice Centre (DIAC)
Family Fund
Plymouth Early Help and SEND Advice Line
Plymouth Information, Advice and Support for SEND (PIAS)
Plymouth Parent Carer Voice
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