## Scarf Annual Report 2023 

## Scarf Committee Members/Trustees 2023 

Chair—Gary Morgan 

Vice Chair—Paula Williams Treasurer— Geoff Walker Secretary—Debbie Morgan 

General Committee Members—Kate Reeve, Cathy Smith, Nicola Timms, Elina Zotova, Linda Cohu, Elaine Williams (also Health and Safety Officer), Sarah Howard 

Trustees—Gary Morgan, Paula Williams and Katy Bailey (also Designated Safeguarding Lead). 

## What Scarf does 

Scarf supports families living in the New Forest who have a child/young person with additional needs through organising regular term-time and holiday activities for the children/young people and their families. 

Scarf aims to meet the needs of the disabled child/young person, but additionally to recognise the impact on the whole family, particularly siblings, who also need fun and support. Parents and carers particularly value the opportunity to meet others in a similar situation, share experiences and gain support. 

Term time activities include a Drama Club, a Youth Club and Saturday morning Multi Sports Clubs. During each of the school holidays Scarf runs a Holiday Programme of fun activities for children/young people with additional needs as well as their siblings to take part in. We also run regular Scarf 2 activities for young people from 15-25 years, usually during the school holidays, with the aim of offering social as well as enjoyable activities for young people to take part in, supported by Scarf support workers. 

## Achievements in 2023 

e 6 Different Holiday Programmes with 78 activities in total 

e 36 Youth Club Sessions 

e 29 Multi Sports Sessions (for 2 age groups, 7-17’s and 18-25’s) 

e 33 Drama Sessions 

e 9 Scarf 2 activities 

e 8 Parent/carer get-togethers/sessions 

e 106 families joined up as Scarf members (including 26 new members) 

e Over £39,500 fundraised this year (grants/donations). 

2023 - We had another busy year in 2023. We hope everyone has enjoyed all the activities they’ve come along to and that new members have felt welcomed. Lots of members have been actively engaged in supporting us in different ways this year, whether on the Committee or helping with fundraising. Special thanks to several Scarf Committee members for their help with Scarf’s tree at the Lymington Christmas Tree Festival, and for promoting Scarf through Kingfisher’s Care Home (Colten Care) and Rosie Lea House (who have chosen Scarf as their charity of the year for 2024) and our Treasurer for donating his car as a fundraising tool at the Lymington Summer Spectacular! Thanks to one of our Committee members for helping with the all the parent/carer support meetings/events this year. Thanks of course to our Programme Coordinator for all her hard work above and beyond her role, her empathy and support for families, and all the incredible organising she does. 



Finally thanks also to all the staff at Scott Bailey who raised lots of money for Scarf with a walk up Pen y Fan in Wales, yoga sessions and other activities. 

“Scarf has made a huge difference to our family—it has opened our son’s world up so much more now. He loves trying new things and in a safe and happy environment. Meeting other parents has been great for me too!” 

Scarf Clubs and Activities Holiday Activities — School holidays are always busy times for Scarf with high numbers of families attending numerous activities. As usual, we programmed in lots of old favourites (the Sea Water Baths, Romsey Rapids, cycling with Pedall, animal assisted therapy, boat trips, canoeing, craft activities, trains and the Panto) as well as some new activities including Flip Out, Battlefield Live and Softplay. We tried to ensure there were plenty of activities for younger children with the numbers of younger members on the rise, with some activities particularly targeted at the younger ones. We'll continue with our new booking system where activities are no longer allocated on a first-come-first-served basis—families are given a week to make their bookings and then where activities are over-subscribed, they are allocated as fairly as possible to ensure everyone gets some activities. With now higher membership numbers we had some waiting lists, but hopefully everyone got to go on the majority of the activities they wanted. 

“We really value the opportunity to do activities that we would find difficult doing in public sessions. Knowing that nobody minds what our son is doing and being able to relax in that environment makesa lot of difference to our whole family. It takes the stress away and makesit fun for everyone. For our son it means he can experience activities that he probably wouldn’t otherwise be able to do. For his sister, she can relax and not worry about her brother, and we get to relax and enjoy a family activity altogether. Thank you Scarf!” 

Saturday Multi Sports— We’ve offered a variety of sports this year, including Taekwondo, tennis, basketball, football, cycling and fitness with The Gym Tin. We’ve continued running two clubs with a younger and older age group, and are looking for further funding for our older club now that Energise Me funding has come to an end. It’s sometimes challenging finding coaches available on Saturday mornings, but we are committed to doing so, and are always keeping our ear to the ground for new coaches/instructors who may work well with our groups. We have a fantastic team of committed helpers for our Multi Sports club, to whom we are very grateful. 

