2024-03-31-accounts - Resources For Autism

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ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

April 2023 – March 2024

Resources for Autism Legal and Administrative Information

Company Number 3326332

Registered Charity 1061253

RESOURCES FOR AUTISM ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

Directors and trustees:

Dr V E H Booth (President) R H Esdaile (Treasurer) Sir Nick Hine (Chairman) C Montgomery B A Linden R Rainbow A Levitt R. Kiran Jackson

Chief Executive:

D Mordochai

Company Secretary:

R H Esdaile

Registered Office:

858 Finchley Road Temple Fortune London NW11 6AB

Bankers:

National Westminster Bank plc 89 Mount Pleasant Road Tunbridge Wells Kent TN1 1PX

Auditors:

Begbies Chartered Accountants 9 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4DJ

Solicitors:

Stone King LLP Boundary House 91 Charterhouse Street Barbican London EC1M 6HR

RESOURCES FOR AUTISM ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

Letter from the Chair

Overall, in 2023/24 RfA managed to continue to sustain both income and service delivery at healthy levels despite the ongoing pressures within the charity sector, and within society: most notably the ongoing cost of living crisis. Staff and volunteers have continued to demonstrate resilience in their roles and dedication to the organisation and our beneficiaries.

Some notable achievements in the past year include:

Offering support, services, advice to over 1200 parents/ carers.
Supporting more children and young people than the previous year, totalling 732 unique children through short-breaks, youth clubs, mentoring and therapies.
Supporting 534 autistic adults through our offerings of counselling, walking groups, social groups and peer support groups.
Reaching more than 450 professionals via our training offer.
Working directly with 17 complex needs children who had been permanently excluded from special schools children via Orange House.
Our dedicated volunteers contributed nearly 9,000 hours of support.
Our website had over 50,000 unique visitors.

In addition to the above numbers, RfA was successful in securing new funding to start projects in new areas including in Barking & Dagenham, Lewisham and a research project with the Violence Reduction Unit.

Other projects instigated within the year to develop and progress the organisation included investing in the Dare to Lead management programme for SLT and managers and starting work to review and capture the charities Theory of Change, the outcomes that are being achieved and how these can be better captured and monitored.

The year has had its challenges though, most notably the forced closure of Orange House in Newham. Once again we've seen increases in demand for our services as well as referrals continuing to be more complex. The cost of living pressure has placed strain on our budgets as well as the budgets of our statutory funders. RfA has endeavoured to support staff as best as possible with the resources that the charity has available. Sourcing staffing and venue availability have also presented challenges during the year.

Resources for Autism’s vision is a world where autistic people can live fulfilling lives, with equal chances to those of their non-autistic peers. We have taken more steps forward in achieving this vision although there will always be more to do.

I would like to use this space to formally thank all our staff and volunteers for their hard work over the last year. I also want to thank all our funders both statutory and voluntary for their ongoing support and funding. Voluntary funders include grants, trusts, individual givers, corporates and those that have undertaken fundraising on behalf of RfA. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Sir Nick Hine Chairman, Resources for Autism Date:16/09/24

RESOURCES FOR AUTISM ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

Report of the trustees for the year ending 31 March 2024

The trustees are pleased to present their annual directors’ report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ending 31 March 2024, which are also prepared to meet the requirements for a director’s report and accounts for Companies Act purposes. The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Companies Act 2006, the Memorandum and Articles of Association, and 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) (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2019).

Structure, Governance and Management

Company Status:

Resources for Autism (or “RfA”) is a charitable company limited by guarantee. It was incorporated on 28 February 1997 and is governed by a memorandum and articles of association. These were reviewed and updated in September 2005.

Governance and internal control:

The board of directors is responsible for selecting and recruiting suitable trustees to hold office at the Annual General Meeting. The number of trustees shall be not less than three but is not subject to any maximum. One third of the trustees shall retire from office at each Annual General Meeting. A retiring trustee is eligible for re-election, and there is no limit on the number of times a trustee may be re-elected.

The minimum age for a trustee is 18 years, but there is no upper age limit imposed on trustees. The Trustees from among their number appoint a chairperson.

New trustees are inducted through a process of briefings by the Chair and executive management, and they are provided with key information relating to the charity’s governance and operation.

The board of trustees meets approximately four times per annum. Pay for senior staff is reviewed and agreed by the board of Trustees as and when necessary. The Senior Leadership Team supports the Chief Executive in the day-today running of the charity and efforts to sustain and grow the charity’s income and deliver the mission of the organisation.

