Summary
Provide staff support for children and young people affected by disability and complex support needs during school holidays. Sustain a young adult group one evening per week with door to door transport. The project is offered from our centre in Castlemilk,Glasgow.
What Fair Play did
Spring 2020 holiday programme was limited due to lockdown with the majority of activities provided from the centre. This operated both weeks from Monday - Friday from 9am-4pm. We are fortunate in having our own leased building, which has a number of rooms and resources, including a three level soft play facility, arts and crafts room, Sensory room, sports hall, sensory garden and an inclusive outdoor play area. Staff also utilised Cathkin Braes for walks which is within walking distance of the centre. In Summer 2020, we benefitted from mini bus transport and easing of restrictions. This was provided from 9am until 4pm with 2 additional in service days. In October 2020, restrictions had eased across parts of Scotland with schools returning in August. However,Glasgow and the West were still in local lockdown. We were able to offer a fuller programme as parks and farms had reopened. Children had trips out every day e.g. Heads of Ayr Farm Park & pumpkin picking at Arnprior farm. An additional in service day meant a six day programme. We provided a February midterm programme in '21 for 4 days – one in service day & Spring 2021. Our young adult group resumed in September 2020. Users and their families and carers were delighted to be back. Some parents/carers noted C.O.J.A.C. was the only service they were receiving & how difficult the lockdown had been. One sibling carer stated that the provision of support on Zoom or Microsoft Teams was of no use as his sister is unable to use a computer. We had to source an additional bus to enable physical distancing on board and ensure that we could still provide our door to door service. This is vital in ensuring that parents/carers do not have the hassle of drop off and collection. During the summer of 2020, when the group could not meet, staff arranged, purchased and delivered health & wellbeing bags to each house. This enabled staff to see how they were getting on and provided much needed chat & contact. As Glasgow remained in fairly strict restrictions, activities have taken place within the centre. This includes, quizzes, bingo, film nights, activities in the sports hall & playing in our secure outdoor play area.
What COJAC CENTRE has learned
Project planning and budgeting – this was the first year of Better Breaks funding that planning and budgeting had to be changed continuously due to the global pandemic. We were constantly reviewing what we were doing, sometimes on a weekly basis.
Targeting families in need of support – as noted from our case studies, both the children and young people that used our holiday programme and their parents/carers were in crucial need of our service. Their children and young people could not have utilised mainstream provision and their multiple disabilities were affecting the whole family in terms of going on a break or even just going out of the house.
Dealing with unexpected challenges – I think as stated previously, this has been a hugely stressful and challenging year. However, we came through it, and were able to remain open throughout and deliver a service to those families who were vulnerable and/or key workers, so that is something I think we as a team should be proud of. Every day during school holidays we provided a programme for average of ten children per day for 7 hours, which equates to 20 parents/carers receiving 7 hours respite per day, which is a magnificient achievement given the year and a half that it has been.
Other sources of funding - During the pandemic, there were new funding streams which we were able to access to help sustain our centre. This included funding from the Scottish Government, our local health and social care partnership and the local authority via business support type grants.
How COJAC CENTRE has benefitted from the funding
As a manager, I benefitted from the support and information from the manager’s network set up by Don Williamson during the pandemic. It was great to have a confidential and private place to vent or seek advice, particularly when things were changing so quickly and having to decipher and interpret information swiftly.
We were able to access additional funding from The Robertson Trust and Glasgow Communities Fund for our project, which enabled us to take in more one to one children and young people in our school holiday programme combined with the Better Breaks funding.
I think we have all developed new skills this last year and half. From Microsoft Teams and Zoom to increasing infection control procedures and additional COVID 19 training.
Project Outcomes
Outcome
4-8 multiple support needs children will be attending 5 days per week. This will reduce their isolation & enable them to participate in fun activities during the school holidays.This was provided, Spring 2020, Summer 2020, October 2020, February 2021 and Spring 2021 and included all inservice days.
Results
C.O.J.A.C. provided a holiday programme Spring 2020, summer 2020, October 2020, February 2021 & Spring 2021, including all in service days. As the centre remained open from March 2020 at the 1st lockdown, delivering critical childcare, we were still able to fulfil our target of 5 sessions for 11 weeks.
4 staff provided one to one care for children and young people who required intensive support due to behaviour that challenges or have a tendency to run off. Some children required two members of staff support to their individual needs. This offered respite to parents and carers from 1-2 days per week every school holiday from March 2020 through to the Spring fortnight in 2021.
Case study
N is 5 years old with autism and a learning disability. N is nonverbal and requires a high level of support on a one to one basis. She lives at home with mum and dad and twin sister and will be starting school this year as mum held her back for one year at nursery. This was quite upsetting for the twin sister as sister has now started Primary one. We provided weekly visits for N to the centre over a couple of months to allow time for her to build a relationship with staff and get to know the centre. This was also a challenge as she was going somewhere new without her sister. N does not like noise and requires calm time with a member of staff when she gets upset. Staff are working with N on communication through PECS, supporting her to understand group activities and games and helping her to recognise and follow instructions. N has been attending two days during school holidays and this will continue during the school term to ensure routine and stability for N. Staff are working closely with the family encouraging N to interact with her peers & gradually introducing her to playing with small groups of children.
