2015 Marked 29 Years Since the Start of Pegasus Playscheme. the Scheme Ran from Monday

Overview

2015 marked 29 years since the start of Pegasus Playscheme. The scheme ran from Monday 27th July until Friday the 14th August inclusive. Pegasus as always strives to provide fun and professional day-care for the benefit of children with a range of disabilities and learning difficulties in the Dover/Deal area.

We continue to operate anonline applications system and places were quickly fulfilled this year with all places booked and paid for by the 1st July; we took 43 children/young adults from the ages of 8-30, including some children new to the scheme who had heard about us through friend/school recommendation. In a supporting capacity we employed 42 1:1 volunteers aged between 14-18 who be-friend and accompany the children/young adults on the scheme. We also employed 17 full time staff members (4 in each group and 1 floating across for absence cover and additional support). Once again, we were lucky to have a high percentage of ex-staff and volunteers re-apply ensuring some fantastic continuity for the children and lots of familiar faces – it’s like they have never been away! On a daily basis we were sending out an average of 90-97 people in total across the 4 groups each day.

Venue

Astor College for the Arts was the host once again for Pegasus 2015. We are always greeted warmly by the school and the consistency with venue has ensured continuity and familiarity for parents and clients. The same groups have the same rooms each year; there is easy access for children/young adults with a range of needs and plenty of parking for the buses and parents/carers when dropping children off.

It is useful to have the use of 2 additional rooms on the site for a kitchen/changing room and music room. Also a separate area for reception at the entrance to the building.

Parents feedback positively on the venue. We are supported on site by the caretakers in the event of any problems.

All fire exits are clearly demarcated in the building. A fire exit was carried out in the first week and the building was evacuated in less than 3 minutes – no mean feat!

Transport

Regent Coaches were once again employed by Pegasus for transporting the groups to and from their venues during the scheme. They have been a company which we have used for many years and the company have built and maintained a good rapport with the playscheme. They tend to provide the same drivers year on year and as such, they too have built up positive relationships with the staff, committee and children on the scheme. The coaches are booked by the project coordinator well in advance of the scheme and our requirements are specified to ensure that we have the right transport to fulfil our needs.Allbuses have seat belts and conform to relevant safety requirements. This year, coaches varied between 29 and 51 seaters! Where there was a breakdown with one of the buses this year, the company and driver assumed direct responsibility and an alternative bus was sent to transport the children without any disruption to activities or the children. All drivers are issued activity timetables in advance so they can plan their routes. We try to keep the same driver with the same group so that we can maintain these positive relationships built between the drivers, staff and children, they in turn respond flexibly to the group’s needs. The coaches continue to be one of the most expensive elements of the scheme however they are what makes the range of activities that we do accessible and the ownership of responsibility in regards to getting safely to venues is in their hands. They even helped to fix one of our go karts this year too!

People

Once again, Pegasus continues to run and be led by the Committee. Each member of the committee has a specific role which when all undertaken ensures that the scheme runs smoothly and all tasks are completed. The committee are as follows:

Sue Clark – Chairperson and fundraiser

Sarah Slingsby – Vice Chairperson, Scheme receptionist and photos

Kim Bladon – Project co-ordinator – this incorporates a variety of roles such as volunteer coordinator, children coordinator and activities coordinator.

Val McLester – Treasurer and supplies coordinator

Anna Govan – Staff Coordinator and scheme manager during the 3 weeks.

We are also lucky enough to have a small core group of parents who also offer additional support and advice during the scheme and we are very grateful for their support.

Staff: Applications for staff began in February 2015 – staff from previous years were invited to apply, advertisements were placed on the website, social media and travelled by word of mouth. Interviews took place during the Easter Holiday period and ex-staff were called to interview to ensure that any change in circumstances could be noted and assessed. We employed 17 members of staff. 4 Group Leaders and 13 Assistant Leaders (this was 3 per group and 1 floating for cover duty). The majority of the staff had worked for Pegasus before in some capacity and their experience is valuable to the scheme and supporting one another with queries etc. Daily staff meetings are held to discuss and alleviate any issues which may arise. All staff are paid weekly. References are requested for all staff and they attend interview (regardless of experience) and a staff training day prior to the commencement of the scheme. All staff and volunteers over 16 are CRB checked. A qualified first aider was present in each group. All staff are recognised by their red uniform shirt and identity badge.

