Rise and Shine with Fit for All!

Rise and shine for inclusive holiday clubs with Fit for All during the school summer holidays! Children’s Quarter partners are working cooperatively to provide inclusive play and youth services and healthy meals for disabled and vulnerable children at locations across Birmingham.

Fit for All sessions make up part of the wider Bring it on Brum initiative which will make thousands of places for activities and healthy food for children in Birmingham who are eligible for free school meals this summer.

See below for answers to some questions about the programme. Link to Booking Enquiries to find out more about what’s being delivered this Summer and to get in touch.

Answers to questions about Fit for All and how you can take part are below:

What goes on at a Fit for All session?

Short answer: play, or youth, activities with high, or very high, adult : child ratios, so that content can be customised to suit disabled and vulnerable participants; and a healthy meal, or food equivalent. Longer answer: it depends on the provider. Some of the groups that deliver Fit for All are specialist in terms of the children and young people they involve. Others are more general and open to all disabled and vulnerable children including siblings. All Fit for All sessions include physical activities; a healthy meal (or food to take away); and some element of learning about healthy eating.

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What age group is Fit for All suitable for?

Short answer: it varies; basically it is aimed at school age children, but you need to check the age range for each club. Longer answer: Fit for All sessions are wholly- or part-funded by the government Holiday Activities and Food fund. That fund is aimed at providing school holiday activities and food for children aged 5-16 who are eligible for free school meals. Fit for All, however, has a bit of a leeway here because: 1) our groups don’t just depend on the government money – which means they can involve a wider set of children and young people; and 2) it is recognised that disabled and vulnerable young people might benefit from Fit for All when they are 17 and 18 years old. Some groups run two or more cohorts or clubs as part of Fit for All that are aimed at different ages. You need to check the age range with the group providing the sessions. As session details are confirmed, we will include the information on this site too.

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Do you have to be eligible for free school meals to take part in Fit for All?

Short answer: Not necessarily. Children that are disabled or vulnerable can take part in Fit for All and in most cases so can their siblings (see below) even if they aren’t eligible for free school meals, but most of the children who take part are eligible for free school meals, Long answer: Fit for All aims to involve disabled and vulnerable children and their families who are most in need. We recognise that families with children who are disabled, typically face additional living costs and stresses which aren’t taken into account in calculating benefit entitlements. So there will be spaces and a welcome at Fit for All sessions for children who are not eligible for free school meals, but those who are eligible for free school meals will get priority. The groups and schools that are providing Fit for All sessions can also make places (that are not funded by the government’s Holiday Activities money) available more widely. Sometimes they may need to make a charge for these places (see below).

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Can parents and carers attend Fit for All sessions?

Short answer: For most sessions, no, but it varies – you need to check with the group. Longer answer: some of the sessions are organised on the basis that parents/carers stay with their children. Most are not and expect parents/carers to drop off children and pick them up when the session is over. You need to check with the group providing the service. Details will be shown on this website as they are confirmed.

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How much do sessions cost?

Short answer: the sessions are free for children in need and their families. Longer answer: Fit for All sessions and meals provided as part of them are free to children between 5-16 years who are eligible for free school meals. They are also free to disabled or vulnerable young people who are in need, and who are between 5-18 years old whether or not they are eligible for free school meals. The groups and schools who are delivering the sessions locally, may need to make small charges to cover the cost of participation of other children who are not in these target groups. If you would like, you can of course make a donation to the group or school that provides the sessions you attend – for instance towards the additional costs of organising trips etc – but this is entirely voluntary.

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When are the sessions running?

Short answer: on weekdays throughout the school Summer holidays. Later in the year, we expect to run similar sessions at Christmas. Longer answer: the next round of Fit for All sessions will take place during Summer School Holidays from Monday 25 July to Friday 2 September inclusive. We are aiming to have sessions running somewhere in the city every weekday August Bank Holiday Monday 29 August. That doesn’t mean that every Fit for All location will be running something every day, however. Most locations are running sessions for several days each week for up to 4 weeks. When we have confirmed dates, we will add these to the map above.

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What does ‘inclusive’ mean?