Purpose and activities:

The objects of Resources for Autism, as stated in the memorandum and articles, are to:

a) Support the needs of people with Autism and related conditions; and
b) Promote and protect the health of families and carers of people with Autism and related conditions.

Specifically, the charity aims to:

Improve independence for autistic individuals

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Improve emotional wellbeing for autistic individuals and their families
Improve the life skills of autistic individuals
Raise awareness about autism

Resources for Autism seeks to identify the most-needed services that reach the largest number of families and to demonstrate how these can be provided to a measurable standard of excellence. The charity aims to establish a model for the provision of services that can be delivered either as a direct activity of the charity or through the action of other organisations.

Ensuring our work delivers our aims:

We review our aims, objectives and activities at quarterly trustees’ meetings. At these meetings we review our achievements and outcomes for the previous quarter.

The review looks at the success of each key activity and the benefit it has brought to those groups of people we are set up to help.
The review also helps us ensure our aims, objectives and activities remain focused on our stated purposes.
We have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit when reviewing our aims and objectives and in planning our future activities.
In particular, the trustees consider how any planned activities will contribute to the aims and objectives they have set.

In order to achieve its charitable aims in 2023/24, RFA provided:

a) Weekly specialist play schemes and youth clubs during term time and holidays
b) Volunteer mentoring and befriending service (Reach Out)
c) Support for Adults
d) Family Support for parent and carers
e) Community support
f) School Integration: Orange House
g) Therapies (Music, Play and Counselling)
h) Training and Consultancy to organisations

Our Reach in 2023-2024

In line with our strategic priorities, we saw the following engagement levels in our services in 23/24:

50,758 unique users of our online resources
8,998 hours donated by volunteers
732 children and young people supported
755 families accessed our First Response Service (IRAS)
707 parents and carers attended drop-in and training sessions
45 families received specialist behaviour support
455 professionals received autism training
534 adults supported

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Key contributors to the achievement of the above include:

Successful recruitment initiatives which included targeted recruitment in specific local areas, and a partnership with a new agency that provided qualified support staff.
Increasing our resource in our family support team enabling us to support the level of demand and increased complexities in referrals.
Our national leadership structure has embedded further since January 2023 and has enabled better cross regional collaboration and the development of joined up, online/ virtual opportunities for families across both regions re: workshops and support.
Our training and capacity building arm has expanded steadily through better marketing of our offer and through our 2-year capacity building grant from the Mayor of London.
New groups have been developed in adults’ services as well as our therapy services with the growth of our adult counselling offer.
New five-year partnership was secured with Merchant Taylors Foundation to deliver workshops and support for 16–25-year-olds in Lewisham and Southwark.

Acknowledgement to funders and supporters

RfA is grateful to all the funders and supporters that have contributed or donated during 2023/24. We would like to formerly acknowledge and thank the following as you have made the outputs and impact stated in these accounts possible:

National Lottery Community Fund, New Deal, Fit for all, Young Londoners fund, Children’s Quarter, Barnet Community Fund, John Lyons, Space2Grow, Compass Wellbeing, Children in Need, Childwick Trust, Three Guineas Trust, Scream Foundation, Jack Petchy Foundation, Bloomfield Trust, Garfield Weston, Eveson Trust, Landua Ltd, Blackrock Foundation, St James Place Foundation, City Bridge Trust, Rethink Mental Illness, Mercers Grant, NCEL Compass, Masonic Charitable Foundation, and Merchant Taylor’s Company.

Birmingham Children’s Trust, Walsall Council, and the London Boroughs of Brent, Newham, Lewisham, Haringey and Waltham Forest.

Our Impact

This year we reviewed all of our Impact across our different services with an aim to renew our theory of change. We worked with an expert consultant who supported our managers to identify the specific outcomes for each our services, the tools we can use to measure them and the connection those have with our overarching theory of change. A map of our revised Theory of change is outlined below, stating our overarching organisational outcomes. Work on how we capture, measure and monitor our outcomes continues across each of our service areas continues.

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Children and Young People Services and Impact

Across the year:

15 Children were supported though our music therapy offer
33 children accessed our play therapy service in the West Midlands
73 young people were supported through our Reah Our mentoring scheme
339 children accessed our holiday schemes
199 children accessed our term time services
17 complex children were supported through Orange house
21 children (and families) received direct support through our Early help service in Barnet

This year, our focus remained steadfast on broadening our reach and enhancing our impact in alignment with our strategic goals to expand our children and young people offer. We expanded our service offerings, reaching more young people and introducing new participants to our programs.

