Summary
The Families Programme provides regular activities and events designed to offer short break and respite opportunities to families living in Angus, who are supporting a child/children with additional or complex support needs. These activities and events are specifically planned for the whole family to attend - parents, cared for child/children and their siblings.
What The Families Programme did
Over the last year we have delivered 45 individual activity sessions plus 2 ‘parent only’ sessions in addition to individual sensory room sessions for families within the programme. Unfortunately, 5 planned activities had to be cancelled due to facilitator issues and storms affecting the local area that impacted venues and safe travel.
Our Families Programme sessions included – 9 baking kits, 9 Nerf sessions, 10 movie nights and a further 17 activities and days out including 4 Stay and Play days (Easter, Halloween, Christmas and a themed Mario day) 2 Family Fun days, 2 private hire Innoflate sessions, Coach trips to Craigtoun Park, Aberdeen Science Centre and Deep Sea World, a private hire pool party, birds of prey experience and donkey sanctuary visits, 2 beach days and bonfire night GLOW party.
Through these activities we engaged with 81 families (114 adults, 41 young carers and 112 children with additional support needs.)
We also provided 2 parents only bowling trips to a new bowling alley/activity centre that opened in Dundee (one evening session and one daytime session). 13 parent carers attended, and the activity provided them time out for themselves to enjoy some adult company and have fun – 2 parents mentioned that they had never been bowling before so this was something brand new for them. During the session parents were able to complete 2 games of bowling in addition to us providing pizza and soft drinks for them.
Our sensory room is open to families to use during office hours, and it is available during events held at our office building also. This has proved beneficial during movie nights and Stay and Play days as it provides a ‘quiet’ space for children to take time out, regulate and re-join the activity.
Our activities offer a chance for families with children with additional support needs to explore new places, try new things and ultimately test their own boundaries, gain new skills and share in positive peer interactions. Many children with additional support needs struggle to navigate social relationships and so friendships look very different for them – this programme provides children with the opportunities to ‘practice’ these skills and develop peer relationships in a safe and supported way.
This is true for siblings within families also, as they often find their peer relationships impacted by the needs of their brothers/sisters and seeing familiar faces at our activities allows them just as much opportunity to engage with peers in similar situations. As a result of sibling involvement in our programme it allows us to identify potential young carers and this can initiate referrals to our Young Carer service and to our Education Development Workers based within schools across Angus who are also raising awareness of, and supporting, young carers.
What Angus Carers Centre has learned
Our programme continues to adapt to the needs of families throughout Angus. Not everyone views a break the same way – some families like the more regular evening and weekend activities whereas some need more support to access the larger, further away activities as their situations often dictate these are not accessible by themselves (transport, financial barriers as well as confidence in ability to manage these kinds of trips without support from us).
Small changes can make a big difference – providing sensory kits with ear defenders etc can be the make or break for some children. It can mean that they are better able to manage and engage for the whole session rather than leaving early etc
We find on some occasions that the activity we offer doesn’t always matter as it is the peer interaction that people come for – our events don’t always have to be all singing all dancing, magical experiences – a simple nerf session, swim session or movie night with hot dogs can provide just as much benefit to a family as the big, elaborate days away and action packed fun days.
Unexpected changes are the biggest challenge to running a successful programme, especially since we are
supporting many children with ASD and ADHD where they need to know in advance what is happening, when,
where and how can be the difference between a positive and a negative experience. This is often the hardest
challenge that families face on a daily basis, for example changes to supermarket layouts, changes to teachers or support staff in school etc. This is why on some occasions we may not be able to fill places that are cancelled the day before as it can be too short notice for families on a waiting list to attend.
We work very closely with external facilitators and partners in advance of any activity to ensure that this is understood and that any changes being made have to be communicated in a timely fashion. We are building strong relationships and partnerships with venues throughout Angus and beyond.
We are currently exploring new relationships with providers/venues to try and keep the programme’s offerings relevant to what the families want. Unfortunately the organisation that were providing our baking/meal kits lost their funding at the tail end of 2023. This meant that in order to fulfil the advertised kits the Families Programme worker then made up the kits themselves (shopped ingredients, made up kits and delivered them). We do have a potential alternative but again, this will depend on them receiving successful funding streams.
Demand for affordable venues has increased as other organisations, social clubs and youth groups are feeling the impact of reduced funding and increased costs and reliance on their services – taking into account the additional support needs aspect of our programme this means that finding suitable venues (disability access, special layouts, suitable time slots etc) has become increasingly challenging and as such we find ourselves having to look at alternatives for our Nerf sessions while still meeting the needs of the families who attend.
These events take place currently in Arbroath and Forfar as this is where the highest demand is, however the availability of venue/time slot etc may mean that we have to move these to another locality and we are having to be mindful of the impact of extra travel so that we do not remove these options from those who benefit from them the most.
