Improving Social-Emotional and Life Skills of Young People with Complex Additional Needs Through ‘Outward Bound’ Residential Trips

ABSTRACT

Among the estimated 800,000 children in the United Kingdom with disability, challenges include lack of access to leisureactivities, opportunities for independent development and social contact. Short breaks and residential trips (RTs) provide positive experiences, and help improve mental and physical wellbeing. However, evaluations involving young people (YP) with disabilities are lacking. We aimed to understand the value and outcomes of a RT, from the perspective of YP, their parents, and staff. YP with disabilities (N = 35) aged 12–17 years, attended outdooractivity based RTs in 2019 provided by Sparkle (South Wales) Ltd. A mixed methods approach was used for data collection; YP attended focus groups (N = 13), and parents (N = 21) and staff (N = 5) completed feedback questionnaires. The data was double coded and analysed thematically. In addition to enjoyment, interview data suggests the participants felt that the YP’s emotional and social wellbeing improved. There were reported improvements in confidence, increased incidences of social communication behaviour, resilience and self-care. RTs have the potential to make a significant impact on YP and their families, and their role is an important consideration in the context of local authority funding cuts, and barriers to accessing short breaks.

KEYWORDS:

• Disabilities
• emotional wellbeing
• residential trips
• short breaks
• social skills
• young people

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all of the Leisure team who supported these YP to undertake the RTs, and the families who participated in this evaluation. The RTs and this work were supported by funding from Sparkle (South Wales) Appeal and the charity O2E.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).