The Handsel Trust is following in the footsteps of One Hundred Hours which worked with families in the 1990s to pioneer and validate the Keyworker model of family-centred support for families who had a baby or young child with neurological impairment. We feel the Trust is a fitting tribute to the work of One Hundred Hours and the families with whom it worked.

The Handsel Trust as it is now

The Trust is a handful of people who are committed to effective support for all families in the UK with a child with a disability and special needs. Our collective background includes education, therapy, writing, university teaching, research and policy-making. We come from both statutory and voluntary sectors and we have disabled people in our families. The Trust uses conferences, publications and consultations to spread its messages.

Our origins are in the ‘One Hundred Hours’ organisation which pioneered and validated the Keyworker model in the 1990s for families with babies and young children with neurological impairment. In this work we learned that for some families the Keyworker can effectively pull the separate strands of support together into a coherent and co-ordinated whole. We learned that for others with more complex needs, the Keyworker’s role is to bring the child’s key practitioners together, with parents, into a small family-centred Team Around the Child (TAC). We continue to campaign actively for both Keyworking and Team-Around-the-Child family support because, despite recent government approval of these models, most families are still receiving a fragmented service. We estimate that most families who learn today that their baby has a disability will have to manage the pre-school years without either a Keyworker or TAC.

Who are the Trustees?

Peter Limbrick, chair of the Trust, founded and directed One Hundred Hours and supported families as a Keyworker. His work now is as a writer and consultant specialising in children with multiple and complex needs.

"As a ‘sib’I have always had an interest in people with disabilities and special needs. My brother was born with cerebral palsy as I was preparing to go to University and since then I have worked in special education and in the voluntary sector. My work slipped into campaigning mode after I set up One Hundred Hours in 1990. This organisation developed and validated a keyworker-based family support system for babies and young children with neurological impairment and consequent multiple needs. With a deep sense of the unmet needs of the children and families I worked with in the 90s, I campaign now as Chair of the Trust and as an independent consultant and writer in Interconnections. My special interest is children with the most multiple and complex needs and for them I have developed the Team-Around-the-Child system of family-centred support. I am privileged to have both my daughters involved in this work."

Gudrun Limbrick worked with Peter for One Hundred Hours and, with both him and Sheila West, established The Handsel Trust in 1999. Gudrun works on the Trust's communications - the website, publications and newsletter. In Gudrun's other life, she works as a freelance researcher in social exclusion and has recently attained a Masters in Research and Social Policy from the University of Birmingham.

Penny Lacey "I'm currently a senior lecturer at the University of Birmingham where I run a distance education course in severe, profound and complex learning difficulties. My research has been mainly about collaborative multi-agency work, although recently I have been interested in the way literacy is taught to children who are not likely to learn to read and write conventionally.

Alongside my university work, I work as a feelance consultant in the area of profound and multiple disabilities, travelling about the country promoting ways of working and meeting needs. Earlier in my career, I worked in schools for children with SLD in Coventry, where I became involved with the most profoundly disabled children.

Our family contains members with a variety of difficulties and disabilities so I get to learn firsthand about aspects of disability and keep my feet firmly in family-reality-land!"

Suzanne "I am a qualified physiotherapist and have worked for 16 years in community paediatrics both in England and in Canada. I am currently working as Superintendent Paediatric Physiotherapist for Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust leading a Team of 11 staff in developing community services for children in the Walsall area. I am particularly involved in delivering services through multi-agency planning and working, using the Team Around the Child model, which places the child and their family central to a tailored package of care/ intervention. Other areas of special interest are Early Intervention, and Patient Experience and Public Involvement."

We are assisted in our work by Catherine Hughes who deals with the administrative tasks.