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2020-09-30-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT

Over 20 Years of PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION:

Aims and Objectives.

The Report – Organisational Manager, Lifelong President and Chairperson

CONTENTS:

A Year of Two Halves

Sefton OPERA A Grass Roots Community Organisation Adapting Our Resources and Reorganising 20 Years of Health & Wellbeing Activities & New Covid Sessions Meeting the Needs of Older People Statistics A Year of Two Halves Sustainablility The Way Forward

FINANCE:

Trustees Accounts Annual Report Charity, Bank, Trustee Details Independent Examiners Report Statement of Financial Activities Balance Sheet Accounting Policies

Aims and Objectives.

Sefton O.P.E.R.A aims to provide health and wellbeing activities to local older people across Sefton seeking to improve their quality of life, whilst helping to reduce the health inequalities for those most disadvantaged.

Our Objective

To promote any charitable purposes for the benefit of older persons in the borough of Sefton and in particular the advancement of education, and the promotion of good health, the prevention of social isolation and the relief of poverty, sickness and distress arising therefrom.

Our Mission

To enable older people to take power in relation to their own health, to maintain and improve the quality of their lives, recognising that they are an important resource to their peers and their community.

Our Vision

The organisation aims to be the focus for excellence and innovation in working with older and vulnerable people.

Our Social Value

Sefton O.P.E.R.A is committed to improving the lives of local people by local people giving a dignified and respectful service to all. We are committed to building the skills and confidence of our local volunteers to enable them to provide regular social interaction, intergeneration, and physical activities. We will reduce social isolation, improve community cohesion and give Sefton’s older people choices in respect to how they can improve their own health and wellbeing.

Quality Assurance

Sefton O.P.E.R.A holds the following quality assurance framework:

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THE REPORT

Vikki Martlow Organisational Manager

Vikki Martlow Organisational Manager reported: We are calling this “The Year of Two Halves” And it certainly has been in the first half of the year we were still celebrating 20 years of service with several celebrations to say thank you to our volunteers for all the work they have provided for Sefton O.P.E.R.A and who are and have always been the backbone of our organisation. But also due to Covid-19 the lockdown and shielding with the majority of our volunteers and beneficiaries being in the higher risk categories the staff stepped up changed the activities to be Coronavirus Regulations Compliant, and turning the tables providing the necessary support to the volunteers, and beneficiaries with a range of new activities, help and support for the new and unforeseen problems that needed to be solved. With this in mind I want to say a big thank you as always to the volunteers for their continued support and work but also a big thank you to the staff for stepping up in a crisis and putting our volunteers and beneficiaries first, enabling them to Stay Home & Stay Safe.

Ann Mardell Honorary Lifelong President

Cathy Crook Chair Person

Ann Mardell Founder Member reported: I have great pleasure in being able to write this statement for the 2021 A.G.M. of Sefton O.P.E.R.A. they must be extremely proud of themselves to be able to continue their work in the community in this dreadful time. The staff must have had it difficult at the end of 2019, the beginning of 2020 to be told of essential changes that they had to take on, as always, they sat down and were able to work out a plan last February which enabled them to continue the invaluable work they do in the community. They have kept the volunteers up to date with very welcomed telephone calls, birthday and Christmas cards, activity packs and book loans. The staff were there at the end of the phone to make sure we were safe and did not need anything. It’s been a difficult year but as usual the staff have come to the fore and made the best of a bad time for which i would like to say a very big thank you.

Cathy Crook Chairperson reported: This year has been one of the most trying for all the volunteers, committee, and staff. As an organisation that’s main aim is enabling older people to take power in relation to their own health & wellbeing to promote health & wellbeing activities whilst reducing loneliness and isolation the lockdowns have had a dramatic impact on our members, many who have been shielding since March due to ill health and as most of our volunteers are also over 60, they have also had to shield. I am proud of the way our organisation quickly changed its activities and stepped up with the helping hand packages and activities in their time of need. Once again Sefton O.P.E.R.A have been at the forefront in helping out at grass roots in the community during the pandemic. I wish to thank all our volunteers, committee and especially the staff for all their hard work in these unprecedented times.

One of our favourite quotes:

Cathy Crook Chair Person

“AND IN THE END, IT’S NOT THE YEARS IN YOUR LIFE THAT COUNT. IT’S THE LIFE IN YOUR YEARS” (Abraham Lincoln)

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A YEAR OF TWO HALVES

Well, it’s been the most unusual of years, in our history we have never seen a year like it.

