We provide regular term time and holiday programmes across Perth and Kinross for all children and young people registered with our services. We have specific programmes in place for children and young people taking place in our Perth-based building, as well as our Siblings Group and Outreach areas.
Our group activities take place Monday to Saturday during term time, and Tuesdays-Fridays during the school holidays (with our Young Adult Programme running every Monday).
Our classes are structured and with a high staff ratio (1:2) to ensure that our children feel comfortable, safe and valued. We also provide 1:1 support in activities for those who need it, especially if it is the child or young person’s first time attending activities.
Taking part in group activities is hugely important to all children and young people as it is key to many aspects of their development. It is also important to socialise with peers who can understand them.
At Perth Autism Support, we understand the importance of this, and strive to provide an exciting activities programme for children of different ages, with a range of needs and varied interests.
“G has had a fantastic summer with all the different activities with PAS. He has come back from your trips/ sessions happy and chilled and is always eager to know when he will be going back. We’ve loved seeing the photos of your outings, and G has been looking back over them a lot too. Can’t thank you all enough.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to let you know that J is coming on really well outside of PAS and I see it as being related to him attending the social group, so thank you for all the hard work you put in as a team to all of the kids.”
“Without PAS I wouldn’t have met my best friends, although their autism is different to mine and sometimes I don’t understand theirs I know when they need some time alone and when things get tricky for them I just try to help as much as I can, and they do the same for me. No-one at school understands me like they do.”
We provide everyone who enquires about coming to activities with as much information as possible to make the experience as positive as possible.
Children and young people must be registered with Perth Autism Support to access our services.
We always encourage children, young people and their families to visit Perth Autism Support before coming along to activities. This allows us to tell you about the activities we run and show you what we have to offer.
If you would like to register with us please use the contact form and we will arrange this for you.
Quality assurance
To ensure good quality within Children’s Services:
Staffing, Qualifications and Training
All staff undergo PVG checks and are subject to reference requests before starting their employment with Perth Autism Support.
All of our Autism Practitioners receive full induction training encompassing Perth Autism Support’s philosophy and values.
Perth Autism Support is fully committed to staff learning and development.
All members of the Children’s Services Team must register with the SSSC as Practitioners in a Day Care of Children’s Service, undertaking appropriate qualifications as required, such as SVQ 3 Social Services (Children and Young People).
All staff undertake mandatory, regular training in:
We also have a range of autism specific training to increase autism understanding.
What if my child/young person is too anxious to attend?
Accessing a new building with new people can be difficult for some of our young people and to help support this we can offer:
This list is not exhaustive and we are always happy to support young people in whatever way is right for them so they can get the benefit of social opportunities at Perth Autism Support, just contact us for a chat and we will be happy to help!
Term Time Programmes
We run four term time general activity programmes from our Perth city centre based building each year, and all children and young people registered with Perth Autism Support can request a space at these sessions:
Our term time activities in Perth run after school Monday-Friday, and throughout the day on Saturday. Children and young people can book into activities of their choice on a block booking basis. Session times range from one-two hours.
Our current timetable offers:
As you can see, there is something for everyone! Each activity supports the development of particular targets for children and young people, such as such as increasing teamwork skills, increasing confidence and improving social skills, allowing you and your child to identify the sessions that would be of most benefit.
The Children’s Services Team will send a quarterly email to all registered families with the Group Programme Invitation and Booking Form (March, July, September, December).
A Programme Information document will also be included in this email, to allow families to easily identify the skills that each activity aims to develop, alongside the suggested targeted age/peer group.
Parents/Carers should complete the booking form by the date stated in the email, noting interest in all activities their child would like to access. Support can be provided to complete the booking forms if required.
Bookings are made as a block booking for the full term, this then allows us to ensure we have the correct levels of staffing and support in place.
The Children’s Services Team will allocate spaces and taster sessions in the activities, and send an email to Parents/Carers to confirm. Allocations are made based on available staffing, suitable peer groups, and previous waiting lists, meaning children may not always be allocated a space on all activities they have noted interest in.
Confirmation emails will confirm details of the group dates, times, venues, pick up/drop off points and details of the staff who will be supporting in the sessions.
Parents/Carers have a grace period of one week following confirmation emails in which to cancel their child’s space in an activity, free of charge.
After the grace period has expired, the Finance Team will send an invoice to Parents/Carers for their child’s allocated activities for the term. Parents/Carers can arrange a payment plan with the Finance Team if full payment cannot be made.
Should Parents/Carers cancel their child’s space out with the grace period, they will still be liable to pay the full term’s invoice, this is to ensure all our costs are met which are planned in advance.
At the end of every term, Parents/Carers will be emailed a short report from the Children’s Services Team, detailing their child’s progress in their allocated activities. Parents/Carers will also be invited to book into a Parents’ Evening session with the Children’s Services Team, to discuss their child’s progress in person.
If your child would like to try an activity in the term time programme for the very first time, but is unsure whether they will enjoy this, Parents/Carers can book a taster session, by writing “Taster” on the booking form, next to the activity of choice.
When a Taster session has been allocated, families will be notified of this via their confirmation email.
If a taster session has been allocated, an invoice will not be sent out immediately.
After the child has attended their taster session, a member of the Children’s Services Team will contact the Parents/Carers in order to share feedback, and ask whether the child would like to continue attending the activity for the remainder of the term.
If the child does want to continue attending the activity for the rest of the term, the Finance Team will then send an invoice to the family to cover the cost of the taster session and the rest of the term’s activities.
If the child does not want to continue attending the activity, the taster session will be free of charge, and the Finance Team will only send an invoice to the family if the child is accessing any other part of the programme.
We also run four holiday general activity programmes from our Perth city centre based building each year, and all children and young people registered with Perth Autism Support can request a space at these sessions:
Our holiday activities in Perth run during the day on Tuesdays-Thursdays, with our Young Adult Programme running on every Monday.
Children and young people can book into as many activities of choice as they wish.
During our holiday programmes, we offer a mixture of full and half day activities. Full day sessions run between 10.30am and 3.30pm, and half day sessions run in the morning from 10am-12.30pm and in the afternoon from 1.30pm-4pm.
We offer a wide variety of activities during the holiday programmes, including day trips to places such as the Safari Park, Cairnie Fruit Fram, Ryze and the Butterfly Farm, to name a few, as well as sessions closer to home, such as a visit to Perth Leisure Pool, comedy skills sessions at Perth Theatre, baking sessions and scavenger hunts in the nearby South or North Inch parks.
Booking for holiday programmes follow the same process as the term time activities.
