FAQs

We try hard to accommodate you together, although we can't guarantee that you will be sharing with your friends. If you come in a mixed sex group we will accommodate you in single sex chalets. Please include the names of your friends and family who are on Team when you complete your mySpringHarvest application look for the "Sharing Preferences" section when you provide information about accommodation. If you are a married couple on team, we will always accommodate you together in a room, sharing a chalet with other volunteers. Accommodation is allocated prior to the Event in accordance with the information you have provided. We will try our best to fulfil your accommodation requests but cannot guarantee this. Any concerns please contact your Team Administrator. Please note: We cannot provide specific details of your accommodation prior to the Event as this is subject to change. You will receive details when you arrive for Team Registration at the start of your Week.

Butlins provide all bedding but you'll need to bring a towel and maybe another one for swimming.

Doors open to new applicants in September the year before the Event. You can submit your contact details and your choice of team any time. We will create a mySpringHarvest profile for you and send you an email with your personalised log-in details in September. Send us a contact form with your availability now!

All teams (except for the Stewarding Team) are able to accept volunteers for up to two weeks, spaces permitting. If you'd like to Steward for two weeks, you'll need to have a week’s break in the middle. If you want to serve as a Steward as well as serving on another Team, then Stewarding must be your second week as it's the most tiring

When you're off duty. Teams will have time off and some have a shift pattern. The Stewarding team is slightly different in that the team don't have regular scheduled time off, instead it's arranged as the day progresses, dependent on the responsibilities and situations that arise. However, there are always Stewards present in all the sessions and during the celebrations, so you will experience a variety of meetings during your week.

If you both volunteer for the same children’s teams, or some of the Stewarding or Support Teams then we will endeavour to make sure that you are serving at the same time.

You can choose to book and stay in your own accommodation and you will receive a small contribution towards your accommodation costs and food vouchers to use at the resort. During the mySpringHarvest application you will have the opportunity to record your preferred choice of accommodation.

All our Volunteers are offered free Continental accommodation. Volunteers receive three meals a day. Breakfast and a cooked Lunch are served in the Team Dining Room, and Team Tea is served in the Team Lounge. Breakfast and Lunch are buffet style with Vegetarian and low-fat options. If you have any food intolerances or allergies please add that to your mySpringHarvest or contact your Team Administrator). There are tea and coffee making facilities in each Team accommodation.

mySpringHarvest profiles are available to applicants throughout the volunteer process. You will be able to check the progress of your application and change any contact details if necessary. Any future years that you wish to serve on Team, you'll simply have to confirm that the details are still correct. » Log in at https://secure.springharvest.org/myspringharvest/secure/index.jsf

A small contribution is made towards your out-of-pocket expenses in the form of a Ministry Gift. The amount of the Ministry Gift will be shown in your mySpringHarvest application and a cheque will be included in your welcome pack when you register. See information on Tax, National Insurance and Benefits.

No, sorry.

There are no safes available for your use so be cautious about what personal property you bring. Butlins remains open to day visitors, so anyone can enter the site. Please keep any valuables out of sight.

Yes, and these will be charged at the Adult rate.

All payments must be made to Butlins 56 days before your arrival at Spring Harvest.

We no longer run our Waiting List, so we recommend that you also phone Butlins direct on 0845 070 4743 on a regular basis to give you the best opportunity of securing accommodation.

Discounts are available on standard and silver half board rooms, standard and silver self-catering apartments and silver caravans. Discounts are subject to availability of funds and accommodation. See www.springharvest.org/discounts for full details.

For any amendment or name change please ring either Skegness on 0845 070 4753 or Minehead on 0845 070 4764. An amendment fee of £15 will be charged per set of changes.

Please ring either Skegness on 0845 070 4753 or Minehead 0845 070 4764 on to confirm your booking and request a duplicate confirmation.

Yes, contact Butlins Guests Services by calling 01643 703331 for Minehead or 01754 762311 for Skegness. There will be a charge for this service.

No, dogs, cats and other pets/animals are not permitted at the Butlins Resort with the exception of guide dogs for the blind, dogs for the deaf and assistance dogs for people with disabilities.

You can make your cheques payable to 'Butlins Skyline Ltd', and you'll need to post them directly to the resort you're booking for: - Butlins Resort Minehead, Somerset, TA24 5SH and Butlins Resort Skegness, Lincolnshire, PE25 1NJ

If your booking is for fewer than 20 people (children included), you will need to give your party’s details and pay the deposits at the time of booking on the phone or web. If you're booking for 20 or more people, you have 14 days to confirm. More info is at www.springharvest.org/booking-group.

Butlins have been working to improve and rationalise their accommodation and the result of this is that some previously different categories of accommodation have now become similar in standard. Our accommodation types reflect the way Butlins advertise to all their other customers.

On arrival, each child attending the Under 5s, 5-7s and 8-11s programmes will need to be registered into their relevant age groups, using the appropriate form. Forms will be available from www.springharvest.org/downloads or when you arrive at Spring Harvest you can get them from the children's venues or Spring Harvest stand. During registration, we'll ask you to supply the name, address and telephone number of an emergency off-site contact and also the child’s GP, so be sure to bring these details along with you. On arrival, please take each child and their completed form to the relevant children’s venue to register and meet the team. The Programme Planner has a map on the back which will detail the venue you need to go to - otherwise just ask a friendly steward. If possible, please register your child on arrival on Day 1, but if not, please do so before they attend their first session on Day 2.

