2021-01-31-accounts

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Annual Report 2020-2021 The Challenging Behaviour Foundation

Contents Annual Report 2020-2021

Contents
	Page
Foreword from our Chair	3
Report of the Trustees	5
Financial review	38
Structure, governance and management	40
Reference and administrative details	41
Statement of trustees responsibilities	42
Report of the independent auditors	43
Statement of financial activities	47
Balance sheet	48
Cash flow statement	49
Notes to the cash flow statement	50
Notes to the financial statements	51

Foreword from our Chair Annual Report 2020-2021

Foreword from our Chair

Diane Lightfoot

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) was set up by the parent of a child with severe learning disabilities who displayed a range of behaviours described as challenging who struggled to find out about and obtain the right support in the right place at the right time. It is this key aim - to make “the system” work and deliver good outcomes for children, young people, adults, and their families - that continues to drive all our activities.

2020 was an exceptional year with unprecedented and unforeseen challenges for all. For the CBF, this meant an increase in our workloads due to the disproportionately high impact of the pandemic on the lives of disabled children, young people, adults, and their families. At the same time, we had to confront the organisational changes required to enable our staff team and volunteers to work remotely in line with government requirements.

I am pleased to report that the CBF rose to the challenges and continued to provide much needed support, information and advocacy and this is a tribute to the CBF’s commitment and ability to react rapidly and flexibly to changing needs.

The pandemic has further highlighted the significant challenges and inequalities that families with children and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour may challenge face - and when the system shuts down, it is families who provide a safety net and continue to support their relatives.

The individuals that we support require significant care and support, structured activities and typically find managing change difficult. The pandemic resulted in some services closing, altering their provision, and/ or adapting how their support was delivered. This resulted in routines being disrupted and ordinary activities being significantly restricted.

There were many families who had to take on the responsibility to find creative ways to support their relatives to maintain a quality of life often with little or no external support and at significant cost to their own wellbeing.

Foreword from our Chair Annual Report 2020-2021

We know that many families we support feel very isolated and find it difficult to source practical information. This increased during the pandemic with generic guidance issued, usually online only, creating a digital divide and leaving people without tailored information specific to their situations.

Working with and listening to families, the CBF team prioritised developing, producing, and sharing practical information for families as well as increasing capacity in our helpline. In addition, we continued our policy work to ensure that Government officials understood the challenges being faced by families of children and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour may challenge and the need for targeted information, support and adjustment to the pandemic restrictions.

We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who offered support, volunteered and helped in various ways, and who continue to do so. It has been an excellent example of teamwork, flexibility and creativity and we will build on this momentum going forward. We know the impact has been significant and the recovery will present its own challenges over the years to come.

We are also very grateful to our existing funders for their understanding, support, and flexibility during this time as our planned work priorities and projects had to be adjusted.

The CBF team consists of 8 full time and 7 part time staff, including 3 full time Internships, a team of volunteers, a Board of Trustees and number of Trustee advisors. Sincere thanks to them all for their work over the last year and their commitment going forward. There is still much to do and we will continue to target our limited resources to the areas of greatest impact to ensure that children and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour may challenge and their families get the right support in the right place at the right time.

Thank you to everyone who has made a difference.

.............................................

Diane Lightfoot, Chair of Trustees

“ We just want to express our immense gratitude to the CBF for all the support and information updates to us all during this very difficult coronavirus lockdown.

Since I forwarded the updated government guidance to my son’s care provider he has been out for an outing to a local nature reserve to exercise feed the swans and took a flask of coffee which is one of his great joys. It is a small thing but it has lifted his spirits greatly.

– Family Carer

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Report of the Trustees For the year ended 31 January 2021

The Trustees who are also the directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 January 2021. The Trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities’ issued in 2015.

Objectives and activities

Objectives and aims

The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (CBF) exists to improve the quality of life of children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges, and their families.

Our vision is for all children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges, to have the right support and opportunities to live full and active lives.

Our mission is to make a difference to the lives of children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges, and their families by: -

Championing their rights
Ensuring timely information and support
Raising awareness and understanding
Promoting and sharing best practice

We are the only UK charity focussed specifically on the needs of children, young people and adults with a severe learning disability whose behaviours may challenge, their families and those who care for them.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

The NHS estimates that there are between 30,000 and 35,000 people in the UK who have a severe learning disability and are at risk of developing challenging behaviours. A person with a severe learning disability will have little or no speech, find it difficult to learn new skills and need ongoing support to carry out daily activities such as washing and dressing. Challenging behaviour has a formal definition and is a term used to refer to a variety of behaviours which some people with a learning disability may display. These behaviours vary and include aggression, eating inedible objects, severe self-injury or significant obsessive repetition, typically putting the safety of the person or others at risk and/or restricting their access to ordinary life opportunities.

30,000+ in the UK

who have a severe learning disability and are at risk of developing challenging behaviours

Without appropriate support, children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour may challenge find themselves at greater risk of poor healthcare, poor life prospects and at greater risk of abuse. Families often find themselves isolated from their local community, unsupported by local services and separated from their relatives.

Our work focuses on family-led carer support and adopts a Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) approach. PBS is a well-evidenced approach and aims to understand behaviour and its functions for the individual. Through providing tailored support, tools and strategies to overcome the communication barriers, the sensory or other needs of the individual, and by teaching alternative skills, PBS aims to give people the ability to overcome challenges, exercise control and choice and live happily, supported in their local community.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

As the only UK charity focussed specifically on the needs of this group, our objectives are to ensure that with good support each individual can live a happy, active life in their community with access to healthcare, employment, leisure and education, as well as a fulfilling family life. Our focus is enabling children, young people and adults to exercise their rights to participate in ordinary life opportunities through a proper understanding of their behaviour and access to appropriate support.

To meet these objectives, we have prioritised three interconnected main areas of need: ‘information and support’ , ‘strategic influencing’ and ‘sharing best practice’ , as described below in more detail. More information about the work of the charity can be found at:

www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Information and Support

We offer a free, confidential and expert telephone support and casework service. We run email and local peer-to-peer support networks, provide Positive Behaviour Support (PBS) training workshops and a comprehensive library of information guides and resources. All of this aims to equip family and professional carers to understand behaviour that may be described as challenging and empower them to access good quality support. We have worked with families to co-produce a range of training workshops for families, unpaid carers and professionals around PBS, specific behaviours, communication etc. This models a collaborative and consistent approach to supporting individuals with evidence-based strategies, grounded in lived experience. These are delivered jointly by family carers and PBS trainers.

In addition to helping families better understand their relative’s behaviour and secure better support and services, we are also concerned with a carer’s own welfare and the services and support available to them. Family carers of people with learning disabilities often face significant challenges including being listened to by those providing and commissioning care and support. There are barriers to accessing relevant information and legal advice in order to effectively address the issues they and their relative are facing. The CBF addresses these issues through our unique longer-term casework, where we can support families through complex situations over many months.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Strategic Influencing

Our family support work, and families’ lived experience, informs all our strategic influencing and policy work in a complex system, which spans child and adult policy and practice, education, health and social care, regulators and professional bodies. We believe that most can be achieved by working together. We established and chair the influential ‘Challenging Behaviour - National Strategy Group’ (CB-NSG), a unique multistakeholder group whose members include family carers, senior representatives from health, education and social care, government departments, regulators, service providers, clinicians and researchers. The CB-NSG meets regularly to share learning and take forward key projects to increase the evidence base, inform and influence government policy and develop and share best practice around supporting individuals with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges.

We promote and highlight the need for an early intervention approach, to work with, and invest in families as valued partners, and with full and meaningful co-production. In partnership with others, we work to find ways to seek the views and input of children, young people and adults with the most complex needs and share and promote their engagement.

We work collaboratively across the sector to highlight the need to co-ordinate fragmented support and services so that they deliver good outcomes for the people they exist to support. We have developed positive relationships with researchers to amplify the voice of families of individuals with severe learning disabilities in research, and support families to input to national policy making and service development, to push forward the agenda for better local provision, with enhanced skills and training for support workers and paid carers.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Sharing best practice

Best practice provides evidence that it is entirely possible to deliver the right support in the right place at the right time. Sharing, modelling and actively promoting best practice on the ground runs through all our work. We do this through our family support casework and resources, strategic influencing work and family carer and professional email networks, as well as through specific projects involving local authorities, government departments and other partners.

We believe it is crucial that our three strands of work are interconnected and inform each other. For example, what families tell us when asking for support is fed into our strategic influencing work to ensure the lived experiences of families are reflected accurately in projects we input to, and that learning from all stakeholders is shared to improve experiences and understanding for all.

In planning and reviewing the charity’s activities to meet these objectives, the Trustees have taken account of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit . The CBF delivers public benefit by providing information and support to families and professionals caring for and supporting children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges. All our information and support is provided free of charge to family carers. We also work to improve the understanding of challenging behaviour amongst professionals and the wider public, helping others to provide better services and more opportunities.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Achievements and Performance

Supporting parents of children who display ‘challenging behaviour’, this is one of the most impressive small charities “ in the country. – Paul Streets, Chief Executive Lloyds Bank Foundation The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The onset of the pandemic and subsequent restrictions required the whole team to move to remote working at pace. The whole CBF staff team, including Trustees and volunteers, worked hard to respond to the changing situation quickly and efficiently, ensuring that our services could continue to be delivered with minimal disruption to families who needed our support.

The pandemic has highlighted the existing inequalities within society, including within this marginalised client group, this includes inequalities in access to online resources and information. We have therefore prioritised ensuring that hard copies of information and newsletters have been proactively posted to families and have encouraged other organisations to do the same.

The families we support are a marginalised community facing numerous barriers, often isolated within their local community with little opportunity to connect with their peers. The pandemic has exacerbated an already complex environment for our client group. This meant we needed to maintain our existing support as well as respond to the increase in contact with our family support service. We also developed new and specifically tailored resources about the changing emergency measures. “

We are very grateful to our current grant funders for their additional financial support and flexibility around existing projects which enabled us to swiftly adapt to the new arrangements and increased demand, enabling us to re-prioritise and re-arrange delivery of our work.

In addition, we were able to secure emergency COVID-19 funding, working collaboratively with other voluntary sector partners to respond to the increased challenges faced by children, young people and adults, and their families during the pandemic.

