As part of our project to review our short breaks offer for disabled children and young people and their families, and to build on some of the conversations we had with families before the COVID-19 pandemic, we asked you to tell us how you feel about our current offer so we can make it even better.
We asked parents and carers, children and young people, those working with disabled children and young people, and short breaks providers to tell us:
- What activities do children and young people enjoy?
- What stops children and young people getting involved in activities available in their communities?
- What would help organisations and providers to welcome more disabled children and young people to their activities?
- What impact has COVID-19 had on young people’s ability to access fun activities and short breaks?
We were really pleased to receive 147 responses to the online questionnaire:
- Six from children and young people
- 77 from parents and carers
- Four from short breaks providers
- 60 from professionals/volunteers working with children and young people
Responses came from across Devon:
Young people
Young people told us about the activities they enjoy, including:
- Swimming
- Scouts
- Sport
- Seeing shows
- Family activities
- Riding a bike
- Playing with friends
- Drawing
- Xbox
Parents and carers
Parents and carers told us that:
- their children enjoy activities such as swimming, playgrounds, visiting a farm, chilling time, Lego therapy
- many of them, 41 parents and carers out of 77, told us they do not access DCC funding for activities and clubs
- some told us activities and clubs closed during lockdown and were not available
- some people told us that enabling support continued with their child through lockdowns, and this was positive
- a few people said that with services opening again, things had improved
- one person said that staffing was an issue following lockdown
They also said that their children and young people like to do activities including:
- Swimming
- Sports
- Football
- Kayaking
- Trampolining
- Horse riding
- Gaming
- Art
- Forest school
- Cooking
Parents and carers explained that there are barriers that prevent their child from doing the activities they enjoy:
Providers
Short breaks providers told us:
- COVID-19 lockdowns have had an impact on children’s anxiety and isolation
- Since the lockdowns ended, attendance for short breaks and activities has varied across the county with some seeing less attendance, some seeing higher numbers and others describe attendance as roughly the same
Providers also told us they would like more support in some areas to enable them to work more effectively in short breaks, including:
- Clarity around access criteria
- Commissioning and contract support – early decisions to support planning for staff
We also asked providers how we can support them to work with more disabled children and young people, and this is what they said:
Conclusion
We have heard lots of ideas about what young people like to do, and activities they would like to do, but we’ve also heard that families don’t find it easy to find activities locally that are welcoming for disabled children.
Accessibility and the environment where activities are held is a key theme that we need to think about more, and professionals say we need to work with activities and clubs around education and training.
Next steps
The feedback we’ve received so far is rich and varied, and we will continue to review and build on the findings to help us consider the changes we need to implement within this ongoing project.
We would also like to reach out to even more children and young people and providers to get their views as their voices are really important in this work. We will be looking for further opportunities to work with schools, colleges, and organisations who run activities to help us with hearing from children and young people.
In the meantime, if you’re a disabled child or young person and would like to get involved, or if you provide short breaks and fun activities to children, please drop us a line here or contact us via our Facebook page. We would love to hear from you and would be especially interested in hearing about any opportunities to attend events or activities to talk to young people and providers directly.
Following the survey, we know we need to improve the information available to families about activities, and so will be spending time to review what information we have available for families to help them find the activities they’re looking for, with a view to making it even better.
We are now using this and feedback from previous conversations to create a vision for our new short breaks offer. This vision will be shared online from February 2022, and we will be using this vision to design the new service. Watch this space for further opportunities to get involved in shaping the future!