“Scarf activities are so relaxed, inclusive and good humoured. It's lovely to come and have a rest alongside the mainstream things we also enjoy but which are much harder work! Thanks again for running it all.” 

Youth Club— Another great year for our Youth Club, with over 20 regular members. We had one session with 23 young people, so it’s hugely popular! Again we’d like to thank an amazing team of support workers and volunteers, and we’ve welcomed 3 new regular volunteers to our group, who make a massive different. We have also moved venue and are now established and settled at New Milton Cricket Club, where we will stay throughout the year as they have great indoor space but also a safe and secure outside space. Drama Club— Based at Ashley Junior School, on Monday nights—parents/carers stay for the sessions (but go upstairs for a coffee and a chat). We have around 10-12 children/young people who regularly attend. Our new drama teacher has settled in extremely well and is supported by two support workers, both of whom used to be Scarf members. The drama group delighted us with two shows last year and also got the chance to work in collaboration with Treehouse Theatre on their Panto creation workshop, which inspired them to do their own amazing Cinderella Panto in December. 



“An incredible opportunity for our family to try things we wouldn’t usually try. All taking place in a safe, non-judgmental atmosphere. Meeting families who have really struggled and seeing the relief on their faces when they access Scarf activities and chat to other parents is incredible. It’s just the most invaluable lifeline.” 

Scarf 2 Activities— our aim is to offer young people (15-25 years) with additional needs a range of fun and social activities to take part in during the school holidays, supported by Scarf support workers. We were able to offer 9 brilliant activities this year including climbing, motorboats at Tucton Bridge, the New Forest Bus with a stop-over for pizzas, skittles and the legendary Scarf 2 Christmas party! New for this year was the incredible Wetwheels Experience, which was amazing. All activities involved eating together socially (either a picnic or a meal) as well as the activity. 

Parent/Carer Activities/Get-togethers During 2023, with the help of a Scarf member/committee member, we organised 8 different events for just parents/carers to attend. Most of these were weekday coffee mornings (including 3 sessions with speakers on topics of interest to parents). We also arranged a parents/carers bike ride with Pedall, a pizza/skittles evening and the extremely popular Christmas Wreath making activity in December. Thank you to two Scarf members who organised this and picked all the foliage. This has now become an annual event. We are busy planning ahead with ideas for 2024. 

## Fundraising in 2023 

None of Scarf’s activities would be possible without the very generous support of individuals, families, companies, charities and trusts who have given their time and funds to us! We are so grateful for every donation we receive. We can’t name them all but thank you to... 

Hampshire CC Short Breaks Funding 

Lymington and Pennington Town Council 

New Milton Town Council (Charity of the Year) 

New Forest District Council via Chair, Alan O’Sullivan 

Lymington Catholic Church (Our Lady of Mercy & St Joseph) Scott Bailey Solicitors LLP 

Burry Charitable Trust 

Energise YOUth Funding/Sport England (MS over 18’s) 

RWD Yacht Design, Beaulieu 

Magic Little Grants Kingfisher Care Home (Colten Care) Lymington Royal British Legion Charles Burnett Memorial Fund Lymington Waitrose (Give a Little Love) Goodall’s Strawberry Farm Honesty Box 

Our fundraising total in 2023 was over £39,500 

Membership During 2023 we reached a total membership of 106 families, which is significantly more families than last year (95) and another record year for Scarf. We were delighted to welcome 26 new families to Scarf this year. Many came via word of mouth from current members - please keep spreading the word. 

Due to high membership numbers we continue to only accept new families who live in the New Forest District Council area and have a child (aged up to 25 years) with additional needs. We also have a concessions fund for 



any family to access who may be struggling financially, which is being increasingly used by families due to the cost of living crisis. 

## Future Plans for Scarf 2024 and Onwards 

Following the success of splitting the multi-sports activities by age we have decided to continue with this in the coming year, wherever possible. This has proved a great success in terms of how a session has been operated/lead and has had the added benefit of enabling some of our older members to learn what it takes to become a support worker by having them assist younger members in their session. Our hope would be, that going forward, this will result in more of our older members becoming paid support workers for Scarf. We are always looking for new activities for members to try, so if you have any ideas that you wish us to explore then please forward your suggestions to the Programme Coordinator. As we have grown as a charity it has become apparent that our original constitution needs a full and thorough review. In the past we have altered or adapted minor parts of the constitution, but we now agree that we need a fresh set of eyes on this governing document. Our plan is to set up a sub-group lead by Treasurer, Geoff Walker and consisting of committee members and family representatives. If you are a parent or guardian of one of our members and would like to be part of this review, please can | ask that you contact the Programme Coordinator who will be able to give you more details. As you know Scarf is parent led so we really value your input into this process. We also understand that your time is precious and may be limited so we will try not to make this review too onerous. 

