East Ayrshire Council vow to avoid repeat of fight over ASN Summer programme
Parents had hit out at the council last summer when they were told that many of the schemes tailored for children with additional and complex support needs had been dropped.
East Ayrshire Council boss Eddie Fraser says that the council has listened to parents as it bids to avoid a repeat of last year’s fight over its ASN summer programme.
Parents had hit out at the council last summer when they were told that many of the schemes tailored for children with additional and complex support needs had been dropped, just days before the holidays began.
As well complaints that they had reduced the number of hours available, there were claims that many of the activities were unsuitable for children with additional support needs.
The council said it had set up a broader ‘inclusive’ summer programme.
On Wednesday, Chief Executive Eddie Fraser outlined how the council had moved to address the issue.
READ MORE: East Ayrshire parents outraged as council scraps ASN summer scheme
He said: “This is the next step in terms of our response to what we heard last year.”
Mr Fraser said that the 2022 summer scheme had been an ‘extensive programme which was inclusive for many people, including ASN’.
He continued: “A small number of people and their families with the highest level of need, felt excluded from that. Many members here were present and heard directly from parents and carers about the experience.
Mr Fraser said the council took on board the criticism and arranged an independent review which contained ‘quite hard’ messages alongside an ambition that the council could ‘move forward and be proud of what we deliver’.
The Children and Young Persons Strategy Group has been tasked with looking at the broader provision and developing integrated support that allows support for ASN children to ‘socialise the same as everyone else’.
But Mr Fraser stated that the decision for cabinet was the agreement over a contract with provider Aberlour that will allow better planning and improvements to the summer programme.
“In the meantime, we need to make sure that we have something in place this summer coming. This paper is about how we put contractual arrangements in place and deliver for this summer.
“This will take into account the feedback from parents and carers, including the important of ‘familiar places and familiar faces’.”
Mr Fraser concluded: “Our ambition is to not only deliver a school holiday programme. The ambition is to deliver throughout the year.”
Council leader Douglas Reid admitted the issue had been problematic and said he was hopeful there were solutions in sight.
Labour group leader Maureen McKay also welcomed the report, but asked for assurances around the detailed costs and timescales.
She said: “I know that one of significant issues that had already been raised by parents last year was that they didn’t know enough in advance about what was actually going to be available and were unable to make their plans accordingly.”
She also asked for reassurance over the number of hours available to families.
Mr Fraser said that a one off allocation of £250,000 had been agreed at the budget earlier this year. This covers the whole scheme including property management and salary costs. Should recurring funding be required, this would be brought back to cabinet in the autumn.
He added: “Yes, we are making sure that there is more time available for people.
“The ambition is to make sure our young people get more support than they managed to get last year. ”
Councillor Elaine Cowan said that the report gave members a chance to ‘pause and reflect’ on where they were last year.
She added: “It is vital that we move at pace. I agree with Cllr McKay that one of things was that we only found out about the issues very late in the day. We have to get this up and running as quickly as possible. ”