Short Break Stories

Schools Out

A story by ENABLE Scotland

In Forth Valley and Fife – Fun day at the Time capsule, an animal fun day where young people interacted with animals at a petting zoo. Young people went to the autistic showing of The Lion King.

A young person who missed out on The Lion King went to the Beauty and Beast Pantomime. 4 hour session to ‘Sensations’. In West Dunbartonshire – summer play sessions accessing community facilities 48 hours of service delivery, 3 days per week for 4 hours each days and 2 hours on Saturday mornings for 6 weeks operating our drama and music group.

The School’s Out programmes will enable isolated children and young people with learning disabilities to participate in local leisure activities and link into community service providers, allowing their family carers to take a break themselves and enjoy life outside of caring.

The School’s Out programmes will provide opportunities throughout the year for children and young people with learning disabilities to grow and flourish by delivering a range of activities in the evenings, at weekends and the school holidays that has been selected by them and will allow them to achieve their own individual goals and aspirations
Tip 1:
Make sure events target and meet the needs of all those that need a short break – put on individual events for those that have specific needs if necessary. Evaluate, get feedback and improve any areas where feedback is negative where at all possible.


Tip 2:
Reach for the stars when at the planning stage of your service and you might reach them.

Tip 3:
Consultation with the children and their carers is key to the success of the service.
A young boy has the life limiting condition muscular dystrophy. When he was younger he loved to dance but as his condition has progressed it has greatly affected his ability to walk and his mobility. He now gets around with the help of his electric wheelchair and still enjoys music and dancing. He was supported to join the local dance class. To begin with he was the only wheelchair user there, but now the group has 4 wheelchair users in their group. It has opened up a new world and experience to him, who loves to dance with his new friends.
Quote from his Dad: “It has given my son a new circle of friends, he really enjoys it, and we hope we will be able to take him to more classes”

A young boy was referred to our organization recently. J has participated fully in 2 events and at The Animal Fun Day he was very shy and withdrawn and would not interact with anyone or pet any of the animals. His support worker spent an hour playing games with him and he gradually became more confident and started to show an interest in the animals getting closer to them through play. After an hour and a half he started to look in the cages and tanks and then took the support workers hand and started to pet the animals. He then started to do some of the arts and crafts and found the whole experience very fun, stimulating and rewarding.

During our summer programme we visited Zoo Lab, as some of the children had expressed an interest in “creepy crawlies" during our consultation sessions. We wanted to stretch their expectations, especially in sensory way. We spent time together building our topic of “creepy crawlies”, we researched the many different species, through books, computers and a visit to the library, used collage material to make our own, made puppets and a wall freeze.

The children’s reactions: “ yuk, oh its soft and smooth” said C stroking the snake. “ oh can I take it home, its dancing on my hand” said A laughing holding a large spider.
One parent has a son who was at home for a long period rather than at his residential school. This meant that his family were finding activities and work life more difficult, as well as feeling the emotional strain of caring for a young person with complex needs, with an additional injury. A planned day at the theatre gave mum the chance to recharge her batteries by attending a cooking course. The theatre was an activity that he would have otherwise, missed out on had there not been support and funding in place. His mother was thankful of the respite time and said that ‘he was lucky to get to go to such nice places’. The family had been given the opportunity to spend quality time together and the young man had experienced an activity that was engaging and creative!

Our carers have shared their thought and views on what support our service gives to them and their children. Most find the greatest benefit to them is having the opportunity and time for a rest from their intensive caring duties.

Quotes from our Carers questionnaire: “my son meets new people and takes part in new activities, which is good for him as we struggle to get him to try new things, and I get time to spend with my daughter” “lets my daughter meet with her friends during the long summer break, lets her see different places and have different experiences”

B was a shy girl who had little verbal communication and often displayed and suffered from violent outburst throughout her daily life. She had been diagnosed with learning disabilities and high functioning Autism. Through the support of Better Breaks she now enjoys a variety of play experiences and activities which include, sensory play, active indoor play, going to the park to play on the swings, going swimming and occasionally joining in with her peers through group activities.

