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← Fact Bucks

2024-03-31-accounts

FACT (Families and Carers Together) Bucks

A Charitable Incorporated Organisation Registered in England Number 1155067 Registered Office PO Box 1230, Aylesbury, HP22 9UP

TRUSTEES for the period 1[st] April 2023 to 31[st] March 2024

Ruth GOODMAN Beth KNIGHTON Margaret RUTENDO NYAMBAYO

Governance and Administration

FACT Bucks is the Parent Carer Forum for Buckinghamshire, as required by the Children and Families Act 2014.

The objects of the Charity are to embed a local, pan disability, parent led parent/carer forum; build parent/carer participation/co-production based on good practice; and share good practice, knowledge and expertise about parent participation to ensure that it continues to grow and strengthen.

The Charity is not able to undertake campaigns, pursue individual cases nor offer support and counselling to individual parent carers.

There are now 550 families on our contact list. Whilst membership is open and free to all those with an interest in the needs of children and young people with SEND, there remains a reluctance to commit. Nevertheless, the Charity seeks to represent all parent carers; makes all its activities open to all parent carers; and accesses the networks of support groups throughout the county to enable greater outreach and feedback.

None of the trustees have resigned their office during the period. The Charity may have up to 12 trustees elected by the AGM. Trustees must be members of the Charity.

Under the terms of the Trust, the Trustees have delegated away the day to day administration of the Charity to the Steering Group appointed by them.

The membership of the Steering Group for the period under review has been as follows:-

Andrew HOWARD (Team Leader) Ruth GOODMAN * Beth KNIGHTON (Participation Officer) * Phil OGLEY Ena SMALE Penni THORNE (Finance Officer) Claire VINCENT (Communications Officer) (* also Trustees)

The Steering Group aims to meet bi- monthly to manage the Charity; to co-ordinate parent participation; and to plan events. It also meets with parents who represent the Charity on various bodies; with professionals to facilitate dialogue and encourage co-production; and with representatives of Buckinghamshire Council SEND & Commissioning teams, as well as Bucks SENDIAS to ensure effective co-ordination of activities.

On behalf of the Trustees, the Steering Group maintained the charity; fulfilled the obligations of the grants received; and fulfilled the responsibilities of the employer.

The Charity is a member of the National Network of Parent Carer Forums. We attend regular meetings for our area, discussing various topics matters with other parent carer forums. The Charity provides financial administration for the South-East Region and continue to offer support to other forums.

Finance

In the year ending 31[st] March 2024, the Charity received grants from the Department of Education (through a scheme administered by Contact) and Buckinghamshire Council. Both grants are free from commitments to provide any specific services other than to fulfil the task of being the Parent Carer Forum for Buckinghamshire as required under the Children and Families Act. The Trustees will not allow the Charity to be influenced in the manner of its delivery of the Aims of the Charity by any third party. It did receive a payment from the South East Region of Parent Carer Forums in respect of its provision of a finance function and a specific grant was given by Integrated Care Board for the delivery of workshops in relation to ADHD. It did not undertake any fundraising.

The total income for the period was £32,734

During the year the Charity expended £39,804

The main items of expenditure were payments to parent carers for their time and expenses in participation and/or co-production; the administration of the Charity; training of parents to participate and the staging of certain events. The higher than usual expenditure was due to the costs relating to work on the JSNA funded through a grant received in the preceding financial year; a decision to supplement the work in relation to increasing participation with the appointment to a specific role created with that intent; a rebranding exercise alongside a revision of the website; and the establishment of the Charity as an employer.

The operating deficit for the year was £7,070

The Charity remains in a positive financial position. The unrestricted reserves of the Charity at the year end were £11,217 , although £2,335 is designated to support the ADHD work.

The Trustees have resolved that a balance of £4,000 should be held in reserve being sufficient to provide for the winding up of the Charity including its employer obligations. This also acts as cash flow during the first months of each financial year as income grants are subject to annual application processes that delay receipt of funds. The remainder of the General Reserve is available to support the work of the Charity.