I felt hugely supported for the hospital appointments being made and brought forward. To be heard and understood for the need of an OT Assessment for adaptations to bathroom and creating safe space at home for the vulnerable young person who has challenging behaviours.

– Family Carer

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Information and support

When the first lockdown was announced in March, CBF staff focussed on developing and providing information resources for families to help them in all aspects of the new normal. This included information on how to navigate through the new restrictions as well as practical activities to enable them to cope with the closure of their usual support and services. We have now developed dedicated webpages for COVID-19 information with 20 new information sheets/ guides and 18 legal FAQ’s which have received positive feedback from families and professionals.

We have also produced information covering the subsequent lockdowns, restrictions and guidance, for example ‘wearing a facemask’ and ‘returning to school’. We anticipate the need for further resource development and updates as guidance changes and lockdown eases.

During the pandemic, significant work was undertaken to ensure all of our resources were

I love this network, and the CBF. What a gift! My son has autism, but that isn’t really a problem to me! It’s the behaviours that challenge that I want advice and guidance with and this network is perfect. It is really encouraging to hear from parents whose children are now in their 20s and 30s and the parents are now real pros at this.[“] – Family Carer

as accessible as possible including making our DVD resources available online. In addition, 3 printed newsletters have been produced and posted to provide relevant, practical, and accessible information about the pandemic specifically tailored to our client group.

Emergency funding allowed us to temporarily increase our capacity in family support as there had been a significant increase in numbers and complexities of enquiries. Our family support service has responded to 1219 queries through our support line, email and website this year which is a 59% increase. We had 27k resources downloaded from our website which is an increase of 74%. The large amount of information available on our website ensures that the families we support have 24-hour access to information around the key issues that impact on their lives. Our family carer review panel and professional volunteers help us to review and update our resources, to ensure they are current and helpful.

“ As a parent I have found your organisation invaluable in offering the sort of help parents need. You understand the challenges parents face and the lifelong uphill struggle to improve the lives of our children and adults with Severe Learning Disabilities.

Huge thanks.

– Family Carer

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

As part of our response to the pandemic, we have been piloting a new ‘triage’ role within the Family Support Team. This role is the first point of contact for families looking for support by telephone and email, answering general enquiries or prioritising and escalating queries to the family support caseworkers. This role has been very successful during the pandemic with the increase in enquiries to the team and we have secured funding for a further year.

56 requests

Number of requests for individual support requiring casework

6 months

Average number of months supporting families with casework

We have continued to respond to a high number of families coming to us with complex situations requiring significant support and casework. During the year we have supported 56 requests for individual support requiring casework. We support families with a range of issues including managing specific behaviours, accessing services and support to meet their relative’s needs and maintaining contact with family members in care. Most significantly, this work supports families through times of change and transition, such as moving from child to adult services or moving between services. Sadly, these situations often relate to safeguarding issues, lack of appropriate support, poor placements or placement breakdowns and unrecognised health concerns. Families approaching us with these multiple complex issues often require intensive casework over a long period. The average period of support is six months with some families returning over many years for further support as new issues emerge.

Many thanks to CBF for comprehensive answers to many “ questions. Not sure how we shall get through the unprecedented times, but it’s good to know we have allies and friends who understand and live out our predicaments.

- Family carer

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

With the support of Lloyds Bank Foundation, we have recruited and trained seven new Local Champions. We now have a network of 37 volunteers who help support families across the country and share their experiences with local families and key professional groups. Due to the pandemic, we have equipped Local Champions with IT equipment and licences to ensure their work with families can continue virtually. We have set up ‘carer catch-ups’ to provide peer-to-peer support in an informal and relaxed setting and these have been positively received and will continue as part of our range of flexible support offers to family carers.

400 family carer members

Number of family carer members who have joined our email network

We are most grateful for the support of our Legal Panel whose members, providing input on a voluntary basis, have played a vital role in enabling families to access legal advice and support to take appropriate action. During the year we have referred a number of families to the panel. They received the specialist legal support required to take their issues forward or were given support specific to their circumstances. See page 20 for further information about the work of the Legal Panel.

37 volunteers

Number of Local Champion Volunteers

Our email network now has around 400 family carer members and has been used frequently during the pandemic. This forum enables families to ask one another questions and seek support around issues impacting their daily life, support package or relative’s behaviour that might be described as challenging. This peer-to-peer support is valued by our members for its emotional and practical support and encouragement through lived experience. Families also can ask questions via our professional email network, a network of over 520 practitioners from across the health, education and social care sectors who also use this forum to share information, learning and asking their peers questions to support their work and disseminate good practice. 14

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Quick Response Behaviour Chats

The COVID-19 pandemic saw a significant increase in families contacting us with concerns around changes in their family members behaviour. We had offers of support from various professionals who wanted to volunteer their time and expertise to help support families at this time so as part of our response, we set up a new, quick response support service called ‘behaviour chats’.

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Quick Read Quick read Challenging Behaviour GuideQuick read Challenging Behaviour Guide
Challenging
BehWhat can you do when behaviour becomes challenging? Recognise the early warning signs of the behaviour (when your family member becomes anxious) and think about how to respond when you see these. Knowing what helps them maintain their baseline or keep them calm/content means you can offer those things they like. What can you do when behaviour becomes challenging? Recognise the early warning signs of the behaviour (when your family member becomes anxious) and think about how to respond when you see these. Knowing what helps them maintain their baseline or keep them calm/content means you can offer those things they like. viour GuideThese are ‘active’ or ‘Amber’ strategies. Some examples are: These are ‘active’ or ‘Amber’ strategies. Some examples are: Divert or distract Use body gestures/signs Divert or distract Use body gestures/signs Giving the child or adult what they need Withdrawal from the situation Giving the child or adult what they need Withdrawal from the situation
Always have a stack of prepared activities, distractions or diversions and use these to help calm the situation.Always have a stack of prepared activities, distractions or diversions and use these to help calm the situation. If safe, not responding to, or ‘ignoring’ the behaviour If safe, not responding to, or ‘ignoring’ the behaviour Stay as calm as possible Stay as calm as possible
Jump to:
This quick read challenging behaviour guide gives tips and strategies to help you and your family member during a period of ew or increased challenging behaviour. It will give you a quick start to using PosiSupport principles to reduce challenging behaviour. In reality there will be times when your best efforts cannot prevent a crisis, so there are also tips to plan how to respond. Pain and illness Always consider if your family member is in pain, discomfort or is ill. This may i●●●●● Pain and illness Always consider if your family member is in pain, discomfort or is ill. This may include such things as:●●●●● Ear infectionsUrinary tract infectionsConstipation/bowel problemsEpilepsyDental problemsEar infectionsUrinary tract infectionsConsEpilepsyDental problems nti clude such things as:pation/bowel problemsve Behaviour ●●●● What is Behaviour that Challenges?What can you do to reduce the likelihood of it happening?Ways to help the child, young person or adult stay happy and calmWhat can you do when behaviour becomes challenging?What can you do if the behaviour is happening or about to happen?What can you do after the behaviour? ●●●● Sensory needs Eyesight Pica (has the child or adult swallowed something inedible?)Side effects of medicationSensory needs Eyesight Pica (has the child or adult swallowed something inedible?)Side effects of medication If you think they could be unwell, contact their GP or call 111. Despite your best efforts, there will be occasions when a crisis incident does happen. This is not a sign of failure – new experiences happen, things change that you cannot control or have anticipated BUT it is important you plan for any such incident. If you think they could be unwell, contact their GP or call 111. Despite your best efforts, there will be occasions when a crisis incident does happen. This is not a sign of failure – new experiences happen, things change that you cannot control or have anticipated BUT it is important you plan for any such incident. 155
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We co-developed and co-produced a practical and comprehensive 8-page quick read challenging behaviour guide giving tips and strategies to help family carers care for their family member during a period of new or increased challenging behaviour. This guide is a resource to quickly provide positive behaviour information to families whilst they wait to attend a behaviour chat or speak with a family support worker. The guide is available online and could be posted to families individually. We sent out over 4300 guides with our newsletter to families and professionals and shared with over 10,000 people on social media. This guide will remain on our website for anyone to access Quick Read Challenging Behaviour Guide.

Quick Reach Challenging Behaviour Guide

“ Thanks for yesterday and the information sent, we found it very helpful.

We recruited volunteer experts (qualified professionals) who offered to help CBF support families during the pandemic and gave up their time to attend the behaviour clinics for free. We joined the behaviour specialists with a (CBF) trained family carer and developed a model of support which was an hour long zoom call with a follow up call from CBF. We set up a robust online process for booking behaviour specialists and trained family carers to appropriate virtual clinics offered at a range of days and times to make it easier for participating family carers to attend. We developed database functionality to facilitate the booking process and created new webforms for family carers who can access online. We worked with families to ensure they are familiar with the technology to access the chat, so they do not waste time with IT issues during the call with the clinicians. Follow up calls enabled individual support and further exploration of concerns, signposting and a friendly “ear”.

Thank you so much Thank you so much it was good to talk for all your support with everyone. and advice.

– Family carer

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Common themes from the sessions

Family carers are magnificent – strong, capable, articulate, resilient and caring.
Families are isolated – geographically and emotionally.
Blamed for the challenging behaviour their child, young person, or adult displays – either told poor parents or this doesn’t happen in school.
Lack of partnership working between specialist schools and families – consistency not there, lack of understanding from school staff about home environment, transition and families living 24/7 with the additional difficulties of raising a family, maintaining relationships, siblings and working.
Considerable reduction in usual services during COVID crisis – either withdrawn or reduced significantly. Families having to cope on their own.
CAMHS, CLDT stating they could not help as the person’s challenging behaviour too difficult for them.
Lack of awareness of right for every child over 14 with a learning disability to have an annual health check.
Lack of awareness of Carers Assessment.

Families have been grateful for the lifeline these sessions have thrown them – to talk, share, not be judged, access peer support and be signposted to appropriate services. “ After your phone call yesterday, I was in a much better place and felt confident and strong to start fighting for my Son and what was right. Also, the documents, which I am still reading through, gave me energy to continue.

