Summer Camp

sancho

Hi, not sure if this is in the right section so feel free to move/delete!!

Me and a friend are thinking of starting a summer camp over the school holidays, aimed at 8-14 year olds. A non-residential day camp that would offer sport activities, arts and crafts and circus skills amongst other things.

We both work at the local college, i help out with a local guide group and teach circus skills in my part time, he works in the sports and leisure dept of college and is running a 'sports bus' that visits local schools over the next few weeks. Obviously we both have experience working with and teaching children, both police checked and have first aid certificates (him appointed person; me just a basic) so my question is does anybody know what rules and regs there are with regards to doing this?

We can do risk assesment forms ourselves and obviously have thought about insurance. We would be looking at hiring a school field and hall/toilets etc in order to do it.

I read somewhere that if you have children under 8 then you legally have to be registered with the local authorities but i couldn't find any other information out about what else we would need to do.

Many thanks to anyone that can help us out.

Sancho

Savvy_Sue

Ofsted - and be aware that anyone else who helps out also needs a police check, and that means you need to get them appointed FAST!

Back in a tick got to move to another 'puter!

I think you're right about not needing to register if you're not taking under 8s. There are also exceptions if you don't have the little darlings for more than x hours per day, or a total of x hours in a week. But I think the registration is with Ofsted anyway, could be quite wrong about this as it's a while since I was actively involved in this kind of thing.

However, there will be 'best practice' guidelines for those who ARE registered, and you would be well advised to take it on board even if it's not strictly necessary.

Insurance! Essential, and may be difficult to obtain if you're not 'official'.

On the Contacts page of the BAND website is a list of contacts, some of which you would probably find useful. Please don't pester them for specific info if you're out of their area, but finding their equivalent in your area would definitely help for publicity etc.

That should keep you going for a while. Good luck!

PS, also essential is a robust Child Protection Policy!

Savvy_Sue

forgive me asking, but there were 3 main reasons I could think of:

a) you want to make some money doing something you enjoy

b) you just love this age group so much you want to spend lots of time with them

c) you really enjoy sharing your skills with young people

If it's a), forget it. I'm not saying you couldn't turn a profit long term, but making money out of hosting and organising your own childcare provision is fraught with difficulties (not to mention VERY hard work!) Hiring suitable premises will be expensive, so will insurance, you need backup in case either of you breaks a leg or falls ill (you'd need at least 3 police checked adults on the premises at all times in a 'registered' scheme, for example), and you don't know how many children you'll get but if you're not full you're likely to be losing money. I've helped set up two out of school clubs, and we've only managed to break even with serious support from the Lottery and other places.

If it's b), I suggest lying down in a darkened room until you feel better! :rotfl:

If it's c) or a mixture of a) and c), then I'd suggest either applying for a job as a Playworker in an established scheme OR offering your skills to local schemes as a visiting package, as it were. Some places do offer schemes for the age group you've mentioned. Any well-run scheme will have a programme, and sometimes they do theme weeks, so people coming in to offer circus skills could lead to a circus week, for example. Even just working as a Playworker - I'd have bitten your arms off with the experience you list!

Offering to come in and 'do' workshops has one immediate advantage - you're not having to hire premises! And another - you don't have to maintain a staff:child ratio! And another - you don't have to collect the money from the families! I could go on ...

It would need work, and careful costing to make sure you weren't losing money doing it. But a lot less work than doing it ALL yourselves!

Do ask again if there's anything I'm not making sense about.

sancho

Have spoken to Ofsted and they gave me a number for child lincs and i spoke to them. They said that because they would be over 8 then we wouldnt need to be registered with Ofsted. They also said that there aren't many hard and fast rules if we're not registered with ofsted, i.e ratios, they reccomend 1:12, but its not the law.

In answer to your question its a bit of a mix of A and C, the 2 camps that run around here tend to employ students, and therefore the pay is pittance, the smaller council run one doesn't have the funds to pay for me to do circus skills for them (i enquired)

I take on what you're saying and respect you because you have had more experience than i have had, and nothing is set in stone that we will do it, but the insurance and premises is looking to be £200 per week. 20 children per day, £10-15 per child is £200-300 per day, £1000-£1500 per week, obviously there will be other costs but it looks like there is some money to be made, even if its slightly more that i would be earning working at the other camp and i get the benefit of not having a boss, which is always good!!

Thanks for your advice, its certainly put me in the right direction!!

Savvy_Sue

sancho wrote:

and i get the benefit of not having a boss, which is always good!!

Ah, but sometimes it's nice to have somebody else to blame when it all goes pear-shaped! :rotfl:

I would still just caution that even though you don't HAVE to be registered, working to the same standards as you would if you WERE registered and advertising that fact could be worthwhile. For secondary school age, parents may be less 'fussy', but at 8 they expect certain standards as a basic minimum. And I would say at least 3 adults on site at all times was essential: if a child is injured and the parents can't get there quickly and the child needs to go to hospital by ambulance, one of you needs to go with them and you can't leave just one person with 19 children. Oh, and we had one staff injury (playing football on wet grass - nooooo!) which made life interesting.

Sorry your local schemes pay students a pittance: I thought we used to pay quite well but maybe rates haven't increased over the years. Mind you it was hard work, never a job I wanted to do myself, much preferred being in the background!

Good luck - you may be able to access 'model' policies through child lincs, your local council almost certainly has a freely available 'model' child protection policy, and nothing beats thinking through the 'what ifs' in advance. If not, PM me with your email address and I can send you what we drew up: they'll need adjusting for your own circs, especially with older children, not all of whom will be 'signed in' and 'signed out' by an adult - a whole new set of what ifs!