Groups that deliver HAF funded Fit for All sessions: take and confirm bookings; and take a register at each session to check the attendance by participants. The data collected this way shows how the project serves children and young people and their families. It helps show Bring it on Brum and Birmingham City Council the value for money that Fit for All provides.
Bring it on Brum offers two ways of recording attendance data:
Using and Uploading the Register Form – this is the way that most data from Fit for All sessions is recorded and submitted.
Nearly all Fit for All providers use this way of recording and submitting attendance data. That is because it enables you to identify the children and young people who book on to your sessions before the booking is made. Providers who are catering for SEND children – or who are seeking to be inclusive of SEND children – usually need to know some details about them before they can accept a booking.
Using the Booking System on the BIOB Website – some providers enter and record data relating to Fit for All Family Days and open sessions in this way.
In the online booking system, families can book directly on to events from the BIOB website. Many mainstream BIOB providers use this system for reporting because it conveniently enables families to enter most of the necessary data about children and young people who they are booking for (which saves providers time). However, online booking at BIOB doesn’t really allow providers to find out much about who is booking on sessions and their special needs. So most Fit for All providers use the alternative above.
Using and Uploading the Register Form
Childrens Quarter makes a new Register Form each season (based on BIOB’s) with updated school data etc. Please use the most recent form – because it will have updated information on it. The form structure is the same each time however. It asks for each child or young person you register:
- Their name and date of birth (DOB)
- If they are SEND
- If they vulnerable (including if they are a sibling of a SEND child or in one of the groups specified by the Childrens Commissioner)
- Whether they are eligible for Free School Meals – and their FSM Code (this is a number parents can get from the school their children attend that shows they are eligible for Free School Meals
- The school they attend (from a standard list of schools in Birmingham) or if they are home educated or go to school outside Birmingham
- Their home postcode
- Descriptions of their ethnicity and gender (from a standard set of options)
- The dates and times of the sessions they attended
- Some optional extra details.
Note: DOB needs to be in standard DD/MM/YYYY format and School, Ethnicity and Gender need to be selected from drop down lists specified by BIOB and Birmingham City Council. If you enter dates of birth in any other format or overwrite any of the other options, your register entry will be rejected by BIOB.
If you need help filling in registers, then contact Paul at Childrens Quarter or put a message on the Fit for All WhatsApp group.
When your register is completed, send it back to Childrens Quarter. CQ staff enter the data for you (data entry can be quite fiddly and take a while). They may get back to you with any queries, but apart from that, it’s job done!
You can download the latest version of the register from the sidebar in the Fit for All Provider Area.
Using The BIOB Booking System
You can use the BIOB Booking System to record attendance data instead of filling in registers. Childrens Quarter will set your project or sessions up on the BIOB website – which is searchable by parents/carers from a few weeks before each holiday season. When your sessions are advertised online on BIOB, families will start booking on them. When they book on one of your sessions, the information BIOB needs as standard this data about their child/young person:
- Their name and date of birth (DOB)
- If they are SEND
- Whether they are eligible for Free School Meals – and their FSM Code (this is a number parents can get from the school their children attend that shows they are eligible for Free School Meals
- The school they attend (from a standard list of schools in Birmingham) or if they are home educated or go to school outside Birmingham
- Their home postcode
- Descriptions of their ethnicity and gender (from a standard set of options).
You/CQ can ask for additional data – like vulnerability and SEND information – but you can’t be sure that people will provide it accurately. Our experience is that about 75% of bookings will ignore the fact that a session is for SEND children.
Instead of accepting bookings directly, you can add bookings to a waiting list. You/CQ then, however, need to go back to everyone on your waiting list by email to check their special needs. For these reasons, we don’t recommend this method if you are running a SEND focused session.
It can make sense to use the BIOB online booking system for sessions that are not focused on SEND children and young people or that parents will attend, eg Family Days. It can make recording data easier. If you want to discuss using this method, please talk to Paul at Childrens Quarter.