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Funding for scheme that boosts disabled children's activity
An initiative that encourages children and young people with disabilities to enjoy physical activity has been awarded a grant of £6,600 from Sport England’s Together Fund.
The scheme, run by the community physiotherapy team from the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust’s (WSFT) integrated paediatric services (ICPS), offers four-week blocks of sessions at three Suffolk sports centres to children on who access its service. These can be young people with any disability or long-term condition - such as cerebral palsy.
Michael Bardell, a WSFT highly specialised physiotherapist, said: “We work with 12- to 19-year-olds in the gyms, using the equipment and facilities to improve their strength and general condition.
“Young people are often put off by gyms and make assumptions about the people that attend them and what expectations there might be. There are so many barriers for these young people, especially the fear factor that they are not like everyone else,” he said.
“There are challenges on both sides: our young people worry they will not be able to do anything, and sports centres can have concerns about having potentially vulnerable young people in their facilities. This can all be overcome with support, experience and communication, and the work makes a real difference to children and young people,” said Michael.
He added: “After the initial sessions, our hope is that these young people have gained enough confidence and are empowered to join leisure centres. We support them to look at what’s available. It also helps as they transition to adult services, where there may be less support, and helps give them the confidence to keep going to gyms and leisure centres with their friends.”
The sessions run at Stowmarket Leisure Centre, the Gainsborough Sports Centre in Ipswich and Abbeycroft Leisure in Bury St Edmunds. The young people are drawn from the service, with any of the ICPS paediatric physiotherapists able to refer them to the scheme. They will remain on the physio team’s caseload.
Chris Hawley, service lead for children’s community physiotherapy is delighted to see these groups restart with the support of the new funding. She said: “We have had gym groups running since 2015, but of course COVID-19 stopped a lot of our activities. It has been great to involve some new staff. Children’s physiotherapists Emma Humphreys and Henry Fowler are now working across the county to support this initiative.”
Mike added: “Active Suffolk supported us in the application, and I hope we can show we have spent the money wisely. We plan to use the additional funds to offer taster sessions in the summer, reaching out to even more young people and getting more of them active and involved within their local community.’’
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