Around 600 local children under five years old and their families living in the most deprived areas of Doncaster, will engage in creative play, movement, music and storytelling, thanks to a grant from Yorkshire, West Riding Freemasons to darts – Doncaster’s creative health and learning charity. 

The £60,000 grant will help disadvantaged children under five years old develop communication and language skills, and their personal, social and emotional development through free, quality creative provision, improving school readiness. The project will also support the adults around these children, including their parents and guardians to feel empowered and confident in using creativity at home and in their practice.

darts’ Tuneful Chatter project will deliver accessible and immersive weekly sessions in four Doncaster Family Hubs, responding to the rise in developmental delay and additional needs following the pandemic and cost of living crisis. Sessions will be free and open to all abilities and mobilities, ensuring that every family can take part.

Creative play and movement will stimulate turn-taking and listening, encouraging choice and voice. Music and singing will use repetition, structure and familiarity so all children express themselves and build self-esteem. Drama will bring stories to life, inviting children to go on adventures and create their own journeys. The grant will pay for experienced artists to deliver the sessions that model positive parenting; allowing parents and guardians to ‘be silly’ and bond with their children, to tell a story without needing high levels of literacy and build shared experiences of playful interaction.

Figures show that 32.4 per cent of Doncaster children live in poverty, and Doncaster’s Fairness and Wellbeing Commission highlights worrying statistics including Doncaster having the highest fixed-period exclusion rate in the country. The latest Public Health Annual Report prioritises children, evidencing a real and urgent need to provide Doncaster’s youngest and most at-risk children with equitable and sustainable opportunities to catch up on essential development and build strong foundations to enable them to grow and thrive later in life.

Parents and guardians are struggling. With very limited social opportunities to engage in when their babies were born, many have no peer networks or role models to support their own mental health or share ways to engage their children in creativity and play. Those accessing local Family Hubs face multiple and complex barriers including financial challenges, long term health conditions and unemployment.