Rebound Therapy delivered to disabled children

Who are we?

Heel and Toe Children’s Charity has been providing free and subsidised therapy and support to children with profound physical and neurological disabilities since 2008. The charity provides free conductive education and hippotherapy, as well as subsidised physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, massage therapy, hydrotherapy, and intensive physiotherapy block sessions, delivered by highly specialised paediatric therapists operating from two specially adapted buildings in County Durham. 

We support over 220 children from birth to 19 years from across the North East region, providing full assessments and individual, multi-disciplinary therapy plans that maximise a child's time at Heel and Toe to achieve their goals. We receive no government funding and rely on our paid-for services and fundraising activities to provide a wide range of therapy services. The charity needs to raise £1,000,000 each year.

Impact

We aim to support children with disabilities to improve their quality of life and independence so that they can look forward to a future where possibilities and opportunities are not constrained by their disability. Our specialist team and the diversity of the services we offer means that we never turn away a child in need of support. We take a holistic, multi-disciplinary approach.

The impact of our services can be truly life-changing for children, their parents, and families. The families who come to us have often been turned away from statutory services with very little support or encouragement to improve their child's mobility or key skills. We believe, and have seen throughout our 16 years in operation, that children can do incredible things with the right therapy delivered early enough. Children who were never expected to move independently have, at Heel and Toe, learnt to sit unaided, stand, walk, hold a pencil, feed themselves with a spoon and meet other developmental milestones that are the building blocks for improving their quality of life and independence.

Why are we crowdfunding?

We would like to offer rebound therapy free to disabled children at Heel and Toe. 

Rebound therapy is the phrase that describes a specific model of trampoline therapy: exercise therapy which uses a full-sized trampoline to provide opportunities for enhanced movement patterns, therapeutic positioning, exercises, and recreation for a wide range of users with disabilities. 

Rebound therapy can benefit children with mild to profound physical and learning difficulties, sensory and mental health needs. Rebound therapy is used to facilitate movement, promote balance, increase heart/breathing rate, promote an increase or decrease in muscle tone, improve postural support by strengthened joints and muscles, increase spatial awareness, coordination and concentration, promote relaxation, promote sensory integration, improve fitness and exercise tolerance, improve self-confidence, increase independence, improve digestion and bowel function, and to improve communication skills and eye contact. Children with complex needs can access the trampoline for postural therapy and to experience freedom of movement. It can also be offered to progress gross motor skills from head control to balancing on one leg and can also help with sensory needs. 

Above all of this, rebound therapy is fun and enjoyable for the child and the positive outcomes of intervention are therefore often increased. Rebound therapy can be used to achieve benefits which cannot be achieved by conventional physiotherapy due to the movement properties of the trampoline itself, for example cardiovascular improvement.

This is an exciting therapy service which is highly sought after yet not readily available for children to access. There are very limited options for pre-school age and mainstream children to access rebound therapy as it is not offered by many NHS therapy providers or schools. Children who attend specialist education provision may have access to rebound therapy, but this will often lack consistency due to the number of children in the school with time and resources needing to be shared. 

Rebound therapy is a unique form of therapy that is beneficial to a huge number of children including those who are unable to access more conventional forms of therapy. Rebound therapy is fun and engaging and can help to develop not only physical and movement skills but also social and sensory skills and is therefore a holistic approach to therapy with the potential for great outcomes for a child and their family.

How we’ll spend the money raised

The project would involve children receiving an assessment followed by 6 therapy sessions, followed by a post assessment. We would like to deliver this 8-week block to 6 children, running 6 blocks per year. This will enable us to offer blocks to 36 children per year.

The cost of the project comprises of the salary for a qualified physiotherapist and a therapy assistant, management of the project which includes assessments, session preparation, report writing, and follow up reviews. Staff cost includes employer National Insurance and pension at 5%.