According to Government figures, to 20 per cent of the children and young people in the UK have additional needs of some kind. Many feel excluded, marginalised and unable to access what is provided for their mainstream peers in church. Up to 90 per cent of families with children that have additional needs are unchurched (source: Baptist Press). These families are under immense pressure, with 60 per cent of children with additional / special needs being bullied (source: Ability Path) and 53 per cent of these families claiming that having a child with a disability causes some or major relationship difficulties or breakups (source: Jill’s House).
Many leaders of children’s groups are untrained and ill-equipped to make the changes needed to improve access for these children and their families. This results in millions of children and young people across the UK having no access to Christian teaching at all, either on a weekly basis or through access to activites, camps and holidays, and this doesn’t include their siblings and parents who often feel excluded from a wide range of social activities too.
Recently, however, there has been an increase in the work being done across the country to enable children’s leaders to access dedicated, bespoke knowledge and services to help them to work with the children with additional needs that they already have, and to encourage others to join them. For the past four years, Urban Saints has been working to help fill this gap by providing a training programme called ‘All Inclusive?’ urbansaints.org/allinclusive
‘All Inclusive?’ provides all those involved with children’s and youth ministry with bespoke training to give them the inspiration, information and confidence to reach out to those with additional needs and to transform both what they offer to them and the experience that these children and young people will have. The training is tailored to the requirements and specific needs of those receiving it, with pre-planning ensuring that the training is appropriate for both the setting and the participants.
Among the strategies suggested, the ‘All Inclusive?’ programme recommends that churches adopt the NOISE approach to inclusion:
Never say no: always look for ways to include. Help the ‘tutters’ and ‘lookers’ in your church to change their thinking. Let families know that they and their children are welcomed, loved and cared for.
Own inclusion: have someone at your church who can become the equivalent of a school SENCO (Special Educational Needs Co- Ordinator). If no-one owns it, it won’t happen!
Information is key: find out more about the specific additional needs of the children you are working with. Ask parents / carers about their child - what works at home and at school that could also work at church?
Strategy building: create a strategy for each child, which is known by the team and is supported by parents / carers. Recognise that each child is unique, so each strategy need to be different too.
Equip yourselves: gain the knowledge needed by getting trained and accessing further information. Understand what equipment, resources or tools you might need. Tap into networks with others who are on this journey too.
As a result of this and other initiatives, we are seeing more children, with a wider range of additional needs and disabilities, being able to access residential camps, holidays and activity experiences in the same way that their mainstream peers do. In addition, we are seeing churches and children’s groups stepping up to provide inclusive support on a weekly basis, so that there is somewhere for them and their families to go that is welcoming, safe and that allows them to continue to develop and grow.
Churches and children’s groups that are putting this and other training to good use are reaping the benefits of inclusion by seeing a wider, more diverse range of children attending and participating. They are able to put strategies in place that support and develop these children and are seeing them respond positively. They are also seeing transformation in the attitudes and outlooks of the other children, the leaders and even congregations!
As a leader of a festival style residential holiday experience said earlier this year, having agreed to include a child with additional needs, ‘There is something lovely about being able to answer a parent with a child with additional needs with a “Yes, we can make that happen, not a problem.”’
We don’t have to settle for millions of children with additional needs, and their families, having no access to either weekly children’s groups or residential and activity experiences. Urban Saints is already making a difference, but together we can create a stepchange that can significantly increase this impact, create momentum and awareness, and inspire others to step up and join in. We can be catalytic in changing the way that our children’s work across the UK reaches, includes, supports and resources children with additional needs.
Mark Arnold, Urban Saints
