Summary
A programme of short breaks and social opportunities for adopted children and young people and those living in kinship care families, providing parents and carers of care experienced children with additional support needs with breaks from caring.
What Adoption UK Scotland – Short Breaks Programme did
We completed all target outputs for the duration of the grant and exceed some in many ways. These included:
1. Regular age-appropriate groups for children aged 5 – 18:
This included monthly virtual events for each of the three age groups and 5 in person events. Opposed to the original aim of bi-monthly sessions and 4 in-person events. This has brought the children and young people together and helped them develop friendships and confidence to attend in-person events. Sessions typically have included developing recourses, games and drop-in sessions.
2. Designated employability skill learning sessions for 14 – 18-year-olds:
The above sessions included designated employability sessions/ education learning sessions during virtual sessions, and sometimes after in-person events. These included online sessions and one to ones on employability advice, education and thinking about futures. In addition to sessions on codesigning resources, such as our youth made magazine which released it first issue in November 2023.
3. Two-family activity days for young people and carers:
Stirling (Logie Church Hall): This location offered the perfect blend of togetherness and independence. Two separate halls allowed young people and carers to participate in their own activities, yet they were close enough for comfort and fostering connections among peers. Fun activities include visits from therapy animals, pizza-making workshops, and a silent disco. Perth (Willowgate Centre): This action-packed day welcomed carers and their children to participate in activities tailored to their interests and abilities. Kayaking, canoeing, bushcraft, and combat
archery are just a few of the exciting options available.
4. Residential opportunity for young people and families to access, heavily subsidised and with opportunities for fun activities for young people and breaks from care for parents. (Biggar, Wiston Lodge) - Activities included Highropes, raft building and fire lighting. We were able to offer a bespoke program for older teens including hiking Tinto hill. Activities for all were encouraged and included memory box construction and laughter yoga. We were able to welcome the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise to meet carers and children as well as creative writing workshops and Sound Journey meditation for carers
What Adoption UK Scotland has learned
Some key learning from the youth focused sessions includes:
• It takes significant time to build the trust with adopted children and young people.
• Many of the older young people, have various forms of anxiety, and have been burned out with full time education. So our support around wellbeing and education has proved vital.
• The preferred the method of delivery can significantly vary. With clear preferences for inperson and virtual being the case for some. And some preferring to engage with skills/ resource development and not group sessions. Making the continued blended delivery important.
• Supporting the development of confidence building is vital. So working with the children, young people and families and providing small steps to develop their engagement has proved to build their confidence and participation.
Some of the key learning from family events regarding carers includes:
• How much they value being around other carers with shared experiences.
• The pleasure that these events bring carers seeing their children relax and ‘being themselves’.
• Carers learning new strategies and skills to benefit themselves and their families around self care, de-escalation and other areas of value.
• The ability to provide a safe space for all enabling carers a break from ‘the everyday’
How Adoption UK Scotland has benefitted from the funding
This funding has been instrumental to ensuring we could maintain our level of support for carers and adopted and kinship care children and young people. The programme enabled us to support a significant number of carers and children and young people which we could not have do so otherwise, and helped ensure our flagship event, the Wiston residential, is accessible for families, through a heavily suberised event, only enabled by this funding, as well as free family days.
Adoption UK Scotland has benefitted from this grant, by expanding our community and youth support, and collating information on the impact of this funding, which will help leverage future funding, to continue to ensure that we can provide further breaks for carers and children and young people with complex needs.
The biggest benefit to the organisation is knowing we have helped and supported more lives of carers and children and young people with complex needs in Scotland and is something we hope to build upon going forward through renewed Better Breaks funding, as well as other sources supporting this work.
Project Outcomes
Outcome
Disabled children and young people (aged 20 and under) will have more opportunities to have fun, develop friendships and do activities they enjoy.
Results
Target 1: 12 online groups. We held 12 online groups for each age group during the year, 36 in total. Target 2: 4 in person family events. • We held 4 in person family events.
Case study
Feedback from children and young people included:
““I have made lots of new friends.” ““We love our online sessions as they are a lot of fun.” “Meeting other young people who are adopted makes you feel like you are not alone.” “I can express myself without fear of being judged.”
A small number of carers filled out service feedback forms on the impact of the sessions on the children and young people, which found 100% agreement (strongly agree or agree) that their child had benefitted from the sessions, made new friends and developed their skills.
Outcome
Carers of disabled children and young people (aged 20 and under) will have more opportunities to enjoy a life outside of their caring role.
Results
Delivery of groups for children/young people to attend without parent/carer supervision. We held 36 online sessions, which provided carers with breaks from supervision. We also held in-person events, which provided separation and self-care time for carers, where they did not have to conduct supervision.
Provision of self-care or alternative input at family events. Our two-family events and residential provided significant opportunities for self-care. Including space from caring to have walks, guided meditation, yoga, a creative writing session, and opportunities to socialise with other carers.
Case study
The following quote came from a parent carer who had attended our Wiston Lodge residential weekend:
‘Arriving at Wiston is like coming home after an extremely hard and difficult time in the real world. It’s like a warm blanket that just wraps itself around you and makes you feel safe, loved, cared for. It makes you feel relaxed and able to breathe again, knowing you’re in a place of no judgment. A place where you can have discussions about your life, that you wouldn’t dream of talking about in your everyday life. And from these discussions you find you’re not the only ones who have experienced it or are currently going through it. Building special bonds and making lifelong friends. Seeing the young people having the pleasure of being themselves and not having to mask who they really are. Watching friendships take up where they left off and watching new ones form. For us Wiston is like heaven, it’s our safe haven once a year and we look forward to it so much. Saying goodbye until next time is so difficult. If you ever have the chance to go, don’t hesitate, just do it! I’m sure you will never look back and regret it.’
The following feedback came from a parent carer at the family event in in Stirling:
“Appreciate the event being run and us being invited to be a part of it.Was good to meet and speak with other families. There was a good variety of activities and something for all ages of our kids -14yrs, 11yrs, 4yrs and 2yrs. We especially enjoyed meeting the therapy dogs and the pizza making. Was well organised with coloured tickets and even though we arrived late, we didn’t miss out on anything because of how the activities were organised. Thank you to all the staff and volunteers for your hard work in making this event happen! it’s very much appreciated.”
Our residential saw the following measures reported through our service feedback form. With agreement (strongly agree or agree) scores on the following:
• 100% This has improved my peer support network
• 86% This has helped me feel less isolated
• 86% This has helped me feel happier
• 100% I have been supported by this service
• 10/10 Mean service recommendation score.
Outcome
Carers of disabled children and young people (aged 20 and under) will feel better supported to sustain their caring role.
Results
Bespoke newsletters and communication for parents/carers involved with project sharing information and resources.
We sent information to parents/carers on several occasions alongside regular communications sharing information on the opportunities this funding provided including fund name, background etc.
Training and self-care opportunities provided via family events. As outlined in outcome 2, target 2, we delivered self-care opportunities for carers.
Case study
Feedback from carers included:
“So much attention to making the weekend easily accessible and inclusive, the staff and volunteers are wonderful. Great opportunity to feel a home away from home and actually relax a little knowing the kids are in great hands having adventures.” “I participated in the parents sound bath meditation- fabulous! Gonging and chiming… my years of
back pain instantly lifted within the hour!” “The sound workshop was great. The food and staff were brilliant, helpful”