FAQs

Please contact us to discuss your child’s specific therapy requirements.

You may be able to secure some funding for your child’s placement. We have put together a document which will explain the ways you can choose to fund your child’s placement at The Ark Centre. Please click to view it.

Unfortunately we are not able to participate in this scheme. We have investigated this in the past, however the government model for this funding works on a 1:8 ratio of staff to children, based on an 80% occupancy rate in a setting of 26 children. Since The Ark Centre operates at 1:1 support to a maximum of 8 children in a setting, we are unable to meet the model upon which the free 30 hours is based upon.

We have also investigated if the free 30 hours can be used to partially fund our placements, but this is not possible within Essex.

We can accept childcare vouchers and will support parents applying for financial grants for ABA. We can also meet the therapy requirements within EHC plans so where a child has secured individual education budgets, parents can elect to use The Ark Centre as their provider, or parents can self-fund.

Our long-term objective is to help parents secure funded placements for children referred to us through the local authority.

The Ark Centre is a registered charity and so accept donations which can enable us to fund places for children in the future.

 All our therapies are delivered at cost and the centre operates on a not-for-profit basis.

We will have termly ‘One Plan’ meetings where overall goals will be set. These goals are closely monitored and constantly reviewed by the therapist team and can be altered and updated as needed based on your child’s specific requirements.

A One Plan includes targets in a child’s treatment programme, which covers every aspect of the child’s life. One Plan – which has replaced IEPs (Individual Education Plans) – governs the intervention provided at The Ark Centre.

Each member of the child’s team will meet with parents and those working both in and outside the centre each term. Members of the team that work directly within the centre will meet more frequently and the programmes are constantly reviewed.

Our therapists always work in partnership with your child’s current/mainstream setting and visits can be arranged to ensure consistency of approach across all areas subject to resource availability. These visits are charged separately to the fee for attending the centre.