After school club for children with additional needs could close without vital funding
Parents told ITV News reporter Will Tullis that children with additional needs 'deserve better'.
Jersey's only after school club for children with additional needs could close if it does not secure vital funding.
The Space, which is part of Centrepoint in La Pouquelaye, is a specialised facility that provides after school and holiday childcare for children and their families who have complex and additional needs.
Currently, 'The Space' has 40 children on the register but can only provide for 20 children aged between 4 and 11 at any one time.
The club is based in two cabins which are no longer fit for purpose. The charity needs £300,000 to replace them and build appropriate toilet facilities for it to continue.
The number of children attending the after school club has increased. In 2021, 38 children regularly attended 'The Space' and in 2022, that had increased to 60.
Jersey Government does subsidise seven weeks of holiday care but that equates to half of the year's school holidays.
Centrepoint's CEO, Jane Moy, says: "We need to raise money to replace the portacabins where the special needs children are based.
"Apart from being very worn out, they are freezing in the winter and roasting in the summer, and they don't have any toilets which causes a lot of problems."
Lorie Rault, whose child attends The Space, says: "Without this provision we couldn't work, all parents with children with complex or extra needs as we say deserve childcare and this is the only after school provision in the whole Island."