Short answer: inclusive means ‘all children are welcome’, but read on… Longer answer: Fit for All delivery partners provide inclusive sessions with high staff ratios for disabled and vulnerable children.  ‘Inclusive’ means what it says – every child is welcomed and included. Priority, however, is given to disabled and vulnerable children who live in Birmingham and are local to where sessions are being delivered. We also give priority to children who are eligible for free school meals. Sometimes our partners don’t have the skills or equipment etc to be able to include a child with particular needs. In these cases, Children’s Quarter will try its best to find those resources or alternatives (for example from our network) so that every child can be accommodated safely and with dignity and care.

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Who is delivering Fit for All?

Short answer: the groups which deliver Fit for All sessions are all members of Children’s Quarter and committed to working inclusively. You can get in touch with them using the links below or by making an enquiry at the bottom of this page. Longer answer: you will recognise a lot of the groups; you might already have used their services. Helping them are: Children’s Quarter – which helps to manage the programme; Creative Active Lives, who provide many of the enrichment activities – anything from circus skills to yoga; and food social enterprise, Change Kitchen, who are supporting the delivery of food and nutrition education.

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How long are sessions and how many sessions can a child attend for free?

Short answer: Sessions usually last between 2 and 4 hours and disabled and vulnerable children may be able to attend up to 64 hours in total over the Summer. Longer answer: Bring it on Brum (of which Fit for All is part) sessions usually last 4 hours and an eligible child can attend 16 of them during the Summer holidays (that is, for a total of 64 hours). Four hour sessions are, however, too long for some vulnerable and disabled children: our groups have the flexibility to run shorter sessions. In exceptional cases, they may run longer sessions (for example if there are trips off-site). Not all of our groups are able to run for 64 hours over the Summer: some are very small and depend on volunteers; and some are run by parents. In principle, however, the 64 hour limit per child remains as a maximum.

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Is ‘food education’ part of Fit for All?

Short answer: yes, as well as healthy food, Fit for All participants will be encouraged to learn about a healthy diet and we’re planning to run some community lunches for families so that they can find out more about it Longer answer: Change Kitchen will be helping us with simple information about healthy diet in line with the PSHE curriculum. Service providers will tailor this to the needs and abilities of participants.  Children’s Quarter members will be organising a series of community lunches for families of children participating in Fit for All and will be seeking to share information about local food links at them. These community lunches are likely to take place in July, August and September and will be open to all families of SEND children.

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How can children sign up to take part in Fit for All?

Short answer: You can enquire about places using the form which will be going live on this site later today 1 July 2022.

Longer answer: You will be able to make booking enquiries through this website for sessions this summer, but the group providing the service will need to talk to you before confirming the place. The factors that may be taken into account include:

Limited access – some Fit for All sessions are limited access. Which means, for example, that they are only open to children who attend a particular school, or who have a particular set of needs; sometimes there are limits to physical access due to the venues that are available to us; and some groups give priority to children and families who have used their services before or may limit the number of children at each session who haven’t been before. (That might sound a but clique-y and offputting, but it ca-n be a safeguarding issue – depending on a child’s needs, the group may need to know a lot of detailed, practical information about them and, although staff ratios are always high at Fit for All sessions, there may be a limit to how many new children can be welcomed in whilst keeping sessions safe and fun for everyone). We will try to show where there is limited access so you can see this when you make a booking enquiry.

Parental involvement – some Fit for All sessions are run by staff and trained volunteers and others are run by parents without paid staff. In either case, Fit for All sessions always work with high, or very high, adult:child ratios. Where there are paid staff and trained volunteers, groups achieve this by paying for them so that parents can drop off children at the start of the session and pick them up at the end. Where sessions are run by parents, this is achieved by having parents stay with their children. There are, therefore, some sessions that children can only take part in if their parents are able to stay with them. We will indicate these sessions so you know before you make booking enquiry.

Demand outstrips supply – we know Fit for All sessions will get full-booked. We will try to show which sessions are fully booked or running out of places so you can see this information before you make a booking enquiry and also show any criteria the groups use to prioritise between different booking enquiries. The situation will change over the course of the summer – if you ask us to, we will keep you updated with news about where any places become available and any special events as they are confirmed.