About Us

The Time Out Group meets on a Saturday to access community leisure activities with the support of skilled workers. 

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Typically children who access the group:

• are aged between 4 and 18 years 

• have complex behavioural and / or communication needs 

• have families in need of respite support 

• struggle to access other local groups 

• need support with social interactions

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The Group is split into two peer groups to help us to organise age appropriate activities. It is a testament to the group that most of the children who join stay with us until they reach adulthood. Unfortunately, as a result places in the group are extremely limited. 

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How It All Started

Around 2000 a small group of support workers, employed by Warwickshire County Council to provide respite for individual families and their children, decided to join together and share activities as a social group instead of working individually out in the community. The Time Out Group was born and continues to operate in much the same way today.

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What We Offer

The Group opens its doors to welcome children with disabilities specialising in providing support for young people with complex disabilities, challenging behaviour and communication needs. We take children from the age of four up to eighteen years who are then split into two peer groups to help us to organise age appropriate activities. We meet once a fortnight on a Saturday at a venue in Stratford-upon-Avon and from there we travel by minibus to our chosen activity.

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The Group is led by an experienced Group Leader and we take care that our specialist staff are skilled and well-trained in modern techniques to ensure the children are safe and well looked after at all times.

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We pride ourselves on the fact that many of the children who started with the group at the age of four or five are still with us when they reach adulthood, and indeed it is typical that most of the children who join stay with us for years, growing a strong social bond with their peers and staff alike.

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Where We Are Now

Until 2011 we were funded and supported primarily by Warwickshire County Council. However because of the economic conditions around that time, staying with the Council was not financially sustainable. Not wishing to see the valuable service go, a group of parents got together to take on the Group as a registered charity on a fully independent basis. The Group is now under the overall control of an eight strong management committee of volunteers, comprised of parents, former parents and external individuals with relevant experience. The management committee includes the four Trustees who are legally responsible for the proper governance of the charity.

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We do not charge for the services we provide the children, and rely for funding entirely on donations from a range of fund raising events and activities, local grant-giving bodies, corporate sponsorships and generous individuals.