Benefits

Establishing the MOVE Programme throughout an authority or within a school/organisation provides huge health, social, learning and communication benefits to those children and adults under the care of the local authority, ensuring that they are provided with the best service possible.

Learning & Education

As children and adults begin to move more independently and learn about their environment and the world around them, they see things of interest and their curiosity is awakened helping to improve access to learning and education in every sense.

• They are more alert and able to participate
• Being in an upright position and/or being able to move about, gives a person with disabilities greater opportunities for learning
• Cognitive development accelerates and they become more independent
• Spatial awareness is improved due to better access to their environment
• Barriers to learning are reduced. Access to the curriculum is improved

Many people already on the MOVE Programme have proven the theory that when physical abilities improve, so do communication skills and learning

• Learning to sit in an upright position, stand or walk independently, with whatever support or equipment is required, has enormous health benefits for a person with disabilities:-
  • Internal organs have more freedom to function
  • Breathing, circulation and digestion are improved
  • Deformities may be controlled
  • Those that can weight-bear may find their muscle tone improving  and their limbs growing at a faster rate than before
  • Weight bearing is known to be beneficial in reducing the severity of hip subluxations and dislocations and may therefore delay or perhaps negate the need for surgery.
  • The impact of degenerative and life-limiting illnesses can be reduced by helping a child to maintain a better quality of health, social inclusion, communication and family life

While MOVE provides huge benefits for the child, it follows that the more independent and healthy the child is, the less strain there is on the whole family. The MOVE Programme can help to:

• Support the ability take a more active role in their own life and perform everyday tasks
• Increase quality of life and self-esteem through achievement of personal goals
• Enable individual choice
• Reduce time spent on routine care (which can average at up to 10 hours a day)
• Increase their ability to interact with family, friends, and care teams
• Improve independence, meaning that families have more time to focus on more interesting family activities. For example, if a child can use the toilet independently in a restaurant, then a family outing to a restaurant becomes a feasible option
• The more a person with disabilities is able to move around in their environment, the more independent and socially included that person and their family will feel
• Care for a disabled person may become less physically demanding for the family as they no longer have to carry a child or adult up or down stairs and around the home
• Improve the ability to communicate through eye contact and consistent movement

• The MOVE Programme supports trans-disciplinary working across services
• It supports schools, centres and Local Authorities to meet the relevant requirements under current legislation.

In addition to this, the MOVE Programme has the potential to reduce Local Authority costs, as in many cases it may enable those children being cared for outside of the authority to be brought back to benefit from local provision, it may also reduce the need for support from staff and equipment. Read more about how MOVE Europe works with Local Authorities and councils. Read more about the MOVE Programme or see MOVE’s evidence and academic research and case studies.

Read more about the MOVE Programme.