Our Story

Broadleaf began in 2010 as a small group of home-educating parents, simply looking for a place where our families could feel safe, connected, and understood. What we needed didn’t exist, so - together - we created it.

Many of us were raising neurodivergent children and couldn’t find spaces where they could truly be themselves, places where they were met with acceptance, not expectation, and where they could thrive. So we built something different, shaped around them and around our needs as parents.

What began as a few families coming together to share time, ideas, and support slowly grew into something much more. Over the years, it has become a deeply rooted community, evolving naturally from lived experience and the real, changing needs of the children and families within it—never designed as a service, but grown with care, trust, and connection at its heart..

Everything at Broadleaf has always blossomed from this place:
we are not working with families - we ARE the families.

Rapid Changes

In recent years, that need has grown significantly. Since the pandemic, the number of home-educated children in Hampshire alone has risen 600%, from 500 to over 2,500.

As more families have found themselves without suitable support, demand for what Broadleaf offers has increased rapidly. We’ve gone from a community of a few families to a regional organisation delivering a full programme and contributing to national policy.

What was once a small, local group has grown into a thriving, community-led organisation, now supporting over 220 children, young people and parents each week.

This growth has not been driven by expansion plans, but by families finding us, and staying, because what they need exists here.

What do we have within our community?

Broadleaf is built on the knowledge, skills, and lived experience of the families within it.

Many of our parents bring professional expertise in areas such as mental health, neurodivergence, creative practice, and nature-based learning. Together, this creates a unique environment: trauma-informed, consent-based, and intentionally neurodivergent-safe.

Children join us as babies and grow up within the community. Families stay for years, not months, building relationships, finding support, and accessing opportunities that evolve alongside them.

At its heart, Broadleaf remains a space of continuity, belonging, and trust.

Policy Work and Research

Alongside this grassroots work, Broadleaf has increasingly contributed to conversations at a national level.

We have been invited to give evidence to Parliament and the Education Select Committee, and have worked with members of the House of Lords and MPs on issues relating to home education and neurodivergence.

We are also part of a national research network, through a long-standing collaboration with the University of Southampton, helping to shape future approaches to autism and community-based support.

But at its core, Broadleaf remains what it has always been: a community - a place where families come together to create what doesn’t yet exist.