- Family carer

We have collaborated with a range of organisations to provide information and resources to families, including working with Learning disability England on a Learning Disability Nurse resources information sheet. In addition, we set up a collaborative initiative of Frontline Families working with other grass roots, family carer led groups to co-ordinate a range of options available to families.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

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Online workshops
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Workshops

Early last year, it was clear that face to face workshops were not going to be possible or practical. We therefore postponed any booked workshops and worked to develop and adapt the content to be delivered on a virtual platform. Workshops are now being delivered successfully online and this has created new opportunities for remote delivery and increased accessibility for some. During the year we delivered 18 workshops to family carers and a wide range of professionals. These virtual workshops bring family carers and professional support staff together to develop a shared language and understanding around developing and co-producing a positive behaviour support plan for the person they are supporting.

In response to demand, we have co-produced a specific workshop on Pica, a behaviour involving eating inedible objects. A core group of family carer and professional trainers have co-produced and will co-deliver this new content which has been piloted and will be available in the coming year.

Strategic Influencing

As a small organisation we can achieve much more by specifically informing and encouraging individuals and organisations in positions of power and influence to raise their understanding and awareness of the issues individuals and families face, and to influence their activity. We aim to promote collaboration to drive progress.

The three strands of our work are inextricably linked and closely aligned. In practice our family carer experiences steer our influencing work. For example, sadly, we continue to be contacted by families experiencing ongoing abuse impacting people with a learning disability, also highlighted in several high-profile media investigations. We continue to raise concerns and challenges to a range of senior individuals and organisations both at a local level and nationally.

We have also raised numerous challenges to officials asking why there is investment in models of support that conflict with national policy and best practice and are in direct opposition to the aims of the Transforming Care programme. We continue to highlight the plans to build a new large institution for people with a learning disability on a remote site and funded by Government, as we see this as a significant threat to the reduction in dependency on hospital services rather than

investing in community support.

“ Some of the most thoughtful and evidence based work I have seen has originated from or been heavily influenced by CBF, I hope you realise just how much you have helped achieve in this space.

– Senior National Stakeholder

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Challenging Behaviour National Strategy Group (CB-NSG)

We are very grateful to the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation for their continued support and funding towards the National Strategy Group and its work. The CB-NSG includes representatives from professional bodies, networks, charities and the government alongside family carers, people with LD and researchers. It is based on the principle that if all the individuals and organisations who have a role to play in supporting this group work together in a coherent and coordinated way it will deliver better outcomes.

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90 core members
and 600 associate members
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There are currently over 90 core CB-NSG members who have significant knowledge and expertise, and a senior level role in supporting and delivering services to people with LD and over 600 associate members who commit to working following the values and principles of the Challenging Behaviour Charter. The group also has four sub-groups made up of members and co-ordinated by the CBF:

Campaigns
Legal Panel
Positive Behaviour Support

Two CB-NSG meetings, with multi-stakeholder members, have taken place this year, one face to face early in the year, and one virtually. CB-NSG members have all signed up to the Challenging Behaviour Charter, a co-produced rights and action framework to deliver the right support in the right place at the right time. The first meeting focussed on good outcomes for people with learning disabilities entitled ‘Good Outcomes – Good Life’. One attendee wrote on their

evaluation form: “ I expected the day to be informative. But I was not prepared for how important it was for me personally as a family carer to feel so supported and heard. Great, Moved.

– Family Carer

A range of presentations were delivered, including from a family carer on the support package she has developed for her son, a senior official from the Department of Health and Social Care on Transforming Care figures; and the Director of Transforming Care from NHS England who updated the group on progress towards the development of regional expertise since the last meeting. Actions from the workshops included bringing together support workers and family carers in partnership to deliver good outcomes for people with learning disabilities and autistic people and identifying essential changes to the Mental Health Act to avoid its inappropriate use.

Transforming Care Data Set

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

The second meeting of the year focussed on delivering good outcomes for people with learning disabilities in a post COVID-19 ‘new normal’. The meeting was delivered virtually considering the impact of the pandemic and what should and should not be taken forward to retain any positive changes in the ‘new normal’. The meeting began with a pre-recorded presentation from a family carer sharing their lived experience, and throughout the day presentations were delivered on various topics, including; Trauma, the External Support Group specialist input to local areas, Medication and training for regulators in Positive Behaviour Support for their inspectors.

We continue to be very grateful for support from the National Lottery Community Fund. Their funding has enabled us to take forward several actions identified at CB-NSG meetings. This includes linking up support workers and family carers to work in partnership, overcome barriers and improve outcomes for individuals with learning disabilities. The funding was also used for designing and facilitating consultation opportunities from a range of stakeholders for the formal Mental Health Act White Paper consultation as this is an important opportunity to achieve a much needed legislative change.

“ Just a quick note to give you and the team a pat on the back. They say you should do something scary every day and I bet trying to do your conference by zoom was scary. You probably had enough scariness to last you all month but I thought it went really well and I found the day very instructive.

– Professional

Campaigns Sub-group

Over the last year, the Campaign subgroup’s work has closely aligned with the Data Group, raising awareness of issues including the rate of COVID-19 deaths among people with learning disabilities, challenging unfair restrictions and prioritisation for the vaccine. The campaign subgroup will help co-ordinate top-line views and key calls for several consultations and inquiries in 2021 including the Mental Health Act White paper and an inquiry by the Health and Social Care Committee (HSCC) into the treatment of people who are autistic and/or have learning disabilities. It will also begin work preparing for the 10-year anniversary of Winterbourne View which is on 31st May 2021, working to support a group of families whose relatives were at Winterbourne View Hospital, with plans to publish a report of family’s stories and create a video.

Campaign Families

Over the past year the Campaign families played a crucial part in all the work outlined above. It is hoped they will continue to share their lived experiences and learning from these in the upcoming year which will inform the work on the Mental Health Act White paper and the HSCC inquiry. They, along with other CBF and Mencap families will work together to plan and input to the campaign work on the 10-year anniversary of the Winterbourne abuse scandal.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Legal Panel Sub-group

It was identified during this meeting that families do not have access to a single, accessible space within which they can find a range of legal resources and information. As a result, the CBF recruited a volunteer who has helped to compile a ‘legal resources directory’, with input by panel members. This directory is being prepared for publication on the new CBF website and will be updated regularly.

Several years ago, we established, and we continue to maintain, a legal panel consisting of specialist lawyers and barristers who provide pro-bono information and support to families who contact our family support service. The aim is to ensure free initial access to timely specialist legal advice.

We continued to take forward the strategic legal work identified by our legal panel and built on our collaborative working relationship with key experts in the legal field. We recruited more partners to promote a joined-up approach to enable easier access for families to legal support and information, as we are mindful of the reluctance of many families to instruct lawyers fearing it results in an adversarial approach. The work of this panel increased significantly due to the coronavirus restrictions with regular (fortnightly) meetings of the panel and new lawyers and barristers requesting to join the panel. A series of legal Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ’s) submitted by families were developed and shared widely.

Over the course of the pandemic, the legal panel increased their support to families. They met regularly ensuring that families had access to timely support on urgent issues. Questions received by CBF Family Support are triaged and allocated to panel members, with responses uploaded as FAQs on our website so they are widely shared and available:

Visit our COVID-19 resources

In addition, panel members have worked together to consider and address key areas of legal challenge both related to the inequalities for people with learning disabilities which have arisen during the pandemic and the ongoing inequalities due to failures in Transforming Care.

In November 2020 the CBF held the second legal strategy meeting, building on the meeting held in September 2019 to discuss a range of strategic legal issues with a diverse group of attendees. The meeting discussed the Mental Health Act, the Care Act, and the legal panel, to identify where collaborative action could be launched to improve outcomes for families across these topics. A number of actions were identified to inform and develop a legal strategy. I have found all your “ resources and advice Thanks for the CBF really useful during guidance and help lockdown and passed over COVID - brilliant on many of them to my stuff! sons residential home.

It does highlight how difficult the situation is and I have forwarded the advice to the school in question, many thanks, wonderful service.

– Professional

– Family carer

– Professional

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

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Positive Behaviour Support Sub-group

Work is being undertaken to re-orientate the PBS Subgroup as a collaborative Research subgroup. This group will link together some key research initiatives with CB-NSG member involvement including the PBS academy, SF-DDARIN and the Tizard Centre.

Transforming Care Data Set Sub-group

The group has focussed on the health inequalities exposed by the pandemic including contributing to the research advocating for people with learning disabilities to be added to the vaccination priority list. It will continue to monitor this issue and the uptake of the vaccine by people with learning disabilities.

Group members have also continued to look at the wider issues in the Transforming Care data, particularly focusing on data around restrictive practices and further breakdown of the data for local areas. The data group submitted a collective response to the Assuring Transformation data set consultation and aims to make links with key stakeholders to highlight gaps in data collection and analysis and work with them to address this.

New Normal

The sudden changes to support and services enforced during the pandemic provided potential opportunities to deliver support and services differently and more flexibly. The CBF initiated discussions with others about capturing the learning for how those changes impacted on this client group to provide evidence of changes that were positive and could be maintained within a “new normal”. The CBF collaborated with The Tizard Centre (University of Kent) and SF-DDARIN (an academic research network) on a ‘New Normal’ project gathering information about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on individuals with severe learning disabilities and their families. The project has had two strands. As part of the first strand, a series of interviews with family carers were carried out based on a methodology developed between CBF and the Tizard Centre. Ethical approval from the Tizard Centre has been gained, meaning the findings can eventually be submitted for academic publication contributing to our evidence-based practice work.

As part of strand two, CBF investigated the challenges that families and organisations faced throughout the pandemic. Identifying how services, support and work practices have been adapted to meet these challenges, and which adaptations or innovations should be carried forward, will be included as recommendations of best practice and shared widely. Findings from a survey of family carers and professionals and from workshops held at the CB-NSG meeting have been written up into reports including recommendations to ensure support and services for children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities and their families are improved going forward. The reports are receiving final input from CB-NSG Steering Group members and will be published in early 2021.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Seldom Heard Project

The views and experiences of children and adults with severe learning disabilities are often disregarded as they are unable to attend or use traditional methods such as focus groups or surveys – but it is important that we adapt our approach to enable their views to be captured. In recognition of the need to get better at seeking the views of children and adults with learning disabilities and more complex communication challenges, NHS England has funded the Seldom Heard project which builds on existing good practice around listening to and involving people with severe and profound learning disabilities. The initial plan, pre COVID-19, was for our researchers to visit individuals where they live to get to know them and seek their views and perspectives in person, using the emerging methodology set out in “Stop, Look and Listen to Me”.