Due to the large numbers of children attending Spring Harvest, it is not possible to pre-register your child/children before you arrive. However, Registration Forms will be available from www.springharvest.org/downloads so you can complete these before you arrive to save you some time.

Under 5s: anything that your child would normally need at home - comforter, dummy, bottle, spare nappies, potty, change of clothes etc. Please ensure everything you bring including clothes are clearly labelled with the child's full name and your chalet number once you know it. 5-7s: A light snack (piece of fruit, small plain biscuit) and a drink in a clearly named bottle (not glass). No peanuts or foods possibly containing nuts should be taken into any of the children's venues in case of allergic reactions. If the weather is good and the ground is dry then the children might be taken outside to play together so a jacket or jumper would be advisable. Finally, and most importantly, your child will have been given a badge at registration with an area for you to complete on the reverse. They should have this with them at all times in case we need to contact you. 8-11s: As with the younger children, please bring a drink and a snack and ensure that they have their badges on. The children will need to feel comfortable to play, so make sure they're wearing comfortable clothes which are suitable for them to do craft activities and to run and dance around.

At registration you will be given a ticket for each child to show when the child is collected. The ticket will have a unique code so that only you, or an authorised adult, can collect your child. Should you lose the ticket, please speak to the leader at the information point within the venue who will ask you to confirm a password instead (this will also be agreed at the time of registration). On registration of the 8-11s group, we'll ask if you're happy for your child to leave the venue alone, and if so you'll be asked to sign a form to that effect. (This only applies to 8-11s.)

Our Under 5s and 5-7s programmes are registered by Ofsted (Office for Standards in Education) to care for children under the Children Act. The act applies to children under the age of 8 and limits our type of programme (known as 'creche day care') to a maximum of four hours per day. We see the morning teaching programme as a key part of the day and therefore offer the children's programmes during that time.

Regretfully, this is where logistics kick in! The Butlin's nurseries on each Resort that we use are simply not big enough to hold all of the under 5s that come to Spring Harvest. During some weeks, we can have up to 500 under 5s - and we would rather house them in a purpose built nursery, in small groups than put them all together in a much larger room.

We've been looking at the possibility of grouping by school year, but there are two main reasons why we haven't been able to do so. Firstly, the Children Act applies to under 8s only. If we re-organised the groups by school year, then groups for the older children would need to be registered because they would include 7-year-olds. Requirements such as the 4-hour rule would also apply. We're also required to gear ratios of staff to children according to the age of children present within the programme - this becomes more difficult in mixed age groups. Secondly, as Guests book directly with Butlins, we're dependent on the Butlins booking information to predict how many children will fall into each age group. Deriving the likely school year of those children is difficult. We want to ensure we know how many children are coming and that we allocate them the right size venue.

Due to the large numbers of children involved, we need to be very strict on age groups for all children aged 10 and under. All our under 8s programmes are registered under the Children Act and registration requirements mean we can only cater for four year olds in the 5-7s programme if the four year old has been in school from the September before Spring Harvest and full-time for a term. We cannot cater for seven year olds in the 8-11s programme. However, children aged 11 may choose to attend either the 8-11s programme or the 11-14s youth programme.

In larger venues (eg the Big Top), there are designated parents areas. If we need to call a parent out, boards will be displayed only in the parents area, so please ensure you sit here. We'll also ask for your mobile phone number, so please make sure you keep this phone with you at all times.

Each year, our children’s workers are asked to complete an application form to join the respective children’s teams. In addition to completing an application form, a photo index card and references are also required by the applicant following the guidelines set out in the application form. Applications are processed at Spring Harvest Head Office and then sent to the appropriate Team Leader for their approval. Applications are accepted at the discretion of the Team Leader/Spring Harvest. Team members will not be able to serve at Spring Harvest unless they have obtained a satisfactory 'Enhanced Disclosure' from the Criminal Records Bureau. The ‘Enhanced Disclosure’ is the most comprehensive check available to us.

We fully recognise that lone parents need extra support, so we offer a babysitting service for one evening during the week, to enable lone parents to get some of the evening programme. To take advantage of this service, just register in the Nursery by 12 noon on the day you'd like a babysitter. Please try not to leave it to the last night as we won't be able to cover everyone in the one evening! As we have many requests and a limited number of team members, we can only guarantee one night's babysitting per family, and this service is exclusively for lone parents.

We take up an offering at the Spring Harvest event each year and most of the funds raised are given to other organisations whose work has a link to the theme for the year. All the information on how we use the money given in our offerings is at springharvest.org/offerings.

We have so many people asking for support for short-term mission or training work that we have had to say we can’t offer help to any of them, but we think it’s a great thing to do and wish you really well.

We are extremely excited about the Spring Harvest tour returning this year, and look forward to sharing more about it with you. It will take place on Fridays and Saturdays across the country during Autumn, and within a few weeks we will be in touch with dates and venues. Subscribe here to receive regular updates about this and more Spring Harvest 2014 information as it becomes available.