After school clubs and holiday play schemes for disabled children and young people

Overview

East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has worked with the East Sussex Parent and Carer Council to develop this survey, in order to seek views on improvements to the current provision of after school clubs and holiday play schemes for disabled children.

Review of After School Clubs and Holiday Play Schemes

ESCC currently runs some high quality after school and holiday play schemes for 5-19 year old children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND). We want to ensure these clubs continue to meet the needs of families for the future.

We have been working with Special Schools on proposals which would allow them to deliver after school clubs and holiday play schemes within their individual schools.

Rationale

ESCC believes that if the schemes are run by schools, the clubs can continually improve and become part of a cohesive offer. This will mean that the activities can be tailored to the needs of the children and young people attending the schools. There are two benefits to this approach:

1. Clubs and schemes can adapt individually to meet the needs of their specific school communities.
2. The schemes are future proofed to ensure the continued delivery of the clubs in the long term.

Parent and carer survey

We really want to hear the views from parents and carers, to help understand what is important to your family.

If this proposal is adopted, the results from this survey will inform the schools’ development of after school clubs and holiday play schemes, as well as the local authority’s development of wider short break provision for disabled children.

ESCC has a duty to ensure that short breaks for children with SEND are available to families; however the nature of this provision can vary. We will aim to work with potential providers to continue to develop the wider market for short breaks.  Your views in this survey will also help shape how we take forward the wider short break provision.

Why your views matter

What changes are proposed?

The key changes we are proposing are:

• The local authority will cease to be the provider for after school clubs and holiday playschemes
• The local authority will continue to work with providers to  develop a market for provision, including with special schools, who have indicated their interest in developing an offer for children and young people
• ESCC will support the schools with start-up funding to develop the provision.
• The schools will be able to apply for external funding alongside the development of a fee structure to ensure the clubs are sustainable.  
• This start-up funding will last for 18 months, and run from September 2018 – December 2019.
• After this time, schools will fund their own club provision individually.

What happens next?

The timeline for the consultation and decision-making has been set to support the viability of a new service to start at the beginning of the school year in September 2018. Subject to the results of the public and staff consultation, the final decision on the new service will be made in mid-July.

If the proposal does go ahead, the final timetables will be publicised to parents and carers before the end of the school summer term.