The project is being led by CBF in partnership with the Tizard Centre, University of Kent and supported by an active advisory group of family carers and organisations. Our shared aim is to take on board the views of those who are seldom heard, with the ambition that one day they will be routinely heard by all those who have an impact on their lives.

The project began in early 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic, so the original plan to engage directly with 14 individuals where they live had to be significantly revised to be delivered remotely. The advisory group agreed that the best way to do this would be by working with “communication partners” – family carers or staff members who know the individual well and can work in partnership with our researchers to find new ways to seek views, building on what they already have in place. Significant changes were therefore made to the delivery methodology to ensure the project outcomes were achieved. The findings and recommendations will be available later in 2021.

We will continue to develop our work on engagement with children, young people and adults with complex needs to find innovative ways to seek their views, and to demonstrate that it is possible to consult with them in a meaningful way. At the same time, we will take every opportunity, in our own work and the work of other organisations, to ensure that families of children, young people and adults with complex needs can share their lived experience to drive forward change.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Learning Disability Nursing Project

In February 2020, the CBF was commissioned to produce a report sharing family carers’ experiences of learning disability (LD) nursing including good and poor practice examples and providing recommendations for future working. We recruited a family carer advisory group and coproduced a survey of family carer’s experiences of LD nursing. We also held workshops with family carers which found families lack awareness of how an LD nurse could help them, and that - if better informed – could result in utilising them as a resource for improved outcomes when accessing healthcare services.

In December 2020, the CBF presented at the Annual Learning Disability Nursing Symposium, codelivering a presentation with a family carer on the CBF’s LD Nursing resource, created as a result of the project.

We will now collect case studies of where and when LD nursing has made a real difference to families and co-develop a training package for LD nurses based around these examples of action by LD nurses impacting on outcomes.

Reducing Restrictive Interventions and Safeguarding Children (RRISC)

The Reducing Restrictive Interventions and Safeguarding Children (RRISC) group have continued to meet. In February 2020 the CBF and Positive and Active Behaviour Support Scotland (PABSS) launched a joint report at an event hosted by Baroness Hollins at the House of Lords. This updated the 2019 report sharing family carers’ accounts of their children’s experiences of restrictive intervention. At the event attendees including RRISC group members, law firms, national charities, education and health representatives made pledges to reduce restrictive intervention through specific actions.

The group met again virtually in September 2020. An official from the Department for Education joined the meeting to hear views on the behaviour content of Government Guidance during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was agreed that a survey of families’ experiences of education and restrictive interventions in the pandemic should be conducted. We designed and shared two surveys, one for families and one for schools, to gather evidence about restrictive interventions in schools, during the first lockdown and when all children returned in the autumn term. The results were analysed and presented at the January 2021 RRISC meeting and will be written into a full report which will be available later in the year.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Institute of Health Visiting Project

Health Visitors provide early support to families of children with disabilities, and it is important that they are well informed about the functions of behaviour and its impact.

As a direct result of the RRISC report (see previous section), the CBF was approached by the Institute of Health Visiting (iHV) to partner in a project which aims to safeguard the rights of young children with disabilities to appropriate care, using the least restrictive approach, raising awareness for health visitors to promote best practice with families.

We are on the project steering group and were commissioned to conduct a survey and focus group of family carers as part of this work. 113 family carers responded to the online survey, followed by a virtual focus group. The findings and recommendations of both were presented to the steering group and written up into two full reports ready for publishing later this year. The findings and recommendations from the reports and the workshop will inform the development of training materials and resources, including an animation, PBS training, a parent carer account of the early years, and presentations on trauma, restrictive interventions and challenging behaviour. These will be shared in a series of workshops for Health Visitors later this year.

The External Support Group (ESG)

The CBF has worked hard to try to influence the Transforming Care programme and activitiesbut this has not been as successful as hoped. Therefore, a different approach has been initiated - recruiting a group of senior clinicians and professionals with significant expertise - and asking them to identify actions that will make a difference. This group, the External Support Group (ESG) brings together a number of individuals with significant practical experience in supporting people with complex needs in community settings, including developing individualised packages of support and maintaining that support to provide good outcomes for individuals. Areas of expertise in the group include experience in clinical/ medical practice; commissioning; inspection and regulation; research and evidence; advocacy; the third sector; family support. The ESG members worked together (unfunded) to develop a model of support that was evidence based and outcomes focussed. The ESG will work with local areas to help improve the quality of life and care provision for individuals inappropriately ‘stuck’ in hospital placements as well as influence systematic change and improve practice in the long term. This approach was carefully designed to improve the lives of individuals and provide supportive input and expertise to local teams as well as identifying and addressing issues within the system that are barriers to driving change.

Three members of the group have been providing local support to an area at the urgent request of NHS England. Though the group was not designed to intervene at crisis point, it was agreed that their help would be valuable in this instance, and it was also an opportunity for the group to test some features of its model. We hope to secure funding to test out the model of support through “proof of concept” funding and are exploring this through various channels.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

STOMP/STAMP

The STOMP (Stopping Over-Medication of People with a Learning Disability, Autism or Both) STAMP (Supporting Treatment and Appropriate Medication in Paediatrics) programmes are initiatives within NHS England to try to address the issues around medication. We have been raising these issues for many years due to the impact on the families we support, including meetings with several senior government officials. Three influential reports were then published which led to the STOMP/STAMP programme.

We received funding from NHS England for a project called “STOMP- The Next Steps”, to assess what progress has been made in the implementation of STOMP/STAMP and what needs to be done to ensure full adoption of the programme, including a review of all the current materials and resources available and development and delivery of a promotion and dissemination plan. Workshops with family carers were held in February and followed by a STOMP presentation (delivered by a family carer) and group discussion at the October 2020 CB-NSG.

Over the year we have also been working in collaboration with MindEd, who are producing 6 e-learning sessions on STOMP in a project beginning now and finishing at the end of this year. These resources are being developed with input from family carers recruited and facilitated by the CBF (see page 28).

Trauma Support

The CBF was commissioned, in partnership with Respond, The Tizard Centre, and Three Cs to look at the need for trauma support for the family carers of children and adults with learning disabilities and/or autism. The CBF set up an advisory group of family carers with lived experience to co-design a survey to gather the views and experiences of family carers and to input into the whole project (which was made up of three interconnected strands of work).

The co-produced report of the findings from the CBF survey (strand 1 of the project) is called ‘Broken’: The psychological trauma suffered by family carers of children and adults with autism and/ or a learning disability and the support required. The CBF report contains three key recommendations for education, health and social care, and other professional learning disability bodies: 1) do not traumatize families in the first place; 2) when trauma happens there needs to be a pathway to support in place; and 3) act now to help the families who have already been traumatised and will have an immediate need due to the pandemic. This report was shared with CBNSG members in October 2020 and is published on the CBF website.

The report of the whole project has been finalised and is awaiting sign off. In the meantime, we have been commissioned to work with the collaborative partners again to undertake a follow-up piece of work using our initial findings to develop trauma training resources for a range of stakeholders including commissioners and NHS England LD Regional Leads. This is due to be completed in 2021.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Internships at the CBF

This year we have been able to offer 3 internships at the CBF. We have now had 26 paid internships since 2011 covering Family Support, Policy, Research and Communications. Each internship is for one year and provides valuable experience in learning disability, working with a range of professionals in the field and gives insight into the experience of family carers. “ If you have an interest in a dynamic, fast paced, exciting internship then do it. It’s an incredibly supportive, kind and generous team, they will help you maximise your time here.

- CBF intern

Previous CBF interns have gone on to:

Policy and communications roles in the voluntary and public sector
Practitioner roles such as: social work, learning disability and mental health nursing and special needs teaching
Further study at Masters and PhD level in related fields

Sharing Best Practice

The principle of sharing and actively promoting best practice runs through all aspects of our work. We share and promote best practice through our family support work, including casework and resources, and our national influencing work, including disseminating information via the CB-NSG, its core and associate members, our family carer and professional email networks as well as our specific networks e.g. Paving the Way network that focusses on children and young people.

We are invited by researchers to contribute to a range of research projects which vary from recruiting members to advisory or reference groups to Public and Patient Involvement (PPI) led facilitating focus groups with family carers to gather their input to the research and its dissemination.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Getting It Right Project

Using funding from The National Lottery Community Fund for a three-year project working across England, we built on our previous work and experience of local area and national strategic work. This year we worked with West Sussex to gather the views of families of children and young people with learning disabilities on existing local support and services and their hopes for the future. We also provided virtual positive behaviour support training to local family carers. In December we brought West Sussex professionals, third sector organisations and families together to reflect on the project findings and identify short and long-term actions to improve support for children and young people with learning disabilities and their families going forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown meant we had to adjust the format and timing of activities delivered in West Sussex. Families attended two in-person focus groups before March, but then steering group meetings, positive behaviour support training and the stakeholder engagement event were held virtually. This made engagement easier for some families (no travel/ reduced time commitment) but technology and ‘zoom fatigue’ also created a barrier to access/ engagement for others.

The Black Country has been recruited to partner with us in year 2 where the focus will be on transition, including young people up to the age of 25. The West Sussex local steering group are preparing to share learning from year 1 with the Black Country and more widely at the next Challenging Behaviour National Strategy Group meeting in May 2021.

This project provides an opportunity to increase our reach through additional capacity for communications and sharing best practice.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Input to Research Projects

In line with our aim of sharing family lived experiences and building up evidence to inform our strategic influencing work, we have continued to support and shape a variety of research applications and funded projects with a wide range of academics and researchers. We have provided input to steering and advisory groups and supported paid family carer participation in consultation and focus groups, including translating research findings into practice. During the year we have supported a number of research projects in this way covering diverse areas including: how to best identify children at risk of developing challenging behaviour, testing adapted therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder in people with a learning disability, developing training for families and understanding of withdrawal programmes to support the prevention of over-medication of people with a learning disability, and a range of projects looking at the gaps in evidence for service development and delivery and the engagement of carers in the research process.

