Schools tend to use their inclusion budget or pupil premium to cover the cost of projects for children they are particularly concerned about.

Whilst local authorities …(MIKE)

We support many Looked After Children through our projects… 

If you are a small, grassroots organisation and you are really struggling to find the funding for a child in desperate need of support, please do let us know and make a referral anyway – we are able to find other sources of funding to cover costs in a small number of cases.

Once the referral window closes, our team will consider all the forms and allocate places across the projects. We prioritise those which demonstrate the highest levels of need, whilst also factoring in some practical considerations, such as having a relatively equal spread of ages and genders on each project and making sure our minibus pick-up routes make logistical sense. 

After the places have been allocated we will email you with a breakdown of the children you have referred and which ones we have been able to offer a place to. Where we have offered a place, we’ll also provide you with the project dates. For any children who have not been allocated a place first time round, there is an option to add them to our Reserve List. 

We will contact the primary carer of all children who have been offered a place, both by email and letter. You’ll be cc’d into the email so that you have all details too. The invite letter will include details of the practical arrangements, contact numbers to speak to our team and a link to the child’s online consent form, which must be completed by the deadline specified. We’d appreciate your support in helping parents/carers to do this. In the run up to the project, usually 3-4 days beforehand, the Project Coordinator will ring the child’s parent/carer to answer any questions and double check key details. 

Following the child’s project, we will be in touch with you to report back on their experiences whilst with us and invoice you for any referrer contributions. 

Absolutely! Many organisations refer 6 or 7 children too us and there is space within the referral form to specify if you have any preferences on the priorities of different children, which we will aim to take into account when allocating. 

Please try, where possible, to send a spread of ages and a mix of boys and girls when referring multiple children.

Of course! There is space within the referral form for you to provide the names of siblings who you have also referred, and you can specify whether it would be best to keep them on the same project together or split them onto different sets of dates.

We’re sorry that we can’t offer places to every child referred. If a child you refer is suitable for the projects but has not been prioritised for a place, they can be added to the Reserve List. A small number of places tend to become available in the run up to projects, due to children dropping out and, when this happens, we’ll offer the space to a child on the reserve list. This can happen at any point between the initial allocations email and the day of the project itself, so it can mean that families receive quite a last-minute call from us and we know that this can be anxiety provoking for some parents/carers. Where this uncertainty feels too much, referrers or families are more than welcome to decline the offer of being on the Reserve List. We will provide further information about the Reserve List to referrers when needed, which you can pass onto families. 

We welcome re-applications for children who aren’t successful in getting a place on one of our projects first time round.

Following a child’s project with Free to Be Kids, their Project Coordinators will make some recommendations on whether they would benefit from ongoing work with Free to Be Kids and which programme would be the best fit for them. We compare these recommendations on an annual basis, so as to prioritise those children with the highest need levels. After we have done this, we’ll make contact with you to let you know our thoughts.