Natalie

My Requirements

School pickups
At present we are looking for someone to help with school pickups for our daughter as of September 2026 (or drop offs if pickups are not possible). She has an aversion to car travel and cannot walk long distances, so we need someone to collect her from school and bring her back in her pushchair. The walk is around 15 minutes from school to our house. Our daughter is very friendly and outgoing and tends to form positive relationships with caring adults very easily. She has Down syndrome is pre-verbal and so requires someone with the patience, skill and desire to understand what she is communicating through gestures, sounds, behaviour and some Makaton signs.

Help in the home
In the future we also hope to find someone who can work with our family more closely - this could be the same person as the school pickups or someone else, depending on who might be the right fit. This would involve spending time in the home predominantly with me and our son. He has very complex needs (Down syndrome, autism, sensory processing challenges, social anxiety, highly sensitive, significant trauma history, communication challenges/pre-verbal) and is extremely wary of people and takes a long time to form trusting relationships. He currently does not leave the house aside from under very limited circumstances and has a very small number of people that he will engage with at all. We are hoping to find someone with the patience, commitment, gentleness and playfulness required to build a relationship with him over time. With the right person, he can engage with a remarkable amount of affection, joy and playfulness. When he is settled he is incredibly loving.