A mum has hit out at a children’s play centre after it moved its autism-friendly sessions to just before her son’s bed time. Kayleigh Simmonds has accused Jump In Adventure Park Esher of discrimination after it announced it would move its ‘relaxed sessions’ for children with additional needs from 9am to 10pm on Sunday mornings to 6pm-7pm on Mondays from June 1.
Kayleigh, from Esher, says it means she will no longer be able to take her 6-year-old son Lenny, who has severe autism, to the sessions as it will be too close to his bedtime. In response she has set up a petition demanding Jump In, which offers a trampoline park, soft play area and rock climbing wall for children, reverse its decision.
She said the relaxed sessions allowed her to go to activities with her son without fear of being judged by other parents, the change in hours will put a stop to this. While the play area claims running these sessions was “unsustainable” Kayleigh says she and other parents will miss out.
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“It’s a good release for him to just go off and bounce, it’s great for their wellbeing and mental health,” she said. “I was absolutely gutted to receive that email. I’ve already got another child who does after school clubs so it’s going to be a juggle for me.
“Even if Lenny was a neurotypical child it would still be very hard for us. He goes to bed at 7pm, if I took him somewhere like that he would be bouncing till 8pm or 9pm. When you have school the next day that’s not what you want.
“We just feel more left out. I feel like our children have been disregarded, what other trampoline place can I take him? I can’t just sit down and leave him be, I’m with him side by side and I feel like all the children are going to miss out.”
Kayleigh has subsequently set up a Change.org petition, which so far has been signed by 426 people at time of writing, calling on Jump In to reverse these changes. She also hopes this raises awareness of the issue and disability-friendly play sessions as a whole.
The petition reads: “Collectively as parents of SEN [special educational needs] children, we feel changing the times that is inappropriate is a discrimination and disregarding our children’s needs. It puts our children at a disadvantage and not giving them the same opportunity as neurotypical children.
“All we ask is to keep the current time, every Sunday 9am-10am. So please sign this petition and help us give our children equality.”
In a letter to another parent, also shared with SurreyLive, they explained their reasons behind the closure further. The email, dated May 17, read: “As a company we have decided to make these changes due to it being unsustainable with the session at the current time.
“We want to provide the best services and reliability possible to make our sessions regular, with upcoming changes to our timetable we could not provide the security of the session on a Sunday morning anymore. In the common interest that this session can still be provided we unfortunately had to make these changes.”
A Jump In spokesperson told SurreyLive: “As a trampoline park we have been running our relaxed sessions successfully since 2014 up and down the country. From time to time we do need to change the timings, as we do with other group sessions. We do understand how frustrating and how unsettling that can be and we always do our best to reach a resolution that works for all.
“On this occasion, for Esher the day and time change has been made due to low attendance at these sessions making them unsustainable. We have let all customers that have attended these sessions, know in advance and offered a free jump for them and their carer to introduce them to the new date and time at their convenience.
“We really want to continue our relaxed sessions, they’re really important to us and we know how much they mean to people. We are trialling this new date and time, which has worked better at other locations to see if the session can become more sustainable. We, as always, welcome any feedback from families that have attended and would like to work cohesively – please contact [email protected] directly if you would like to talk anything through.”
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