Parks for Play is an exceptional charity created by families with disabled children, play and youth experts 20 years ago.
We pride ourselves on never excluding a child or young person from our service, regardless of their disability, background, emotional needs, or challenging behaviour.
We specialise in ‘Play’ which is self-directed by children and young people (our members) and facilitated by a diverse team of play workers.
At Parks for Play we run several play groups throughout the year, catered towards children with additional needs and their siblings. Groups run on Saturdays during term times, and we have holiday play schemes over the half terms, Easter, Summer and Christmas breaks.
We run ‘End of Day’ play sessions for primary-aged children (termtime only).
Our youth service runs on alternative Sundays and provides club sessions which promote independence and leisure opportunities.
Our younger adult service runs on alternative Sundays and provides opportunities to build life-enhancing skills and social opportunities.
Please note, all sessions are booking only.
We also run a programme of inclusive trips and treats for exciting play and leisure adventures across the city when funding is available.
At Parks for Play we invest in planning for every individual person who comes to our sessions. We find out all about their likes & dislikes, triggers, preferences, independence goals, medical needs, behavioural challenges, communication needs and family support needs.
We do this for everyone that accesses our services before they attend so that we can ensure that we are meeting their needs.
We welcome children and young people with the highest and most complex needs, alongside their siblings to enjoy fun and enriching opportunities which are developed to facilitate playing with their peers and develop their social, emotional and independence skills.
Parks for Play recognises that we have a responsibility to promote the well-being of all children, young people and adults accessing our services to keep them safe and to work in a way that protects them from harm. We do this by valuing, listening to and respecting every person and by creating a safe environment where children, young people and adults feel listened to and comfortable to share their concerns – an environment where they can flourish and thrive.
Parks for Play staff are all trained in safeguarding children, young people and adults and have a legal responsibility to seek further advice from other safeguarding agencies should we be concerned about their welfare.
Any such action is always taken with the best interests of our service users and their families and with the aim of identifying appropriate support for everyone involved.
Parks for Play was created by a group of parents with children on the autism spectrum. Large green spaces for their little runners, who had a spirit of adventure bigger than their sense of consequence, made visits to parks more challenging than comforting.
These parents decided to turn their world inside out and create local play services that gave traditionally excluded children priority access to inclusive community services.
Parks for Play are committed to creating resilient children through play opportunities. We base our actions around core Play Principles. including;
Our team of inclusive practitioners are a diverse group of amazing people who will encourage our service users to explore, experience and learn through play and activities. Every team member has an Enhanced DBS check and has safeguarding training. Our training package also includes:
We are grateful to all our funders who support our essential service and operational costs with grants.
Current funders (2024-25):
We run small fundraising events and raffles to raise funds for resources and organisational core running costs.
Your donations supports creating inclusive play experiences for disabled children and their families. Please support our charity with a one-off or monthly donation if you can.
We believe that cost should not be a barrier to your child or young person attending, so please get in touch if it is.
For our younger adults Strides club, we charge £10/session which includes a meal.