We have been working with one of our Trustee to develop a training plan for new support workers. The aim is to help develop individuals to ensure that they understand their role and its responsibilities. Whilst we have an excellent team in place this training will act as a refresher for the current team and will be a great asset in the induction and development of new support workers. 

As the Cost of Living crisis continues to grip the nation, we have tried our best to make our activities and clubs as affordable and accessible to all members. We have been able to do this largely through the committee’s fundraising efforts and a group of dedicated members and supporters. Our aim is to continue to fundraise so that we can operate Scarf as effectively and efficiently as possible. We will also aim to increase the value of our funds set aside for the Activities Concession Fund and the Membership Hardship Fund. If you or someone you know are interested in fundraising for Scarf, then please understand that every penny counts, big or small. So, whether that be a cake sale, asponsored swim or running a marathon, rest assured we will use any money raised for the benefit of members. Alternatively, if you know a company who may help sponsor an activity or club then please let us know as we would be happy to talk to them on behalf of Scarf. 



Scarf Financial Summary as at 31st December 2023 Income 

|Grant Income||27,214||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Donations||11,545|38,759|||
|Other Income||||||
|Memorial Fund||769||||
|Sundry Income||580||||
|Membership||2,260||||
|Interest Received||568||||
|Amazon||58|4,234|||
|Total Income|||||42,993|
||activiti|||||
|Multi sport <18 Subs||1,398||||
|Multi sport >18 Subs||1,406|2,804|||
|Activity Costs||(3,537)||||
||||(3,537)|(733)||
|Scarf 2 Subs|||1,595|||
|Scarf 2 Activity Costs||(2,859)||||
||||(2,859)|(1,264)||
|Youth Club Subs|||2,042|||
|Activity Costs||(1,526)||||
||||1,526)|516||
|Drama Subs|||1,602|||
|Activity Costs||(2,768)||||
||||2,768)|(1,167)||
|Feb HalfTerm Subs|||532|||
|Activity Costs||(958)||||
||||(958)|(426)||
|Easter Subs|||822|||
|Activity Costs||(1,250)||||
||||(1,250)|(428)||
|May HalfTerm Subs|||401|||
|Activity Costs||(598)||||
||||(598)|(197)||
|Summer Holiday|Subs||3,782|||
|Activity Costs||(6,577)||||
||||(6,577)|(2,795)||
|Parent Activity Subs|||321|||
|Activity Costs||(462)||||
||||(462)|(141)||
|October HalfTerm Subs|||648|||
|Activity Costs||(1,399)||||
||||(1,399)|(751)||
|Christmas Holiday Subs|||892|||
|Activity Costs||(1,721)||||
||||(1,721)|(829)||
|Christmas Panto|Subs||1,918|||
|Activity Costs|||(3,267)|(1,349)||
|Net Activities Cost|||||(9,564)|
|Overheads||||||
|Wages-Allocated to|Activities||(29,607)|||
|Other Costs|||(3,565)||(33,172)|
|Surplus(Shortfall)fortheperiod1st||Januaryto31stDecember2023|||257<br>—_—|



## Scarf Financial Summary as at 31st December 2023 

|Balance Sheet as at 31st December 2023||||
|---|---|---|---|
|Fixed Assets-Equipment Costs|||307|
|Current Assets||||
|Sundry Debtors|591|||
|Prepayments|1,295|||
|Lloyds Current Account|1,536|||
|Lloyds Deposit Account|66,608|||
|Lloyds Hardship Fund Account|289|||
|Total Current Assets||70,319||
|Current Liabilities||||
|Accounts Payable|(463)|||
|Accruals and Deferred Income|(4,451)|||
|Nest Pension Creditor|(89)|||
|Total Current Liabilities||(5,003)||
||||65,316|
|Net Current Assets||||
||||a|
|Total Assets|||65,623|
|Reserves||||
|Reserves Brought Forward 31st December 2022||65,366||
|Surplus/(Shortfall) for the year ended 31st December 2023||257||
|TotalReserves|||65,623|





## CarolineA Greenhalg 18 Bertram Road, New Milton, Hampshire. BH25 5EG. Tels 079318 74373 

S.C.A.R.F. PO Box 436 Lymington Hampshire SO41 1EN 

24" March 2024 

## Dear Sirs 

RE: Year End Accounts 31 December 2023 

At the request of your Treasurer, Mr G Walker, we have independently reviewed the accounts of SCARF for the year ended 318' December 2023. 

Following appropriate accounting tests applied by us, it is our opinion that the information supplied presents a true and fair picture of the financial position of the organisation at 31‘ December 2023. 

## Yours faithfully 

Caroline Greenhalgh 

Caroline Greenhalgh