Disability Partnership Calderdale
Charity number 1155007
Annual Report and Financial Statements
for the year ended 31 March 2021
Disability Partnership Calderdale
Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 March 2021
| Contents | Page |
|---|---|
| Trustees' report | 2 to 6 |
| Examiner's report | 7 |
| Receipts and payments account | 8 |
| Statement of assets and liabilities | 9 |
| Notes to the accounts | 10 to 11 |
Prepared by West Yorkshire Community Accounting Service
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Trustees' report for the year ended 31 March 2021
Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisors
The trustees during the financial year and up to and including the date the report was approved were: Name Position Dates
Position Dates Marion Spruce Chair Malcolm Kielty MBE Secretary Geraldine Rushton Treasurer Peter Melling Resigned July 2021 David Ashton Mark Wardell Teresa Shaw Shabir Hussain Michelle Kinsey Resigned July 2020 Anne Bayliss Simon Peter Hemmingway Appointed November 2020 George Brian Sutcliffe Appointed November 2020
Charity number
The charity was registered with the Charity Commission for England and Wales, number 1155007, on 13 December 2013.
Principal address Bankers Resource Centre The Co-operative Bank PLC 8b Hall Street 1 Balloon Street Halifax Manchester HX7 5AY M60 4EP
Independent examiner
Helen Galvin FCCA
West Yorkshire Community Accounting Service
Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW
Structure, governance and management
The charity is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) formed on 13 December 2013 and is governed by a constitution.
Method of recruitment and appointment of trustees
The trustees of the charity are appointed by the members at the AGM.
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2021
Objectives and activities
The charity's objects
The charity's objects are to relieve the needs of disabled people, for the public benefit, in Calderdale to enable them to live as independently as possible by:-
a) Working in partnership with commissioners and service providers to raise awareness of issues of concern to disabled people, so that commissioners and service providers can make improvements to maximise access to mainstream and specialist services for people with physical and sensory impairments;
b) Raising the profile of disabled people in Calderdale;
c) Developing the CIO as an independent user led organisation (ULO) of adults who are interested in working together to support change for disabled people who live and/or work in Calderdale and have physical and/or sensory impairments;
d) Delivering services and organising and facilitating events involving disabled people, to make the long term future of the CIO more secure;
e) Holding regular meetings which look at issues in detail, where the membership works together in partnership with numerous commissioners and service providers to identify barriers faced by disabled people and improve service design and delivery so that disabled people have better access, experiences, improved wellbeing and quality of life;
f) Ensuring that disabled people are fully informed about policy changes that may affect their lives;
g) Empowering disabled people to take control of their lives and have greater confidence, choice, control and a louder voice over the way their needs are met so they can influence service improvement;
h) Ensuring that disabled people have greater access to housing, health, education, employment, leisure, and transport opportunities and can participate in family and community life.
The charity's main activities
We are an organisation of disabled people, led by disabled people. Our members are disabled people, mostly with physical and/or sensory impairments. Nine of our ten Trustees are disabled people. Our Trustees meet monthly and they are very involved, committed and fully informed.
We operate at the heart of a partnership of Disabled Peoples’ organisations in Calderdale. We are at the ‘hub’ of a Disability Partnership, and act as a key conduit between service providers and commissioners, and the people living with disabilities who use those services. We provide information, signposting, engagement and consultation as a two-way process between both the statutory, voluntary and private sectors and disabled people, and know that we are best placed to deliver our work. By involving disabled people in this way, we aim to achieve the removal of barriers to access, and improvements to services for the benefit of disabled people.
Public benefit statement
In setting our objectives and planning our activities our Trustees have given serious consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and in particular to enable disabled people in Calderdale to live as independently as possible by working in partnership with service providers and commissioners to raise awareness of issues of concern to disabled people and to maximise access to mainstream and specialist services.
