FREE Young Carer Residential Respite Breaks from The Honey Pot Charity

The Honeypot Children’s Charity offers both respite breaks and outreach support to young carers and vulnerable children, many of whom would otherwise have nowhere to turn. We are proud to be the only charity in the UK offering consistent support throughout childhood; from the age of 5 until a child’s 13th birthday.

Since 1996 Honeypot has been working to enhance the lives of young carers and vulnerable children aged 5 – 12 years old. We are the only charity in the UK to provide respite breaks and on-going outreach support throughout a child’s formative years.

Honeypot gives young carers a break from demanding and stressful responsibilities at home and provides a safe, nurturing environment where children at risk can develop their full potential.

Honeypot Pen y Bryn – covers Wales, the West Midlands and the North West 

Honeypot Pen y Bryn opened only in 2016, in the gorgeous rolling fields and hills of mid-Wales. Children are welcomed with fresh countryside air and amazing landscapes. Honeypot Pen y Bryn is equipped with a large playing field, art and drama studio, the Galleon — an amazing adventure playground for children to climb, swing and build dens around-, trampolines, a hard-surfaced area for bikes and go karts, and new for 2019, an indoor swimming pool available for use all year round.

Who to contact

Contact Name
Naomi Zervas
Contact Position
Children's Services Coordinator
Telephone
01686 622773 01686 622773
E-mail
info@honeypot.org.uk
Website
https://www.honeypot.org.uk
Scan to visit this website

Costs

Associated Cost
No
FREE  Free of Charge

Availability

Age Ranges
5 to 12
Referral required
Referral Details

Information for Referrers

Referral process

Anyone that works with a child in a professional capacity can refer them for a residential respite break. Our referrers currently include Young Carers Groups, Social Services, schools, hospices and refuges.

 

Criteria

Children must be aged between 5 and 12. While the majority of children that we support are young carers, we also accept disadvantaged children who have been referred for a variety of reasons including those who have experienced homelessness, domestic violence or bereavement. If you are unsure, please contact the relevant site to discuss the individual circumstances.

We regret that we cannot accept children with significant disabilities or additional needs. As the majority of the children we support are young carers, they spend most of their lives considering someone else’s needs above their own, so their break needs to give them some time away from that. While we have excellent staffing ratios (4 staff to 12 children) we are not able to provide one-to-one support on our breaks

Please note that making a referral does not guarantee a space on a break, firstly because we need to assess suitability, and secondly because as we are currently oversubscribed at our Hampshire site and receive more referrals than we can accommodate on our breaks.

We are very happy to take referrals for groups of children, please contact your local site to discuss the options.

Because we collect the children from their local community, we need to group children together into geographical clusters so they do not have to spend too long in the minibus travelling to our sites. For this reason, we sometimes are unable to provide a break for an eligible child unless the parent/guardian or referrer is able to transport the child to our site.

We ask that referrals are made using our secure online form once you have permission from the parent/s or guardian/s of the child. We will then contact you if we have any questions or concerns regarding suitability, and depending on the outcome of that conversation we will arrange to meet with the child and parent/guardian either at their home or at your premises. With group referrals, this will often be arranged as a group session.

At these meetings we will gather medical and consent forms from the parent/guardian and we will liaise with them and with you regarding transport arrangements including pick-up and drop-off times and locations

The average length of time between referral and the child having a break is 6 months, however it can be longer or shorter depending on the time of year and the child’s location.

Last Updated

Last updated:

Actions

Save to Shortlist
Is the information on this page correct? If not, please let us know.