Halton Access to Sport Forum

Wednesday 28th January 2004

At Chestnut Lodge School, Widnes

 

Present

Ralph Owen – Family Link (Scope), George Ross – Halton Disability Services, Phil Marchant – Youth Federation, Kath Parkes - HVA, Ian Rigby – Access to Sport Forum, Stephen Brinkley – Greenbank, Ian Johnston – Access to Sport Forum, Paula Parle – HBC (sports), Ciaran Shanahan – HAFS, Sue Lancaster – Chestnut Lodge School, Christine Ross, Erica Brown

 

Apologies

Sue Melling, Justine Merton, Karen Turner, Julie Tinsley

 

1.               Introduction/welcome

Kath Parkes (Halton Together) was introduced and information submitted regarding support available for the group.  It was agreed that she would minute the meeting.  Stephen Brinkley was welcomed.  He is studying at Manchester University and has been seconded to work with Paula.  Other members introduced themselves.

 

2.               Minutes of previous meeting

Minutes were accepted as a true and proper record

 

3.               Strategy/Direction of forum

George Ross asked if there was sufficient interest/support from the group to develop the forum into a generic access forum.  Possible aims of the forum would be to create a newsletter for the borough, develop a good venue for social gatherings and events around disability.  Haddocks Wood was suggested as a possibility.  It would also be desirable if the children could be trained to eventually run the clubs themselves.  It was agreed that a meeting should be held separately to concentrate on this forum.    Thursday 5th Feb at 5pm was agreed.

 

It was also agreed that the Sports Forum should also develop a strategy/action plan, especially with regard to fundraising.  Ian Rigby will draft some ideas, circulate them and ask for feedback/comments.

 

4.               Frequency/venue of meetings

It was agreed that future meetings need only be held bi-monthly and HVA was added as a possible meeting point. 

 

5.               Treasurers report

The Widnes Club has a healthy bank balance of £9549.  Funding is paid in two instalments.  First year was 2 x £5000, second year is 2 x £4803

 

6.               Sports club report

Widnes club has already been launched and is well attended with sometimes up to 26 children.  The Runcorn club is not so well attended with only about 6 children accessing the service.  An official launch of this site is planned so it is not worth looking at advertising in the press at the moment as this would cost £500 for a half page black and white advert.  It was suggested that the venue may be putting people off and the long term view should be to investigate alternative venues.  Several suggestions were made, including, Halton College, Astmoor Day Centres and some schools.  Both Paula and Ian Johnston will investigate these venues.

 

Margaret Massey – Halton Information Exchange currently holds a database for disabled children in the borough but this may extend to include adults.  This could be useful for expanding membership if the information can be shared.

 

Ralph Owen agreed to present the Brookvale club and to the Family Link group which will meet tomorrow.  Any sport can be provided and the club is not restricted to current service.

 

A taster night was suggested which could tie in with the launch.  A subgroup meeting of Brookvale was held to discuss the low numbers and a taster day has provisionally been booked at Kingsway for 3rd April.

 

A date of Thursday 4th March – 6.30pm at Brookvale was agreed as the official launch date.  Paula agreed to book the mayor and liaise with the press.  Kath confirmed that a PR Media Group has been trained by Halton Together to offer this type of support and after a meeting with Katie Davies from HVA, Kath will feedback to Paula.  Claire Lane, Weekly News has been involved with the group and would like to be kept in the loop with future developments.  Councillor Harris (sports) should be approached with regard to the launch.

 

It was decided that a buffet style menu would not be suitable and investigations will be carried out with a view to providing “butty boxes”/”goody bags” to the children.

 

An AGM was held last night for the club and was attended by 4 parents.  Members agreed that they want to keep the current activities but would like additional services also.  Fairfield school has been offered as a venue, free of charge for the Astroturf and a small fee for the Gym.  This would allow the children to access cricket and football.  GR suggested that the addition of Fairfield could be the justification for an additional bid (joint venue with Chestnut Lodge)

 

Chestnut Lodge would remain as the judo centre and other activities would be hosted at Fairfield.  A suggestion was made that a 3 week rota could allow children to access all the different sports :

 

Week 1 – Chestnut Lodge

Week 2 – Fairfield

Week 3 – Kingsway (trampolining monthly)

 

It was of course recognized that if a child does not wish to rotate they can remain at the same venue to do the same activity.

 

7.               Golf/other sports 

Man United and Everton were contacted with a view to coaching and this was agreed as a free of charge service. 

 

Mark Elliot from Everton was due to attend todays meeting regarding disability football but unfortunately did not make it.  He later called to make his apologies and confirmed that he will come and talk to the forum at a future meeting.  He also offered his assistance to coach on the launch night and present a signed football to a participant.  PP will send a letter to Everton requesting the signed ball.

 

More passive sports such as bowls were also suggested but the storage of equipment is a problem as the school is not insured for theft of the items.

 

It would be beneficial to link with groups outside the borough who are currently offering good facilities for young people or adults with disabilities.

 

8.               AOB

v              Insurance – The school offers services for meetings but the issue of insurance is a big problem as the general insurance does not cover these meetings.  The sports club can be registered as a disability club free of charge with Sports Disability UK.  Ian Johnston will feed this information to George Ross.  The forum itself will also need insurance.

v              Website – information can be posted in Disability Services website and pictograms will be used for individuals who have difficulty with the written word.  Kath also explained that any information can be posted on the Halton Together website which will be launched in Feb.  The aim is to create a sub group to develop and maintain the community website and it is hoped that external funding can be accessed to support this group and give benefits back to individual organizations.  Any possible contacts for such a group would be most welcome.

v              Funding assistance – Phil Marchant gave a brief outline of the his remit which is to assist voluntary sector youth groups with policies, procedures and any other requirements.  Phil offered to conduct an assessment of what support is needed for the forum.  He actively promotes the Local Network Fund and explained that the application form is relatively simple.  He offered to submit a programme to the forum to assist in strategy and planning.  This will be passed to GR.

 

9.               Date and time of next meeting

v              Thursday 26th Feb at 5pm - HVA