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Our commitment to supporting children and young people was further demonstrated through the growth of our play therapy service, which provided 238 individual and group support to 33 unique children. Additionally, in December, our Head of Music Therapy transitioned out, leading us to forge a partnership with North London Music Therapy. This collaboration, facilitated by co-location in our building, introduced a streamlined referral pathway.

Our mentoring and befriending service, supported by funding from John Lyons and the Mayor of London, delivered over 2,340 sessions to 73 young people. Encouragingly, 80% of mentees reported improvements in various areas, including relationships, self-confidence, communication skills, and engagement in activities outside the home.

Stats from our annual impact survey tell us the following:

78% felt our services have improved the child/ young persons wellbeing
74% felt our services have contributed to improved mental health
76% felt our services had enabled greater social networks to be formed
74% felt the child/ young persons life skills have improved
60% felt there have been improvements in communication
80% of the young people accessing Reach Out said they have had improvement in relationships/friendships, self-confidence, communication skills and engagement with activities out of the home.

“I have learnt how to look after myself and that I don’t have to force myself to do things that make me anxious.” Young mentee.

“This group is critical to my son’s wellbeing, it allows him to be part of a social group and spend time with kids his own age.” Parent of a youth club attendee.

“She loves her key worker. She gets routine and she looks forward to it every weekend. The staff are so understanding and kind to my daughter. I would never know how to thank them for all they have done for my family.” Parent of a holiday scheme attendee.

Direct feedback/ scores from some children and young people that attended one of our holiday schemes: Question; how would you rate the session out of 10?

7/10 – score from 2 of the children and young people

8/10 – score from 5 of the children and young people 9/10 – score from 5 of the children and young people 10/10 – score from 4 of the children and young people

From our base at Orange House, our alternative provision for children from the London Borough of Newham, we supported 17 children who had been permanently excluded from their special education settings. Unfortunately, in February 2024, Orange House was decommissioned by the local authority. A lot of work and time was spent by RfA staff to support the remaining children and families accessing the service to transition onwards. The loss of this service has had a big impact on RfA and the families being supported. RfA will explore options and opportunities going forwards to support children excluded from special schools as this is special cohort of children with very few support options available to them.

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Adult Services Impact

When autistic children transition into adulthood, often their support disappears. We have always been committed to ensuring that the autistic adult community is not left behind. This year saw significant changes in our adult services with more emphasis on co-production and the development of some new groups and services.

Across the year:

190 adults benefited from our initial response advice and signposting service
26 adults received bespoke counselling support
30 adults received critical intervention support
284 adults attended the different clubs and activities ran by RfA
478 face to face and virtual sessions with adults took place in the year

Exciting new group initiatives have been created in adult services across London and the West Midlands. In both areas we operated at full capacity across all social groups, particularly for those who are independent and semiindependent. We've forged a partnership with the Urban Forest Collective to lead our walking group in different green spaces of London. Additionally, we established a new semi-independent group for individuals aged 18-25 in Barnet and Brent. Mentoring has been integrated into all our groups, emphasising a personalised support model that focuses on the individual goals of each adult. Sessions are tailored to their specific aspirations, and peer support is encouraged to facilitate progress in their lives.

‘’E really enjoys the sessions and we’re so happy that he chooses to attend. We feel that his attendance has helped with developing his independent and social skills and has had a positive effect on his wellbeing through the support of the group and the client led activities, which are wide and varied. The club has increased his happiness and reduced his social isolation. Thank you for your support!’’

Thanks to funding from the Merchant Taylors’ Company, we launched two new social groups in Southwark and Lewisham for 18-25-year-olds, offering a variety of social activities and workshops. All our groups aim to enhance independent skills, foster connections, and promote a sense of belonging in an environment that supports, accepts, and embraces autism. We are also offering mentoring to those in the borough who are looking to develop skills and prepare for adulthood all through an autism lens.

Of those adults accessing our services that responded to our annual impact survey, as a result of RfA’s services:

81% noted improvements in their wellbeing
76% noted improvements in their mental health
79% shared improvements in their life skills
76% noted increased independence
68% felt their communication had improved.

Family Support Services Impact

Working with families is core to our work. We offer peer-led coffee mornings, crisis support, behaviour support, training, specialist workshops, signposting and a sibling’s groups. Many of our staff and volunteers delivering these services are experts by experience.

