Coping with CHAOS

How to access

Any families who live in Dorset, including Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole, as well as those in Hampshire and Wiltshire are able to apply to Coping with CHAOS, as long as you have a child or children with a disability.  

Once registered, you will need to register yourself and your child on our parent portal SchoolsBuddy and email a completed care plan to us. If it is agreed we can meet your child’s needs we will add you onto our mailing list for the next school holidays.

Please note: our waiting list is currently closed until September. Please keep an eye on our social media for when this reopens.

What to expect

A variety of staffed play sessions are held at different locations throughout the county including play/leisure centres, local attractions, and at our own venue in Hurn known as The Treehouse.  

Parents and carers must stay at all sessions and can meet others in similar situations. Our Short Breaks Crew will support your child with additional needs throughout the activities. Siblings are welcome to attend but remain the responsibility of their parents/carer. This hopefully allows parents to take a break and enjoy a hot drink that’s still warm! 

School holiday sessions must be booked in advance, and you will receive the timetable and details when they are open for booking – there is a deadline to make your bookings by each time.

Open House sessions run during the school holidays and are hosted at either The Treehouse (Hurn) or Durweston (West Dorset). These do not need to be booked in advance, you arrive at any point and stay for as long as you like.  

You will need to choose a first, second, and third choice of activity in order of preference before the deadline and you will usually receive one space per holiday week, if there are spaces available. After bookings have closed, we will allocate requests fairly and you will find out through Schools Buddy which activity you have been allocated.  

Facilities at The Treehouse include a sensory room, cinema room, games room, soft play, fully accessible toilets and Changing Place, mini golf, outdoor play area and more. Free parking is available onsite and numberplates must be registered on arrival.  

We also have a private Facebook Group where parents can communicate with one another and the Short Breaks Crew, and we like to use it as a place where we can share pictures of your children so you can see what they’re getting up to!

Costs

Dorset Council and BCP Council have allocated some funding for a limited number of spaces. We ask for a contribution per session to allow us to provide the activities and support.  

After you have received your booking outcome, you will be able to pay for your sessions through SchoolsBuddy. We do ask for contributions to be paid in advance of the sessions to allow us to book activities. If we have non-payments for sessions, you will not be able to book a space on the next holiday.

In the event you need to cancel a session, please contact us using the details below at your earliest convenience. We tried to avoid cancelling sessions as much as possible as we understand this can cause upset and confusion, where an alternative can be offered we will try our best to facilitate this.  

If there were to be a staffing crisis due to sickness, we do have a contingency plan. However, if we feel it is unsafe, we may have to cancel a small number of children. A record will be kept ensuring cancellations are made fairly and don’t affect the same child, within reason.

If you are out of area but would like to access please get in touch to discuss options of self-funding.

High standards of care

Although we are not required to be registered with Ofsted or CQC, our services are run as if they were and we aim to meet those standards.