Volunteers : 42 volunteers once again supported Pegasus this year, as we have come to expect, they are keen and fulfilled their role with professionalism, many of them have now been supporting Pegasus for a good number of years and as such slip into the role with ease. Volunteers attend the training day prior to the start of the scheme to meet staff and familiarise themselves with the needs of the children in their groups. Staff support those new to the role and guide them in building relationships with the children and scaffold how to interact/befriend the children on the scheme. All volunteers sign a code of conduct for behaviour and attend a weekly volunteer meeting. Expenses of £6 per day are paid to them on a Friday. Volunteers are recognised by their navy T-shirts. Feedback from parents/carers of the support the volunteers give the children is always positive and they are immensely grateful for the bonds which are made and seeing the friendly faces of their volunteers each day.

Children:Planning for child applications begins as far back as the November AGM where forms are available for collection. Following this, forms are posted on the Pegasus Website for parents to access, download and complete. Any parent requesting a paper copy of the form can phone and it will be sent to them. We continue to operate a first come first served system for applications and we were full again by the deadline of 1st July; Payment for places is required with the application form to ensure that we can sustain running the scheme. This ensured we knew how many children we would need to facilitate relatively early on and that funding was guaranteed for our pre-booked activities/coaches etc. A 3 day trial period has proved critical for the inclusion of new children to the scheme and whilst we always try to include them beyond the trial period, it also ensures we are covered if we find they do not meet the criteria laid down in our constitution. Children were aged between 8 and 30 this year and were organised largely in age order across the 4 groups. We had many children who had previously attended and 1 or 2 new children per group. We took a total of 43 children daily across the course of the scheme.

Youth Forum:

Alongside the 3 week scheme, Pegasus runs a Youth Forum –this is attended by any Pegasus members over the age of 18, they pay a yearly subscription and then meet once a month in the local pub for a social evening. This is run and organised by Angela Renders and Kim Bladon. The young adults choose the theme for their evenings and also organise activities as a result of these meetings e.g. bowling, quiz nights etc. Feedback form these meetings is always positive – they would like more regular meetings ideally! The Youth Forum has now been running for 5 years and they celebrated this on the evening of the prom by arriving in style as a group in a Limousine!

Activities:

Following child, volunteer, staff and parent feedback we provide a varied and entertaining timetable of activities taking into account preferences of all ages. Some activities are

pre-booked and other days are left free so that the group leaders can plan their day – following discussion with the children and volunteers and also taking into account the weather on the day.

We asked parents/carers to assess the activities undertaken and the results were as follows:

Parents were asked to grade activities on a scale of 1-5, (1 being the least enjoyed/beneficial and 5 being the most)(Numbers may not tally to the same total as some children had not undertaken all activities therefore score was left blank)

Swimming was an activity which was welcomed back with open arms by all children and is an activity enjoyed by the majority; the pool used this year was Christchurch School in Folkestone – this may in retrospect not be as suitable for group 4 as group 1 due to the depth of water – so is an activity which we will continue to look into for alternative venues for 2016. We were grateful to have 2 qualified life guards as volunteers who accompanied swimming groups each day thus ensuring safety for all.

Pre-booked activities in 2015 included Bowling, Laser Rush (groups 2-4), Horse Riding, Brockhill Park, Canoeing, Sailing, the Vineyard and Sea Safari.

Pottery is an activity which is chosen by most groups on their free days and is not only enjoyable but results in a gift for the children to take home at the end of the scheme.

A new activity which many groups chose to do this year was ‘Chocolate making’ at Hendricks of Hythe. Children came back with chocolate treats to take home after having had an afternoon of fun!

As we are using the same venues for our activities on a yearly basis, the venues are accommodating and recognise the needs of the children on the scheme, providing additional support help/resources if required.

We were very lucky on the whole with the weather and only had rainy days on the last week. As a committee, we may need to provide staff with a list of venues which they could use to fill time on rainy days. As a committee, we will look into booking Pent Valley dance studio or sports hall for rainy days.