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Our services and outreach to families and carers this year is as follows:

755 families benefited from our initial response advice and signposting service
There were 28 courses/ workshops held for parents/ carers
458 parents/ carers attending the different workshops/ courses
249 parents/ carers attended our drop ins
627 sessions were held with families to offer bespoke support, advice or interventions

Our workshops covered areas such as sleep, diet and nutrition, self-care and wellbeing, behaviours of concern and screentime.

Case Study : Early Help W (5 years old)

The family were referred to us because mum lacked knowledge and understanding of autism, she found it difficult to keep W safe at home as he has no awareness of danger and struggled to communicate with him effectively.

Support was carried out through regular planned and targeted sessions. Areas of support were identified via assessing W’s needs during the assessment visit and a realistic number of targets were decided to work in line with mum’s capacity.

Summary of intervention:

School visit to observe W in the structured classroom environment, discuss W’s needs with staff and identify successful strategies applied at school to mirror and develop at home accordingly for a consistent approach. Upskilling mum’s knowledge and understanding of autism, behaviours and sensory needs and explaining how and why behaviours may present.
Supporting W’s communication and implementing visuals (the same type as at school) by creating a personalised visual timetable for W and one for each of his siblings, snack choice board, activity choice board and now/next board, and through modelling how to use them.
Teaching mum about the power of positive language, praise and giving choice.
Equipping mum with play skills to reduce W’s screen time by showing different styles of play, including parallel play, attention autism and intensive interaction, and increase his stimulation at home and keep him motivated. Introduced fun ideas for games and activities which can promote play skills e.g. turn taking and creating fun shared family activities for mum to continue with.
Implementing a travel toolkit containing sensory toys, snacks and activities for when W is out in the community. High reward snacks and games as a proactive strategy to help redirect W’s attention from potential triggers.
Early in the support, a safeguarding concern was raised because W absconded from the home property through a window. We carried out a risk assessment in the home and supported mum to arrange for locks to be fitted on all high-risk windows and doors and alarms were installed on the downstairs windows.

Mum now feels she is able to support W with more confidence and spends more time being able to interact and play with him. She is able to keep him safe and is also aware of the dangers and risks when she is working and when she isn’t able to give 100% of her time to him.

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Organisation Impact

Here are some additional highlights of our impactful initiatives aimed at behavioural change and organisational training:

Empowering 41 youth organisations across London with a comprehensive capacity-building program, made possible through a generous grant from the Mayor of London’s New Deal for Young People.
Facilitating the professional growth of 455 individuals across diverse sectors such as private, public, and third sector, through participation in 33 distinct training sessions—an impressive twofold increase compared to the previous year.
Spearheading an enlightening online event on neurodiversity in partnership with Blackbridge, where we served as keynote speakers. This event garnered substantial attention, drawing over 600 attendees from prominent graduate and apprenticeship employers.

Feedback from professionals who attended our training included:

“There were so many different ways that I can help support people with additional needs that I never knew about.”

“I think we are extremely accessible and inclusive however I was not as well informed before this training and so now can be far more inclusive”.

“I took a young autistic participant to a job interview after the training session. I already in that short space of time interacted with her differently to how I normally would, due to advice given by you in the training. This really helped the young person feel understood’.

“I have a better understanding of different ways to respond and react to people with autism, for example not rewording questions, instead allowing them time to answer and process as it does not mean they didn’t understand me necessarily to begin with”.

Volunteers

We are particularly grateful for our volunteers involvement in many different areas of RfA’s work including: mentoring and befriending, play therapy, parent support, gardening and office support.

This year…

8,998 volunteer hours were donated
84 people have been actively volunteering for RfA
75 new volunteers were recruited in year
29 volunteers left us in the year

This year exceeded previous years as we were delivering mentoring/befriending programmes funded by 2 key funders: John Lyons and New Deal.

Volunteers comments/ feedback:

“I really liked the satisfaction from supporting mentees to gain confidence and try new things’’

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‘’Being able to gain an understanding of Autism has been so insightful”
“I really enjoyed co-producing the sessions with my mentee, I loved that we both learnt from each other”
“the training I received as a volunteer was impactful, I learnt a lot”
“I could always reach out if I needed help or support”
“Training was amazing, very insightful”

Spotlight on Our Co-Production Work: The Autism Connections Club Journey

At Resources for Autism, we are committed to embedding co-production into our daily practices, ensuring that the voices and communication styles of autistic individuals and their families guide all our endeavours. The Autism Connections Club exemplifies one of our co-production journeys, born out of collaboration between RfA staff, management, and autistic adults who shared a common concern: perceived lack of connection with those on the waiting list for services.

