Gloucestershire SEND group raising £100k for building

Devon with her son Max and daughter Lainey

A group which provides clubs for young people with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) across Gloucestershire is hoping to raise £100,000 for a new premises.

Chapter One offers after school, holiday and weekend sessions for 100 young people across the county.

It is currently based at the Willow Academy in Gloucester, but has secured a lease of a building on Eastbrook Road in the city, where it hopes to move next year.

The group needs to raise £100,000 to make modifications to the new site, and so far it has secured around £20,000.

Shell Potter founded Chapter One in 2022

Founder and director, Shell Potter, said the move will allow up to 15 more spaces to be available each session.

“There are thousands of special needs children in Gloucestershire and at the moment we only have a hundred young people that we support, so the move is going to facilitate families that need more respite and families that can’t access us,” Mrs Potter added.

“I’m turning away 10 families a day, and it’s just not a position we want to be in.”

'It's really vital'

Mrs Potter launched Chapter One in in 2022 after a separate organisation which provided similar groups folded.

She has a 13-year-old son with high complex needs, and said families depend on the break and care they get from the sessions.

The organisation is now the largest provider of short-term respite care in the county.

Max, 11, has global developmental delay, autism and is non-verbal. He’s been coming to Chapter One since 2022.

His mum, Devon, said the group allows her much-needed time to spend with her daughters.

“When he first started coming here I used to leave and have a little cry because he finally had some respite," she added.

"Before this I got two hours a week, but I could find anyone to have Max.

“It’s massively changed everything for our family, we can go to soft play, go to town for school shoes and lunch and [Max] wouldn’t like that. It’s just nice for me to spend time with my other children.”

Becky Pain-Tolin’s son has been attending groups for two years. She said it has kept her family together.

“We were at a point in 2022 where we were at family breakdown because his behaviour was so extreme, and I was at a point where I couldn’t manage him, he was very violent,” she added.

“It’s really vital we have this for us because I just can’t manage, and if I had him the amount of times that he should be here it would just be unbearable for both of us.”