The Movement Centre offer continual support to families as they try to fund the course of therapy for their child. This is a particular problem from parents with a child who has a disability as there is the requirement to purchase specialist equipment and adaptions as well as other therapies and these costs often come at a premium. As a charity we work with families to support their fundraising efforts by offering help to set up fundraising pages, providing marketing materials or collection buckets, and logos for their use and signposting them to trusts and foundations that may be able to help.
We also raise funds ourselves to provide funding support to all families that access our services, and now we plan to create an interest free payment plan so that families will have the option to pay for their course of therapy over 18 months; we believe that by spreading the cost over the period of the treatment will enable the treatment to be more affordable and allow a greater period of time to raise the funds without taking the financial hit up front. The easier we can make it for our families, the better.
New Payment plan put in place
Newly appointed CEO, Johnny Wilkes states “This is a ground-breaking step for a small independent charity such as us, and it does carry a business risk, however, we are acutely aware of the enormous impact that the pandemic has had on family finances as well as the constant worry about job losses.
We also know that the ‘evidence based proven’ treatment we provide makes a difference to the life of our patients and their families, but the lockdowns have seen referrals plummet and cost is being cited as the major reason. We want to make accessing our therapy as easy as possible for our families, as we know every parent wants the best for their child.
It’s a position no parent should ever be in – we understand this and “we get it” so we have to be able to ease the burden on the parents. We already take significant risk by fundraising ourselves to bring the cost of the treatment down by a third and we operate on a shoestring of a budget – there is no “fat on the bone”. It is evident that there is an ever-growing group of children who are missing out on what we know to be life changing treatment, so I see this as us going the extra mile to help the parents out”.
As well as financial support, we know the importance of safety of the children and families that access our therapy. That is why we are ‘Covid compliant’ and we have systems in place to keep all families safe and well while attending the centre. We know that families may be worried to attend medical appointments, but we want you to know that we are doing everything we can to make it an enjoyable and safe visit.
If you have a child that has development delay or additional needs, we would love to hear from you. We accept referrals from all medical professions, but also self-referrals from parents. If you would like to chat to one of our physiotherapists, please email info@themovementcentre.co.uk to arrange a call.
For more information call 01691 404248 or visit www.the-movement-centre.co.uk or email info@themovementcentre.co.uk