The journey began with a simple yet profound aim: to create a safe and inclusive space for autistic adults on the waiting list to co-design and co-deliver ways to connect with each other and with RfA. Without additional funding, a space was secured at our West Midlands base on Pershore Road, where Co-Production Lead Janet and autistic advocate Chris spearheaded the initiative.

With a focus on building partnerships and ensuring a welcoming environment, the Waiting List Drop-In was launched, reaching out to 30 autistic adults with an open invitation. The response was promising, with 12 individuals expressing interest. Alternating Wednesdays became opportunities for connection, with attendees sharing experiences, insights, and aspirations for future services.

Reflections from these sessions, highlighted the profound impact of inclusive spaces and collaborative efforts. Inspired by these insights, the drop-in evolved into the Autism Connections Club, signalling a shift towards more intentional and structured engagement which is completely led by the members of the group.

As new members joined, challenges emerged, prompting the club to pause invitations and embark on a period of introspection and refinement. Co-designed tools and structures, including a Connections Toolkit and a revamped session structure, emerged from this process, emphasizing inclusivity and meaningful engagement.

Looking ahead, RfA will be looking at the options for coproduction and drafting an organisation wide strategy to embrace, embed and sustain coproduction work going forwards. This of course will be coproduced!

The journey of the Autism Connections Club is a testament to the transformative power of co-production, and we look forward to continuing this collaborative endeavour, guided by the voices and aspirations of those we serve.

“The Autism Connections club defines co-production. It is an absolute pleasure to come together with autistic adults, all connecting with one and other in a safe and like-minded environment – all flourishing with confidence, communication and daily living skills. It is an absolute pleasure to come together to create a harmonious environment and generate ideas and shape what we do and how we move forward.

The club is one of my proudest achievements.” Chris Freedman, co production lead

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Our Successes during 2023-2024

Over two years since the Global pandemic our charity has moved steadily from emergency response to resilience and over the last two years to steady growth. We have grown in reach in all of our services, and we have developed new services, partnerships and ways of working. At the same time, we have continued to improve our systems and processes internally in order to recruit and retain more staff, in order to ensure high quality across all of what we do, and in order to bring in the necessary income required for us to be sustainable. Our key successes over the last year include:

New Partnerships . This has been an incredible year in terms of our ability to form new partnerships with other organisations. Those include a partnership with Mind and Barnet Mencap to jointly deliver counselling to autistic adults in Barnet. We also formed a partnership with Urban Collective in order to deliver services that support the physical wellbeing of our autistic adults. We have formed a partnership with North London Music Therapy who have co-located in our building and with whom we plan to develop joint projects together in future. We joined the National Autism Alliance, a group of Autism Charities within the UK and together we developed national campaigns, best practice guide and a formed collective of leaders who can influence government on issues affecting the autism community.
New Contracts : This has been an incredibly successful year in terms of new contracts with our statutory partners. We have secured a 2-year contract with Lewisham Council in order to deliver an All-Age Autism Wellbeing Hub in Lewisham. We have secured a 1-year contract with Southwark to deliver short breaks for a high needs groups on Saturdays and during holidays. We have secured a contract with Barking and Dagenham for work that will commence in 2024 to deliver support to two specialist schools. We are delighted to be able to extend our circle of local authority partners.
New Trust and Foundation Partnerships : Despite the ongoing pressures of cost of living rises, we managed to get very close to our £1M target of philanthropic income again this year. We are delighted to have secured a five-year grant through Merchant Taylors to deliver work to 16–25-year-old autistic young people and their carers in Lewisham and Southwark. The total value of this contract over five years is £700K and we are delighted with the prospect and impact that this funding can have for the autism communities of Southwark and Lewisham. We have also been successful in securing another grant from Garfield Weston towards our core costs and we are truly delighted to secure another two-year funding from the Mayor of London which will enable us to continue our transformational work through our mentoring programme.
Co-production has been flourishing, with our autistic community driving incredible and creative initiatives
forward. We've introduced the West Midlands Connections Club, providing a platform for adults on the waiting list to come together at RFA, connect with others, and learn more about community happenings. Over the last year, our virtual forums led by a small group of autistic individuals, have hosted virtual evenings covering topics such as Autism Diagnosis, enjoying a Social Life, Benefits, Reasonable Adjustments, and Anxiety all receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback. We aim to expand this offer later in the year. Our Coproduction Lead has really driven our commitment to coproduction this year with tangible initiatives such as developing RfA’s co-production vision and policy, developing training to all staff and leaders, developing forums in which autistic adults can really drive forward the support they need and developing resources that enable this wok to be applied across all our services and levels of need. In March 2024 we were awarded a Bronze Quality mark for our work in Co-production from Birmingham Council. We are one of the first charities to ever receive such an award.
Diversity and Inclusion . Our pledge to ensure we are an inclusive employer has continued to strengthen this year. We have recruited a part time Diversity Lead and we have met regularly with senior management to ensure our commitment to inclusive employment and practice is genuine and holistic. This year our organisation took part again in the 5-day Race Equality Challenge and every member of our Leadership team