We continue to encourage and support families to contribute to consultations and calls for evidence so that their experience and views are heard and included in any response that the CBF submits. We have responded to a range of consultations/calls for evidence with input from families to highlight the issues for children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges and their families.

Tizard/ CBF Family Carer Research Alliance

The Tizard/ CBF Family Carer Research Alliance is a group of family carers and researchers working together to increase and improve co-production in research. Activities have included a workshop at the CB-NSG where a promotional video was launched. A workshop was led by members of the group to gain input to the work of the alliance. Other work included discussions with Project Artworks in Sussex about future research and engaging with the Research Alliance group.

The research alliance has selected 5 recent research publications and summarized them in an accessible format for family carers. The first research newsletter is in its final stages of review and publication is planned for this year.

Due to the pandemic, and the subsequent increase on their family caring responsibilities, the group has paused this work. We are exploring funding options to enable it to continue.

MindEd

We have continued to support the Health Education England mental health e-learning platform, MindEd with developing learning disability training for health and social care professionals. Following a survey of family carers by the CBF in Spring 2019, MindEd received funding to produce a set of six e-learning sessions on STOMP. We have supported 6 family carers as coauthors who have worked with professionals to develop the e-learning sessions, scheduled to go live in June 2021.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

New Website

We are very grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund who have enabled us to develop a new website as part of the Getting It Right Project, to reach more families and provide them with practical information and support. Developing a new website requires a significant allocation of time and resource to ensure that it is constructed in a way that is useful and accessible. We set up an advisory group including family carers and professionals to oversee and steer the whole process to ensure the website would be both practical and useful. All CBF material was reviewed prior to being transferred to the new site. The new website will be more accessible and include updated information with more videos and visual content to help engage people further. The new website was launched late Spring 2021.

Visit www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

We continued to produce 3 electronic newsletters during the year. We applied for and were successful in securing emergency funding during the pandemic to also produce hard copies to ensure families without access to the internet or printed copies were not left out. These editions were focussed on support during the pandemic. We will continue to seek funding and partnership opportunities for hard copies to be sent out in the future.

Social Media

We continue to use our social media platforms to share good practice information and practical resources. All our social media platforms have all seen an increase in followers this year allowing us to reach more people.

“ Thank you for your continued hard copies of your newsletter, which you have regularly sent out to me over several years. As a nurse for people who have a learning disability, I have continued to be very impressed by the material that you print and make available and for the enormous support you give and campaigning you do for people with learning disabilities and their families.

Thank you. It really does help people to feel better supported and informed, including those who work in this field and ultimately to make a massive difference to people’s lives.

– Learning Disability Nurse

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Our plans for the coming year

Whilst compiling this report, we have been living through a pandemic and the COVID-19 restrictions which has had a significant impact, and which is covered separately below.

The pandemic has inevitably impacted our planned work and its delivery, and there remain some uncertainties beyond our control as we emerge from the lockdowns and restrictions. When Government guidance allows, we will plan a phased return to the CBF office for our staff. We plan to recruit 3 interns in the coming year- funding has been secured and these roles have proved effective and good value for money.

We have no plans to increase our core staff team – if and when more capacity is required we intend to utilise consultants who have been through our core training, to enable flexibility without long term financial commitment - we anticipate that funding challenges will emerge as the pandemic costs are repaid. Trustees are mindful of potential future financial risks and plan accordingly, including building reserves and investment in additional fundraising capacity.

Our core aim is to ensure that “the system” and society enable individuals with severe learning disabilities, and their families, to receive the right support in the right place at the right time. Our approach and all of our work is carefully planned and thought through with regular reviews, and in the coming year we will continue to focus on our three key interconnected areas of work (information and support, strategic influencing and sharing best practice).

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Information and support

We plan to continue to ensure our family support and information service is maintained and provides high quality independent expertise and advocacy for families in need. The families we support are often in very complex situations, navigating through a complex education health and care system, and they experience marginalisation and exclusion. Families clearly describe “the fight” for the support and services they need, and their experiences of discrimination and basic human rights being ignored.

A key challenge in the coming year will be to ensure children and adults with a learning disability who display behaviour that challenges and their family carers, are supported through the impacts of COVID-19 and the restrictions imposed as a result. This will add an additional layer of challenge, complexity and concern to their daily lives. We are planning now for our response for this group who are likely to be adversely impacted. We are mindful that demand for our support is already high, so this will require increasing our capacity, providing support in even more complex situations and developing new resources and online forms of support and information.

The new Triage Officer role will be evaluated to assess its impact on the efficient running of the family support service and making best use of our experienced caseworker’s time and expertise. Funds generously provided by The Lloyds Bank Foundation, The Sobell Foundation and Garfield Weston Foundation for our family support helpline and casework are vital to enable this work to continue, and some multi-year funding is coming to an end. We will prioritise seeking further funding to ensure we can maintain and develop the support and information we provide for families who are often in crisis.

We will explore setting up a new peer support ‘Facebook’ group to offer families the option of different forms of peer interaction and communications. This will run alongside the existing ‘Family Carer Email Network’ to cater for the differently-technologically-suited groups of families who would both benefit from having access to online interaction and peer support. While the Family Carer Email Network works well for many families, a feedback survey we produced found that many in the network felt they would benefit from having access to a convenient and active Facebook group. Such a group will also bring some benefits for the CBF – such as easy dissemination of polls – however it will operate largely separate from the CBF, being run by family carer volunteer moderators (trained and supported by CBF).

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

We will review the diversity of the families who use the CBF’s information and support service and work to increase inclusion for a broad range of families, particularly those from ‘hard to reach’ communities. We will continue to send paper newsletters (subject to identifying funding) and information resources to families who do not use the internet or who request hard copies of resources and we will pilot a telephone “listening ear” service to provide trained and supported peer support to those who cannot access or prefer not to use our online support networks.

We will build on and invest in existing relationships with other family support organisations and charities that run helplines to lead the coordination of work through regular meetings, peer support, problem solving and opportunities for joint working.

This will enable efficient signposting to others when appropriate and to identify any gaps in support. We will continue to support the National Autistic Society who have started a new casework support service to share our learning and experience gained over the last 20+ years.

Family experiences of trauma will continue to be an area of work for the CBF. The trauma awareness resources co-produced with families and developed in collaboration with Respond and the Tizard Centre will be finalised and disseminated.

We will review the delivery method of all our training workshops, aiming to have a blended approach to capture the benefits of both in person workshops and online delivery.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Sharing best practice

Our new website will be launched in Spring 2021and we will monitor and evaluate its use, with a planned timetable for updating material on it. We aim to ensure that our website and database work efficiently together, and that we increase and widen our reach.

The views and experiences of children and adults with severe learning disabilities are often disregarded as they are unable to attend or use traditional methods such as focus groups or surveys – but it is important that we adapt our approach to enable their views to be captured. We will therefore continue to develop our work on engagement with children, young people and adults with complex needs to find innovative ways to seek their views, and to demonstrate that it is possible to consult with them in a meaningful way. At the same time, we will take every opportunity, in our own work and the work of other organisations, to ensure that families of children, young people and adults with complex needs can share their lived experience to drive forward change.

Promotion of early intervention approaches, both in terms of support in early childhood as well as early support with emerging challenging behaviour at any age, will remain a key feature in all three strands of our work- information and support, sharing best practice and strategic influencing. We will continue to collate and present evidence of the positive benefits of early intervention, and work with researchers and academics to achieve this. This is particularly important as we emerge from the pandemic and there may be a tendency to cut existing early intervention services or not invest in them where needed. We plan to work with researchers to collate research evidence to make the case for investment in this area, including the economic case, and to hold a seminar to present information to senior policymakers in summer 2021.

We will work with researchers to investigate opportunities for formal evaluation of our PBS workshops, and other research initiatives will be pursued, both with academic partners and through our CBF/ Tizard Family Carer Research Alliance, to further build the evidence base.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Strategic influencing

Our influencing agenda will of course continue to be responsive to the changing political circumstances and challenges that arise. We remain committed to continue to challenge the failure of the Transforming Care agenda and to ensure that a cross Government approach is developed that keeps this on the national and local agenda for action. This work has the potential for a very significant impact for our client group and specific multi-year funding support to pursue this work from Esmee Fairbairn is enabling this vital long-term work to progress. There is no “quick fix” solution - it requires strategic patience, commitment and determination. We will continue to bring together a diverse range of stakeholders, through our CB-NSG members and associates, and work in partnership to identify ways to drive forward the change needed, developing workable initiatives that build on past experience and existing knowledge, and delivering a solution focussed approach. Working collaboratively takes longer and requires skilled management to build trust and focus on shared aims and objectives rather than differences of opinion, but we believe we can achieve more by working together and, by using this co-production approach, can deliver better outcomes.

One example of this is the External Support Group (ESG), a CBF led initiative, bringing together a group of senior experienced clinicians and professionals to provide support to local teams who are supporting individuals. We will apply for funding for “proof of concept” and will test and evaluate the model in one area, and consider how to further develop and expand the model.

We continue our local strategic input work as part of a 3 year project funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and will be partnering with the Black Country in year 2.

Our work targeting professionals who work with families, increasing their awareness of need and the issues families face, will continue. We will build on our work with Health Visitors, continue our work with the Keyworker Project (see below), and work with other professions who support families of children.

We are planning to continue the strategic legal work identified by our legal panel members and the individuals and organisations who have participated in our legal strategy meetings so far. We will continue to promote a joined-up approach to enable easier and timely access for families to legal support and information, and to ensure best use of limited resources. This work, linked to the CBF Legal Panel work may require seeking additional specialist capacity to drive this forward.

Keyworker Project

The CBF was included within a successful bid by Wolverhampton and the Black Country to form part of their 18-month keyworker pilot. Our role is to act as a critical friend on the steering group and to lead a peer support strand of work. Work planning to develop the role of the peer workers in Black Country has begun and will carry on into 2021/2022.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

Our work on reducing the use of restrictive interventions will continue, via the RRISC (Reducing Restrictive Interventions and Safeguarding Children) group, and other initiatives such as the NHS England STOMP and STAMP programmes, which aim to address the inappropriate medication of individuals with learning disabilities. All parts of the system need to work well for children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges - including the regulators. We will continue to press for robust regulation, inspections, monitoring and data collection, and challenge the registration of new services which do not fit the model of increasing good quality local community support.

