The original idea.
Bumps & All started out as a very simple idea that was only planned to help families in Clackmannan, among those was my own daughter who was on maternity leave after having her second child. The only company she had was her son and baby daughter, her dad, her sister and myself. Although not officially a single mum her partner is often away due to work commitments. As anyone who is home with young children knows, it can be very lonely. Of course you have the children to talk to and if you are lucky some family, but a person needs to be able to have the company of other adults sometimes.
During 2024, myself and my daughters established a routine of every Friday meeting up at the house with hot cuppas, which meant the new mum got a hot cuppa and the doting auntie got baby cuddles. I realized that sometimes that is all a child's carer needs, different faces and a hot cuppa. So I started asking people in Clackmannanshire what they thought of the idea of starting A group that met up for a cuppa and was overwhelmed with their responses. Everyone I spoke to thought it was a great idea, including a staff member of Clackmannanshire Council's Child Wellbeing Partnership. I had met her while I was helping out at a mother and toddlers group. That very day she spoke to her manager about the idea and before I could blink I was sitting in a meeting with her boss being asked for more information. To my utter shock I was then offered a grant to help set up the group and help cover its running costs. They were also able to provide some toys as well as travel mugs (to decrease scald risk).
I wanted from day one that the group should be fully inclusive and anyone who wishes to come can come. The Clackmannan Bumps & All Group meet in a wheelchair accessible venue which also has a disabled bathroom. We have also provided a height adjustable changing table. We welcome everyone including any single parents male or female, we don’t care about age, religion, nationality, etc., if you care for children you are more than welcome. We also try our best to ensure we always have a snack available that meets any special dietary needs.
The group's progress.
From there everything just seemed to fall into place, having already been involved in the Clackmannan Development Trust, particularly helping with children’s holiday activities, storytelling and event planning, the trust offered support too. Then three ladies I knew through CDT came forward wanting to help and be part of this whole new idea for a group.
You see I didn’t want to set up another Mother and Toddler Group, Clackmannan already has Puddleducks for that, so they were covering that need. My aim was / is to put the carer first whether that be mum, dad, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, foster parents, childminders etc quite literally anyone who cares for children.
The criteria we started with to become members was that you had to be caring for children in Clackmannan. There were going to be extra elements brought in over time, but a bit of company and a cuppa was the top priority and the ability to try help making caring for children a bit easier for each other, whether that be advice, hints and tips or someone cuddling or playing with your child so that you have a little while of “me space”. I had also hoped at some point we would start bringing visitors in, for example Health Visitors, Midwives, and other bodies who worked in the care of children. A longer term plan was to also start running affordable events for families in the town, that they would want to go to and were a bit different from most other fundraisers.
Clackmannan is a town which in some ways has lost its sense of community, and in a bid to try and to rekindle this with younger people with children and allow them to feel part of not only our group community but also the town community, we decided to give every new baby we know of “Welcome Clackmannan Baby” bags. These include a variety of things including nappies, knitted clothes, toys and usually a little gift for mum.
| The first thing to happen was a Facebook group, I shared it with anyone I knew who had children in Clackmannan then asked everyone to share the group. Before I knew it we had over 50 members on Facebook. We then had our first Clackmannan Bumps & All “Cuppa and Chat” session on the 31st of October 2024 at the Bruce Lounge, Clackmannan. I was only expecting one or two people to attend, but to my shock that first day we had seven carers and the preschool children they care for. The first meeting was also when we gave out our first “Welcome Clackmannan Baby” bag, it was given to a new baby boy who was only a few weeks old when he and his mum came to our first session. |
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Very quickly we realized that the Bruce Lounge was going to be outgrown very rapidly. When you think about people coming for a cuppa and children to entertain, pram parking spaces wasn’t top priority but when you have 7/8 prams parked they do take up a lot of space (long gone are the days the prams would have been left outside). Fortunately the CDT helped again by giving us the option of holding our sessions in the Clackmannan Scout and Guiding Hall. This space was larger, brighter and is just across the road from our Primary School and Early Learning Centre making it a better location for anyone doing the school or ELC drop offs.
Very quickly after commencing these cuppa and chat sessions, we started to be offered donations of children and babies clothes, toys, books and equipment, which we gratefully received. With these donations we started a “Grown out – Growing Into” scheme where everyone is welcome to see if there is anything in the boxes they would like to take, our view being most children and babies grow out of their clothes long before the clothes are worn out.
We also started receiving requests from people outside of Clackmannan who wish to come to the “Cuppa and Chat” sessions, and after some discussion between ourselves and the Child Wellbeing Partnership it was decided that we would open our sessions up to anyone in Clackmannanshire and where we could we would help any carer in Clackmannanshire in any way we could.
We did however keep the Welcome Clackmannan Baby Bags for Clackmannan babies only. This would be far too expensive at this point to roll out across the county. We then started receiving requests from people who were in need of clothes etc. for their children from across Clackmannanshire. People have been so kind and generous with their donations that we were able in our first ten operational weeks to respond to many requests for help.
| At Christmas we had so many children's books donated in 'as new' condition that it was decided each child at our group would receive one as a gift. Realising we still had lots of books left, we then donated a book to every child in Clackmannan’s Early Learning Centre. We didn’t forget the carers either, they all received a pair of Christmas socks. |
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At Christmas we had so many children's books donated in 'as new' condition that it was decided each child at our group would receive one as a gift. Realising we still had lots of books left, we then donated a book to every child in Clackmannan’s Early Learning Centre. We didn’t forget the carers either, they all received a pair of Christmas socks.
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We were also donated a gift all wrapped for a preschool boy. Unsure quite who to give it to, we decided that a “Random Act of Kindness” was the way to go. On the Saturday before Christmas myself and Laura Beedie went to Sterling Mills and gave (with dad’s permission) our gift over to one very happy and smiley little boy. |
Linking with other organisations.
We now have reached out to our Clackmannanshire Health Visiting Team, Homestart (who provide family support), The Gate Charity (who run a food bank and school uniform club among other methods of help) and Women’s Aid (who support and protect women and children who have left abusive relationships) to let them know we exist and that if we can help in any way we will happily do so. Before Christmas we did help out a little bit and made Christmas a little bit better for some families. We are now in the position that the Health Visiting team will be helping the group by occasionally coming to sessions and answering questions, advising carers as well as weighing babies. Through CWP we have access to other support groups and professionals and are proudly having a taster of paediatric first aid which will concentrate on choking and CPR in February.
So where are we now?
In just a few short months a lot has been achieved.
We are working hard to become known throughout Clackmannanshire so we can help as many carers as possible even if only with a hot cuppa and a chat. We have been striving to fine tune how we deal with our donations coming in and going out. We are currently planning to make our session before Valentines Day a fun session for the carers and all their children (the schools will be on holiday). We will ensure we have some fun activities for the older children as well as the carers and pre-school children. We are going to start organizing family events which will be affordable for ALL families to participate in.
We have been asked to start a second “Cuppa & Chat” session in another Clackmannanshire town, so we are now looking at that, but really do want to have everything in Clackmannan working just right before we spread our wings. Soon though we will start that session.
I have got to admit that this little idea grew legs, arms and tentacles in an extremely short period of time.
Our group's aim:-
“Let’s make caring for Clackmannanshire’s children easier for each other”.
Agnes Neeson