We are continually looking for other sources of funding. However, this is becoming increasingly difficult and we know this is reflected sector wide. There are more and more charities applying for the same funding and these funders do not have the finances to accommodate the demand. However, we continue to search for other funding streams to support our work with unpaid carers throughout Angus.
How Angus Carers Centre has benefitted from the funding
Having funding from Better Breaks opens up further options for funding, we have a well established programme, the benefits of which can be easily seen – this has allowed us to evidence the work that we do to Angus Health and Social Care Partnership who provide specific funds around the school holidays, based around Food and Fun – having the reach and connection to so many families Angus wide we do receive funding (sometimes split with our Young Carers service) to provide food bags/activities to the families we work with. This is a relatively small amount of money but with huge value as we know that healthy, hot meals are all too often compromised by many families due to the higher costs households are facing.
Continued Better Breaks funding also has given us another chance to be open to a customer vote in Tesco Stronger Starts initiative with our programme appearing in store for the public to use their blue tokens to give us the chance to win a prize of either £500. £1000 or £1500 to provide families with fun healthy activities to children and young people across the area. We are in store between April 1st 2024 and Jun 30th 2024 and we are looking at run an activity (or multiple activities) throughout our Summer programme.
We know that big, family days out can be overwhelming for some and we do everything we can to work alongside families to reduce anxieties/worries/challenges/barriers to getting involved with our activities. We decided this year that some of our funding should be used to purchase our own sensory kits to take away with us on activities and day events as these will then be on hand should anyone require them. These will be available to families at any activity and will strengthen our ability to ensure that families continue to feel supported to access opportunities.
As mentioned above, little things do make a big difference.
Project Outcomes
Outcome
Children will be able to engage with other children and build friendships that will endure beyond the Families Programme activities. Regular opportunities for children to meet and socialise with their peers and improve relationships within the household. Feedback received from both adults and children will be used to ensure we are providing activities that are appropriate, wanted and delivered positively.
Results
The families programme provides a mix of different activities for families to attend, offering opportunities for them to mix with other families who are in a similar situation to themselves. This peer support has become invaluable and we have seen friendships develop and parents make arrangements to meet up with families outwith the programme.
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Activities range from outdoor events to more relaxed film sessions. Enabling us to provide appropriate activities which take the ages, capabilities and interests of the children into consideration. Activities are held throughout Angus & beyond, supporting families from different areas of Angus to have the opportunity to experience activities they may not usually feel able to access.
Over the course of the year we have engaged with 112 children with additional support needs, with at least 75% of these attending multiple activities.
The feedback we receive after each activity allows us to plan for additional sessions of activities that are popular and ensure that families have extra opportunities at high stress points during the year. E.g school holidays. The interactions we have with the families at the events and on a 1:1 basis enables us to plan specific activities that we know will be popular and work best for the people involved.
Case study
Amy, cares for her son Ben who is 12 years old and has ASD and ADHD. The family have been attending our events and activities for a number of years and have built a great relationship with the worker.
Ben is a very intelligent, active young lad and is always on the go. He often struggles to maintain friendships at school as his high impulsivity and requirement to be the ‘leader’ can alienate other children and he can often struggle with focus and attention to stay on task. The family regularly attend our movie nights alongside many of our other activities and he spends much of his time drawing characters from the movie and ‘educating’ other watchers about the villains in the movie (he has a keen interest in law and crime and will often assign ‘charges and sentencing’ to the villains)
Our movie nights tend to have regular attendees and they are a much smaller group than some of the other activities – this works well as the evenings are very flexible and although the movie is on not everyone is watching the whole thing, children are free to move around, play, chat and interact and as everyone knows Ben and he can access the interaction he craves.
At a recent movie night Ben had brought along some of his homemade toys (he recreated lot’s of well known characters out of air dry clay with unbelievable detail) the other kids were very interested and they all spent the first 30 – 45 minutes of our session discussing the toys, the characters, the process to make them – even the other parents were impressed and many of them left with the link to the clay in their Amazon baskets!
After this initial ‘show and tell’ the kids settled to watch – bits of – the movie with their favourite clay character sat beside them on the sofa and bean bags.
At the end of the evening Ben had made a particular impression on another little boy, Chris, and the parents had been sitting chatting to one another throughout the evening. They live in the same area and Ben’s mum had arranged to drop off some clay to the other family so that her little boy could try his hand at making some characters – nowadays they refer to each other as ‘bro’ and at events the first one there will always ask the worker if ‘their bro’ is coming along.
Outcome
Parent carers and their children will have increased access to leisure and play activities. Social networks will be improved for the whole family. Families will have access to short breaks as defined by the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016 and will ensure they have regular opportunities for time away from their usual caring roles and the stresses these bring.
Parents will have opportunities to meet with other parents in similar situations and share knowledge and experiences.