The first half of the year was on a high still celebrating our 20[th] Anniversary in June 2019, we had several outings and dances to let everyone know how proud we were of being able to provide much needed services in the community for over 20 years. Due to our logo everyone always thinks Sefton O.P.E.R.A is an operatic singing organisation which always gave us a way of explaining about the activities we provide for the old and vulnerable people throughout Sefton. People are living longer but are less likely to be part of a close knit family who might have been able to provide support in the past, families are no longer all living within a few streets of each other making it easy to look after each other this is why so many say that Sefton O.P.E.R.A are their extended family and the social connections we make are so important, and for the first half of the year we continued to deliver our services which the older and vulnerable people had helped us to form through evaluation and recommendations.

The second half of the year was very different with Covid-19 and the lockdown that started in March 2020 our whole world got turned upside down. We quickly had to adapt, and we made sure we had the contact details of as many of our attendees as possible and quickly started making changes in our activities we provided. As most of our attendees are old vulnerable and many with health issues who were advised to shield, we set up contact groups on WhatsApp to keep in touch and made lists of all those who were on their own and would need additional help. We started delivering Emergency Food packages and providing a doorstep help group picking up prescriptions and shopping as needed. We also started phoning everyone on our list who wanted us to keep in contact and started to provide activities, puzzles, quizzes, crafts, knitting and books and dvds to keep people as active as we could trying to keep their spirits up as many of them didn’t have a support network around them with families living far apart. We also started doing some outside sessions to the homes and sheltered accommodation. Everything within the Government Covid guidance.

“If ageing is to be a positive experience, longer life must be accompanied by continuing opportunities for participation, health and security” (World Health Organisation) This was one of the straplines we used in last year’s AGM Report and we think this has never been more needed and tested than in the last 12 months.

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Sefton O.P.E.R.A IS A GRASS ROOTS COMMUNITY ORGANISATION

Sefton OPERA is a registered charity (established in 1999) delivering a wide range of health and wellbeing activities for Older and vulnerable people in Sefton. Our mission is **to enable older people to take power in relation to their own health, to maintain and improve the quality of their lives, recognising that they are an important resource to their peers and their community and their own wellbeing.** We achieve this through empowering local older people through the delivery of a wide variety of activities. Working tirelessly providing Health & Wellbeing activities to build confidence, self-esteem and reduce social isolation, and improve the health and wellbeing of our older citizens.

We continue to develop a wide range of activities and services; we have undertaken different consultations events to identify what areas we need to further develop. Below is a brief overview of our services

Older people have told us that coming to our activities has been a real lifeline, has helped them cope through difficult transitions like loss of a loved one, ill health, family moving away or just getting use to retirement. This has never been more prominent than in the lockdown where keeping in touch with others has become a lifeline to some who don’t have a family or other network around them to provide support

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ADAPTING OUR RESOURCES AND REORGANISING

As an organisation we recognise the need to adapt and be bold to meet the new challenges facing Sefton`s older population in the coming years recognizing that the needs of the different age ranges of older people differ and our service need to meet this. We also want to support the development, working with older people to not only reduce the loneliness and social isolation, but we also want to enable older people to take the lead developing what, when, and how these new groups work, giving them ownership and co-production of developing service provision.

We recognise that there continues to be an emerging focus for action for our organisation which includes the following:

The wards that we deliver activities in, have some of the highest deprivation in the borough and are ranked in the top 20% quantile of disadvantage in the country, and have multiple challenges, from poor housing, inadequate facilities, high levels of unemployment and low level of educational attainment and an above average proportion of older people and lone parent families, living on benefits.

People living in the most deprived quintile are nearly five times more likely to claim benefits such as Job Seekers Allowance (JSA) and Incapacity Benefit/Severe Disablement Allowance (IB/SDA) than people living in the least deprived quintile. In Sefton, particular social groups are at higher risk of having low income and consequently poorer health. As a charity that wants to be open and accessible to all we knew that we had to provide subsidies and free activities to encourage those possibly most excluded a way to participate in their community and enable them to take responsibility of improving their own health & wellbeing. We know that there are greater health inequalities in Sefton with over 11 year’s life longevity difference between wards across Sefton.

Sefton O.P.E.R.A. believe that bringing free health information, and services direct to local neighborhoods either in community centers, church halls or directly to people’s accommodation, i.e., local sheltered schemes, residential care homes give people more choice and better access to health and support services, which will help to address these inequalities. For many people in Sefton, their income plus benefits is inadequate to support a healthy life. It is well-recognized that people on low incomes refrain from purchasing goods and services that maintain or improve health and a larger proportion of their money is spent on commodities that attract indirect taxes and present increased health risks.

