INFORMATION FOR PARENTS AND CARERS

If your child has been invited to join us for a week of fun, adventure, and self-discovery, we’re looking forward to meeting them! We understand that sending your child on a trip like this for the first time can be a little daunting, so we’re here to provide you with all the information and reassurance you need to feel confident in your decision.

Children’s safety on our projects is our number one priority and we do everything we can to ensure our projects follow best practice to ensure this. All of our staff and volunteers hold enhanced checks from the Disclosure and Barring Service, which we renew every three years. All are trained in safeguarding at levels appropriate to their role and recruited using Safer Recruitment principles. We risk assess all activities before undertaking them with children and, were necessary, use licensed activity providers. If you’d like to read our Safeguarding Policy, you can access it here. If you have any other concerns around safety, please give us a call on the number provided on your invite letter and we’d be happy to discuss.

Yes! We offer healthy, home cooked meals on all of our trips and are able to cater to most dietary requirements, from allergies and food intolerances to religious diets and vegan/vegetarian ones. Please give us as much detail as possible about your child’s requirements within their consent form. We may call you as we plan our menu to ensure that we have understood their requirements correctly.

We are experienced in catering for children who struggle to try new foods or have a very selective list of foods that they will eat. If this is an issue for your child, please tell us within their consent form. We may follow up with you and your child over the phone to ensure we have a food plan in place that they will feel happy and comfortable with.

All of our sites have comfortable sleeping quarters, where children share a room with between 3 and 5 others of similar ages and the same gender. You can see some photos of a typical project site here. Bathrooms and toilets are also separated into girls and boys, with adults using separate facilities again. Children are supported through our bedtime routine, which involves hot chocolate, quiet games and bedtime stories until every child is asleep. Adults sleep near to the children in separate but often adjacent rooms, so they are on hand to help with any issues in the night.

We will send regular updates to keep you informed about your child’s time with us. You’ll receive a text message to let you know that they have arrived safely and we’ll aim to get every child to ring home within the first 24-36 hours of their trip. You will be able to contact your child’s group leaders on a specific phone number throughout the trip in order to speak to your child and we will aim to send you some photographs too.

We have sent a kit list with your child’s invite letter, but you can also find a copy of it here. Don’t worry if your child doesn’t have everything on the list – we have spares of most things!

You’ll see in your child’s invite letter that we give quite a wide window for pick up and drop off, this is because the minibus that will come to your house will also need to pick up lots of other children and so it is difficult for us to give you a more specific time until we are on the road. Once the minibus is on its way, one of the adults in the bus will text you with an estimated time. We’ll also ring you once we’re close to your home to give you a 10-minute warning.

We don’t allow children to have phones on our projects for a number of reasons – firstly, because of the risk of them being lost or damaged and secondly, because we want children to be free to enjoy the activities without being plugged into their phone. Throughout your child’s stay, you can rest assured that you’ll be able to reach them on one of our project phones and they will be able to call you too whenever they need.

In the many years we’ve run projects, we’ve supported lots of children with specific health and behavioural issues, phobias, anxieties and night-time issues (including night terrors, difficulty sleeping and bed wetting). Our high adult to child ratios means that we’re generally able to dedicate time to ensuring that children’s specific needs are met. It is likely that your referrer will already have made us aware of any major needs, but please do call the Project Coordinator to discuss if you think there is anything we need to explore further with you. There is also space on your child’s consent form to include any further details about support needs and your child’s Project Coordinator will ring you in advance of the project so that you can discuss.
Free To Be Kids

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

If we’ve not managed to answer your questions above, or if you’d like to talk to us about something, please don’t hesitate to get in touch! If your child has been invited on a Free to Be Kids’ project, you’ll find the direct contact number for their Project Coordinators on your invite letter. Alternatively, drop us an email to hello@freetobekids.org.uk or leave a message on our answerphone at 0203 778 0323 and one of our team will get back to you as soon as they can.