Following the success of the Local Offer and Short Breaks activities last summer, Manchester City Council again reached out to parents & carers to look at what could be added to their programme of activities for the spring term and Easter holidays.
Discussing together with the Manchester Parent Champions, a number of ideas came to mind, including visits to the fantastic Children’s Adventure Farm Trust (CAFT), which a few of us in the MPCF team have been to before and which we’ve heard plenty of good things about from other parents. In another fantastic example of local services listening to parents and carers, the council organised in March a number of free weekend sessions at CAFT, which were bookable via the Local Offer team.
We invited families to share experiences their visit and published a short survey, where we asked their and their children’s/ young people’s satisfaction of the visit as well as which areas of CAFT their kids enjoyed the most.
An overwhelming majority of the feedback from families have been very positive, as reflected both through our survey and private/public messages that parents & carers shared.
Just amazing
They are fantastic. They have given my children an enormous lift throughout lockdown. It has made the world of difference and I was so grateful I felt emotional.
It was a lovely trip out for some safe open space and fresh air. Also really nice to see other SEND families from a distance. The opportunity to play on the equipment privately and experience the fun of the farm as a family, was such a lovely opportunity for us. We had some lovely moments and felt really connected as a family. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
Amazing facilities, kids love it there. Would be good if they could facilitate longer sessions in the woodland area as the 30/45 minutes you have just isn’t long enough. Staff who work there are fantastic.
My daughter thoroughly enjoyed it at CAFT, I thought it was great that each family had time in each area on their own.
The sessions were amazing, it was our first visit to caft and the staff made us feel so welcome. My daughter was a little unsure when we arrived and they put her at ease straight away.
My child loved them and so did we
Here are some beautiful photos that parents and carers very kindly shared with us:
Acknowledgements:
Much thanks to Manchester City Council’s Local Offer team for funding and booking the sessions on behalf of families, and for co-producing the whole project with parents and carers.
We would also like to thank these partners for their involvement:
- Manchester Parent Champions – planning, feedback gathering, video production
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