In the coming year we will continue to progress our work in all three key areas, regularly reviewing our activities and their impact. As a small team with limited capacity and resources, we are ever mindful of the need to target our efforts carefully

and influence those in positions of power who can make change happen, and who have a wider reach and more resources. We know that there are many areas of work that need to be taken forward concurrently. All elements of our work and projects are interconnected, we work proactively but are also able to respond quickly to opportunities and needs as they arise - as evidenced in our response to the pandemic.

We know there will be significant challenges ahead - both in terms of the needs of the families we support, and the financial challenges we will face as a small charity to secure funds for our work. We will take all the necessary steps we can to ensure we are able to continue our much-needed work, making a difference to the lives of children, young people and adults with severe learning disabilities whose behaviour challenges, and their families.

Report of the Trustees Annual Report 2020-2021

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to have a significant impact on the CBF and families we support. We have learned to be creative in our delivery of support and projects to ensure they continue with as little disruption as possible. All staff and volunteers are still working remotely, and although this has posed a range of additional challenges and issues, including ensuring that we are all connected and with good communication and peer support mechanisms, all staff have responded positively and adapted to the challenges and opportunities this brings.

Some positive opportunities have emerged from the enforced “work from home” rules:

Although we are not currently able to carry out face to face meetings and focus groups, the use of virtual meetings has enabled people to join groups who would otherwise not be able to attend, for example due to caring responsibilities or location, to engage with a range of areas of our work.
In addition, members of our family support team have been able to join some virtual meetings with families and professionals as part of our complex casework support. Families have reported that they have found this valuable and beneficial.
Family carers have been involved in providing peer to peer support through video ‘carers catch-ups’ or trained and supported to provide listening ear telephone calls. These catch-up calls are not limited to working hours and can be during the day or in the evening or weekends to suit the participants.
We have adapted our direct engagement model (in the Seldon Heard Voices work) to support family members to act as ‘Communication Partners’ to help find the views of children and adults with complex communications needs.
We have adapted all our training workshops to be delivered online which has enabled us to deliver training to families and paid support staff throughout the UK. This has reduced costs and increased engagement.
We have moved all our DVD/Video resources online so they can be viewed for free from our website.
Staff have swiftly increased their knowledge in technology!

We will continue to develop these new ways of working and we are looking into hybrid models of delivery once the restrictions lift.

It is a tribute to the whole CBF staff team that throughout the ongoing COVID-19 challenges, we have continued our work in all 3 key areas, increasing our information and support service, increasing sharing best practice and continuing our strategic influencing work.

Financial review Annual Report 2020-2021

Financial review Financial position

Incoming resources for the year amounted to £595,267 (£437,695 in 2019/20) and resources expended were £507,520 (£322,359 in 2019/20), giving net income of £87,747 (£115,336 in 2019/20). The increase in incoming resources was mainly due to one-off COVID-19-related grants to cover the increased demand for our services during the pandemic. This was partly offset by the deferral of income relating to specific projects, which were postponed with the agreement of the relevant funders in the light of the exceptional circumstances. The unrestricted net income of £83,992 reflects principally the flexible use of our core staff team to undertake project work wherever possible, including in relation to the pandemic, reducing the need to deploy additional external resources.

The support of trusts and foundations remains vital in enabling us to carry out work to increase the CBF’s impact while helping to maintain its financial viability. We would like to extend our grateful thanks to all supporters who have enabled us to achieve this. The receipt of a three-year grant from the National Lottery Community Fund enables us to promulgate our evidence-based approach much more effectively. We wish to thank the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation for supporting our policy and influencing work, and the Sobell Foundation and the Lloyds Bank Foundation for supporting our family support service. Thanks are also due to Garfield Weston Foundation, the Baily Thomas Charitable Fund and several smaller foundations for supporting our core costs. In addition, we are a deeply grateful to the Department of Health and Social Care, the National Lottery Community Fund and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation for providing emergency Covid funding during 2020/21.

In the longer term we expect the funding environment to become more challenging than ever. Most paid work is ad hoc, unpredictable and fluctuates in volume, while grant funding is one-off or relatively short term and subject to fierce competition, exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic. A combination of tight budget management, close review of the financial performance of individual projects, and the focussing of fundraising effort to address specific funding gaps has enabled us to build up our reserves towards our target over the last few years. However, a number of significant existing multi-year grants will end over the short to medium term, resulting in the rapid depletion of reserves unless they can be replaced in the near future.

Financial review Annual Report 2020-2021

Reserves policy

In determining the reserves strategy, the Trustees take a holistic and strategic approach and carefully consider the reasons for maintaining reserves as well as the logistics of utilising them. This includes consideration of the external factors that may affect reserves such as demands on capacity and the relatively short-term nature of grant funding, which forms a large part of the charity’s income and often involves a long lead time to secure. We also need to ensure that the charity can meet its liabilities in the event of a significant downturn in income.

In addition, the reserves target takes into account the need for continuity in the provision of information and support to family carers who often experience complex situations which can last for several months, along with ensuring our strategy work remains embedded at a local and national level despite fluctuations in funding levels. Reserves also enable us to remain sufficiently flexible to respond to any opportunities that may arise at short notice for us to influence national policy on behalf of our beneficiaries.

In the light of these circumstances, the Trustees have set a target to hold twelve months of running costs in free reserves (unrestricted funds). Free reserves amounted to £360,704 at 31 January 2021, representing 8.7 months of running costs, based on predicted expenditure for 2021/22.

Structure, governance and management Annual Report 2020-2021

Structure, governance and management

Governing document

The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes a limited company, limited by guarantee, as defined by the Companies Act 2006.

Risk management

The Trustees have a duty to identify and review the risks to which the charity is exposed, including ensuring appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error. The Trustees have put in place a risk management strategy, comprising an annual review of the risks the charity may face, the establishment of systems and procedures to mitigate risks identified, and the implementation of procedures designed to minimise any potential impact on the charity should any of these risks materialise. The work has identified financial sustainability as a major risk in the light of the difficult funding environment. The regular updating and review of financial projections and tight budget management are key elements in the management of this risk. Attention has also been focussed on non-financial risks such as reputational risk and suitable mitigating actions put in place, while the current COVID-19 crisis has highlighted the importance of ensuring that the CBF is in a position to respond to national or international-scale incidents that lie beyond our control.

Organisational structure

The Trustees, who are directors for the purpose of company law and Trustees for the purpose of charity law, who served during the year and up to the date of this report are set out on the following page. Members of the charitable company guarantee to contribute an amount not exceeding £10 to the assets of the charitable company in the event of winding up.

Day to day management of the charity’s activities is delegated by the Trustees to the Chief Executive Officer. The Trustee Board meets quarterly to review achievements and performance, finances and future plans.

Recruitment and appointment of new Trustees

In seeking to ensure that the needs of individuals with severe learning disabilities and challenging behaviour are being met through the charity, a network of contacts with both personal and professional experience of the issues involved have been recruited to advise the Trustee Board, and to enhance the potential pool of Trustees. Trustee skills are reviewed annually to determine any training needs, and should specific skills be identified which would require the recruitment of new or replacement members to the Trustee Board, individuals from the advisory network may be approached to offer themselves for election.

By invitation Advisers may attend Board meetings to offer input and to further their knowledge of the CBF, thus providing both a recruitment and a training path for new Trustees.

Reference and administrative details Annual Report 2020-2021

Reference and administrative details

Registered Company number

3307407 (England and Wales)

Registered Charity number

1060714

Trustees

Ms S Cooper Mrs V A Cooper Mrs D C Cutler (Retired – 17.10.2020) Mr J Dodd Ms A K Giles Dr N J Gore Ms D E Lightfoot Mrs C Million

Registered office

c/o The Old Courthouse New Road Avenue Chatham Kent ME4 6BE

Company Secretary

Mrs C Million

Auditors

Calcutt Matthews Ltd Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors 19 North Street Ashford Kent TN24 8LF

Statement of trustees responsibilities Annual Report 2020-2021

Statement of trustees responsibilities

The trustees (who are also the directors of The Challenging Behaviour Foundation for the purposes of company law) are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

Company law requires the trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charitable company for that period. In preparing those financial statements, the trustees are required to

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
observe the methods and principles in the Charity SORP;
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charitable company will continue in business.

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charitable company and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charitable company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

In so far as the trustees are aware:

there is no relevant audit information of which the charitable company’s auditors are unaware; and
the trustees have taken all steps that they ought to have taken to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditors are aware of that information.

AUDITORS

The auditors, Calcutt Matthews, will be proposed for re-appointment at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting.

Approved by the order of the board of trustees on 23rd October 2021 and signed on its behalf by:

.............................................................

Mrs V A COOPER - Trustee

Report of the independent auditors Annual Report 2020-2021

Report of the independent auditors to the members of The Challenging Behaviour Foundation

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of The Challenging Behaviour Foundation (the ‘charitable company’) for the year ended 31 January 2021 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet and notes to the financial statements, including a summary of significant accounting policies. The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their preparation is applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).

In our opinion the financial statements:

give a true and fair view of the state of the charitable company’s affairs as at 31 January 2021 and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice; and
have been prepared in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006.

Basis for opinion

We conducted our audit in accordance with International Standards on Auditing (UK) (ISAs (UK)) and applicable law. Our responsibilities under those standards are further described in the Auditors responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements section of our report. We are independent of the charitable company in accordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to our audit of the financial statements in the UK, including the FRC’s Ethical Standard, and we have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements. We believe that the audit evidence we have obtained is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our opinion.

Report of the independent auditors Annual Report 2020-2021

Conclusions relating to going concern

In auditing the financial statements, we have concluded that the trustees’ use of the going concern basis of accounting in the preparation of the financial statements is appropriate.

Based on the work we have performed, we have not identified any material uncertainties relating to events or conditions that, individually or collectively, may cast significant doubt on the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern for a period of at least twelve months from when the financial statements are authorised for issue.