Future projections by Oxford Brookes University predict that by 2030 the number of over 65’s in Sefton living alone will increase by 65% from the levels recorded in Census 2011 to in excess of 30,000.

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20 YEARS OF HEALTH & WELLBEING ACTIVITIES & NEW COVID SESSIONS

It is vital to recognize the importance of the work Sefton O.P.E.R.A carry out in the prevention and improvement of health and wellbeing for so many older people in this area without financial support this work would be lost and innovation for future older citizens services would be greatly reduced. We are determined for this work to continue and grow, Sefton O.P.E.R.A are more and more aware of the links between loneliness isolation and poor health higher blood pressure and depression and is also linked to higher incidence of dementia as a result of these health impacts lonely individuals tend to make more use of health and social care services and are more likely to have early admission to residential or nursing care (Combating Loneliness a Guide for Local Authorities). And we realise that early intervention is the key to the success of the long-term improvements of both physical and mental wellbeing, while ensuring good health and maintaining independence promoting wellbeing this has shown to be a great success over the past 20 years.

ACTIVITIES

  1. Pamper

  2. Family Tree 15. Art, Craft 16. Floristry 17. Peer Health Mentors 18. Computers 19. Digital Cameras 20. Eating Well Mentors 21. Music Remember When 22. Stress Busting 23. Falls Program 24. Youth Project (Asdan) 25. Youth Forum 26. Jamming Sessions 27. Drop in Pamper 28. Drop In Chair 29. Card Craft

  3. Smoking Cessation Mentors

  4. Tai Chi

  5. Meditation

  6. 50+ Learn Swimming x4

  7. Reminiscence Session and Sing a Long (Memory Lane Duo)

  8. History Group

  9. Skills Transfer Training the carers

  10. Intergenerational Bridging the Gap Computers

  11. Intergenerational pamper

  12. Chair Exercises

  13. Befriending Service

  14. Sing-a-long & Reminiscence (Days Gone Bye)

  15. Zumba

  16. T-Dances Bootle Cricket, Guild

Hall & Atkinson Centre

  1. Don’t Be Lonely Cards, Covid Keeping in Touch

  2. Bootle Belles

  3. Social Inclusion Days Out

  4. Books & DVD Lending Mobile Library to Your Door

  5. Open Doors One Stop Shop

  6. Men Behaving Brilliantly

  7. Activity Pack Deliveries Puzzles, Quizzes, Craft Etc.

  8. Walking Group

  9. Outdoor Entertaining Sessions, Tai Chi, Chair Exercises.

  10. Institches

  11. Never Too Late Healthy Living Group

  12. First Touch Computers Learn Facetime/WhatsApp

  13. Keep Warm Keep Well

  14. Zoom Sessions

  15. Beat the January Blues

  16. Winter Warm Packs

  17. Beating Loneliness Together

  18. Keeping In Touch Phone calls

  19. Emergency Covid Shopping

  20. Emergency Covid doorstep service Prescription’s pickup

  21. WhatsApp Contact Groups

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MEETING THE NEEDS OF OLDER PEOPLE

The new NHS Right Care Frailty Toolkit published in 2019: Following publication of the NHS Long Term Plan in January 2019, which announced a significant change of emphasis towards developing primary and community services focused on improving the care offer to older people in their homes and communities. Targeting for the next five years specifically on community delivered services of which are designed to support older people as part of a national Ageing Well Programme. The clear intent is to provide services to people which meet their needs so that they get the care they need at the right time and in the right place. And In 2019 Public Health England, said by 2022 there will be 3.7 million more people aged 50 to State Pension age , quoting “Being able to stay healthy in later life is a crucial issue for all of us”. Sefton O.P.E.R.A’s ethos has been to enabling older people to look after their own health for over 20 years, so once again we are ahead of the game. This was taken from our last year’s AGM report but is still very apt and links into the recently reported Sefton Health & Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2025

*The Health & Welling Strategy is the overarching plan to improve the Health and Wellbeing of people in Sefton and to reduce health inequalities, the differences in health between different communities or groups of people. Knowing that in Sefton, good health and wellbeing in not equal across the borough with too many experiencing poor health. The strategy’s needs are based on Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) taking account of the latest policy, guidance and evidence. Focusing on the areas of greatest need ensuring increased efforts on prevention prioritising both physical and mental health and create connection across the public, private, voluntary, and community sectors to make lives better for people in Sefton.