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lead the challenge on behalf of the organisation. We also run a series of Safe Conversations, which are spaces open to the entire organisation, led by lived experience where we can discuss topics that have to do with diversity. This year’s topics have included: racial equality, microaggressions, sexual identity and ADHD. We have adapted all our visual resources to ensure racial representation and through our co-production work we constantly try to develop new ways of raising the voices of those members of our community who are non-speaking.

Understanding our Impact : This year we worked with an expert consultant in order to renew our theory of change, to embed a culture of formal and informal ways we can be in active dialogue with our community and learn from their feedback.
Strengthened our Leadership : This year all of our Managers and Leaders took part in a 9-month leadership development programme called Dare to Lead which looks at how courage, vulnerability and shame show up in the work place and in leadership and what are the qualities that develop courageous, compassionate and resilient teams. The programme was very well received and is now being rolled out to the rest of the organisation. All members who attended received a Dare to Lead accreditation. Feedback from managers and leaders on the outcomes and impact of this development has been tremendously positive.

Our Challenges during 2023-2024

Demand : Our demand remained relatively similar to the level of last year (872 referrals in 2021, 850 in 2022, 936 in 2023 and 952 in 2024), however it is still significantly higher than pre-Covid times. The most soughtafter service is our children and young people groups, and we are working very hard to increase the capacity and reach of our groups. We have also seen a difference in the complexity of our referrals post pandemic times with mental health comorbidities featuring highly on a large proportion of our referrals. Emotionally Based School Avoidance and a large proportion of young people not attending school is also on the rise and our organisation is capacity building our skillset in order to be able to appropriately respond to these referrals.

Orange House Closure : The closure of Orange House deeply impacted our organisation, particularly the young people and families it served. Originally established in 2018 as a vital bridge to education for children and young people with complex needs excluded from specialist schools, Orange House provided essential support under the guidance of the Local Authority.

In December 2023, we received unexpected news from the Local Authority's new leadership team. Despite our compliance with previous directives, we were informed that our current registration status was insufficient. Promptly, we mobilized, engaging with the Department for Education to initiate the process of registering as an independent school after advice of the Local Authority. Despite our diligent efforts, the Local Authority chose to decommission Orange House, leaving the children we supported without placements. Despite assurances of the provision's quality, the Local Authority declined to work collaboratively with us to transition the children or maintain operations within the Department for Education's thresholds.

Regrettably, we were left with no choice but to cease operations. Throughout this challenging period, we provided unwavering support to the affected families. Despite our advocacy efforts, including appeals to senior members of the Local Authority, we faced an impasse. Over the past five years, Orange House successfully reintegrated 42 children into education, demonstrating a reintegration rate of 98%.

Funding: Cost of Living rises and the impact of that on our workforce and our beneficiaries remains a significant challenge. We are proud that despite the significant increases in London Living Wages and National Minimum

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Wages we have maintained our commitment to being a Living Wage Employer and in addition to that we have paid 3% uplifts to all other salaried roles. Staff costs makes up 80% of our total costs and we continue to remain vigilant in keeping the balance between ensuring RfA’s financial sustainability and looking after our workforce which is are most valuable asset.

Our Values

Inclusive : We welcome uniqueness and difference. We accept individuals for who they are and where they are in their personal development.

Compassionate: We offer empathetic, non-judgemental support, showing respect for each individual’s lived experiences.

Courageous: We continually persevere and battle to ensure our service users, staff and community get the care and support they need.

Creative : We recognise the importance of playfulness, flexibility and fun and we empower individuals to celebrate their skills and personality.