Results
114 adult carers and 41 young/sibling carers have engaged in our activities this year, giving them opportunities to take much needed time out from their usual routines.
All aspects of activities are planned and paid for by us which reduces the pressure on families to do this themselves and makes it easier for them to facilitate as often the ‘getting to’ activities is stressful enough.
There are often challenges on the day for families making it along to activities and our ethos is ‘no pressure’ – families know that if they can make it along, brilliant, if they can’t then there are no ‘repercussions’.
If families know in advance that they won’t make it we are able to fill their spaces with families from the waiting list however, this is not always possible and we work with families as closely as possible to ensure that if there is anything we can do to assist them coming along then it is done (extra pictures of the venue sent, extra information about the activity, paired up with a worker to get 1:1 support throughout the activity etc) and this is why our activities are trusted and in high demand.
Case study
Sarah cares for her son, Blair, who has Cerebral Palsy. Apart from her husband, who works full time to support the family, Sarah has no other family support in the area and her caring role is 24/7.
Her sons diagnosis means he is very prone to infection and in the last year has been hospitalised a number of times due to this. This often means that plans have to be cancelled at short notice and their other child Adam often has to miss out on clubs and activities to be able to support Sarah and Blair to attend hospital and receive care.
Recently the family were booked in to one of our activities and a couple of days prior, Blair contracted a chest infection which led to a hospital admission. When Sarah contacted the worker to cancel places at the event it was discussed that Adam was very disappointed that they wouldn’t be able to attend and that Sarah felt like a ‘bad Mummy’ for him missing out.
There was no cap on attendance at this activity and as such it was discussed with Sarah that she could still attend with Adam, with Blair remaining at home being looked after by Dad. This allowed Sarah and Adam some quality time together during a high stress period and gave Sarah a break away from her caring role for a couple of hours, doing arts and crafts and playing games with Adam.
This is now being carried forward as an option so that Sarah can get a break, some quality time with Adam and helps maintain positive relationship between them as often Sarah feels that Blair’s needs are always taking priority and she struggles to get past feeling guilty.
This family were also given last minute places to an Innoflate session as the worker had been in contact with them in the days prior and it was stated that Blair had yet again been admitted to hospital and it was a particularly stressful episode for both Sarah and Adam – again as there was no waiting list for this activity the worker offered places and this gave a little respite to them both – Mum sat and enjoyed coffee with other parents while Adam was able to interact with peers and have some fun.
Outcome
Parent carers will build increased support networks through attending our events and being introduced to other parents within their local area. Parents will be able to share experiences with other parents at our activities and support groups and use this practical and emotional support to help them within their own caring role. Parents will be directed to funding and resources available to them, either through our own funding streams (Time To Live etc) or through external agencies and organisations (condition specific funding, government grants etc). Parents will have regular time out from their usual caring environments and responsibilities and to spend quality time out with their families – reducing stress, increasing confidence and improving their own wellbeing. Parents will have had access to and support from their key workers at activities allowing them to plan in further support where required (school meeting support, benefit support and emotional support etc).
Results
We have observed increased peer engagement between carers who are experiencing similar situations, this allows parents and carers to exchange knowledge and information and this is often the best way of them keeping up to date and accessing information relevant to them.
This is true also of the opportunity for regular check in’s with the Families Programme Worker – any issues or challenges the families are facing can be discussed and interventions planned whenever necessary.
These include requests for attendance at school meetings, support to update/apply for appropriate benefits, blue badge applications or accessing funding sources both external and those managed by us (Time To Live, Respitality, cost of living support and any others that may be available)
Case study
Laura cares for her 2 daughters (one diagnosed with ASD, non verbal, and the other awaiting assessment)
They started off by attending a couple of our stay and play days to ‘test’ the environment. This resulted in them beginning to feel confident in their own/their child’s ability to attend larger scale activities. Due to the development of a good relationship with the worker and the volunteers, in addition to her clearly observing her child ‘relax’ in the group led to the family signing up to events and activities in new venues that they had shied away from before.
The family has attended many more activities with us and have commented that they all feel much more relaxed coming along to things now. So much so that Laura was able to stand and have a conversation with the worker while her daughters explored the activities on offer at a stay and play day quite freely.
Discussions led to issues being highlighted with their housing situation and delays to a planned move that was due to have happened the month prior. During the conversation it was stated that the family would now have a dedicated room that they were hoping to turn into a sensory space for the girls however, the delay and financial impact they had experienced meant that this may not happen straight away.
Time To Live funding was discussed and a decision was made, when timing was appropriate, to apply for the resources for the sensory room as this would absolutely give Laura (and sibling carer Sarah) the opportunity for respite but with a difference. The girls could use this for regulation meaning that relationships within the household could be positively maintained, there would be a safe space for the girls to explore without Laura having to be so hands on, in order to keep them safe, and she then would also have a space where she could relax and enjoy watching the girls be themselves.
