January 2025 Keep in touch with us in your favourite way – X, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, BlueSky and through this mailing. Young siblings and New Year Our latest spotlight blog post for young siblings is on New Year’s resolutions. New year and new beginnings might also mean doing things differently and asking for help. Check out our advice for young siblings who are growing up with a disabled brother or sister here. New look website The team here at Sibs have been refreshing our charity website – if you haven’t visited for a while – please do take a look! Special thanks to the siblings who have kindly worked with us to have their photographs taken. Special thanks to Amelia and Jacob for telling us a little about what life is like for them.  You can read Amelia’s story here.  We are particularly keen to have more photographs of young siblings which we can use in our work.  If this is something you might be interested in, do get in touch via our website here. Responding to “It’s not fair” – parent tip We receive a lot of questions around siblings telling parents that “It’s not fair” Issues around fairness arise in all families where there is more than one child. Children don’t really want to share parental time and attention with someone else. When they complain about fairness, they often get an emotional response from a parent and this in itself increases the amount of attention they get. This tends to happen a lot in families of disabled children as the siblings usually do get less parental attention. Talk about the difference between things being fair and things being equal – if things had to be equal that would mean that all the children went to bed at the same time; would wear the same clothes. Talk about how you want each child to have their own unique needs met. Ask your child about their needs and together come up with some ideas for meeting these.  You can read the rest of our advice on fairness here. Law Commission Review – views sought on sibling assessment The Law Commission have published a consultation paper on social care and disabled children.  We are very pleased to see “Chapter 6: Assessing siblings’ needs”. The chapter outlines the law currently and references Sibs’ information and reports.  The Law Commission is seeking to simplify the law on social care and is asking some key questions about sibling support as follows: Question 19:  We invite consultees to provide their experiences of the conduct of young carers’ needs assessments Question 20: We provisionally propose that statutory guidance should direct local authorities to consider whether the needs of any siblings needs to be taken into account as part of the assessment of the needs of disabled children. Do consultees agree? Question 21: We provisionally propose that there should be a single duty to assess the needs of carers, whatever their age.  Do consultees agree? The consultation has been extended until 31st January to give opportunities for more responses.  Sibs will be submitting a response and will be keeping a close eye on next steps.  If you would like to share your views – you can find the consultation paper here.. Sibling Group Leader training (young siblings) Are you interested in running a group for young siblings who have a disabled brother or sister? Our next training session will run on 26th March 2025, online. This session will give you all the information you need to plan, run and evaluate your own local siblings group.  To find out more and book your place, check out our webpage here. Confident Caring Programme – adult siblings Our programme continues into the spring with some brilliant new workshops for you to join in. These are adult siblings who have grown up with an autistic or disabled brother or sister. (If you have missed any of our workshops so far – you can check out the summary pages here.)

• Workshop: Your romantic and partner relationships

Being a sibling can impact our romantic and partner relationships as an adult. Whether you’re looking for advice on dating as a sibling or tips for navigating long-term partnerships, this workshop will open up those conversations and connect you with others in a similar situation.
Mon 10^th Feb, 7pm – 8.30pm
Tickets £5 (free if in financial need)
For full info and to book visit www.sibs.org.uk/yourrelationships

• Workshop: Siblings aged 55 plus

Siblings have to juggle competing demands and challenges throughout their lives, however these can increase with age. If you’re a sibling aged around 55 or over, join our online workshop for peer support and advice.
Mon 10^th Mar, 7pm – 8.30pm
Tickets £5 (free if in financial need)
For full info and to book visit www.sibs.org.uk/55plus

New support group for adult siblings of autistic people

Being a sibling to an autistic person can bring a whole range of experiences, feelings and complexity to your life that it can be hard for others to relate to. Connecting with others who just ‘get’ what sibling life is like can help you to feel more confident and less isolated in your sibling role. We’ve received many requests from siblings of autistic people for a support group that meets their needs, and thanks to funding from The Boshier Grant Scheme we’re grateful to be able to offer these pilot online support group sessions run by a trained Sibs volunteer across 2025. You can find out more about the group and the topics being offered here. We look forward to welcoming you.

‘Realising I was a carer changed everything. I was validated’
The latest edition of Community Living Magazine has featured one of the contributions from our recent publication Autism: The Sibling Perspective.
Monica had not thought of herself as a carer for her twin brother. She then started an Instagram community so carers feel better understood and inspired to achieve career dreams.  You can read the article in Community Living Magazine here. If you haven’t yet read our story collection – you can download it here. 

Emily – “My sister was angry about being physically ill, especially since I wasn’t”
Emily shares her story of growing up with a sister who had complex health issues.

Objective Actigraphy Study in Sleep of Children with Intellectual Disability and their Siblings (OASIS)
The University of Birmingham is conducting an exciting new study to explore sleep in children with an intellectual disability and their siblings!
They’re inviting families with children aged 4-15 with an intellectual disability and their same-household siblings, to participate in a 10-day sleep study. Participants will wear a small movement tracker on their wrist or ankle to measure sleep patterns, while caregivers will complete a sleep diary. Each family will receive a personalised report with insights into their children’s sleep and behaviour!
This research will help researchers better understand the connections between poor sleep, chronic health conditions, and sibling well-being.
If you are interested, please use the following link https://bhampsychology.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_8GrF339OrEtfyfA
or email the team at [email protected]

Fundraising – can you help Sibs?

It continues to be a very challenging time to raise funds for our work here at Sibs.  We would welcome any help you can give.  If you are in the position to make a donation – this will help keep our services running this year. Thank you. Perhaps your school or company choose a charity to support, we would be thrilled if you could put Sibs’ name forward.  Perhaps you have a marathon place, or are taking on the Great North Run or Ride London?  If so, would you like to raise money for Sibs – we can provide you with a running vest – see our JustGiving page here. Perhaps you have a personal link to a Trust of Foundation that gives grants to charities.  Many Trusts and Foundations don’t accept unsolicited applications – they rely on their Trustees and contacts suggesting charities to their Boards.   If you have a link or a connection or would like to talk about supporting our charity in whatever way you can – we would very much like to hear from you. Drop us a line at [email protected] Thank you so much.