Aims and Objectives:

 

To provide support and respite services for children with disabilities and their families in the Lisburn and Belfast areas. We want to provide a safe and learning rich environment, specific to the needs of the individual children so that they can grow in their achievements and enjoy moments with peers in a social, enjoyable setting, for them to reach their full potential and have the quality of life they deserve, the same as their atypical developing peers. Our vision is to provide services from birth to old age, to go on the lifelong journey not only with the child / adult with the additional needs, but the entire family, also offering them support and an improved quality of life.

 

Ethos:

 

We believe that all children, regardless of needs, are entitled to a full and happy life, and access to services and provision that help them overcome and manage their additional needs.

 

Admission Policy:

 

As a new, non-profit organisation, we must rely on funding and Direct Payments, Trust referrals or parents paying privately to pay for our services. Because we have such high staff ratios, our costs are high. We will be looking after some of the most vulnerable children in Belfast and Lisburn, so it is important we offer the highest quality of service so that these children will be safe in our setting. We hope to eventually run our service without the need for direct payments or social worker referral as we feel a lot of families cannot access such resources, and therefore cannot access our services.

 

Our admission policy is very straightforward. We want to provide respite for families who do not have any current services in place. We think this is a fair and just criteria. Please see the other criteria detailed below in order of preference:

 

1. If you have direct payments in place or other means to pay for the sessions

2. If you are not using any other afterschool / weekend provision

3. If you have more than one child with additional needs

4. If you do not have family support

 

Hours of Opening:

 

Our after school sessions run from 2pm-6.15pm Monday to Friday, and weekend club on a Saturday 10-1 . Our Nursery is open term time, daily, 10-15-1. Oue Early Intervention service runs Monday and Thursday 9.15-1.

 

Contact Details:

 

SEN Space Care and Respite Services CIC

4 Thornhill Road

Dunmurry,

BT179EJ

info@senspace.org.ok

02890605977 / 07397268246

Owner / CEO: Vikki Benton

 

Charges and Fees:

 

To provide most beneficial level of support for both children and parent carers, we are offering two sessions per week. These sessions are 3 hours long. Hourly rate for 121 care is £20.49 and £15.37 for small group care. We also ask £5 parental contribution per session towards snack and resources.

 

Insurance:

 

We are currently insured by Markel UK Ltd. Our policy number is S32156.

 

The Role of Parent:

 

We feel our parents are unlike other parents in standard Day Care settings. Most of our parents have an incredibly stressful, relentless lifestyle and hugely demanding caring role. They have little, if any, time for themselves. Most are sleep deprived, isolated, suffering from mental health and continuously battling a system to get the provisions needed for their children. For these reasons, we are not asking parents to give up their time and participate on the committee at SEN Space. What we have always done however, and will continue to do, is have the thoughts and wishes of our families at the very centre of what we do. We always start by asking the parents what they want and need. We have built our entire services around the answers to these questions. We believe this is the best way to create meaningful and impactful services and will continue to do so in this way.

 

SEN Space Policies:

 

We have a number of policies including safeguarding and child protection policy, behaviour management and complaints policy. These can all be accessed via our website, or hard copies are kept in our office and parent transition room. Parents get a copy of these policies as part of their welcome pack and our staff receive them also and have training and guidance on them as part of their induction programme.

 

Information on How Children with Additional Needs are Accommodated Within our Setting:

 

Every child attending SEN Space has additional needs. We have adapted our services, setting and equipment to meet their additional needs so that these children have a safe and stimulating environment to grow and flourish in.

 

Our Resources and Activities Provided:

 

We are very fortunate to have facilities and resources unlike anywhere else in Lisburn or Belfast. We have activity rooms, a sensory room, an acre of outdoor garden space and an additional second outdoor play area.

 

Staff:

 

We have the most incredible staff. All the children attending sessions with us will have either one-to-one support or small group support depending on their needs. We have an in-house social worker to support our families. Our other staff are made up of teacher, early years specialists, and occupational therapists, as well as other child care and SEN qualifications.

 

The Inspection Role of the HSC Early Years Team:

 

The Early Years’ service is primarily responsible for the registration, support and inspection of day care provision for children aged under 12. These services include childminders, playgroups, day nurseries, crèches, out of school provision and the approval of home child carers.

The Early Years’ Service works to:

• Protect children.

• Provide reassurance to parents and carers about the care their children are receiving.

• Ensure that services meet an acceptable standard.

• Ensure that people wishing to provide services for children do so within an agreed framework.

 

Article 130 of the Children (NI) Order 1995 gives Trusts a duty to inspect domestic premises in which childminders are working and non- domestic premises where day care for children aged under twelve is being provided at least once per year. SEN Space will be inspected once a year. During inspection, the Early Years team will have access to our policies, paperwork, recording practice and access to records. This is to ensure that we are providing a service of the highest standard, and we look forwards to working in partnership with them.

 

 

Written by Vikki Benton 1/11/2023

To be reviewed 1/11/24