Other:Photos were once again completed in the form of montages presented to each child in a frame. We took into account feedback from parents last year and this year’s frames consist of a plexi-glass for safety.

Following a successful last day party at the conclusion of the scheme last year – we decided to repeat this again this year. All parents/carers were invited to sign up for a donation of food to bring and we then held a whole scheme food buffet and celebration of the 3 weeks.

The children/volunteers and staff celebrated the culmination of the scheme at the Red/Gold prom – a lovely way to end the scheme and a celebration of another successful year.

Our social media Facebook page is proving to be a successful way to pass on messages and increase awareness of the playscheme. We have a 100% response rate which means that all queries are answered within 9 minutes of being posted (thanks to our Chair and Kim)

As a committee we have various points to consider ready for Pegasus 2016 (our 30th year!) – do we want to change our logo? How to go about this?

Has our catchment changed – are we still a /Dover/Deal playscheme or have we stretched further afield? Consider Charity tagline if so.

In a bid to reduce application costs, all of our correspondence is largely carried out via email or online. Parents can receive replies in the post or in paper form at their own request and this will be placed as a tick box option on the application forms for 2016.

Following observations of staffing in groups this year – we intend to make changes to staff numbers for 2016. The plan is to move to 1 GL and 1 AL in each group, supported by a trainee. This change can now come in light of changes which have taken place with activities; groups are no longer needed to split for certain activities so the GL can maintain visual contact at all times – hence the move to fewer staff.

There is mixed feedback about parent/child feelings of the first and last day and as a committee we will discuss how best to take this forward for 2016 – see graph below.

A suggestion was made during the scheme that the word PEGASUS should be printed on the back of staff

t-shirts to aid promotion of the scheme – Sue printed 16 shirts and when worn, they did indeed look very professional and it was definitely clear who we were – consider this for all shirts next year.

Parent questionnaires were once again sent out to encourage feedback about certain elements of the scheme, data received was as follows:

NB: The parent who stated ‘never’ is a parent who does not have access to the internet and forms are posted annually.

Additional Comments:

Pegasus is a fabulous concept executed with kindness, passion and considerable talent – thanks a million.

Pegasus is a life saver to me, without it I would not know what to do with ***. I just wish it operated for longer in the holidays.

*** has enjoyed herself again and loved the volunteers that have supported her. Thank you everyone for a great 2 weeks.

Yet again Pegasus has delivered an amazing start to the school holidays – can’t thank you all enough.

*** has really enjoyed Pegasus so far this year.

*** loves everything about Pegasus and looks forward to it every year.

As always, extremely pleased with all aspects and very grateful for all the time and hard work Sue and the committee put in to Pegasus and that so many young people volunteer for the Playscheme. Thank you so much.

Both my boys enjoy coming to Pegasus.

This is ***’s first year with Pegasus, we are very happy he has had the opportunity to do additional supported activities aiding his sense of the wider world and helping him and us with the long summer break. We feel this is avery positive scheme and love the young supporters’ involvement. Many thanks.

Well done to all of the committee; your passion shines brighter each year. A traditional playscheme with 21st Century guidelines.

Brilliant scheme as usual – just gets better each year!

The Committee all deserve medals for their perseverance and dedication – thank you!

I’d like social services to contribute a greater percentage of the cost of the scheme.

Yet another fab year.

There is nothing I would change at Pegasus it is an incredible scheme which should be funded by the government.

Points to consider:

The only thing I would say is that the first and last day could be charged at half price as they are both short days, but only if this is affordable for Pegasus to do.

Less parks for the older children.

I think you may have used Christchurch Pool – need to consider up and over access and can be tricky to manoeuvre people out of the pool.

Would be lovely to meet up with Pegasus friends on a few dates throughout the year; maybe even for joint fund raising events. Even a sponsored walk or something simple everybody could be involved in.

More swimming please.

In conclusion, we have had another successful year, thanks to the dedication of the committee, staff, volunteers and support of parents. Lots of smiley faces mean lots of happy children and that is what it’s all about! Roll on Pegasus 2016!

Pegasus Play Scheme is a registered charity (No. 299301) whose objects are to provide play and recreational opportunities to children and young people with learning difficulties in the Dover/Deal area.