Summary
Ability Shetland delivered a Holiday Club for children and young people with disabilities and additional support needs in the Shetland Islands. The Holiday Club offered a fun packed programme of recreational, educational and social activities for six weeks of the year, during the school holidays.
What ASN Holiday Club did
The ASN Holiday Club operated over three days for 1 week in Easter, 4 weeks at Summer and 1 in October. Each day was divided into half day sessions (Primary and Secondary - morning and afternoon) which encourages younger children to access the service as well as offering a transition period for new referrals.
The children and young people had a good time and experienced new activities and places to explore. We worked with other services to ensure we make the most of our community assets. We worked together with Shetland Carers regarding support they provide to siblings and carers and ensuring these activities complimented each other; we worked with Shetland Family Centre Services and accessed their play expertise and resources; we worked with Active Schools and ensured we had physical activity as part of our programme; Youth Services too have resources we can access for our children through the ever popular Islesburgh Community Centre (and café!); the Shetland Recreational Trust worked with us to provide activities to suit all our needs and we had trips out all across the Shetland Islands which included ferry trips, boat trips, play parks and beaches.
A total of 40 children attended the Holiday Club over the course of the year. Our Under 5’s group ran parallel to the Holiday Club 1 morning a week and provided a feel for our future numbers, as well as supporting transitions for future sessions.
We had 2 Club Leaders coordinating the paid support workers and volunteers. Sessions were also attended by the Team Leader or trustee each day at some point and we had the support of workers from the Autism Transition Project, family Personal Assistants and Short Breaks care staff. Overall, this gave us an average staff to client ratio of approximately 1 to 1. All our paid staff are registered with the Scottish Social Service Council as Child Care Workers as the Holiday Club is a registered service. Staff and volunteers have all undertaken their mandatory training and are offered CPD opportunities where time allows.
What Ability Shetland has learned
The importance of positive relationships with other service providers and working together with these providers to best meet the needs of children with ASN and their families. Also, having a constant presence in the media and sharing our successes and programmes with the whole of Shetland has meant we have received other funding, support from businesses in our programme and highlighted the abilities of our youngsters.
How Ability Shetland has benefitted from the funding
Due to being successful with the Better Breaks funding, we receive funding from the local authority to meet the rest of the costs. We would not be able to provide trained staff and a full and varied programme to families in Shetland without this funding. Shetland Carers also receive funding through Better Breaks and they work really well with is to ensure we are jointly offering support to the whole family during school holidays when parents and siblings are under more pressure in their caring role.
Project Outcomes
Outcome
Children attending the Holiday Club will all have joined in the arranged activities and will have shown their enjoyment in their facial expressions, body language, words and actions. Ability Shetland workers, parents and carers will have confirmed that impression.
Results
We have increased our numbers to 44 . This is another steady increase from previous years. Our social media presence has continued to be popular and we have over 2000 followers now on Facebook. We received referrals from more sources than previous years from other agencies and this is due to our continued inter-agency working and presence. We consulted with families to ask them what activities they wanted and what would make it better for their children to attend. We then planned programmes offering activities all over Shetland and ensuring we took into account age and ability. In addition to this, we would take an individual approach on a daily basis, always consulting with children and offering choice throughout the day. Leading up to the Holiday Club we would host training days which looked through individual care plans and included input from health professionals to ensure staff were trained in any particular conditions and medical support.
Outcome
Carers will have had eighteen days in which they’ve been able to undertake activities in addition to their caring role, giving more time to their other children and pursuing personal interests
Results
We have achieved this as we have provided 18 days of Holiday Club to families in Shetland. We consulted with Shetland Carers about the provision they provide during the school holidays so that our clubs offer a complete break to families by offering fun activities and trips out to siblings in parallel with our club. Families feed back to us through formal and informal means to let us know the types of things that they have been able to do by the Holiday Club provision which include relaxing activities as well as being able to go shopping and attend employment too.
Outcome
Carers will have enrolled their children for as many sessions as possible of the Holiday Club .
Carers will have made full use of the opportunity to talk to Holiday Club workers and seek advice on the issues and problems which arise in their lives beyond the Club.
Results
We provided 6 weeks of holiday provision, spread out over the Easter, Summer and October holidays to over 40 children and young people with additional support needs and their families. We provided 2 Holiday Club coordinators who ensured we had adequate staffing in place and were matched with children according to their experience and skills. This supported families to feel confident that their children were being well cared for and that staff were knowledgeable in specific conditions or medical needs etc. Parents were given opportunities before every session to share or request information from allocated staff or the coordinators.
Outcome
They will have taken part in activities that helps them to relax and revive and spend time with friends and other family members. They will also have access to carer support and sibling support groups run by Shetland Carers who we liaise closely with in our planning.
Results
We have achieved this as we have provided 18 days of Holiday Club to families in Shetland. We consulted with Shetland Carers about the provision they provide during the school holidays so that our clubs offer a complete break to families by offering fun activities and trips out to siblings in parallel with our club. Families feed back to us through formal and informal means to let us know the types of things that they have been able to do by the Holiday Club provision which include relaxing activities as well as being able to go shopping and attend employment too.