Everybody Sport and Recreation is pleased to announce the success of our application under the new Short Breaks programme (subject to contract sign off), which will provide a wide range of new programmes encompassing a number of physical opportunities including gym sessions, holiday schemes, trampolining, activity hubs and inclusive cycling and swimming lessons in Crewe, Congleton and Macclesfield leisure facilities.
This new programme was created in line with the service specification, issued by Cheshire East Council, and offers a sustainable programme long-term.
As promised in our letter, issued on the 5th July, Everybody Sport and Recreation has held meetings with Fun4All in Macclesfield, Play World in Hough and Everybody staff on the future of Activ8 sessions.
Whilst we feel that the current sessions held at Fun4All and Play World do not fit Cheshire East Council’s new service specification, we have taken on board the opinions of our service users and proposed to Cheshire East Council an alteration in the new programme structure which will enable us to deliver our weekly activity hubs from both our centres and Fun4All and Play World, on a fortnightly basis.
Further conversations still need to be held with the centres involved before this element can be confirmed.
As a registered charitable organisation we need to ensure the programmes we deliver can be sustained, long term, without public funding so that programmes do not need to end when a funding stream ends. Funding is used to establish solid foundations but there needs to be a sustainable exit pathway to all programmes to ensure that service users are not left reliant on ever-diminishing funding pots.
Over the new two year contract term, starting in September 2017, our intention is to work with both external venues, and parents in helping them to secure the future of the soft play sessions.
Whilst we appreciate this may not fully satisfy everyone’s expectations, it is the most viable and sustainable offer which ensures that the broad range of activities we have been awarded are able to continue. Parents will be issued a letter and timetable once we have the whole programme confirmed and we will release a final statement when we know the outcome of venue conversations.