It costs £30,000 per month to run our Charity so that the Children of South Wales with disabilities, life limiting conditions or complex needs to have equal access and full inclusion in an Early Years setting. Without your support, there is no additional support for a child / family under the age of 3yrs to attend a childcare setting so that parents can have the respite, support and opportunity to do things that we take for granted - the weekly shop, sleep or work.
For the children in our care, it will provide the social interaction, learning and education they need to aid their development in the most vital years of their life. It will provide social opportunities, learning and aid development for the children that they would otherwise be excluded from because of their complex care needs eg: Tracheostomy maintenance and care, epilepsy, SMA Type 1, ventilation, Dravet syndrome, Williams syndrome, Cerebral Palsy, Angelman syndrome to name a few.
In the first years of life, positive experiences and warm, responsive relationships stimulate children’s development, creating millions of connections in their brains. In fact, children’s brains develop connections faster in the first 5 years than at any other time in their lives. This is the time when the foundations for learning, health and behaviour throughout life are laid down. Social interaction with peers and social development is a massive part of their learning and in the first years of life, children predominantly learn through play. We want the children we support to have an equal chance of access to a quality education and provision.
For children to be denied access to early years settings because of their disability is a disparity of opportunity and should not happen. That is what we are here to support – making sure that every child has the right tools to thrive in their own unique way.
Y Bont is the only specialist Early years setting for children with complex needs, additional needs or disabilities in Wales. These children should be able to access services as their peers do but due to the complexity of their needs and many needing one to one care, settings cannot subsidise these funds and parents cannot afford to pay the one to one fees. Mainstream settings do not have the necessary level of insurance cover to be able to take these children.
Parents travel up to 1.5hrs a day for their child to attend our provision with no transport / support available. Many parents are full time carers therefore are ineligible for any benefits associated for their child even though they are 24/7 carers for their disabled child.
We aim to give families who are financially impacted by their child’s disability the support, advice and respite they need. Not only that, we want to support their parents / carers mental wellbeing. The sense of inclusion within a community who understands what they are going through and can be there to support them through it.
Parents / carers are exhausted, on their own and need the support and respite we offer. Many are at crisis point when they come to us. We subsidise fees so these care oncosts are not passed on to parents. We have highly trained staff with the NHS and community nursing teams to be able to medically care for the children, feed them according to care plans, provide the 121 support they need and support families through the hardest time when they are still themselves learning to cope with their child's diagnosis, needs and many still undergoing investigations and tests. We are their support network.
Your support will help us to continue to offer our vital services for the children and families that we support.
PARENTS REVIEW...
Y Bont means everything to myself and my family. Y Bont allows me to have much needed respite (my only time away from xxxx) whilst knowing that my child is happy, well taken care of but most importantly that she's safe.
My Daughter has a lot of complex needs and requires 24/7 supervision, she has required multiple ambulance rides or visits from paramedics whilst attending Y Bont due to her condition. The attentiveness, the care and the due diligence during the situations has been outstanding. the staff at y Bont go above and beyond when it comes to her and the other children, they cater for every need, help her to achieve milestones in her development, always encourage her to try new things and make her extremely happy.
She gets so excited when she sees the girls in the morning. In the short 9 months that xxxx has been attending Y Bont, her development has come on leaps and bounds, she's finally able to stand and is a lot more mobile and that's all thanks to the attention, encouragement and support the girls give, not just to xxxx but to myself and our family. The staff have become like family, I actually only trust the girls to look after xxxx not even family.
I honestly believe xxxx wouldn't be where she is now if it wasn't for them, there is just no words to describe how amazing and how needed they all are. Just outstanding!!
PROFESSIONALS REVIEW...
“I have become involved with Y Bont nursery supporting pre-school children with complex needs to attend nursery. There are increasing numbers of children with complex needs. These children deserve the opportunity to access nursery provision as any other child. All staff within Y Bont demonstrate utmost professionalism, compassion and motivation to learn and safely undertake the skills to care for these children.
Y Bont is managed both professionally and compassionately always with the focus on the child’s best interests. It is evident there is a team approach to working with all children. All the staff are aware of the children with complex needs with specific staff allocated to care for the children during their visits. Y Bont is an inclusive environment which consistently provides a safe organised environment. There is consistent consideration to all risk assessments and ensuring staff are adequately trained to care for the children.
My role includes competency based teaching and assessment to ensure staff are competent and confident to care for the children with complex needs. Members of the Children’s Community Nursing Service and I have a strong partnership and work collaboratively to ensure inclusivity for all children. Families are involved in the transition to nursery visits and are involved in the training of staff. Y Bont provides a fantastic, safe environment to allow children to experience interaction and play with other children and for families to feel confident in leaving their child and build the steps ready for statutory school. The additional advantage is that the local authority are aware of the children with complex needs and can forward plan to ensure safe placement in statutory education. “