Why inclusive HAF provision must move beyond short-term delivery and focus on sustainability, trust, and workforce development.
This Easter, Move Mojo partnered with Progressive Sports to deliver a specialist SEND sports camp through Staffordshire County Council HAF at Lakeside School in Tamworth.
Twenty children with SEND attended every single day.
Included. Engaged. Supported.
But what made this project important wasn’t simply attendance numbers. It was the model behind the delivery and what it highlighted about the future of inclusive sport provision across the UK.
Across many local authorities, schools, and community organisations, there is growing recognition that children with SEND require more accessible opportunities to engage in movement, physical activity, and sport. Yet many delivery systems still struggle with one key challenge:
How do we create provision that genuinely works for children with SEND while also building sustainable local capability?
This project became a strong example of how partnership working, trusted environments, and practical coaching development can begin to answer that question.
Progressive Sports had successfully delivered HAF programmes for years. Like many organisations, they wanted to increase their SEND-inclusive offer but recognised the need for practical support and collaboration.
Instead of separating SEND provision away from mainstream delivery entirely, our approach focused on embedding inclusive expertise directly within their existing workforce.
Our coaches worked alongside Progressive’s team throughout the week, adapting activities together, sharing coaching strategies in real time, and mentoring staff directly inside the delivery environment.
This matters because inclusive coaching is not something developed purely through classroom-based learning. It develops through supported experience, reflection, adaptation, and exposure to real environments.
The current challenge across community sport is not a lack of caring coaches. It is often a lack of confidence and practical understanding around how to adapt activities for wider audiences.
By delivering together rather than separately, capability remained inside the local organisation long after the camp finished.
For councils commissioning HAF provision, this is an important shift in thinking.
Rather than commissioning isolated SEND services that disappear once funding ends, partnership models allow SEND expertise to strengthen the wider local workforce itself.
The setting also played a huge role in the programme’s success.
The camp took place inside Lakeside School, where many of the children already attended during term time. Parents explained how difficult transitions back into school can often become following holidays, particularly when routines are disrupted.
By hosting the programme inside a familiar environment with familiar faces, many of those barriers reduced immediately.
Children entered spaces they already trusted.
That emotional safety matters.
Too often, inclusion conversations focus only on activities and equipment while overlooking the importance of environment and familiarity. For many children with SEND, confidence to engage starts long before the activity itself begins.
The delivery model also reflected a person-centred approach to coaching.
At Move Mojo, we focus heavily on adapting the environment, the task, and the challenge level rather than coaching through rigid condition-specific assumptions.
Every child moves differently. Every child engages differently. Two individuals with the same diagnosis may present completely different strengths, communication styles, sensory responses, and movement preferences.
That means inclusive delivery cannot rely on fixed templates.
Throughout the week, activities were adapted continuously:
- Traditional invasion games were scaffolded through task constraints
- Archery activities were modified using soft archery equipment developed through our work alongside Archery GB
- Group activities were adjusted to create multiple entry points for participation and success
Importantly, this was not about lowering challenge levels.
It was about creating equitable opportunities for participation.
One of the biggest misconceptions in inclusive sport is that adaptation reduces standards. In reality, effective adaptation often increases engagement, confidence, and progression because individuals are working at the appropriate level for their own development.
This philosophy was reflected in feedback from both parents and delivery staff.
Children were socially engaging, expressing themselves, and exploring movement confidently within a safe and supportive environment.
For many families, access to inclusive holiday provision remains extremely limited. Parents regularly describe barriers around trust, confidence, accessibility, and a lack of suitable local opportunities.
What this project demonstrated is that those barriers are not inevitable.
When organisations collaborate properly, inclusive provision becomes achievable.
For schools, this model also highlights an important opportunity.
Hosting HAF provision within familiar school environments can support continuity, reduce anxiety, and strengthen relationships between schools, families, and community providers.
For community organisations, it reinforces that inclusive delivery does not require becoming SEND specialists overnight. What matters most is having the willingness to learn, collaborate, and adapt alongside experienced partners.
And for governing bodies, it highlights how adapted versions of traditional sports can increase engagement and community relevance when delivered flexibly.
At Move Mojo, our goal has never been simply to run sessions.
Our goal is to help reshape how inclusive sport is delivered at community level.
Because long-term inclusion is not built through isolated programmes.
It is built through partnership, trust, capability development, and environments where every child feels they belong.