Her family said “quality service that has not only opened our child’s world but enabled us to be part of hers. We now take the whole family swimming something that we would not have even considered before with B”.
O is a boy who lives with his mum, dad and sister. They are a close knit family but have currently felt the strain and challenges created by supporting a growing boy with additional needs. O’s family has been affected by cuts and this has a detrimental effect on family life in general. O primarily struggles with understanding social cues and interaction and need a lot attention. The support given to O, who attended two events, gave his family time to re-charge their batteries. Dad informed support worker that because of short breaks mum had been able to go out with friends on a spa day and relax as she knew that O was safe and having fun in an inclusive situation. The family was also able to take part in activities where the focus was placed on giving Os sister their full attention.

Nan was feeling more stressed continuing in her caring role for her grandson as her husband was undergoing medical treatment. She wasn’t sure how she could cope with this on top of caring for J. The doctor who was aware of the family situation, and could also see the stress Nan was under handed Nan one of our leaflets. “it’s just round the corner from you, I was just thinking with the holidays coming up and if your husband's in the hospital they may be able to offer some support” he said. Nan called us that day and in her words “has not looked back”.

Nan said “Thanks it means I can go to the hospital now knowing that J is safe and getting well cared for, and he’s not getting bored sitting about. What a difference in him too.
“When B goes to the cinema , I know he will have a great time, it lets me relax, it sounds simply but they 4 hours really make a difference”.
We have been working with some external providers and it is fantastic that there is now places such as The Edinburgh Playhouse who are putting on performances that meet the needs of those who need a bit of extra support.

In Stirling we have forged links with The central Advocacy Project and have got access to a community shared space which can be booked and used for workshop events. They also have a friendship network for young people with autism which we have been promoting and some of our young people have started to use. This has helped build up more short breaks for parents as they organize activities and events for the young people.

We have an excellent partnership with local sports centre and their staff always go the extra mile to support the children and young people .
L: “ I want to go canoeing again with Beth and Tom, it was good fun” L's Dad: “yeah he enjoyed it, we’ve been back a few times and he loves it when Beth is there”
There has been a very positive outlook from all the parents of young people taking part in events. The children have all had experiences that have improved social skills and helped build relationships with their peers. The parents have had the satisfaction that their children are attending workshops and events that have been provided to enhance physical and emotional wellbeing which has helped improved some situations at home.
Activities planned so far have come from a lot of parent and young people’s suggestions from last year. As activities take place we also look at those that have not yet benefitted and target events that would include them. At present we are working on outcome-based support plans for all the young people we support and ideas and goals from these plans will be incorporated into meaningful activities that will help young people achieve goals they have set for themselves
The funding that has been used for activities has been used when many of the young people we support do not get any of their statutory provision of hours via their care plans. For example the Lion King event was planned on a Sunday where usually most of the young people we support do not get any hours so this was all additional hours of support the funding provided. For many young people this complemented the support they already received on the Saturday
The activities planned have enhanced the learning and development of those we support by introducing new experiences and practical aspects to activities planned. The petting zoo was a chance for young people to gain knowledge about exotic animals in a fun, learning environment for example. The activity at The Time Capsule gave everyone the chance to have fun while expending energy and the trip to The Lion King was an imaginative, fun and memorable experience
Challenges were experienced when co-ordinators left in 2 areas. New co-ordinators are in place and we are working hard to make sure that all events are well planned and executed

Unexpected benefits have come when some of the people we support have started to develop friendships within their peer group and have arranged to meet up outside support times.
There has also been the chance to tailor support to meet the needs of families we know need extra support the most and this has been greatly receive by families that can, at times, feel isolated and unsupported.
In our services we know our families and young people very well and we know the ones that are struggling through conversation, reviews and staff feedback. We have started to reach out to some families that were not already known to us through contacts in social work.

When we had our animal event a young person turned up with a support worker without knowing what was on in the venue we were using. We invited her to stay and have given her the opportunity to come back to future events.
The Lion King Event was an autism specific event and one young man had a visual impairment so we were able to get front row seats for him. The animal event was held at a venue with adaptations and space for those with a physical difficulty to attend and participate fully. The Time capsule was chosen for a venue for swimming as there was easy access for those we support who have mobility issues.

Children who attend PALS have multiple support needs which include: global developmental delay, autism, ADHD, Down’s syndrome, visual and hearing impairment, communication difficulties.

Due to their multiple support needs our children and young people often find themselves isolated, and find it difficult to access inclusive activities with their peers.
We have sent out questionnaires to the families of young people and also used some of the evaluation methods used in The Better Breaks Toolkit to get evaluation from the young people at each event.