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2021
Achievements and performance
Our response to the challenges due to the covid pandemic
Thanks to the three-year Reaching Communities funding from the National Lottery, we have two development workers and one admin worker who have been able to undertake a transformative amount of development work during the past two years.
We were very quick to respond at the start of covid lockdown to an unprecedented number of requests for support, advice and signposting, not only from our members, most of whom have been ‘shielding’ due to their disabilities, but also from people in neighbouring local authorities, and in fact all across the country due to our excellent website, newsletter and social media links. Our website traffic increased from an average of 4,000 ‘hits’ per month pre-pandemic, to over 1,000 per day! (4,000 per day at the height of the pandemic!)
At the time of writing this report (01 Sep 2021) 586 people subscribe to our e-newsletter, of which 355 are people with disabilities and their carers. Of these 355 people, 197 are ‘voting members’ with Physical or Sensory Impairments and 158 are ‘affiliate members’, which includes carers, and people with a range of other disabilities.
214 of our subscribers are professionals/partners, and 17 live out of the Calderdale area meaning they can receive the newsletter via email, but cannot be members at the present time. We also produce a printed version, which we post weekly to over 100 of our members who require a hard copy.
We aim to continue to support people with disabilities in Calderdale, which includes meeting an increased demand in the area and a large increase in our membership in past two years, which stood at just 80 people in 2019 before our development workers started.
How our work involves our community
Our community, that is disabled people, or ‘the disabled community’ is at the heart of everything we do. When covid restrictions allow, we aim to resume delivering social events, groups and meetings at accessible venues within local communities throughout Calderdale, and regularly engage with our members to ensure that we are meeting their needs.
At our meetings people are listened to and respected. We strive to ensure effective communication with people who are sight or hearing impaired, so that everyone is included in discussions. This can include a PA system with roving microphones and hearing loop, BSL interpreters, and speech to text (palantype) practitioner.
Our documents and information can be in suitable accessible formats, including video with subtitles and relevant languages. We provide a weekly e-newsletter, which is printed and mailed out to 100+ people who prefer a hard copy.
We currently do this weekly but will reduce the frequency as future covid restrictions are abated.
We are a conduit for engagement and consultation between disabled people and the providers (and commissioners) of services and facilities used by the public. We work together with all parties. Our aim is to enable a disabled person to have a ‘barrier free’ positive experience when using services and facilities. The information that we provide is useful and relevant to people within our community, and the services that we signpost people to are accessible and suitable for people living with disabilities.
We regularly attend networking events, and visit our partner organisations’ services, which we promote to our members and the wider community via all our channels of communication. We deliver focus groups in collaboration with our partners and are very keen on co-production. One example of this was prior to lockdown, where we needed to consult with disabled people and their carers within the South Asian community. We attended the local community centre in Park Ward, which has a high population of South Asian people. We liaised with several key people who helped us to facilitate a series of focus groups with Asian Women. We invited two of our partner organisations, who work directly with families with disabled children, and adults with learning disabilities, to collaborate with us on the project, as we acknowledged the benefits that working with these two organisations would give to the overall project, and the advantage that this co-production had, over doing this work by ourselves.
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2021
Achievements and performance (continued)
How disabled people have been affected by COVID-19
Many disabled people have been shielding for most of 2020, due to their vulnerability, caused by their conditions. This has led to people struggling in many ways, from the inability to obtain food deliveries, especially at the start of lockdown, to a large increase in low mood, anxiety and depression, caused by isolation and loneliness. Many of our members are older, and are not IT literate, and as the ‘world’ has continued to communicate online during lockdown, these people have been even more excluded, as their main source of human interaction through face-to-face groups, have all ceased. Additionally, the release of lockdown has also been incredibly challenging for some of these people, for example, the difficulties in communicating through face coverings for people with hearing loss and the problems associated with people who have hidden disabilities and cannot wear face coverings. There are many more examples like this, relating to a range of disabilities, and the problems people face.
