January 2024 marked 52 years since two Birstall women founded what was then known as ‘Birstall Creche.’ They recruited a team of volunteer helpers to play with the children and had Birstall Methodist Church’s support in offering the playgroup a home. They also secured the support of the British Red Cross for a number of years, to pay petrol costs for the volunteer drivers at that time, who would pick up the children from the City & County.
Sheila and Mary, the founders, were very clear about what they were trying to achieve. Sheila’s fourth child Miriam, then five years old, has Down’s Syndrome. Miriam was a celebrated part of the family, much loved and much wanted but when she was first born and Sheila and her husband were given the diagnosis, it was a massive shock. The emotional adjustment to the news, but also the implications in terms of decision making, search for services and advice, was bewildering, even to Sheila who, as a Health Care professional, knew something about disability. Throughout Miriam’s early years, Sheila could not find a playgroup appropriate for her daughter, with disabilities, to join. It was this personal experience that inspired her to elicit the help of Mary and attempt to develop a service for children with disabilities and their families, for those early years when everyone feels so vulnerable and potentially isolated.
More than fifty years on the group, now known as Birstall Playgroup for Children with Additional Needs and supported by BBC Children in Need, is still thriving! In some ways nothing has changed. Among the committed team of volunteers, there are even some of the early helpers and the very same Miriam that inspired the setting up of our group was herself an adult volunteer for many years!
Demand for places, offered free to the families, is as strong as ever. The group presently supports about 20 families by offering one or two mornings of play in term time for pre-school children with disabilities, aged 0 to 5. We want the children to grow in confidence, to have opportunities to get messy, get imaginative, feel successful and pleased with themselves. We want them to learn to enjoy being part of a group and to do so regardless of the challenges that a disability presents.
For the Parents or Carers, we’ve learned that playgroup’s importance is twofold. They want a group where they have enough confidence to leave their child, knowing that they are welcomed, safe, having fun and that they’ve found a group where the disability is not conspicuous or a problem. Equally important is that they discover a network of other parents & carers, potential friends, who know how it feels and how hard it can be. The parents tell us that it gives them a place where they can celebrate their child’s achievements; sometimes those achievements, shared with parents of children without disability, would be seen as hardly worthy of comment. They share information about useful services and even products or tips to help with ordinary everyday challenges at home. The adjacent coffee shop provides the perfect setting to spend this time together without leaving the site. Other Parents choose to leave their child and use the time for other activities, without the. care responsibilities.
Children in Need currently cover our staff costs; three paid roles of Playgroup Leader, Assistant Leader and Playgroup Worker. In addition, around twenty volunteers currently support the playgroup, either helping out at sessions, on our management committee, or both. All staff and committee members have regular Safeguarding training and DBS checks.
The playgroup is respected by healthcare professionals and social care professionals and service providers within Leicester and Leicestershire and information about the group is given on Local Authority and relevant voluntary organisations’ data bases. Requests for places and referrals remain constant and we currently have a long waiting list.
Playgroup is a unique service in Leicester and Leicestershire. We have a continuous, close relationship with the parents who use the service and they confirm the necessity for the group. Indeed a significant number continue to use the parent / carers support group long after their children have moved on to school.
It is usual for our children to be involved with multiple child care services and the Playgroup Leader liaises with these services, aiming for a co ordinated approach for each child. We visit and have visits from the Specialist Nursery Schools used by a significant number of children who also attend playgroup. We confer with mainstream pre-school SENCOs. This relationship with other carers and service providers ensures that children’s progress, difficulties, preferences and needs are shared with everyone who may be involved in offering the child direct care. We advise and offer training in alternative or augmentative communication skills, such as Makaton, used by the children with communication difficulties.
Paediatric Physiotherapists, Occupational Therapists, Autism Outreach workers and teachers from the Special Needs Teaching Service, visit playgroup to observe the children in a social setting outside the home, and in order to give advice and help ensure continuity of care for the children. Playgroup also provides a very good forum for professionals wanting to give information to parents regarding both new and existing services.
We do not intend to provide an alternative to a mainstream setting. We want our pre- school children to be prepared for whatever their next placement is. Through attending Playgroup, they become used to separation from their carer, who has often had to provide a lot more care than is usual.
Given the right opportunities, in the right way to suit them, the children will inform us by joining in, by having a go, by learning and trying, by laughing or objecting, by giving you eye contact or by opting out. At our group we have to ‘listen’ particularly hard, but most of all, we have to listen without prejudice.
