SEN Saturdays at County Museum
Between May and July 2025, the museum ran six weekend “Stay and Play” sessions for children under six with SEN. The idea was to create a calm space for children to explore and for parents and carers to spend time together, talk, and share experiences at a pace that suited them.
Families settled in quickly. Staff guided children through sensory toys, building blocks and gentle play, adapting the room as they learned what worked best. Parents said the atmosphere felt relaxed and reassuring, and several noted how supportive the staff were throughout.
Across the six sessions, 27 children and 29 parents and grandparents attended, with many choosing to come back. Some families said having the option of a weekend session made it much easier to join in. Others appreciated the chance to speak to staff and volunteers about what their children enjoyed and what helped them feel settled. These conversations also helped the museum team understand how to shape future sessions, with parents suggesting ideas such as short sensory-led activities, music, outdoor play or age‑specific mini‑sessions.
The project also led to new local partnerships. The Worcester Parent Carer Forum helped spread the word through their networks and acted as a valuable sounding board, offering insight and encouragement. A volunteer with nursery and SEN experience joined partway through and supported four of the six sessions, later asking to continue helping in the future.
To thank families for taking part in the survey, the museum offered admission tickets to Hartlebury Castle and Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum. Five families took up the offer, extending their visits and building positive links with other cultural sites.
By the end of the trial, parents spoke warmly about the sessions: the friendly staff, the relaxed environment, and the feeling of being welcomed as they were. The team gathered constructive feedback, learned what families found most helpful, and gained a stronger understanding of how to develop similar sessions in future. What stayed consistent throughout was the sense of ease families described — a few hours each weekend where children could play and adults could pause, all within a setting that felt safe, familiar and supportive
To find out more about how a Public Health community grant could help you improve wellbeing in your neighbourhood please visit: www.worcestershire.gov.uk/communitygrants