To not want non disabled children using our hard fought for sensory room ?

[ApocalypseCheeseToastie]

I'm probably going to get murdered for this but meh.

We live in a town with 3 softplay areas and various activites for nt children to do, for special needs children there is sod all, no softplay sessions, no sensory room. Nada.

A few years back me and some others started to go to meetings with our local council to arrange activities and eventually, after much fundraising a softplay area was built in our leisure centre and sensory room was built in our softplay area, it was entirely funded using money allocated for children with disabilities although the softplay is open to all and we get 8 hours per week when it is soley for use for disabled children up to the age of 15. HOWEVER, only disabled children are allowed access to the sensory room, the sensory room is also used by disabled adults and is the only one for 100 miles, it's a valued facility.

Parents have been complaining and demanded access to the sensory room and a meeting is being arranged to review the situation.

Bearing in mind the children/parents who use the softplay aren't always entirely respectful (taking food etc in) and the sure start centre does have a small sensory room for babies/toddlers, aibu to think, sod off, we only get 8 hours a week as it is, I don't want this expensive, specialist equipment being trashed by kids who don't need to be there and have 1001 other things to choose from ??!!

Not that i'm aware of, someone else sorts out that side of things, I just slouch at the back chucking in an opinion from time to time

As far as i'm aware it's been funded by private organisations, epilepsy support group for example donated £6000 they'd raised themselves through donations, tombolas etc

well all those donations were made to a particular, marginalised group, it surely breaches the spirit of the donation to insist that NT kids can use it and increase wear and tear.

Exactly !!

Not sure if anyone had said this - I am a professional fundraiser: grants are normally given for a specific purpose and recipients are often obliged to give a report, provide evidence and photographs etc. So, if someone then allows general public access, this could be directly against the terms and conditions of the original grant and legally, the funder(s) would be entitled to ask for the monies to be returned. I have known this to happen. I think all you need to say to others within the community asking for access is that the terms of the grant prohibit general use.

haven't read whole thread but yanbu. at all. I really hope this doesn't happen, like you said, it will inevitably get trashed and ruined. then SN kids will end up with nothing (again) while mainstream kids will just go back to the other things and remain equipped for. it really isn't fair. shame on the parents for complaining I think.

mrsnonsmoker makes an excellent point about funding too.

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread but YADNBU. There are plenty of facilities for children who aren't disabled, and they will manage very well without access to your sensory room.

Hope you succeed in your campaign to keep it for those who need it most!

Good point MrsNS.

Sorry to hijack but your name suggests you've given up smoking??? I plan to soon [shit, there's no ARGHHH! emoticon}

Apocalypse, please keep us posted.

tallwivglasses, I did give up smoking a long time ago, but in fact Mrs Non-Smoker is a character from a Monty Python sketch who buys a piston engine purely because it was a bargain. Mrs Smoker then points out the flaw in her plan - "How do you cook it?!" But good luck with giving up

Anyway, look forward to an update from OP.

would these same parents insist on using disabled parking spaces if normal ones were full? no i doubt they would just as disabled spaces are there for a reason, the sensory room is there for a reason and was fought for so i do not see why they need their children to use it too when there are plenty of other activities for them

ApocalypseCheeseToastie

This thread is very long, so this may have been said before.

But, if you have fundraised to purchase the equipment, it belongs to your group, and not the leisure centre. If they persist in wanting to offer the specialist equipment to all customers to their profit, then I suggest you offer to close the area while you look for somewhere else to host the equipment.

ACT yanbu . There is not enough facilities for sn kids , but hundreds for nt kids. They have choice , they dont need the sn kids sensory room too. Its just the NT parents being gready imo.

YANBU at all. Even if it had been funded with money available to all it should just be used for those with disabilities. Maybe not all the time but most of it!

At our leisure centres there is time put aside on each facility for women only/man only time, mainly for religious reasons I think. I've never met anyone who has a problem with this. So why might the same precedent not be used for those with disabilities?

How lucky your kids and community are to have someone as creative and resourceful as you looking out for them. Down with the complainers!

YANBU - seems to be a case of foot stamping really

MrsNS Qui9nt I said the same RE ringfencing but it was missed so thank you (used to do your job myself LOL)

It's the fefinitive 'wyou can;t use it so there' get out though

UPDATE *

Oh, bloody hell, anyways. Had our meeting today, nobody from leisure centre was there, however they did send a message to say the sensory room wasn't being asked for in our sessions !

From around our table we had,

A lady who wasn't told it wasn't her session and couldn't have the keys (it was)

Someone who was told she hadn't been 'trained' to use it

One lady didn't even know the room within the softplay was a sensory room!

Etc and so on, and I know when I go I have a huge hassle getting the keys, have to leave a deposit behind, have to queue twice AND they haven't been locking it when we go (accidently on purpose no doubt.

Rather interesting meeting atch, found out the company who have been given shedloads of money to run activities for sn kids had actually broken the law by running a trip which wasn't suitable for children in wheelchairs and they weren't allowed to go

Oh and there was a broken hearted elderly lady there, she'd cared for her son all his life until he ended up in hospital, behind her back they placed him in a residential facility 300 miles away, she just kept saying, I can't see him, I just want to see him.

I must confess I had a little cry

Lovely bloke from our (threatened by cuts ) carers group looked after her tho

thats terrible ACT. No wonder you had a wee cry.

That was awfully rude of them not turning up, doesn't surprise me though.

So what was the decision?

That poor lady :(

couldn't make one bacause they werent there ! the issues will be raised with the leisure centre, the reception staff in particular are awful, told my sister nephews too old to have party there (he's 9)

Have told people the age limits being reviewed (it isn't)

Our sessions aren't advertised on front desk AT ALL (so people don't know to ask)

Make us feel we shouldn't be there in general. Pah

Was an incident last year when there was a huge queue to get into swimming because of the free sessions, ds started to get stressed in the queue and some over kids were poking fun at him, so I went to the desk and asked if we could wait in the cafe and they'd call us through (expected them to boot out the kids who were being shits tbh but they didn't) anyways, kept popping through to see if we could go in, they kept saying no, kids kept going in.

Until I finally lost it at the desk and was told we'd been forgotton about and it was now too late, was bloody fuming !

sounds like they could do with a bit of disability awareness training? (or some kindness and competence training?)