Families need this place... but we can't get funding

Fears for future of 'vital' centre that supports children with extra needs

- By MEGAN BANNER

A CENTRE which supports children with additional needs in Merseyside is facing closure.

Sensory Shack in Birkenhead is a “vital part” of the community, supporting children with additional needs who struggle going into mainstream environments and offering respite for parents and carers, helping more than 50 families every week.

Founder Sinead Holden, 49, formerly a foster carer, set up the community interest company six years ago after fostering a boy with additional needs and realising there was a “massive gap” in accessible centres of its kind.

The mum-of-three, from Birkenhead, told the ECHO: “I was a foster carer for eight years, it was always something I wanted to do. I had two older children who flew the nest, there is a 21-year gap between my oldest and youngest and I didn’t want her to be an only child at home.