Due to the financial strain the family were under at the time we were also able to provide a supermarket voucher for £100 from our cost of living fund to help get them restocked, and ease some of the pressure they were under at the time.
Outcome
Children and young people, both with and without additional support needs will benefit from increased peer links built at our activities. Children and young people will have increased opportunities to take part in new activities, attend new venues and interact with new families attending. Children and young people will build social and practical skills by taking part in supported activities – improving their confidence, self-esteem and emotional regulation abilities. Brothers and sisters affected by a diagnosis within their family will also have increased opportunities to try new activities, meet new people and improve relationships with their parents and cared for children.
Results
Many parents can feel isolated and that their options become quite restricted, either due to their own anxieties and challenges, or those of their children, both with and without additional support needs. Many sibling/young carers have increased levels of compromise that they face on a daily basis, having to bend and flex a little more to accommodate certain traits that their sibling has, this can often lead to guilt on behalf of the parent. With our programme they have safe options to try, knowing that the group is set up to accommodate particular and sometimes more complex needs.
We have engaged 112 children with additional support needs, 41 young/sibling carers and 114 adult carers over the course of our programme – providing them with quality time out together to take part in activities and have fun. Increased leisure opportunities and chances to mix with other people helps reduce the stress and isolations that they feel.
We do not claim to be able to remove all stress from the family but for a couple of hours at a time, on a regular basis they can focus on positive experiences as a family, build friendships and improve their confidence, self-esteem and their mental and physical wellbeing.
Case study
Jill is a parent who struggles with her own mental health, in addition to her multiple caring roles that she fulfils on a daily basis, not only for her two children but also for her own sister, partner and a friend.
Jill’s caring responsibilities leave her little time to organise opportunities for fun and quality family time so, having been introduced to our programme recently, has already attended a few activities.
Firstly to Deep Sea World – Jill had indicated that although she drives she does not have the confidence to drive very far afield and she feels this restricts her opportunities leaving the family quite isolated.
Managing her children’s needs while travelling on her own can often be a step too far and is exceedingly stressful, she will often opt out of activities that require them to do so. For our trip we were able to give her spaces on the coach for her and her two children, removing the initial barrier to engagement she would normally experience. Contact with the worker prior to the event highlighted the social anxiety one of her children feels and we were able to come up with a plan to have some activities on the bus to keep them engaged and not focussing on the business of travelling.
The worker had set out the structure for the day in advance and discussed this with the parent so that they could filter this into conversations with her children in order to prepare them for the day, answering any questions they may have prior to the event to try and relieve some of the stress and anxiety they were all feeling.
On arrival at the venue the worker was able to spend some one on one time with the family, directing them to the quiet space we had set aside, as well as the lunch space and also provide them with a sensory kit (we used some of the funding allocated to us this year to make up 5 sensory bags that we could take with us to activities for use by the families – these included ear defenders, fidget and sensory toys).
Jill described this as a ‘life saver’ as one of her sons was particularly struggling with just how busy and overwhelming the venue became in a short period of time (rainy day in Queensferry during the Easter holidays so the venue was the choice for many families from the area, as well as other community groups).
Her sons were able to take some time out as required throughout the activity and the kits were on hand for them to help support their regulation, easing the pressure felt by Jill to help them navigate this. The boys both seemed to relax a little and the worker was able to sit and engage with the boys playing with Rubox cubes while Jill took some time to get some fresh air and manage her own overwhelming feelings.
Discussion with Jill at the end of the event showed that they all felt very positive coming away from the event and although there had been challenges, with support, they were able to overcome them and stay for the duration and actually have some time doing ‘normal’ things. Jill and the boys were looking forward to the activity the following week and were keen to be involved more going forward.
At the second activity, we had an animal handling activity planned and this was the thing that one of the boys was most interested in, however he was really struggling with feelings of anxiety to the point where the family were considering leaving 5 minutes after they had arrived. The worker was able to reassure the family that once the animals arrived we could find a quiet space and bring some animals to him so that he didn’t have to be part of the main group but could still take part.
This seemed to alleviate some of the worry and we were able to engage him in the venue for a little longer.
When things finally did become too much for him arrangements were made for him to be dropped off at a relatives close by and that he would return for the final portion of the activity. His brother, who had particularly struggled the week before actually engaged freely with the activities and sought out the worker to update them on what he had been doing for the first part of the session (laps on the bouncy castle) he was again provided with a sensory bag and he seemed very relaxed and comfortable conversing and taking part, and as such he was able to complete the full session.
This was true of Jill also as she was able to take the time to chat with other parents and volunteers within the session, she was very grateful for the opportunity and is keen to keep attending our activities and engaging with the other families moving forward.