Short Breaks - Universal Services

Warrington Play and Sensory Centre is a purpose built facility for young people and adults with additional needs/disabilities. The centre has been carefully planned and is fully accessible with a number of different areas where visitors can relax or play.

• Active zone - A large soft play structure built over two floors, highlights include; dizzy disc, slide, swinging ball and ball pool.
• Calm zone - A low level soft play area for those with reduced mobility or for younger children. This zone includes a low level trampoline, swing, DVD and overhead hoist track.
• Sensory room - A calm environment with a heated water bead, bubble tube, interactive light board, fibre optic curtain, ball pool, visualite ceiling panel and overhead hoist track.
• Café - Provides hot and cold drinks and a selection of hot food and snacks.

The centre offers separate sessions for different age groups including pre-school sessions, Lego club and young adults’ social evenings. Exclusive hire slots (minimum two hours) are available on request for celebrations and parties. The Centre also hosts its own annual Halloween, Christmas and New Year parties.

Warrington Play and Sensory Centre works closely with lots of support groups and agencies for support and advice including, Warrington parents and carers, Ask Ollie, National Autistic Society, Friends, FUN (Families United), Child Development Centre and many more.

Opening times, prices and weekly timetable are available online at www.warringtonsensorycentre.org Telephone: 01925 817347 Email: sensorycentre@warrington.gov.uk You can also follow on Facebook

There are six children’s centres in Warrington:

Warrington South:
Westy and Sunshine.

Warrington East:
The Orchard and Sandy Lane

Warrington West:
Great Sankey and Dallam.

The centres offer a range of services for young children and families including health advice, play and learning, and parenting support. Each children’s centre will review its offer each term, most of the sessions need to be pre-booked and some are by referral only; however parents can self-refer into many group sessions. Each centre will have a slightly different programme, reflecting the community they serve. The typical offer is as follows.

• FAB groups - This is a targeted offer for babies who are in the neonatal unit at Warrington hospital. Warrington Children Centre Support Workers (CCSW) visit the hospital to meet parents and babies and invite them to attend Family and Baby Sensory groups (FAB) once their child is discharged. FAB Sensory aims to support a baby’s all round development by building strong foundations based in play. The sessions run once a week.
• Baby Massage - A 6 week programme for babies aged 6 weeks to pre-crawling. Learn massage to help soothe, relax and bond with your baby.
• Baby Explorers - A 6 week programme for new parents of babies under the age of 6 months. Parents can learn about early play and development, basic first aid, baby massage, and introducing solid foods.
• Ready Steady Nursery - A fun 6 week programme to help children and parents learn all the skills they will need for nursery or pre-school. Aimed at children aged 2 years +
• Chatterbox - A 6 week programme for children aged 18 to 30 months aimed at improving early speech and language. This intervention has been designed by our Speech & Language Therapists and is delivered by trained CCSW in the children centres. Through the programme children will develop the building blocks for communication through focusing on activities that support listening and attention, imitation, eye contact, taking turns and play.
• Talking Chefs - A 6 week course for children aged 2 years + and their parent/ carer, aimed at improving early communication and language skills through fun and practical cooking activities.
• Sensory Room at The Orchard - Filled with opportunities for light and sound play, the sensory room is available to book. Contact the Orchard Children’s Centre for availability.
• Adult Learning - Courses for parents to learn new skills such as Maths, English, First Aid, Confidence and Understanding Your Toddler’s Behaviour. A crèche may be available but not guaranteed.
• All kinds of play - Stay and play age relevant drop in sessions for young children and their parent/carers including sessions focused on babies from birth to walking and sessions focused on confident walkers to school age.

Portage is a home visiting educational service for pre-school children with additional support needs and their families. This is a relatively new Warrington service and it supports and strengthens our Early Help offer for children with additional needs. The portage team works with children up until a secure transition into a nursery or school has been achieved. This service is secured through referral from a professional. Portage workers typically visit children in their own home once a week to support them with their holistic development.

Some two year-olds can get free early education and childcare the term after their second birthday. Eligibility is set by the Department for Education (DfE). Currently children are eligible if the parent receive one of the following benefits.

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Universal Credit
• Tax credits and you have an annual income of under £16,190 before tax
• The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Support through part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act
• The Working Tax Credit 4-week run on (the payment you get when you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)

A child can also fet free early education and childcare if any of the following apply.

• They are looked after by a local council
• They have a an education, health and care (EHC) plan
• They get Disability Living Allowance
• They’ve left care under a special guardianship order, child arrangements order or adoption order

All children aged three and four are eligible for 15 hours of funded childcare for 38 weeks of the year. Children become eligible the term after their third birthday.

From September 2017 the extended funded childcare entitlement for working parents of three- and four-year-olds provides eligible parents with a total of 30 hours of free childcare per week, over 38 weeks or the equivalent number of hours across more weeks per year. The additional 15 hours will be available to families where both parents are working (or the sole parent is working in a lone parent family), and each parent earns, on average, a weekly minimum equivalent to 16 hours at national minimum wage (NMW) or national living wage (NLW), and less than £100,000 per year.

More information for all of the above can be sought from the Families Information Service on 01925 443131 or at www.mylifewarrington.co.uk

Warrington Youth Club (not managed by Warrington borough council) delivers a wide variety of projects to children and young people from across the Borough of Warrington, aged 7 to 19, and up to 25 for those who have a disability. These projects range from open-access youth clubs where young people can socialise and have fun, to more focused projects in sports and arts, as well as personal development programs which promote life-skills and wellbeing, and training courses where young people develop volunteering and employment skills.

The youth club’s ethos is ‘Inspiring Young People to Achieve’. All projects offer personal and social development opportunities for young people to grow and flourish, and make a positive impact on their communities. The club is committed to inclusive and accessible practice, regularly welcoming children and young people who have disabilities and learning difficulties, across the organisation. Projects which are specifically aimed at children with disabilities are:

• Buddy Up - A unique befriending project which works with young people who have disabilities and matches them up with positive role models who become their ‘Buddies’, helping them to grow in confidence, make new friends and practice independence skills.
• Buddy Up Film Nights - Fortnightly film nights for children and young people with disabilities and their families, funded by Warrington Borough Council – Short Break Care for Disabled Children. The film nights aim to give families of children with additional needs a genuine cinema-going experience in a safe and supportive environment.

Warrington Youth Service (managed by Warrington Borough Council) offers group and 1-2-1 support to young people aged over 11 years. Young people can drop in to any of our open access sessions at Orford Youth Base or to the Youth Café in the town centre for support. Across our groups, young people can get involved in a range of activities such as music and lyric writing, debates, cooking, sports, crafts, film-making and photography. For young people who may need additional support to access groups on their own, professionals and families can refer into the service and a worker will get in touch to discuss how we can help. There are targeted groups for young people with specific needs so there are plenty of options to ensure that we can match the young person to the most appropriate groups. Please contact the service to find out what may be available.

Although Warrington Youth Service always has lots going on, the most appropriate group for a young person with disabilities is UFI. Unique Friendly Individuals (UFI) is a group for young people aged 13-19 who may be at risk of social isolation, bullying, exploitation, poor family life, disengaging from society or who may need support with building social skills and friendships. This targeted group can provide a wide range of support to help young people build their confidence, self-esteem, resilience and life-skills as they go through the teenage years and into adulthood.