EQUAL RIGHTS

The ethos behind our group is for all children to be able to attend our activities without judgement. 

We have a wide range of SEN children and differing neuro-diverse diagnoses and ages.  We are not specialists in any one particular diagnosis, we simply accept that our children all have their own challenges and will never be judged on this at our events.  However, this does not mean challenging behaviour is accepted – it means we expect the parents or guardians to ensure the safety of others.

Please remember, all children attending our events have the same right to enjoy the event without fear of how the other children are behaving. 

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LANGUAGE

We fully accept that some of our children exhibit what we might think of as unacceptable language.  They are curious and sometimes do not understand the effect of this language on others.  But we do ask that parents do their best to limit this – especially out of respect for the other parents and younger children. 

We would also ask parents to be aware of the age differences within our group and what may be understandable within some age groups is not in others. 

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PERSONAL SPACE

This can be a very difficult issue with many of our children – from some children needing their personal space and quiet time to other children not understanding personal space and unintentionally invading the privacy of others. 

This is perfectly normal and we do understand this.  However, this is why parental responsibility must be in attendance at all times, to help with this and ensure the safety of all the children, especially if you know your child can be ‘touchy’, ‘invasive’, or even ‘aggressive’.  Whilst other adults can understand they do not mean to upset the other children, the children do not always understand this and the safety and enjoyment of all the children must come first. 

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SUITABILITY

We know that not all our events will be suitable for every child.  Individual events cannot be tailored for the individual needs of all the children as it would be impossible.  This is why we must insist that all parents are responsible for ensuring they have fully read and understood what all our events are about and that they are suitable for their child before booking.  For example, some of our events will not be suitable for those with sensory processing issues due to smells/lighting etc. 

Any food we supply is purely on donations and we cannot guarantee that all venues accommodate all dietary requirements – therefore, it is the parents responsibility to check if the venue are able to accommodate any special dietary requirement, or bring suitable food with them if there is no suitable food available. 

 

 

 

Behaviour at events, activities and residentials.  We offer a non-judgemental environment for SEN children, however, we must also ensure the enjoyment of events by all.

 

Removal from events.  At all events, Twinkles reserve the right to ask you to leave an event where any safety issues arise from the behaviour of your child(ren).  Whilst we are very thankful that the majority of our parents are fully responsible at all times and have in the past taken evasive action to ensure the safety of others when their child(ren) exhibit aggressive behaviour, we do understand that on rare occasions it is not always possible to stop the behaviour.  We must ask that the safety and enjoyment of others comes first.  Any aggressive, violent, disruptive, manipulative or bullying behaviour shown must be addressed by the parent;

 

Behaviour of child.  A childs behaviour may be brought to the attention of an event Host either by another child, another parent or the venue staff.   In the first instance we ask that you remove your child to talk to them, your child can then return provided you feel they understand that their behaviour was not acceptable.  If there is a second instance at the same event, then we reserve the right to ask you to leave.  This is purely for the safety and enjoyment of the event for all the children allowing the event to continue.  Refunds will not be given.   

 

Where repeated reports are received of aggressive, violent, disruptive, manipulative or bullying behaviour, this may be escalated to the board of directors for a decision on membership and continuation of friendship of the group.  All decisions are at the board of director’s discretion; membership is not guaranteed to all and can be revoked for any of the following reasons:

 

• Parents unable or unwilling to be responsible for their child at an event

• Parents not acknowledging bad behaviour from their children and/or allowing this to escalate

• Parents who are unable to control aggression from their child at events. 

• Parents not bringing sufficient supervision when bringing more than one child to an event

• Parents being publicly disrespectful towards Twinkles SEN  Activity Days CIC and its volunteers, this may be face to face or on social media at any time.

• Non-compliance with the terms and conditions of our group and events. 

 

A child will not be asked to leave the group for exhibiting challenging behaviour as we do understand and accept this as part of the diagnoses of our varied children, however, we do reserve the right to ask the parents to leave the group if they are unable to show suitable parental responsibility for their child(ren) and respect for the safety and enjoyment of all others. 

 

Regrettably, Twinkles are not an authority on any single diagnoses, nor do we have the infrastructure to be responsible for a child where the parent or guardian is unable to or is unwilling to and removal from the group may be our only recourse.  Whilst we do understand the challenges of some diagnoses, this is our last course of action, but we would respectfully remind parents that any parent would have the right to prosecute should their child come to harm at any of our events – and Twinkles would be legally bound to cooperate if requested by the authorities.