The Charity has adopted Financial Control, Safeguarding and Equality & Inclusion policies in accordance with best practice guidance from Contact and the National Network of Parent Carer Forums

Activities

The Charity funded and coproduced a series of 3 webinars – PfA Independent Living; AP & EOTAS; Education Place - with Bucks SENDIAS which were attended by an average of 25 parents (although AP was 50) but which have been made available as You Tube videos through websites to increase views significantly. The Charity now have a suite of 12 webinars.

The Charity held an Annual Meeting attended by parents – in person and online - at which we made the presentation of the Forum's work in 2022-23 available, alongside current year priorities. The same event was also a Q&A session with interim Director of Education and her Team.

The Charity delivered an annual survey on SEND for which there were 450 responses and 150 free text comments. The Report is to be presented to the SEND Partnership Board in June. As well as providing significant year on year improvement data in relation to the SEND strategy and the WSoA, it will also be important background to set the objectives of the Charity in 2024-25.

The Charity hosted Parent Dialogue Group meetings for CAMHS; Therapies; and Neurodiversity. We have continued to co-host a Parent Support Groups liaison meeting alongside the Corporate Director for Children’s Services and meetings in each iSEND Area for parents to have informal discussions with members of those teams. Parent engagement sessions were also held on Transport; Integrated Community Equipment and carers Support.

The Charity attended strategic governance meetings including the Children's Services Improvement Board; WSoA Group & Children’s Partnership Board; and co-chaired the Integrated Services for SEND Board; SEND Improvement Group and the SENDIAS Steering Group. The Charity had parent representatives engaged in all impact groups under the SEND Improvement Plan – PfA; Early Identification & Intervention; Annual Reviews; Vulnerable Groups & Measuring Impact – as well as the BAU groups including Statutory Performance; Local Offer; Sufficiency; & Quality – alongside numerous project groups including those for the recommissioning of Therapies; for the Autism Strategy and for the SEND Employment intiatives. We estimate attending 250 meetings a year.

The Charity engaged when requested in the process relating to Delivering Better Value and to the reorganisation of the processes of the SEND related teams at the Council, as well as the governance structure. None of these were coproduced despite our constant request for them to be so but we have always engaged in a way that seeks to bring the maximum benefit to SEND CYP and makes for the greatest impact of parent voice in the system. We have participated in the work on the revised Self Evaluation Form and the revised SEND strategy.

The Charity benefitted considerably from the work of the Communications Officer and we appointed a Participation Lead who has focus on growing the numbers of parents engaged across the work of the Forum. These 2 officers led on the considerable task of updating our branding and our website, alongside our growing social media engagement to respond to the feedback from members and the wider parent community that they do not know enough of the considerable reach of the Forum.

Following the clear guidance from HMRC, the Charity established ourselves as an employer, bringing into employment all those who had post holder positions and those whose engagement as a parent representative involved accepting responsibility for an area of engagement. Considerable effort went into establishing policies and systems to accommodate this change alongside role profiles, reporting and oversight structures with a revised Trustee body. We estimate that an additional 75 hours of work was required to achieve these changes, which had to be delivered in addition to the business-as-usual work which is the core of the Forum.

The Charity have continued to press for the embedding of the Local Area Coproduction Strategy; as well as the Therapies and Autism Strategies; and we have offered input into a significant range of other working papers.

The core responsibility of the Trustees is to ensure the maintenance of the charity and the delivery of its objects as set out above – an increasingly complex task given the change to employment status for many of the active members of the Steering Group.

Public Benefit

We declare that we have had due regard to the Charity Commission guidance on public benefit in exercising our power and duties.

Approved by the Trustees

4[th] SEPTEMBER 2024

Andrew Howard Secretary

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER’S REPORT

At the request of the Trustees, I have examined the receipts and payments account for the year ending 31[st] March 2024, along with the related paperwork.

