A PILOT scheme has offered children with special educational needs and disabilities to access specialist play opportunities through a Lichfield organisation.
A partnership between charity Newlife and Liberty Jamboree has helped to support local youngsters.
The Community Play scheme was created by the charity last year to deliver accessible provision.
Liberty Jamboree’s founder Maggi Huckfield said the link-up had allowed Liberty Jamboree to support children with increasingly complex needs.
She explained:
“The pilot with Newlife was perfect timing. It was great for us to be able to buy sensory toys we’d normally have to save a long time for.
“We were able to get lots of things we needed, including tactile mitts for sensory massage when children are distressed, a sensory tunnel for wheelchairs to go through, a vibrating floor bed and ball pits, floor mats with colourful liquid running through, sensory tubes, and bubbles you can connect music.
“It’s allowed us to have more equipment and offer more to children and young people with SEND, which in turn opens more doors for them too. It also means families can access equipment they may have not seen before.”
Alongside funding for specialist toys and other equipment, a key element of the pilot was specialist training for staff and volunteers.
Now Newlife will be rolling out the Community Play scheme nationwide, supported by a £650,000 grant from the Dorothy Pamela Smith CIO, which also funded the initial trial.
Liberty Jamboree is working on a sensory room which will be named after Newlife in recognition of the impact of the partnership.
Maggi added:
“Without this new equipment we wouldn’t have been able to offer a sensory suite – a safe, calming space for children.
“Everything we can now provide means children, young people with SEND and their families have meaningful respite that truly meets their needs.”
