Setting up your sibling group

As well as having good insight in the needs of siblings of different ages, you will need to have a good understanding of child development more generally. Sibling groups need to be child centred and held in child friendly environments.

You will need to know about various stages of group development – forming, storming, norming, performing, etc. to help you support a group through these stages

You will need to be able to recognise when a sibling needs further help that is beyond the scope of the sibling group, and where to refer siblings to for support.

You will need to be good at communicating with children and their parents, and able to use discussion techniques with children.

You will need to be able to arrange for siblings to get to and from the group, plan the activities for each session, brief other workers about the group, and arrange any materials or activity resources.

You will need to be apply the safeguarding policy and procedure of your organisation to your group or develop your own policy and procedure if your group is not part of another organisation

The main cost of running a sibling group is your time or the cost of paying someone to run the group. Before planning your group look at how much time will be involved with planning and running your group. Ensure that your organisation agrees to you using your time in this way and makes allowance in your workload for this.

A cost effective option could be to link up with other people who have contact with disabled children and their families and who may be interested in supporting siblings alongside you. Children’s centres, schools or youth clubs may have workers who are able to help you to set up or run the group, or they may offer you a venue or resources. There may also be groups of volunteers who could support you, for example from the local college or university.Most sibling group activities only need inexpensive resources such as pens, paper and basic art materials. Siblings will also need some refreshments.

You may want to transport the siblings to the group which will incur mileage, taxis or minibus hire costs. Some areas have community transport schemes which provide vehicles and volunteer drivers.

You may decide to charge a fee for siblings to attend the groups to cover the overheads of running the group.  Many parents may find it difficult to pay  due to the additional expenditure of raising a disabled child.

You can apply for funding to help you set up and run your group. You could seek grants for the practical costs of the group such as resources and venue hire. You may decide to apply for grants to cover the cost of employing workers to plan and run the sessions.

A good starting point for finding funders is your local Council for Voluntary Services. They will have details on local and national organisations that award grants to children’s activities. Local funding agencies are best for smaller anounts, whereas if you are planning to run a larger project it may be better to apply to a national grant making organisation. The True Colours Trust has a grant scheme for sibling projects.To be awarded funding you will need to meet the criteria of the grant making organisation. Some will only award to registered charities whereas others will award to community groups. You will need to have clear outcomes for the project, show how you will measure these, and demonstrate that you are able to manage the funds.

Siblings of children with SEND are at risk for attainment and wellbeing and should be identified in your school as a vulnerable group. Use Pupil Premium to fund sibling support interventions including sibling groups.

The 90 minute session can be run as a single issue workshop for siblings, for example, explaining a condition or disability such as autism or teaching coping strategies and passing on information about local and online support.

The 90 minute session is run every week, for 6-8 weeks with the same siblings attending each session.  A group identity is created and each session has a different theme. After the group a reunion event can be planned to see how everyone is getting on.

The 90 minute session is run regularly, every week, fortnight or month. Siblings meet at the same time in the same venue  and attend when they are able to. A regular core group of siblings attend with new siblings joining in and others leaving from time to time.

Running a session for siblings of a similar age  8-12 years or 12-16 years will help  you to run age appropriate activities. Running a session for siblings across a wide age range, for example 8-16 years, works well if you are able to split the group into smaller groups for discussion activities. It also works well if they have brothers and sisters with the same conditions.

Consider whether siblings can cope with the discussion activities. If they are likely to need a lot of support, they may benefit from one to one interventions. If siblings have a condition or disability themselves that is obvious then the other siblings may not feel comfortable about sharing their sibling experiences. Conditions such as dyslexia or asthma are unlikely to affect the running of the group, whereas learning disability or autism often does; siblings may feel that they have to look after other children at the group or resentful that the group leader’s focus is on sorting out the child with additional needs.

When you are running discussion activities try to put any siblings from the same family into different groups so that they are able to speak freely. Although they are from the same family, their sibling experiences will be different.

Most siblings will have a mixture of needs but if you can only run one session, think about the needs that you can address well in the session and the outcomes that you can expect. Do the siblings need to learn more about their brother or sister’s disability? Do the siblings need to learn ways of coping with difficult times? Do siblings need a chance to express their feelings? Set clear aims for your session and deliver that in the 90 minute format.

Decide where the siblings are going to come from. You can invite siblings known to your agency or school or extend it to other agencies. Or you may advertise it and ask parents to get in touch.

Give families the details of the group beforehand – the date and time, venue address and contact number. You need to obtain contact details of the family and a consent form for siblings attending with any relevant information for example about medication or allergies. Write a simple leaflet about the group that can be passed to siblings, parents and other agencies.

If you are running a group in a venue that siblings need to travel to, you need to think about how siblings will get there. Parents could arrange transport between them. Or you could collect the siblings using a minibus, staff cars, taxis or community transport/volunteers.

Possible venues include children’s centres, schools, church halls, youth centres, sports centres or scout huts. You need to be able to do messy craft work, make noise, play games and provide food and drink. It needs to be in a safe place for families and staff.

What you record about the group will depend on your agency and its data protection policy. You may need to record siblings’ attendance at the group. It is always useful to record an overview of the session and how the siblings responded for future reference and to feedback to parents or funders.

For new groups without the support of a statutory or voluntary organisation, a good source of support is the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA). NAVCA has a host of policies and procedures that can be downloaded by organisations and adapted to suit your needs. These include employee management policies such as supervision, disciplinary procedures and subsistence claims and organisational policies such as health and safety and complaints. 

Are things different in any way for you since coming to the sibling group?

What difference has the group made to you?

Do you do anything different now since coming to the group? At home? At school?

What have you learned since coming to the group?

Have there been any changes in your sibling child as a result of coming to the sibling group: At home? At school? Between you and your sibling child? Between your sibling child and your disabled child? In his/her mood?

What has your sibling child learned since coming to the group?

What difference do you think coming to the group has made to him/her?

What effect has this had on your family?

Does your sibling child do anything differently now since attending the group?

Have there been any changes in this sibling since attending the sibling group: In mood? In behaviour? In learning? In relationships with others?

What impact has the group had on this sibling?

This wellbeing tool is a standardardized behavioural screening questionnaire. Parents, professionals or older siblings complete the forms pre and post group. This gives you good data to show changes for the siblings.

If you are running a sibling group in school you can use attainment data from prior to and after the group intervention to measure the impact of attending the group on progress at school.