My Time Family Fun and Friendship Club

What My Time Family Fun and Friendship Club did

This was a new partnership between PAMIS and RNIB. The club ran once a month on a Saturday 10:30am to 3:30pm with lunch, in RNIB Springfield Centre, a safe purpose-built building for people with complex learning disabilities. Facilities include a sensory room, sensory garden, music room and trampoline.

The club was separated into 2 identical sessions (AM/PM), starting with a welcome refreshment enabling all to settle and meet other families and volunteers. A different theme was selected each month and all activities were designed around this. These included parachute games, Ceilidh, multi-sensory storytelling, baking, music, rebound therapy, art and crafts.

Children with Profound Multiple Learning Disabilities aged 8-19 years and their families attended. The club was widely promoted via emails to families on the PAMIS and RNIB mailing list and through social media.

Family carers were able to participate in the activities but were also able to enjoy their own time, socialising with other families, volunteers and staff (the club did not provide personal care so the carer was required to stay).

Success was dependent on the volunteer workforce. This has been challenging not least in getting enough volunteers to give up a regular Saturday. Splitting the day, allocating tasks and providing training and development has assisted. 6 regular families came from areas most affected by poverty and inequality across Scotland based on SIMD 15% Index. My Time grew from only few participants to at least 20 each day, and continues to increase.

We planned to have 18 families for each session, however, we realised that 10 families for each session is the maximum given the building restriction and the effect of a busy environment on the sensory processing issues of the young people with Profound Multiple Learning Disabilities. We had planned to run the club twice a month but struggled with human resources required for this.

What PAMIS has learned

Volunteer’s recruitment and management has been one of the biggest challenges of delivering this project. To run the club for people with Profound Multiple Learning Disabilities we required many volunteers or staff, since most of the people required 1:1 support to engage in activities. We also needed to provide a diversity of activities which required more volunteers or staff. There were only two funded workers in this project, which made the importance of building a sustainable and sizeable volunteer workforce more paramount. Many volunteers were students on placement with our organisation, and their friends. A number of them disappeared after the end of placement due to new placement and work demands and only intermittently returned or didn’t come back at all.

The most helpful and sustainable volunteers were those who lived locally and were not recruited from placement. We realised that the sense of satisfaction they got from supporting people with Profound Multiple Learning Disabilities and their families was not always enough to keep them. PAMIS are committed to developing the volunteer workforce and also realise that working with people with Profound Multiple Learning Disabilities can be challenging.

We ran free professional training for them which they highly valued and were eager to apply their new skills in the club. This increased their commitment to the club. We also presented them with certificates as recognition of their valuable contribution and this also appears to have enhanced their engagement. We had also considered arranging social events but this did not materialise. Many volunteers enjoyed the social aspects of volunteering at My Time and creating new friendships with other volunteers and staff etc. In the future, organising informal social gatherings might further support the commitment of the volunteer workforce.

Volunteering at this level within PAMIS was new to us and we have benefited from learning from what works and what doesn’t. It also enabled us to fine tune all our volunteer forms and policies.

This project was specifically aimed at children and young people and was new ground for both organisations as there are no weekend clubs for this group of complex children. Although both organisations have experience in working with this group running a club for the whole family was a new venture. The development of the programme was organic and people with Profound Multiple Learning Disabilities and their families were instrumental in shaping the activities.

We learnt how to interpret the young people and their likes and dislikes. We learnt from the first session what was likely to work and what was not. We planned, studied, did and acted (PDSA) after each session and the debrief was important in order to adapt for the next session. This experience has not only increased the confidence and skills of the staff but of the volunteer workforce. It has also enhanced team working and we have discovered new talents within the team that we were not aware of!

At the end stage of the funding period, we found that there was still some budget available. The surplus within the budget was in part due to generosity of volunteers, staff and the excellent resources at RNIB. We were keen to make the most of this opportunity to spend the surplus to enhance the lives of the group we support. The families at the club had indicated an interest in going to a safari park which has accessible facilities. Many families highlighted that they had not previously had the time or the money to do this as a family. Also many families do not have access to a car, therefore going to safari park was virtually impossible for them. We were able to organise this at short notice, completing the budgeting, organising an accessible coach, promoting it to the families, purchasing tickets, conducting risk assessment, human resources management etc. As a result we successfully held the first day trip we’ve ever organised in this area and positive feedback from families was overwhelming. This was a development opportunity for the project worker and one in which he excelled.

The project was run in partnership with RNIB, therefore there were many aspects of running this project that needed to involve both organisation. Inter-agency working can be challenging due to the different style of communication and working culture but we have worked through our differences and reached mutual understandings. We continue to have meetings regularly to discuss all aspects of the club including planning activities and staffing of the club. The RNIB building is ideal for My Time and offers many opportunities for varied adapted, fun activities. This relationship will continue and we are also exploring the model in other areas with RNIB but also other partners.