Expert: We listen, learn, and adapt to build our autism knowledge, experience and provide relevant, high quality, autism support.

Risks

The Directors have a risk management process to assess business risks and implement risk management strategies. This involves reviewing the risks the charity faces, prioritising them in terms of potential impact and likelihood of occurrence, and identifying means of mitigating the risks in line with a risk profile accepted by the board. As part of the risk management process, the charity complies with the Charity Commission’s list of internal financial controls in all material respects.

The organisation has a full set of policies and procedures, which are read and signed by all staff on appointment, including a detailed child and adult safeguarding policy. We began a review of many of our policies and procedures in January 2024 and expect this process to conclude in the summer. Our organisational risk matrix was updated in April 2024 and approved by the Board. All staff and Trustees are enhanced DBS checked and the organisation has four Designated Safeguarding Leads.

Risk assessments are completed for every activity undertaken. The organisation has employer, public, product, professional and trustee indemnity insurances in place.

RfA fully complies with fundraising best practice and is registered with the Fundraising Regulator. The organisation directly employs its fundraisers. We do not use fundraising agencies, and no one receives commission for fundraising. The charity’s income is primarily derived from fees and grants rather than from the general public. We do not use direct marketing for fundraising purposes which protects vulnerable people and have no complaints regarding our fundraising during the year.

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This year we have developed new terms of reference for our Trustees which came at the back of our governance review. As part of that, we have agreed a 2-term tenure for any new Trustee and existing Trustees have the option to serve another term of four years.

Financial Review

The charity had a deficit of £56,637 for the year, compared with a deficit of £20,750 in the previous year.

Income from charitable activities, in the form of fees and contracts increased by £9,232.

Expenditure increased by £155,416 due mainly higher inflation in 23/24 and average increase for hourly paid staff of 15% and 3% for contracted staff which could not be fully recovered from fees and statutory contracts creating a greater deficit than the previous year.

The unrestricted funds held at the end of the year decreased by £90,689 to £1,727,646 and restricted funds increased by £34,052 to £47,214.

Total funds at the year-end stand at £1,774,860 of which £812,627 is designated as it could only be realised by selling the charity’s fixed assets, and £915,019 represents undesignated ‘free’ reserves. More details of the reserves can be seen in note 15 of the accounts.

Reserves

The aim of Resources for Autism’s reserves policy is to ensure that its ongoing and future activities are reasonably protected from unexpected variances in income and expenditure.

Resources for Autism aims to maintain reserves at a reasonable level to ensure it can meet its running costs for between 6 and 12 months. Trustees have maintained a level of 3.9 months of current expenditure and are aware of the need to continue to grow this to the 6-month level.

The relevant reserves for the purposes of the reserves policy are represented by all free reserves and exclude designated funds.

Principal Funding Sources

Resources for Autism recognises the importance of having a mix of funding streams and has been successful in maintaining a balance of statutory contracts, grants, and fees. Whilst our training income remains low this year, we have secured grant income that has enabled us to grow our training offer and develop it even further in future.

The organisation has continued to be successful in winning tenders to provide Autism specialist child, youth and family provision for several local and regional authorities and despite the termination of our Orange House contract, we have a number of new partnerships secured and more in our pipeline.

Resources for Autism has received a range of grants during the period, a full list of which is contained in the body of these accounts. Fees from individuals for services provided have been a crucial element in maintaining a healthy funding balance but RfA also recognises that no one in need of the services we offer should be turned

RESOURCES FOR AUTISM ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

away due to an inability to pay. Subsidised fees for families, who are in receipt of tax credits, income support or simply on very low income, continue to be a crucial element of our charitable services.

Whilst our legacy income dropped significantly in the last three years, RfA is deeply indebted to those who have supported us in this way.

Plans for Next Year

2023/24 saw great progress in many areas and a change of CEO. Dolyanna Mordochai, left the organisation in May 2024 with the new CEO Phil Cook taking over after handover. The current strategy runs until 2025 so 2024/25 will see work taking place to set the direction of organisation for the next 3-5 years.

The key priorities in 2024/25 will include:

Continuation of service delivery with a focus on reviewing and improving quality across all areas
Launching and embedding the Lewisham All Age Autism Hub
Seizing appropriate opportunities that align with the current strategy/ areas of expertise
Exploring options and opportunities for work in the school/ education space (linking to ‘next steps’ post Orange House’s closure)
Striving for a break-even position financially
Exploring tech opportunities and systems to progress the charity and aid progress.