In my opinion, the financial statement that follows gives a fair view of the financial activity of the Charity in the year ending 31[st] March 2024.

Joanne Potts

4[th] September 2024

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Income and Expenditure 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024 – General Fund

Receipts
Grants – BCC
Grants – DFE
Regional Admin
Donations
Payments
Promotion Costs
Participation
Attendance Fees
Travel Costs
Room Hire
Refreshments
Regional Participation
Childcare
General Admin
Finance Admin
Audit and Accountancy Fees
Printing
Postage
Telephone
Stationery
Website Costs
IT Costs
Training Costs
Insurance
Miscellaneous
Surplus receipts over payments
Reserves brought forward
Reserves carried forward		 2024 Note
2024
2023
2023
£
£
£
£
14,834
1
14,249
17,500
17,500
400
400
0
400
32,734
32,549
0
(672)
(4,528)
2
0
(14,449)
3
(10,099)
(978)
(741)
(1,183)
4
(524)
(386)
(685)
(706)
(827)
0
0
(6,180)
5
(8,725)
(2,040)
(1,405)
(300)
6
(100)
(65)
(495)
(405)
0
0
(5)
(3)
0
(4,764)
7
(625)
(829)
(670)
(2,844)
(2,800)
(146)
(146)
0
(507)
(39,804)
(29,025)
(7,070)
3,524
18,287
14,763
11,217
18,287		 2024 Note
2024
2023
2023
£
£
£
£
14,834
1
14,249
17,500
17,500
400
400
0
400
32,734
32,549
0
(672)
(4,528)
2
0
(14,449)
3
(10,099)
(978)
(741)
(1,183)
4
(524)
(386)
(685)
(706)
(827)
0
0
(6,180)
5
(8,725)
(2,040)
(1,405)
(300)
6
(100)
(65)
(495)
(405)
0
0
(5)
(3)
0
(4,764)
7
(625)
(829)
(670)
(2,844)
(2,800)
(146)
(146)
0
(507)
(39,804)
(29,025)
(7,070)
3,524
18,287
14,763
11,217
18,287
3,524
14,763
18,287

Notes

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

Income and Expenditure 1st April 2023 to 31st March 2024 – Regional Cluster

Receipts
From Cluster
Grants
Payments
Meetings
Administration
Representative Engagement
SE19 Regional work
Regional Training
Regional Other
Financial Services
Audit
Activities
Surplus receipts over payments
Reserves brought forward
Reserves carried forward		 2024 Note
2024
2023
2023
£
£
£
£
5,700
4,800
3,016
11,000
8,716
15,800
(1,353)
0
(4,339)
(4,033)
0
0
(803)
(788)
(2,290)
(3,750)
(610)
(1,327)
(400)
(400)
(100)
1
(50)
0
0
(9,895)
(10,348)
(1,179)
5,452
19,279
13,827
18,100
19,279		 2024 Note
2024
2023
2023
£
£
£
£
5,700
4,800
3,016
11,000
8,716
15,800
(1,353)
0
(4,339)
(4,033)
0
0
(803)
(788)
(2,290)
(3,750)
(610)
(1,327)
(400)
(400)
(100)
1
(50)
0
0
(9,895)
(10,348)
(1,179)
5,452
19,279
13,827
18,100
19,279
5,452
13,827
19,279

Notes

1 Incl cost of setting up Sage Online

Balance of Funds 31st March 2024

Approved by the Trustees
4th SEPTEMBER 2024
Current Assets
Cash at bank and in hand
Net Assets
Current Liabilities
Monies owed to the Cluster
PAYE to pay to HMRC
Reserves
General reserves
Net Liabilities		 Andrew Howard
Secretary
2023
2023
£
£
29,262
37,566
29,262
37,566
18,100
19,279
(55)
11,217
18,287
29,262
37,567		 2023
£
37,566
37,566
19,279
18,287