We know that as a whole we are an ageing population Sefton has 20% over 65 compared to 16% in England, we know that 1 in 5 Sefton residents live in the most deprived 10% of England, we know that Sefton’s most deprived populations also spend on average 18 years less in good health than those in the most affluent areas this also has a knock on effect of life expectancy in Sefton being 9 years lower for men and 8 years for women in the most deprived areas of Sefton than in the least deprived areas. Studies have shown that there is a direct link between poor health and exercise having a profound effect on dementia diagnosis which is also on the rise with 40% increase in the past 5 years. Air pollution is thought to be responsible for 3.8% of Sefton’s deaths, and deaths from respiratory and cardiovascular disease are rising in Sefton.

An estimated 27% of Sefton residents have two or more chronic conditions and 17% have 3 or more chronic conditions* We also know that poor health has a knock-on effect of loneliness and isolation with 21% of people over 65 seeing their family and friends less than once a week or not at all leading to loneliness and isolation. The proportion of people who live alone is likely to keep rising due to the increased longevity and changes in family structures and this was all before Covid-19, Statistics show the lonelier and more isolated a person feels the more they are likely to use NHS & GP services without real medical needs. This is why Sefton O.P.E.R.A are providing aprox 45 hours of activities weekly (and aprox 10 hours with our 5 monthly activities) with 14 drop in social inclusion, and 9 weekly activities for volunteers to join the potential financial saving on the much-needed resources of the NHS & GP services must be substantial. We need to encourage older people to re-join their community in a safe and secure manor. Providing revised activities due to Covid-19, with measures in place to ensure peoples safety, but the necessity to provide activities is now higher with the recovery after Covid-19 and the lockdowns due to the adverse health problems they have caused to already poor health & wellbeing in the area.

  • Information from Sefton Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2020-2025, Centre for Public Health Study = Liverpool John Moores University, Data from JSNA:www.sefton.gov.uk/JSNA,

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STATISTICS A YEAR OF TWO HALVES

We Had 12 Social Inclusion Sessions

with 635 Participants

Lake District Trip, Bury Market Trip 2 Barge Trips, 4 Christmas Lunches 2 Royal Court, Beat The January

We provided a range of activities to 13 community events with 417 participants.

2 Keep Warm Keep Well Events, Southport Senior Fare Event, Southport Life Rooms Event, Sing Plus Event, Carers Event, Good Companions Event, Hudson Primary, Hazel Court, Damfield Gardens Event, James

We had 15 Weekly In-House and Community Drop In Sessions & 5 Monthly Drop In Sessions 4752 Participations WEEKLY:3 Computer Sessions, 3 50+ Swimming Sessions, Pamper Session, Mens Group, Institches Group, Never Too Late Group, Craft Group, Quiz

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Totalling 4050
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With 1380 participants to our care home pamper sessions, 79 attendees to our volunteer training sessions including the new Covid PPE & First Aid Training it has been a very busy year with aprox 7263 to our usual and 4850 to our Covid activities totalling 12,113 participations this year

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SUSTAINABILITY & FUNDING

The last 2 years have been difficult, where due to funding coming to an end, coupled with the onset of Covid-19 where many larger funders undertaking Covid-19 emergency funding plus our normal donations, fundraising and trading activities being put on hold has had a massive impact on Sefton OPERA finances.

We are at a stage where we have looked at Sefton OPERA as a charity and how we ensure our continuity for the future. We recognise that due to Covid-19 and the necessary cancellation of events by both other groups and ourselves is having a major impact on our income for the organisation. Looking at last year`s accounts we brought in approx. 20K from donations, fundraising and trading activities, which due the Covid 19 pandemic we have been unable to bring in. This means we need to secure funding for general core costs to pay rent, phones, internet, insurance, computer licenses etc.

Due to Covid-19 many funders were undertaking emergency funding for Covid-19 projects for which we are grateful, as in many ways it was a steppingstone to being ready to meet the challenges of a changing financial environment. We understand that with all the cutbacks during lockdown and business not being able to trade as normal this will have a knock-on effect to the funders who provide grants for organisations such as Sefton OPERA.

Community resilience in times when there are depleting resources is vital to continue to improve the quality of life of older people living in Sefton.