Our responsibilities and the responsibilities of the trustees with respect to going concern are described in the relevant sections of this report.

Other information

The trustees are responsible for the other information. The other information comprises the information included in the annual report, other than the financial statements and our Report of the Independent Auditors thereon.

Our opinion on the financial statements does not cover the other information and, except to the extent otherwise explicitly stated in our report, we do not express any form of assurance conclusion thereon.

In connection with our audit of the financial statements, our responsibility is to read the other information and, in doing so, consider whether the other information is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or our knowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to be materially misstated. If we identify such material inconsistencies or apparent material misstatements, we are required to determine whether there is a material misstatement in the financial statements or a material misstatement of the other information. If, based on the work we have performed, we conclude that there is a material misstatement of this other information, we are required to report that fact. We have nothing to report in this regard.

Opinions on other matters prescribed by the Companies Act 2006

In our opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of the audit:

the information given in the Report of the Trustees for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
the Report of the Trustees has been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

Report of the independent auditors Annual Report 2020-2021

Matters on which we are required to report by exception

In the light of the knowledge and understanding of the charitable company and its environment obtained in the course of the audit, we have not identified material misstatements in the Report of the Trustees.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters where the Companies Act 2006 requires us to report to you if, in our opinion:

adequate accounting records have not been kept or returns adequate for our audit have not been received from branches not visited by us; or
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns; or
certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations we require for our audit.

Responsibilities of trustees

As explained more fully in the Statement of Trustees Responsibilities, the trustees (who are also the directors of the charitable company for the purposes of company law) are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements and for being satisfied that they give a true and fair view, and for such internal control as the trustees determine is necessary to enable the preparation of financial statements that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are responsible for assessing the charitable company’s ability to continue as a going concern, disclosing, as applicable, matters related to going concern and using the going concern basis of accounting unless the trustees either intend to liquidate the charitable company or to cease operations, or have no realistic alternative but to do so.

Report of the independent auditors Annual Report 2020-2021

Our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements

Our objectives are to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements as a whole are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error, and to issue a Report of the Independent Auditors that includes our opinion. Reasonable assurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guarantee that an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if, individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis of these financial statements. A further description of our responsibilities for the audit of the financial statements is located on the Financial Reporting Council’s website at www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This description forms part of our Report of the Independent Auditors.

Use of our report

This report is made solely to the charitable company’s members, as a body, in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 16 of the Companies Act 2006. Our audit work has been undertaken so that we might state to the charitable company’s members those matters we are required to state to them in an auditors’ report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charitable company and the charitable company’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

.............................................................

N M Hume (Senior Statutory Auditor)

for and on behalf of Calcutt Matthews WBZ Ltd Chartered Accountants and Statutory Auditors 19 North Street

Ashford Kent

Date: 25 October 2021

Statement of financial activities Annual Report 2020-2021

Statement of financial activities for the Year Ended 31 January 2021

				31.1.21	31.1.20
		Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Total
		funds	funds	funds	funds
	Notes	£	£	£	£
INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM
Donations and legacies	2	26,599	3	26,602	50,809
Charitable activities	5
Information and Support		7,750	37,898	45,648	185,929
National Influencing		-	6,829	6,829	129,514
Core Funding		129,909	384,489	514,398	68,442
Other trading activities	3	1,363	-	1,363	2,570
Investment income	4	427	-	427	431
Total		166,048	429,219	595,267	437,695
EXPENDITURE ON
Raisingfunds	6	17,726	75	17,801	21,968
Charitable activities	7
Information and Support		38,369	97,949	136,318	139,158
National Influencing		1,224	16,015	17,239	160,260
Core Funding		24,737	311,425	336,162	973
Total		82,056	425,464	507,520	322,359
NET INCOME		83,992	3,755	87,747	115,336
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds brought forward		276,712	112,037	388,749	273,413
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD		360,704	115,792	476,496	388,749

Balance sheet Annual Report 2020-2021

Balance sheet

31 January 2021

31 January 2021
				31.1.21	31.1.20
		Unrestricted	Restricted	Total	Total
		funds	funds	funds	funds
	Notes	£	£	£	£
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible assets	13	6	-	6	188
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors	114	88,775	-	88,775	54,820
Cash at bank		432,227	226,211	658,438	450,115
		521,002	226,211	747,213	504,935
CREDITORS
Amounts fallingdue within oneyear	15	(160,304)	(110,419)	(270,723)	(116,374)
NET CURRENT ASSETS		360,698	115,792	476,490	388,561
TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES		360,704	115,792	476,496	388,749
NET ASSETS		360,704	115,792	476,496	388,749
FUNDS	16
Unrestricted funds				360,704	276,712
Restricted funds				115,792	112,037
TOTAL FUNDS				476,496	388,749

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and authorised for issue on 23rd October 2021 and were signed on its behalf by:

..........................................................

Mrs V A Cooper - Trustee

Balance sheet Annual Report 2020-2021

Cash flow statement for the Year Ended 31 January 2021

for the Year Ended 31 January 2021
		31.1.21	31.1.20
	Notes	£	£
Cash flows from operating activities
Cash generated from operations	1	209,396	141,553
Gift Aid		(1,500)	(1,417)
Net cashprovided byoperatingactivities		207,896	140,136
Cash flows from investing activities
Interest received		427	431
Net cashprovided byinvestingactivities		427	431

Change in cash and cash equivalents in the reporting period		208,323	140,567
Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the reporting period		450,115	309,548
Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the reporting period		658,438	450,115

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

Notes to the cash flow statement for the Year Ended 31 January 2021

1. RECONCILIATION OF NET INCOME TO NET CASH FLOW FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES

	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Net income for the reporting period
(as per the Statement of Financial Activities)	87,747	115,336
Adjustments for:
Depreciation charges	182	182
Interest received	(427)	(431)
Increase in debtors	(19,284)	(8,512)
Increase in creditors	141,178	34,978
Net cash provided by operations	209,396	141,553

2. ANALYSIS OF CHANGES IN NET FUNDS

	At 1.2.20	Cash flow	At 31.1.21
	£	£	£
Net cash
Cash at bank	450,115	208,323	658,438
	450,115	208,323	658,438
Total	450,115	208,323	658,438

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

Notes to the financial statement for the Year Ended 31 January 2021

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements of the charitable company, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)’, Financial Reporting Standard 102 ‘The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland’ and the Companies Act 2006. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention.

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity
Designated funds are unrestricted funds earmarked by the Trustees for particular purposes.
Restricted funds are subject to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor or through the terms of an appeal.

Income

All income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities once the charity has entitlement to the funds, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Expenditure

Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

Allocation and apportionment of costs

Support costs are allocated pro rata to staff numbers involved with each charitable activity.

Tangible fixed assets

Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life.

Plant and machinery - 20% on cost Fixtures and fittings - 33% on cost

Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities.

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES - continued

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the trustees.

Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.

Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the financial statements.

Pension costs and other post-retirement benefits

The charitable company operates a defined contribution pension scheme. Contributions payable to the charitable company’s pension scheme are charged to the Statement of Financial Activities in the period to which they relate.

2. DONATIONS AND LEGACIES

DONATIONS AND LEGACIES
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Donations	25,102	45,892
Gift aid	1,500	1,417
Grants	-	3,500
	26,602	50,809
Grants received, included in the above, are as follows:	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
David Solomon Trust	-	1,000
Three Monkies Trust	-	2,500
	-	3,500
OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Fundraising events	626	1,738
Sales and earned income	737	832
	1,363	2,570

3. OTHER TRADING ACTIVITIES

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

4. INVESTMENT INCOME

INVESTMENT INCOME
	31.1.21 31.1.20 £ £
Deposit account interest	427 431
INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES Information and Support National Influencing Core Funding	31.1.21 31.1.20
	Total activities Total activities
£ £ £	£ £
Grants 37,898 6,829 430,989 Contract and Other Non Grant Income 7,750 - 83,409 - 45,648 6,829 514,398	475,716 243,713 91,159 140,172 566,875 383,885
Grants received, included in the above, are as follows:	31.1.21 31.1.20 £ £
The Sobell Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The National Lottery Community Fund - COVID Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) The Stonewall Park Charitable Trust The Sir James Roll Charitable Trust The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation Lloyds Bank Foundation Baily Thomas Charitable Fund National Lottery People's Project National Lottery Community Fund Lloyds Bank Foundation COVID Fund Esmee Fairbairn (EmergencyCOVID Grant)Grant)	12,500 25,000 25,000 25,000 18,853 79,029 228,396 - 500 - 1,000 - 20,000 40,000 12,566 24,684 20,000 - - 50,000 104,069 - 12,832 - 20,000 -
	475,716 243,713

5. INCOME FROM CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

6. RAISING FUNDS

Raising donations and legacies

RAISING FUNDS Raising donations and legacies
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Staff costs	17,000	17,000
Fundraising	120	1,092
	17,120	18,092
Other trading activities
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Bad debts	681	3,876
Aggregate amounts	17,801	21,968

7. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES COSTS

CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES COSTS
		Support
		costs (see
	Direct Costs	note 8)	Totals
	£	£	£
Information and Support	132,439	3,879	136,318
National Influencing	17,239	-	17,239
Core Funding	333,807	2,355	336,162
	483,485	6,234	489,719

8. SUPPORT COSTS

SUPPORT COSTS
	Governance
	costs
	£
Information and Support	3,879
Core Funding	2,355
Aggregate amounts	6,234

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

9. NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)

Net income/(expenditure) is stated after charging/(crediting):

NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) Net income/(expenditure) is stated after charging/(crediting):
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Auditors' remuneration	2,117	2,023
Depreciation - owned assets	182	182

10. TRUSTEES’ REMUNERATION AND BENEFITS

Vivien Cooper was employed full time as Chief Executive Officer with the express permission of the Charity Commission in recognition of her unique skills and experience.

No Trustee or any person related to the charity had any personal interest in any contract or Trustee transaction entered into by the charity during the year other than as disclosed above.

Vivien Cooper is enrolled in a workplace pension scheme for her role as Chief Executive Officer.

Trustees’ expenses

Trustees’ expenses
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Trustees’ expenses	-	47

11. STAFF COSTS

No employee was paid over £60,000 in the year.