Moving further into 2021, and out of the pandemic, we aim to continue to provide advice, information and signposting for these people, as we have been doing during the past two years. The continued provision of our phone line where people can call for help and support will be a valuable resource for people, as we can provide them with a whole range of support. Some examples include: providing phone numbers for local shops that deliver groceries and ready-made meals when large stores have no available slots, help with booking a Covid vaccine online for those who are digitally excluded, provision of face coverings or clear visors for people with hearing loss, and provision of ‘face covering exempt’ cards, with a DPC lanyard for those who need them.
We also continue to post daily news and articles on our website and social media channels, along with the production of our e-newsletter that contains up to date news and information, sourced from reliable news press releases including Gov.uk and local CCG and Council departments. We also continue to post a hard copy of the newsletter to those people who we know are digitally excluded.
All the above information will ensure that people remain informed and have all the information they need to come out of lockdown safely and feel more confident in their ability to safely re-engage in society, as many of our members have told us that this is a cause for concern and is a source of anxiety for many disabled people.
When we are able to meet face to face, our meetings will start again, which will not only be a valuable source of information for people with disabilities, but they will also be a vital source of social interaction with peers, which people have been eagerly awaiting. Refreshments and transport costs are also provided. We hope that this will make a positive contribution to these peoples’ wellbeing and mental health.
Funding
1 April ‘21 to 31 March ‘22, is the final year of our three-year lottery funded work programme. We have applied for a two-year grant from the National Lottery Community Fund (NLCF) totalling £130,000, to enable us to continue our work from April 2022. We hope to have a decision on this application before the current fund expires.
Future income generation in Year 3 (Apr 2021- Mar 2022).
From 1 April 2021, we continue to generate income and are continually striving to establish self-generating income streams, and explore the potential of charging for our services, expertise and experience, including engagement and consultation with the Disabled Community. One example of this is our partnership work with Calderdale Council in which we are charging them for the admin and development work required to set up a support group for users of Direct Payments, which is planned to start in September 2021.
We are also working with Calderdale and Huddersfield Hospitals Trust, to carry out a series of focus groups between April 2021 to March 2022, to explore and highlight areas for improvement at the hospitals. This work is currently being provided to them free of charge, as it forms part of our NLRC funded work plan, but discussions are taking place about the potential need for them to pay for such insight in the future, should we be unsuccessful in other funding bids.
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2021
Achievements and performance (continued)
Moving forward into 2021/22 - What we want to do...
Continue to develop our services in Calderdale and support more people with disabilities.
Include disabled people and disability organisations in Huddersfield, as funds and capacity allow. Explore avenues for income generation that will enable us to become less grant-dependent and more selfsufficient.
Review written by: Geraldine Rushton, Treasurer Julie Stott, Development worker Marion Spruce, Chair Malcolm Kielty, Secretary
Financial review
The net payments for the year were £18,798, including net receipts of £1,402 on unrestricted funds and net payments of £20,200 on restricted funds.
Reserves policy
The charity's free reserves at the year end were £3,299.
The Board of Trustees have agreed that unrestricted funds should not fall below £1,000.
Signed on behalf of the board of trustees on 19/10/2021
Geraldine Rushton (Trustee)
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Disability Partnership Calderdale Charitable Incorporated Organisation ('the CIO')
I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 31 March 2021, which are set out on pages 8 to 11.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the charity trustees of the CIO you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act').
