Looking back: Seashell Trust Commitment to Inclusion Partner Visit

By GM Moving | 12 September 2022 | TAGS: disability, Inclusion, commitment to inclusion

On Wednesday 10th August, we saw the second instalment of our GM Moving Commitment to Inclusion partner visit.

Following on from Active Tameside in July, Seashell welcomed colleagues from leisure providers in Rochdale, Salford and Trafford, local councils, third sector organisations and regional charities.

The session was designed for ten people and aimed to offer the opportunity for colleagues to learn more about their school holiday CADS activity provision which provides accessible and inclusive activity to disabled children and young people across Greater Manchester, and beyond.

As will all of the GM Moving Commitment to Inclusion visits, the idea is to give providers from across the region the opportunity to see inclusive activity in practice to explore how they might take learning, practice and culture back to their place.

Stephen Pearson, Community Engagement Officer / Stockport Moving Together Local Pilot SEND Officer (Stockport Borough) from Seashell opened the session, providing background on what Seashell is all about.

As a well-established charity revolving around a commitment to provide the very best care and support to children with complex learning disabilities and autism, Seashell offers everything from educational school provision for primary and secondary years, those requiring residential places and a range of provision to meet all activity needs, which is utilised through their CADS school holiday activity programme.

Gemma Lynch, Interim Head of Seashell Active, Seashell’s approach to get those they support more active, shared the journey of developing CADS. With the initial intention of bringing people together though the love of sport of physical activity, CADS have been tested, refined and developed over a 16 year period, to now accommodate 40 – 50 children and young people with complex needs through the summer, many of whom would have no alternatives for activity elsewhere.

Ben Andrews, Managing Director of Beyond Empower one of the partners involved in the coordination of the commitment to inclusion, listened in to the presentation and felt the following points significant:

• Sport and physical activity can be used a means to support social and education development
• Special educational need schools are resources of rich learning and experience transferable to more mainstream community settings
• The relationship between child, parent and provider is often more important than the activity itself
• Making offers accessible to young disabled people means everyone benefits
• There are opportunities to learn from everyone; child, parent, staff, provider
• Person-centred inclusion is key
• Invite community members in and work with them to develop and refine your offer
• Parents want their children to be active but won’t just send them to any provider. Trust must be created. Once parents and children have this trust, they become extremely loyal

Seashell also reflected on the importance of getting the right people in the right roles and creating a culture focused on learning and development for all. Seashell CADS Crew members are recruited by observing interactions with children and young people rather than qualifications. The training for these people and role modelling ‘active’ support is then part of their development.

It was emphasised that personal assistants, of which many of the children at Seashell have, get no training around how to support physical activity. Unless the person is intrinsically motivated to be active themselves, it’s unlikely the person they’re supporting will be. Supported by Stockport’s Local Pilot, Seashell have aimed to combat this by piloting their own training to up skill personal assistants, parents and carers to encourage and feel confident in supporting those they support to be active.

The final point for from the morning’s presentation was:

“Achieving this level of inclusion (that Seashell offer) can be done. It takes a lot of work but the long-term positive impact on communities are far reaching and benefit every person in the family. Creating equality of Access and Opportunity to be active as part of a social norm, from childhood to adulthood.”

The morning’s session was wrapped up some lunch and a hand-out of pink volunteer bibs as colleagues prepared for an afternoon of volunteering. Colleagues supported children to take part in everything from indoor climbing and rebound therapy to football, swimming and messy play – which some getting well involved in the activities themselves.

It was clear from the afternoon that Seashell had created an environment, for both students and staff, in which people where happy and wanted to be there both, for activity and connection, where there were no limitations to what people could and couldn’t do. It was all there to explore and make work.

With some similar themes to our first partner visit, Seashell prompted people to:

• Start with small changes, learn and refine
• Allow the children, young people and parents to lead and really listen
• An active lifestyle may start with small steps, and these too should be recognised e.g., accessing the changing room for the first time, packing your own swimming kit, getting pool side

As with all visits, the day came to a close with some learning and reflections, with main points including:

• The need for staff training, and to have a greater understanding of what training is needed and which providers are best placed to do this
• Seashell advised they have a range of training opportunities available and learning to share. Their training brochure can be found in the GM Moving Commitment to Inclusion SharePoint resource area
• Keeping things simple, fluid and not over planning
• The opportunity for leisure to better link with social care and utilise social care budgets and a means to enable people to attend their provision

“Seeing is believing”

Useful Resources

In the downloads section below you'll find the CADS Impact Report and the presentation slides used on the day.

What's coming up?

The next Commitment to Inclusion partner visit will be on Wednesday 28th September hosted by Dance Syndrome, focusing on exploring the power of partnerships and the different ways you can approach inclusivity through dance.

Book your place here

Downloads

• CADS Impact Report 2022
• Seashell Presentation