Outcome
Provision of 5 days per week for 11 weeks during school holidays and in service days for four-eight children.
Provision of one evening per week of social and leisure activities for 10 young adults including transport to and from home, reducing stress or hassle for parents/carers.
Results
C.O.J.A.C. provided a holiday programme Spring 2020, summer 2020, October 2020, February '21 & Spring '21 including all in service days. As the centre remained open from March 2020 at the 1st lockdown, delivering critical childcare, we were still able to fulfil our target of 5 sessions for 11 weeks.
4 staff provided one to one care for children and young people who required intensive support due to behaviour that challenges or have a tendency to run off. Some children required 2 members of staff supporting individual needs. This offered respite to parents and carers from 1-2 days per week every school holiday.
20 parents/carers had one evening per week to undertake a leisure or other activity or their choice without the hassle of dropping off or collecting from the centre.11 young people attend on a Monday evening
We were unable to host a parent/carers meetings in the centre due to COVID 19 as Glasgow South East Carers Centre moved their work online & to date this has not changed
Case study
L has severe learning disability and can only speak a few words. L uses Makaton to communicate and has returned to C.O.J.A.C's Monday evening group as she used to attend our children's service. Dad is a lone parent and had been struggling due to lack of service provision available last year. Dad was delighted when C.O.J.A.C. resumed in September. Dad is currently working full time, so having one evening per week for himself is vital to enable him to have some sort of life outside his caring role. Having a regular, suitable service that can meet L's individual needs is important to ensuring dad can feel confident about leaving L as L has been anxious since the loss of her mum.
Outcome
Provision of 5 days per week for 11 weeks during school holidays and in service days for four-eight children
Provision of one evening per week of social and leisure activities for 10 young adults including transport to and from home, reducing stress or hassle for parents/carers.
Results
We were unable to continue with our face to face parent/carers support group due to COVID 19. Our partnership work with South East Carers Centre had to cease as they moved all their services and activities online. We would hope to resume face to face work when permitted to do so.
The ongoing provision of our children’s service since the initial lockdown has ensured that we were able to support families and carers at a crucial time. Parents and carers were resounding in their need for our service and one evaluation stated that the service was ‘a lifesaver.’
By resuming our adult service in September 2020, we found that many parents/carers had not heard or seen other service provision that they used to have. One young adult’s parent, thanked us for the health and wellbeing bags, stating, that we were the only service that had contacted her and provided the health and wellbeing bags, which meant a lot to her.
Case study
D is 11 years old and attends after school and during all school holidays. D has autism, ADHD, epilepsy and Tourette’s. D often acts impulsively without any triggers, struggles with moving from one activity to another, is disruptive throwing things around, banging tables and is aggressive with staff and other children. Staff are working intensively with D supporting him from moving from one task to the next. Staff are working closely with the family to discuss joint strategies and how to calm D down when he becomes agitated and angry. Staff know staying calm and talking to D in a composed and measured way assists him to calm down. When he becomes violent, angry and uses offensive language, staff quickly take him to a quiet area or the sensory room to allow him the time and space to calm down.
D was really isolated at home as the family could not allow him out to play with other children in the neighbourhood or elsewhere due to his behaviour that challenges and it can change quickly from calm to aggressive. Mum has stated that COJAC is the only place he has where she is confident to leave him and that he can have some social interactions with other children.
Outcome
Provide resources and staff input to sustain the delivery of a parent/carers support group 10 times per year.
Provide a break for 28 parents/carers per year.
Results
We had a minimum of 4 children each day Monday to Friday during all school holidays and in service days being provided with a full day or activities and play. This included at no extra cost to the parent/carer, all trips, including farms and zoos, all food, snacks and drinks and all other activities.
This increased disabled children’s health and wellbeing as they were outside every day on a trip and taking part in activities that a normal non-disabled child takes for granted. Their parents/carers (8-16 per week) were permitted time to themselves, whether that be to rest, or to spend time with their other children, who often feel overlooked.
Our young disabled adults enjoy being away from their parent/carer spending time with their peers and enjoying time out from the house after a long period of lockdown. Their (20) parents/carers are delighted that they have one confirmed evening per week to themselves in order for them to undertake activities or have some peace at home.
Case study
S is 7 years old, has autism and is nonverbal. S has been attending during school holidays and after school. S has difficulty with settling down, sitting, playing or get involved in any activities. S will spend time running from one area to another, no awareness of danger or risk and requires two members of staff to support him both within the centre and out with. S is tall and strong and when not happy can lash out pushing and kicking whoever happens to be near him. The family have said they have tried to book family breaks previously, however, they have had to cut them short due to S’s behaviour. In the beginning, the family had no support from any other organisation and they were feeling extremely isolated. We were able to let S run around our secure outdoor play area and our indoor soft play area allowing him to run about and play. However, S gets bored very quickly and then lashes out. Staff are working on shorter activity times. Our biggest challenge is when out on trips or parks as S will just run off and it becomes a continual chase. Staff have to persistently risk assess every activity and trip and seek activities that S will enjoy outdoors. Our hope is that S will begin to settle and enjoy some play and leisure time with his family.