Well, it's been a bit of a summer. Frustrating - yes. Worrying - yes. Embarrassing - yes. Rotten weather - yes but that's not our fault!

After setting out our plans for a full summer programme of activities back in May, we've had to re-plan and re-plan again as we were obliged to contained our ambitions, finally admitting defeat just a few weeks ago.

The hurdles to overcome were mostly ones we knew of (but not always!) - it just took us much, much longer to get over them than we had expected.

Staff recruitment, training, PVG checks, insurances, matching with young people - you name it, the pace of progress as more snail than Usain.

Most of the committee at TBB have youngsters who need support so we understand the impact of our failure to deliver. But despite the issues, we're now, finally, nearly there.  Matching of families to our team is taking place now, and soon we'll be setting up weekend and evening activities.

Come the October break, we'll have a week of supported activities for youngsters. And in September, three families will have an adventure break at Keilder.

Shortly we'll be turning our attention to establishing Tweeddale Buddy Bank as an independent Community Interest Company, and putting together funding applications so we can provide more and different support to families in Tweeddale. We've learned some harsh lessons over the last few months, but we'll be putting the learning to good use in the future.