The average monthly number of employees during the year was as follows:

	2021	2020
Information, Support & Training	4.73	3.9
National Influencing Work	6.33	4.35
Total	11.06	8.25

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

12. INTANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Net income/(expenditure) is stated after charging/(crediting):

				Database
				£
COST
At 1 February 2020 and 31 January 2021				9,853
AMORTISATION
At 1 February 2020 and 31 January 2021				9,853
NET BOOK VALUE
At 31 January 2021
At 31 January 2020
TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS
	Plant and machinery	FixFixtures and fittings	Computer equipment	Totals
	£	£	£	£
COST
At 1 February 2020 and 31 January 2021	8,161	1,258	5,075	14,494
DEPRECIATION
At 1 February 2020	8,161	1,258	4,887	14,306
Charge for year	-	-	182	182
At 31 January 2021	8,161	1,258	5,069	14,488
NET BOOK VALUE
At 31 January 2021	-	-	6	6
At 31 January 2020	-	-	188	188

13. TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

14. DEBTORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

DEBTORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Trade debtors	81,919	48,078
Gift Aid reclaimable	6,856	5,356
Prepayments	-	1,386
	88,775	54,820

15. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
	31.1.21	31.1.20
	£	£
Trade creditors	113,436	5,750
Social security and other taxes	4,700	4,562
Funds held for other organisations	15,423	15,474
Accruals and deferred income	137,164	90,588
	270,723	116,374

Funds held for other organisations £15,422 (2020: £15,474) represents monies held by the charity where it is working with other charities on joint projects. At 31 January 2021 these are as follows:

where it is working with other charities on joint projects. At 31	January 2021 these are as follows:
Learning Disability Senate	£12,840
Employment Dissemination	£2,582

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

16. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS

MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
		Net
		movement
	At 1.2.20	in funds	At 31.1.21
	£	£	£
Unrestricted funds
Core Funding	230,795	90,880	321,675
Training Designated Fund	45,917	(6,888)	39,029
	276,712	83,992	360,704
Restricted funds
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation	1,243	3,895	5,138
The National Lottery Community Fund	42,083	(9,295)	32,788
The Lloyds Bank Foundation	1,121	1,591	2,712
Baily Thomas Charitable Fund	-	20,000	20,000
CB-NSG	4,305	-	4,305
SHIEC	3,572	-	3,572
Peoples Postcode Trust	4,227	-	4,227
Rrisc	978	-	978
Asquith Legacy	13,963	(10,274)	3,689
National Lottery People's Project	40,545	(4,546)	35,999
Lloyds Bank Foundation Covid Fund	-	2,384	2,384
	112,037	3,755	115,792
TOTAL FUNDS	388,749	87,747	476,496

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

16. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS

Net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

	Incoming	Resources	Movement
	resources	expended	in funds
	£	£	£
Unrestricted funds
Core Funding	158,297	(67,417)	90,880
Training Designated Fund	7,751	(14,639)	(6,888)
	166,048	(82,056)	83,992
Restricted funds
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation	20,002	(16,107)	3,895
The National Lottery Community Fund	97,883	(107,178)	(9,295)
The Lloyds Bank Foundation	12,565	(10,974)	1,591
Baily Thomas Charitable Fund	20,000	-	20,000
The Sobell Foundation	12,500	(12,500)	-
Asquith Legacy	1	(10,275)	(10,274)
National Lottery People's Project	(1)	(4,545)	(4,546)
National Lottery Community Fund Emergency Covid-19	25,041	(25,041)	-
Covid Resource (DHSC)	10,600	(10,600)	-
Government Emergency Funding to Charities Package (DHSC)	217,796	(217,796)	-
Lloyds Bank Foundation Covid Fund	12,832	(10,448)	2,384
	429,219	(425,464)	3,755
TOTAL FUNDS	595,267	(507,520)	87,747

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

16. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

Comparatives for movement in funds

MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued Comparatives for movement in funds
		Net
		movement
	At 1.2.19	in funds	At 31.1.20
	£	£	£
Unrestricted funds
Core Funding	221,686	9,109	230,795
Training Designated Fund	19,246	26,671	45,917
	240,932	35,780	276,712
Restricted funds
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation	4,684	(3,441)	1,243
The National Lottery Community Fund	3,377	38,706	42,083
The Lloyds Bank Foundation	1,682	(561)	1,121
CB-NSG	4,305	-	4,305
SHIEC	3,572	-	3,572
Peoples Postcode Trust	14,861	(10,634)	4,227
Rrisc	-	978	978
Asquith Legacy	-	13,963	13,963
National Lottery People's Project	-	40,545	40,545
	32,481	79,556	112,037
TOTAL FUNDS	273,413	115,336	388,749

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

16. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

Comparative net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

	Incoming	Resources	Movement
	resources	expended	in funds
	£	£	£
Unrestricted funds
Core Funding	118,458	(109,349)	9,109
Training Designated Fund	79,521	(52,850)	26,671
	197,979	(162,199)	35,780
Restricted funds
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation	40,001	(43,442)	(3,441)
The National Lottery Community Fund	79,030	(40,324)	38,706
The Lloyds Bank Foundation	24,684	(25,245)	(561)
The Sobell Foundation	25,000	(25,000)	-
Peoples Postcode Trust	-	(10,634)	(10,634)
Rrisc	1,001	(23)	978
Asquith Legacy	20,000	(6,037)	13,963
National Lottery People's Project	50,000	(9,455)	40,545
	239,716	(160,160)	79,556
TOTAL FUNDS	437,695	(322,359)	115,336

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

16. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

A current year 12 months and prior year 12 months combined position is as follows:

		Net
		movement
	At 1.2.19	in funds	At 1.2.21
	£	£	£
Unrestricted funds
Core Funding	221,686	99,989	321,675
Training Designated Fund	19,246	19,783	39,029
	240,932	119,772	360,704
Restricted funds
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation	4,684	454	5,138
The National Lottery Community Fund	3,377	29,411	32,788
The Lloyds Bank Foundation	1,682	1,030	2,712
Baily Thomas Charitable Fund	-	20,000	20,000
CB-NSG	4,305	-	4,305
SHIEC	3,572	-	3,572
Peoples Postcode Trust	14,861	(10,634)	4,227
Rrisc	-	978	978
Asquith Legacy	-	3,689	3,689
National Lottery People's Project	-	35,999	35,999
Lloyds Bank Foundation Covid Fund	-	2,384	2,384
	32,481	83,311	115,792
TOTAL FUNDS	273,413	203,083	476,496

Notes to the financial statements Annual Report 2020-2021

16. MOVEMENT IN FUNDS - continued

A current year 12 months and prior year 12 months combined net movement in funds, included in the above are as follows:

in the above are as follows:
	Incoming	Resources	Movement
	resources	expended	in funds
	£	£	£
Unrestricted funds
Core Funding	276,755	(176,766)	99,989
Training Designated Fund	87,272	(67,489)	19,783
	364,027	(244,255)	119,772
Restricted funds
The Esmee Fairbairn Foundation	60,003	(59,549)	454
The National Lottery Community Fund	176,913	(147,502)	29,411
The Lloyds Bank Foundation	37,249	(36,219)	1,030
Baily Thomas Charitable Fund	20,000	-	20,000
The Sobell Foundation	37,500	(37,500)	-
Peoples Postcode Trust	-	(10,634)	(10,634)
Rrisc	1,001	(23)	978
Asquith Legacy	20,001	(16,312)	3,689
National Lottery People's Project	49,999	(14,000)	35,999
National Lottery Community Fund Emergency Covid-19	25,041	(25,041)	-
Covid Resource (DHSC)	10,600	(10,600)	-
Government Emergency Funding to Charities Package (DHSC)	217,796	(217,796)	-
Lloyds Bank Foundation Covid Fund	12,832	(10,448)	2,384
	668,935	(585,624)	83,311
TOTAL FUNDS	1,032,962	(829,879)	203,083

The Training Designated Fund represents funds set aside by the Trustees to invest in the CBF’s capacity to deliver training and help diversify the charity’s income.

17. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES

There were no related party transactions for the year ended 31 January 2021.

Contents

Foreword from our Chair

Diane Lightfoot, Chair of Trustees

Report of the Trustees For the year ended 31 January 2021

Objectives and activities

Objectives and aims

30,000+ in the UK

www.challengingbehaviour.org.uk

Information and Support

Strategic Influencing

Sharing best practice

Achievements and Performance

Supporting parents of children who display ‘challenging behaviour’, this is one of the most impressive small charities “ in the country. – Paul Streets, Chief Executive Lloyds Bank Foundation The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

– Family Carer

Information and support

– Family Carer

56 requests

6 months

400 family carer members

37 volunteers

Quick Response Behaviour Chats

Quick Reach Challenging Behaviour Guide

Common themes from the sessions

- Family carer

Workshops

Strategic Influencing

– Senior National Stakeholder

Challenging Behaviour National Strategy Group (CB-NSG)

– Family Carer

Campaigns Sub-group

Campaign Families

Legal Panel Sub-group

Visit our COVID-19 resources

Positive Behaviour Support Sub-group

Transforming Care Data Set Sub-group

New Normal

Seldom Heard Project

Learning Disability Nursing Project

Reducing Restrictive Interventions and Safeguarding Children (RRISC)

Institute of Health Visiting Project

The External Support Group (ESG)

STOMP/STAMP

Trauma Support

Internships at the CBF

- CBF intern

Sharing Best Practice

Getting It Right Project

Input to Research Projects

Tizard/ CBF Family Carer Research Alliance

MindEd

New Website

Newsletter

Social Media

– Learning Disability Nurse

Our plans for the coming year

Information and support

Sharing best practice

Strategic influencing

Keyworker Project

COVID-19

Some positive opportunities have emerged from the enforced “work from home” rules:

Financial review Financial position

Reserves policy

Structure, governance and management

Governing document

Risk management

Organisational structure

Recruitment and appointment of new Trustees

Reference and administrative details

Registered Company number

Registered Charity number

Trustees

Registered office

Company Secretary

Auditors

Statement of trustees responsibilities

AUDITORS

Report of the independent auditors to the members of The Challenging Behaviour Foundation

Opinion