IT has been described as the very essence of David Cameron’s Big Society yet Fernheath Play Association faces a permanent struggle for survival.

Since its opening in 1976, thousands of able-bodied and disabled children from Bournemouth and surrounding areas have played in safety at the West Howe centre.

Events and activities at Fernheath include an after school and holiday play scheme, parent and toddler groups, play and art sessions for children with special needs and disabilities, a Wii fit club and healthy cooking lessons. It also hosts visits from special needs schools and provides a neutral venue for court access visits.

Chair Paddy Williamson is convinced they have helped prevent numerous children from going off the rails or being taken into care.

But although the association fundraises for new projects, equipment and buildings itself, it relies on council funding to help with its staff costs of over £100,000 a year.

And councillors looking to make cutbacks have already warned that this is not a situation that will be allowed to continue indefinitely.

Paddy said they were immensely grateful for the council’s help but said the threat of this funding being removed was a constant worry.

“When you’re raising money for things like new buildings, you can’t also be raising money for salaries,” she said. “In any case, you can’t pay salaries by doing jumble sales and bazaars, it’s just not feasible.

“People ask why we don’t use volunteers and in an ideal world that would be great but we don’t live in an ideal world.

“We cater for children with a wide range of disabilities and we have to know that when one of these children comes in, we will have enough specialist staff here to offer them one-to-one or sometimes even two-to-one care.

“You can’t do that if you are relying on volunteers. Volunteers are a useful back up but they cannot take the main responsibility.”

But she firmly believes it would be a false economy if the council cut or stopped its contribution.

“We know that we’re saving the council money. It’s about £2,000 a week or £120,000 a year now to keep one child in care.

That’s a lot less than they give us.

“We work very closely with local social workers. They refer children to us all the time and sometimes we refer children to them. If we weren’t here, those two or three children we’ve had to involve social services with could well have ended up in care.

It’s all about early intervention.

“Sometimes we even get children themselves asking us for help. All our core staff have been here for 10 years each and they know they can trust them.”

One of the council’s suggestions has been that Fernheath increases its charges.

At the moment, families simply pay a registration fee of £7 for 12 months and their children can then come to any session free of charge.

But previous attempts to charge £10 for all day care during the school holidays were not popular with parents. “Many families simply can’t afford this,” said Paddy.

“If we forced people to pay, it would be the children who most need our help that would stop coming.

“They are the ones that most need it. It’s hard for a lot of people to understand but if you have never lived on benefits, you don’t understand how people can get caught in the poverty trap.”