Directors and their Interests

Apart from the Directors/Trustees listed on page 1, no other person served as a charity trustee during 2023/24.

Statement of Directors’ Responsibilities

The trustees, who are also the directors of Resources for Autism for the purposes of company law, are responsible for preparing a trustees’ annual report and 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 year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, including the income and expenditure, of the charity for that year.

In preparing the financial statements, the trustees are required to:

select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently.
observe the methods and principles in the Charities SORP.
make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent.
state whether applicable UK accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements.
Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in operation.

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The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity 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 charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and financial information included on the charitable company’s website. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.

Statement as to disclosure to our auditors

In so far as the trustees are aware at the time of approving our trustees’ annual report:

there is no relevant information, being information needed by the auditor in connection with preparing their report, of which the auditor is unaware, and
The trustees, having made enquiries of fellow directors and the auditor that they ought to have individually taken, have each taken all steps that he/she/they is/are obliged to take as a director in order to make themselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establish that the auditor is aware of that information.

By order of the board of trustees

Sir Nick Hine

Chair

Date: 16/09/24

Auditors The auditors, Begbies Chartered Accountants Ltd, are deemed to be reappointed under section 487(2) of the Companies Act 2006.

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INDEPENDENT AUDITORS’ REPORT TO THE MEMBERS OF RESOURCES FOR AUTISM

Opinion

We have audited the financial statements of Resources for Autism (the “Charitable Company”) for the year ended 31[st] March 2024 which comprise the Statement of Financial Activities, the Balance Sheet, the Cash Flow Statement 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, including Financial Reporting Standard 102: The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (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[st] March 2024 and of its income and expenditure for the year then ended;
have been properly prepared in accordance with United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice;
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 Auditor’s 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.

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 charity’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 auditor’s report 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.

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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 trustees’ report (incorporating the directors’ report) for the financial year for which the financial statements are prepared is consistent with the financial statements; and
The trustees’ report (incorporating the directors’ report) have been prepared in accordance with applicable legal requirements.

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 Trustees’ Annual Report.

We have nothing to report in respect of the following matters in relation to which 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;
the financial statements are not in agreement with the accounting records and returns;
certain disclosures of trustees’ remuneration specified by law are not made; or
we have not received all the information and explanations necessary for the purposes of our audit.
the trustees were not entitled to take advantage of the small companies’ exemptions in preparing the trustees’ report and from the requirement to prepare a strategic report.

Responsibilities of the trustees

As explained more fully in the Director’s responsibilities statement, the trustees 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 they 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.

Auditor’s 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 an auditor’s report that includes our opinion.

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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.

Extent to which the audit was capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud

Irregularities, including fraud, are instances of non-compliance with laws and regulations. We design procedures in line with our responsibilities, outlined above, to detect material misstatements in respect of irregularities, including fraud. The extent to which our procedures are capable of detecting irregularities, including fraud is detailed below:

agreement of the financial statement disclosures to underlying supporting documentation;
enquiries or confirmation of management and the trustees as to their identification of any non-compliance with laws or regulations, or any actual or potential claims;
review of minutes of Board meetings throughout the period;
incorporating unpredictability into the nature, timing and/or extent of testing.
evaluation of the selection and application of the accounting policies chosen by the charity.
in relation to the risk of management override of internal controls, by undertaking procedures to review journal entries and evaluating whether there was evidence of bias that represented a risk of material misstatement due to fraud; and
we assessed the susceptibility of the charity’s financial statements to material misstatement, including how fraud might occur by considering the key risks impacting the financial statements.

Our audit procedures were designed to respond to risks of material misstatement in the financial statements, recognising that the risk of not detecting a material misstatement due to fraud is higher than the risk of not detecting one resulting from error, as fraud may involve deliberate concealment by, for example, forgery, misrepresentations or through collusion.

There are inherent limitations in the audit procedures performed and the further removed non-compliance with laws and regulations is from the events and transactions reflected in the financial statements, the less likely we are to become aware of it.

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 auditor’s report.

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 auditor’s 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’s members as a body, for our audit work, for this report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Katherine Dee FCA (Senior Statutory Auditor)

For and on behalf of Begbies Chartered Accountants, Statutory Auditors Bonhill Street

London, EC2A 4DJ Date:18/09/2024

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29 £110,850 deferred income brought forward at the beginning of the year was released to income during the year