Why We Built Little Footsteps Hub: A Sanctuary for Families the System Forgot

We Didn’t Build a Service. We Built a Lifeboat.

We didn’t wake up one morning and think, “Let’s start a hub.” We woke up again and again to emails that made our stomachs drop, meetings that gaslit entire families, and safeguarding failures dressed up as “policy.” Little Footsteps Hub wasn’t born out of ambition. It was born out of necessity. Out of rupture. Out of the quiet rage that comes when you realise the system meant to protect your child is the one causing harm.

We built this because families like ours were drowning in policy quick sand, and someone had to throw a rope. Spoiler: help did not come from the usual places.

The System That Forgot Us

If you’ve ever tried to get an EHCP without losing your mind, your job, or your last shred of optimism, you already know. If you’ve ever had to explain trauma to someone holding a clipboard and a blank stare, welcome. You’re in the right place.

We’ve seen families blamed for their child’s distress, housing officers who think “vulnerability” is a lifestyle choice, and safeguarding leads who need a glossary just to understand their own duties. When we challenged it? We were told to be “more reasonable.” As if reason lives in a damp flat with no heating and a child who hasn’t slept in weeks.

What Trauma-Informed Advocacy Actually Looks Like

It’s not just soft lighting and breathing exercises. It’s strategy. It’s emotional regulation in the face of minimisation. It’s knowing when to escalate, when to document, and when to say: “This meeting is now over.”

We teach families how to navigate systems without losing themselves. We translate jargon into plain English, we validate the overwhelm. Yes, we’ve been known to throw in a colour-coded template or two, because nothing says “I’m regulated” like a well-organised complaint letter.

🧡 A Story That Stays With Us🧡

One mum came to us after being told her child’s meltdowns were “just bad behaviour.” The school had excluded him a countless amount of times. No support. No plan. Just punishment. The headteacher gatekept and the council just wouldn't listen.

We sat with her. We listened. We drafted. We escalated. When the council and school finally backed down, she said: “I didn’t know people like you existed. I thought I had to do this alone.”

She doesn’t anymore.

Our Vision for South London and Beyond

We’re not here to patch holes. We’re here to redesign the boat. Our advocacy is lived experience-led, trauma-informed, and unapologetically strategic. We’re building borough-wide change, one family, one letter, one refusal to be silenced at a time.

Systems need more than reform they need reimagining. Preferably by people who’ve actually survived them and we are here to make the change.

A Final Word (and a Slightly Passive-Aggressive Hug)

If you’ve ever been told you’re “too emotional,” “too demanding,” or “not understanding how the system works”, congratulations. You’re probably doing it right.

This blog will be our space to share tools, stories, and strategy. To name harm without flinching. To laugh where we can, cry when we must, and build legacy from lived experience.

Welcome to Little Footsteps Hub. We’re so glad you found us....

P.S. For those of us with ADHD, here’s the short version(haha):

We’re here to fight for you and with you, so our children can have the same opportunities as everyone else.