THE WAY FORWARD

Our organisation would not be the organisation we are today, without our trustees, volunteers, beneficiaries and staff who between them have a vast range of knowledge, skills and expertise to our organisation, who either work or have worked and live in Sefton. As an organisation over the last couple of years we have undertaken a major review of our services, with the help and support of all our stakeholders to help Sefton OPERA have a clear path to continue to develop and maintain our work to meet the growing demand and challenges presented by our every increasing older population coupled with the ongoing austerity impacting on existing services and now the new challenges presented by Covid-19.

We understand that when creating activities, we must make a longterm commitment to our beneficiaries ensuring that they can access them regularly and without disruption. This against a backdrop of funding cuts can be difficult but we are committed to local older people in Sefton, and they will always be our priority in all that we do. To date we have been able to successfully run our projects over years rather than months, this is testament to their popularity and also the need for our services within the communities we work with and arises from the fact that they are activities that have been asked for by the locals who attend them rather than us putting on activities we think they need.

As an organisation we understand the need to adapt and be bold to meet the new challenges facing Sefton`s older population in the coming years recognising that the needs of the different age ranges of older people differ and our service need to meet this. We appreciate that there continues to be an emerging focus for action for our organisation, early intervention and prevention will be vital to support our ageing population. The growth in developing social networks to create greater resilience will also be vital in order for our older people to share and support each other through the many transitions of later life.

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FINANCE Objectives and Activities

FINANCE Reference and Administrative Details

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FINANCE Structure Governance & Management

FINANCE Trustees Responsibilities

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FINANCE Independent Examiners Report

FINANCE Statement of Financial Activities

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FINANACE Balance Sheet FINANCE Accounting Policies Sefton O.P.E.R. Balance Shoet As at 30 September 2020 These summarized accounts are an exlract from thè statutory annual report ar)d accounts of Sefton O_P.E_R.A (Older Persons Enabling Fiesource & AGtion) for the financial year ended 30 September 2020 ar7d which have bèen I ndependently Examined by Sefton CVS (Council for Voluntary Servic6s} Community Accountants, C•X)p￿y￿WnbOr. 3841119 hlcl• 2Q20 2L119 The exarniner5 have confimied to the trustees that these summarized aGwunts are consistent wth the full annual accounts of the charty for the year ended 30th SepteErber 2020. Flxed A88ets TangR a54s li A,119 Current Ass•ts DeiAors GYh ai bank and In h 12 13 5Q9 98,341 426 The full annual accounts and Trustee's report of the Gharity were approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf on 6° May 2021. They tse submtitèd to the Charity Cornmission and Companies House by 28 June 2021. 98.850 Credltors: Amourts lalltng due wrthln one year 74.￿ 670 Ntrt CurrentA8sets g8J50 73,￿6 Copies of the chartiy's full annual accounts and Ihe independent examiners report on those accounts and the TNstee8 report may be obtained from Sefton O.P.E.R.A St Matthews Church. 410 Stanley Road. Bootle, L20 5AE. Total Net Assets 99,469 74,74L Funds of the Charlty Signed un behalF of the Trustees eArieral [.￿ 3?,￿8 Utwosythd FuNb 15 16 53,618 45,851 32.688 4105J Total Funds 99.469 74,741 In rfyovlro these finalal statPr￿S as dWthrs¢the cornrAny 0￿fir￿ the For tht. ye6r h quesuon ￿ comwy entttknj to 477etthe Comtk•¥ At 2006 to Emall Cathy Crook Chairperson Dated 6tr. May 2021. 11 The. nmLf5 liave mt the tsxnpany to (Wn ￿aL¥ll£ tts ￿￿Unt$fOr Il year ¢￿tI(]n kn acmrdance wlth 476. 21 The ￿￿torS a(nD*JW Iwr re4>niNutks fw fmFlylng ￿th the1qthreffj￿ts orthewa vAth to p￿para￿)n ￿aCt￿rt. Sefton O.P.E.R.A would lik8 to thank the following funders: Big Lottery Covid Cash For Causes Garf181d Wéston Green LeathÈrséllers Liverpool Cares PH Holt Covid Rathbones Sefton MBC Sleve Morgan Covid Steve Morgan Veterans ￿￿ou￿¢S w•r• approv4d bythq bo¥dof diro¢tors on 6lh 2021. Mts Skne s￿1111￿, Trttst 14

St Matthews Church 410 Stanley Road Bootle, L20 5AE

Main Telephone: 0151 330 0479 Fax/Phone: 0151 944 2206 Mobile: 07452 867 648 Email: admin@seftonopera.org.uk

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