Good afternoon,

Please find attached our up-to-date service information, including our new Beam leaflet and workshop calendars.

Some important information is detailed below about Christmas opening, drop-in end times and service capacity.

BEAM CHRISTMAS OPENING

We will be open on 23rd December running a reduced service between 12 & 4pm. This means shorter sessions will be on offer, with no sessions starting after 3pm.

Beam is closed and no drop-ins will be held from 24.12.19-01.01.20 inclusive.

We will be open on 2nd January at Palmer’s, running a reduced service between 2 & 5pm. This is likely to be service-information sessions only, with no sessions starting after 4pm.

Our normal drop-in hours will resume from Saturday 4th January 2020.

These hours are slightly different to what had been previously advertised within the service – we have ensured that these corrected hours are now on display within our venues. We would appreciate it if you could share the attached flyer on social media and anywhere else you can!

BEAM CLOSURE TIMES

No sessions will be started with any young person, parent or carer in the last hour we are open. This is to ensure we are able to finish no later than 7pm on a weekday, or 4pm on a Saturday.

We want to ensure we are giving young people as well as parents and carers an appropriate amount of time to listen to them so that they feel heard. As I am sure everyone will appreciate, the wellbeing of our staff is paramount in order to ensure we can continue to provide a quality service, hence the importance of the service closing at the times advertised.

I’d like to thank you in advance for your support in sharing this message with those that you are signposting to us.

SERVICE CAPACITY

Our team work really really hard to see as many of those who visit a drop-in session as possible. However, there are occasions where we are physically at capacity – something that is a particular issue on a Saturday at our Wellington venue.

We recognise the importance of young people being supported by those around them, whether that be friends or family, and we understand that accompanying young people to Beam sends a clear message of support. However, large groups can be difficult to accommodate within our venues, and we are asking that visitors to the service consider this before attending.

Capacity is quickly reached not only in terms of physical space, but also in the number of sessions being led by our staff and volunteers. I cannot stress enough how determined the team is to give each young person a valuable experience at Beam, but in order to do this we need to carefully manage the volume of sessions being offered.

As such, at times where all of our practitioners are in sessions and we have a number of people waiting to be seen, we will temporarily close the service, asking people to return later in the session or to a different session.

We will also be looking to manage how many sessions our practitioners are doing over the course of a drop-in. Again, this is to ensure each young person receives a high-quality service from us, as well as ensuring our team’s welfare is maintained. This means we may take the decision to close the service a little earlier on some occasions, on the basis that we can have up to 5 drop-in sessions running across the week. When this happens, notices detailing our alternative sessions will be displayed.

WORKSHOPS IN THE NEW YEAR

Our new workshop calendar is attached, along with flyers for our two new workshops!

‘Positive me’ focuses on self-esteem in young people aged 10+. This begins mid-January for 5-weeks on Mondays in Wellington and Thursdays at Palmer’s.

‘Sleepy heads’ focuses on the importance of sleep for wellbeing for young people 8+. This begins in March and runs for 5-weeks on Tuesdays in Wellington and Thursdays at Palmer’s.

Arts & Crafts will continue to be offered where capacity allows on Saturdays between 2-3pm at Wellington. However, the final Saturday of each month we will hold a relaxation session – this takes place 3-3.30pm. Please note on relaxation Saturdays we won’t provide any sessions after 2pm to allow space for this to take place.

From April onwards we will be producing a new schedule of Saturday workshops.

AND FINALLY…

… The team send season’s greetings, and thank you for your support throughout 2019!

Gemma Holland

Clinical Lead

Beam Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin

The Children’s Society

Please note my working days are Mon-Thurs.