I report in respect of my examination of the CIO's accounts as carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1 accounting records were not kept in respect of the CIO as required by section 130 of the Act; or 2 the accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed: …………………………………… Name: Helen Galvin FCCA
2/11/2021
West Yorkshire Community Accounting Service
Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Receipts and payments account for the year ended 31 March 2021
| Notes 2021 Unrestricted funds £ Receipts Grants and donations (2) 354 Fee income 1,145 Other income 52 Total receipts 1,551 Payments Venue hire - BSL interpreting service - Administration - Transport - Food - Accountancy - Website - Insurance - Other communication - Speech to text reporting - Phoenix radio project - Development workers - Administration workers - Worker expenses - Equipment - Training - Events - Project development fee 149 Total payments 149 1,402 Fund balances brought forward 1,897 Fund balances carried forward (3) 3,299 Net receipts / (payments) |
2021 Restricted funds £ 50,626 - - 50,626 - 390 10,840 - - 420 6,124 388 1,180 - 28,445 12,814 49 1,037 - - 9,139 70,826 (20,200) 47,016 26,816 |
2021 Total funds £ 50,980 1,145 52 52,177 - 390 10,840 - - 420 6,124 388 - 1,180 - 28,445 12,814 49 1,037 - - 9,288 70,975 (18,798) 48,913 30,115 |
2020 Total funds £ 62,050 250 533 62,833 2,046 1,312 1,873 1,766 1,166 264 5,386 388 325 2,673 2,350 21,561 7,900 850 310 100 2,170 - 52,440 10,393 38,520 48,913 |
|---|---|---|---|
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Statement of assets and liabilities
| as at 31 March 2021 2021 Unrestricted £ Cash funds Cash at bank 3,219 Cash in hand 80 Total cash funds 3,299 Assets retained for the charity's own use Cupboard Four printers Two digital voice recorders One roller case Four laptops Diary and two penfriend pens and labels One conversor pro and two headsets Liabilities Accounts preparation and independent examination |
2021 Restricted £ 26,816 - 26,816 |
2021 Total £ 30,035 80 30,115 £ 420 |
2020 Total £ 48,833 80 48,913 |
|---|---|---|---|
Approval of the accounts
The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on 19/10/2021
Geraldine Rushton (Trustee)
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Notes to the accounts
for the year ended 31 March 2021
1 Accounting policies
Basis of accounting
The trustees have taken advantage of section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 and have prepared the accounts on a receipts and payments basis.
There has been no change to the accounting policies since last year.
No changes have been made to the accounts for previous years.
Taxation
As a charity the organisation benefits from rates relief and is generally exempt from income tax and capital gains tax but not from VAT. Irrecoverable VAT is included in the cost of those items to which it relates.
Fund accounting
Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.
Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor or through the terms of an appeal.
Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the accounts.
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Disability Partnership Calderdale
Notes to the accounts continued
for the year ended 31 March 2021
| 2 Grants and donations National Lottery Community Fund Community Foundation for Calderdale (CFFC) West Yorkshire Police Commission Donations 3 Restricted funds Freemasons National Lottery Community Fund CMBC CFFC 1 CFFC 2 CFFC 3 West Yorkshire Police Commission |
2021 Unrestricted funds £ - - - 354 354 Balance b/f £ 172 46,698 146 - - - - 47,016 |
2021 Restricted funds £ 30,094 15,062 5,470 - 50,626 Incoming £ - 30,094 - 8,961 3,850 2,251 5,470 50,626 |
2021 Total funds £ 30,094 15,062 5,470 354 50,980 Outgoing £ - 58,926 - 8,961 1,726 - 1,213 70,826 |
2020 Total funds £ 61,741 - - 309 62,050 Balance c/f £ 172 17,866 146 - 2,124 2,251 4,257 26,816 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Purpose of restriction
Fund name Freemasons National Lottery Community Fund
Freemasons To purchase assistive equipment National Lottery Community Fund To hold monthly accessible meetings, introduce new activities, plan for the future and be able to sustain and develop the organisation CMBC For outreach work in the Park Ward area CFFC 1 For website development, information resources, digital and hard copy newsletter CFFC 2 Digital inclusion project for disabled people CFFC 3 Information, signposting and support for the disabled during Covid-19 West Yorkshire Police Commission
Hate incident/crime awareness videos with BSL, English and minority language subtitles
4 Related party transactions
Trustee expenses
No trustee received any expenses during this year or the previous year.
Trustee remuneration and benefits
No trustee received any remuneration or benefit during this or the previous year.
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