To provide some context, these are some basic statistics
about families of disabled children from Contact A Family:
·
56% of parent’s of disabled children feel there
is insufficient childcare
·
Over 30% of families have relationship
difficulties as a result of higher levels of depression and sleeplessness for
example
·
Only 1 in 13 disabled children receive a regular
support service from their L.A.
·
16% of mothers with disabled children work,
compared to 61% of other mothers.
These examples are interesting because they are areas that
childcare settings could support on. In Bristol, we know there is generally a
sufficient level of childcare so we need to do more to ensure this is
accessible for all children. Short breaks such as attending playschemes and
other play settings can support families to have some time focussing away from
caring responsibilities and enable the child to have fun and time with their
peer group. These experiences can support positive family relationships. Access to better childcare can support
families back to work and this can also improve wellbeing. .
As a result of facts such as these and an initial pot of
funding as part of the Government’s commitment in this area as DCATCH (Disabled
Children’s Access to Childcare), Bristol City Council undertook an initial
survey with parents of disabled children to find out what they felt would be
most helpful. The feedback focussed on increasing confidence of staff in
settings so that parent’s in turn felt confident that their child would be
supported appropriately.
The Early Years Team created an Inclusion Induction
Programme as a result of this survey, and BAND have been fortunate that the
City Council agreed with us and other agencies that creating a resource to
support over 5’s play settings was also important to increase staff confidence.
So last year, Alice Cranston, Bridging Worker, Bristol
Inclusive Play Team, and I set to work assembling a focus group of Playleaders
working successfully in inclusion, representatives from local special schools,
leaders from adventure playrounds and organisations running inclusive play
sessions. We asked them to consider what steps they felt were imperative to successful
inclusion and what information they felt was most important for settings to be
aware of. Special school staff stressed to us the importance of parent’s
knowing they can call and visit anytime and see how their child is doing, this
increases parent’s confidence that a play setting is open and has nothing to
hide. We looked at examples of 1:1 support being necessary in school but not at
all times in play settings and how to assess this.
We talked to more leaders and playworkers to get ideas,
looked through other organisations research and literature to find the best
studies and quotes, and talked to parents/ carers and children to include their
views. Trials and feedback from settings helped to hone the last changes and
our aim to make it an interactive, useful and fun resource to use.
The result is a file based resource to support the inclusion
of disabled children in mainstream out of school settings. The resource
includes:
·
Relevant background information
·
Top tips
·
Supporting quotes and case studies
·
A ‘How to’ section that provides staff with some
practical steps to take right from the time a family initially contacts a setting
·
New template forms; Play Support Plan (covering
areas such as Likes and Dislikes, Communication needs, risks to be aware of to
support the child to be safe) , Information Sharing Agreements, Health Care
Plan, Personal Care Plan for example.
·
Agencies, support groups and training
organisations that can help and what help they could offer play settings.
There is also a ‘Grab and Go’ pack that contains the top
information to support staff when they are busy and a family calls or arrives.
We have developed an Inclusion Workshop that play staff
attend to focus on inclusion and get to know the resource. We ran the first one
last month and feedback has been positive: 'The pack is brilliant!'.
The reality of course is that a file based Inclusion
Resource is not going to magically remove all the barriers to disabled children
attending settings, nor is it going to suddenly give parents of disabled
children the confidence to try. However, it does give a solid framework for how
successful inclusion could be carried out, devised by professionals who are
doing it successfully in practice; it hopefully gives staff confidence that
they can manage some of the logistics themselves in terms of who to contact and
what, if anything, needs to checked off and completed for all children; it
points towards people and organisations that can help settings.
The workshops themselves are also part of the move forward,
starting conversations about inclusion with play staff altogether and giving a
platform to discuss some of the challenges faced by families and what play staff
might be able to support. Within the workshop, it was clear that play staff
wanted time to talk about inclusion and hear about their colleagues
experiences, attendees swapped emails to keep in touch about this area and we
discussed how we can highlight services to local special schools and what
further training would be supportive. There was a huge amount of enthusiasm
which was fantastic to see and attempt to harness.
So what is the outcome in practice so far…..in the short
term we have already had feedback from a Play Manager that using the Play
Support Plan has highlighted triggers and ways to manage these with a child
with additional needs attending their setting that they had previously been
unaware of. This will lead to a better outcome for the child and family. The
setting has rolled out the Play Support Plan as an addition to their Registration
Form for good practice with all children that attend, so any disabled child and
family will be completing the same information as all children which is a great
move forward. Another setting has used the Agency section to find and organise
training to support a child with cerebral palsy to attend, without the need to
access external agencies for support to do this, which will give parents and
staff confidence that the setting knows what it is doing. Many settings have
Welcome leaflets with symbols and photo’s to support all children coming to a
setting.
For the future, we have further workshops to deliver and
further training to identify and fund. The Inclusive Play Team has plans to
create a comprehensive record of settings who are particularly open to inclusion,
we are linking back into Special Schools to work out how to let families know
about settings and this piece of work.
It won’t solve all the challenges, but it’s a positive start
and one which both Alice and myself are passionate to carry forward. If we can
increase the number of parent’s feeling there is more sufficient childcare in
Bristol by even a small percentage, if we can support even one family to
increase their sense of wellbeing with their child having fun within a
playsetting, if we have increased awareness within playsettings so they know
how to start and where to get help, then from my perspective, that’s a
successful start.
The ‘Inclusion Resource for Play Professionals’ was
developed by Sarah Holway, BAND, and Alice Cranston, Bridging Worker, Inclusive
Playteam, Bristol City Council. Support was from a large range of Bristol
agencies and professionals, including the Early Years Inclusion Team, Bristol
City Council. The resource is mapped to Level 2 qualifications in playwork to
support practice and knowledge.
Examples from the ‘Inclusion Resource for Play professionals’