Winchester GO LD Enabling People with Learning Disabilities ¢￿￿￿1￿mb￿.l15s53s GO 14)kr•H JJo*N' 'JkT*p4ALPAM. GOLII Fl• brhsc¢cvpo*on& Ik*wJ51. AlttsYhi5 ai51 ynd ￿50y6-1 gnJgy•dii ttwo$Nc• io Mill ipw Ihl. LDknw*b••n wort￿$ WJ IV￿￿h*s1orSQLDrt￿I1cts¥ thISa￿VI￿¢￿ IbvL+ 'itwQSO fewbo¥ SdthÈliffle5 wedo ulitsle •0tt•9eo*• itw•'s Fro￿￿rt wts1k0nd￿thSQH*Q Trolly wdwoyol tpl& iowp m wrth mIuth￿s￿JPCOllrm￿e￿ttth?. Octorw￿lhO h¥4119ht0rf*h&Yrw￿. H•r•wJ re Sl City lr3opth-,è￿lS1￿& FraT￿ bislo Annual Report 1 April 2020- 31 March 2021 To Live.ToThrive. W1n￿St￿ LD Wirthestrw DEc1xeryC￿1rÈ JÈwryStrÈÈl Wincfrogt@r S023 85B T. ￿962 873608 W. wirKhe51LYgokl.org.uk E.. info@winche51ergo1d.￿guk Patron.- Lady Portal ILDUlSal MBE. DL ## **Trustees** Kevin Stevens (Chair) Betty Chadwick Mark Chapman (Treasurer) Rozmin Parpia (welcomed January 2021) Janet Chierchia Stephen Ayling Philippa Conyngham (retired November 2020) ## **Aims and objectives** Winchester Go LD is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation which was registered with the Charity commission in March 2014. It is governed by its Constitution. Trustees stand down each year and are re-elected at the Annual General meeting. The object of the CIO is to relieve the needs of people with a learning disability, who are resident in Winchester and the surrounding area, as well as their families, dependants or carers by: - a) promoting inclusion for the public benefit and preventing people with a learning disability from being excluded - b) providing or assisting in the provision of services for people with a learning disability to enable them to achieve their potential - c) provide information, signposting, listening and support (one to one and in groups) - d) provide resources for the development of services to promote daily living, education, training, work readiness and employment - e) provide resources for the development of recreation, sports and leisure activities - f) promote good practise to enable people with a learning disabilities and their families to have a “voice” at local, county and national level - g) work in partnership with others to fill any identified gaps in provision, which could benefit people with a learning disability, their families, dependants or carers ## **Reserves Policy** In order to sustain its activities and in line with the Charities Commission’s recommendations, the CIO has designated a base reserve of unrestricted funds of **six months’ operating costs** . The unrestricted funds above the reserve can be spent by the Trustees to meet its aims and objectives. Restricted income funds are only spent for the particular purpose set out by the donor. 2 ## **Report** Winchester Go LD provides support for people with learning disabilities (our ‘members’), their families and carers. We form strong, long-term and trusted relationships with our members. We have a key focus on mental and physical wellbeing. We enable our members to live as independently as possible and we respect the need to have choice. We provide a range of regular one to one and group activities, small group workshops, life skills training, community advocacy and referral or signposting to other appropriate statutory and voluntary organisations. Our membership has grown by 8% this year, we have over 138 members living in Winchester city and surrounding district and we are the leading local not for profit organisation in this field. We help people with learning disabilities and their families who are trying desperately to bridge the gap between the services provided by the local authority and what is practically required. Through a person centred approach we help our members to reach their goals and to aspire to set new goals. We are proud of the positive difference we make to our members' lives, and we are acutely aware of the increased demand for support from this vulnerable group in our community as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. There is no doubt that they have been disproportionately affected. Lockdown and social distancing rules created a huge number of challenges across all aspects of our organisation. Our primary focus has been on helping to ensure our members stay safe and helping them to adjust to sudden changes in their support, living arrangements and their routine. Change is particularly difficult for people with learning disabilities to cope with. We are hugely proud of our staff for going above and beyond in the hours of phone calls and reassurance they offered our members at this difficult time. Like the rest of us, our staff also had to adapt overnight within their own lives to lockdown and homeworking, it is a credit to our incredible team that throughout this that they always put our members’ needs first. During lockdown, we moved all our group work to Zoom video calls. It is incredible how so many of our members have learned and adapted to communicating on Zoom. Our staff, volunteers, trustees, and fitness instructors have also had to learn to deliver group w ork via video call. It’s been a steep learning curve, and everyone has risen to the challenge brilliantly. Successful grant funding enabled us to increase the number of regular group activities we offer with the introduction of 3 Thursday evening Fit Class, Tai Chi becoming a weekly session rather than fortnightly. A huge thanks to Rob, Sonya, Ali, and Emma for running these sessions. During lockdown 48 of our members regularly engaged in one or more of our online activities. At the peak of pandemic, our grou ps all became busier as our members’ normal day services were restricted. Weekly group sizes grew to an average of 20-25 participants. Our monthly Wednesday Go Social evening became a regular online disco and quiz night with lots of dressing up, dancing, laughter and friendship (35 of our members have attended our Go Social discos and quizzes). While engagement was good, this is slightly lower attendance than we would expect for face-to-face Discos. Regular attendance at the Charity Leaders Networking events run by Community First provided us with the idea of Walk and Talks (Winchester Youth Counselling described a similar project that had 4 been successful for their beneficiaries). We were awarded 6 months of grant funding through Energise Me and Sport England to launch our Walk and Talk service, this was supported by additional local funding from the Alresford Pigs. We received a further 12 months of funding, until January 2022 from South Downs National Park. This service has been a fantastic way for us to provide a sense of community, social engagement and exercise in a relaxed and outdoor environment at a time when many were at risk of social isolation. It has provided valuable respite to families adapting to being locked down with our Winchester Go LD members. Walk and Talks were prioritised to members who needed that extra support the most and those who were not able to access our online services. We are very fortunate for the incredible support that we’ve had from our team of volunteers to help us deliver Walk and Talks. The success of our Walk and Talk program means that we intend to keep this as one of Winchester Go LD’s core services. We have been providing 7-10 Walk and Talks each week, during this year, 34 members have benefited from 256 walk and talks. Our digital communications developed and grew during lockdown. Regular social media posts (Facebook and Twitter) in addition to our informative website help to keep our members and supporters informed of the charity’s news. Our regular Go Li ve Facebook broadcasts were introduced; Winchester Go LD members, James and Jane have hosted several interviews with people connected to our charity, they have provided both insight into the learning disability community and nurtured working partnerships with our guests. Some of our members are also on a Winchester Go LD WhatsApp group to communicate charity updates. In March 2020 we hosted our first online evening for parents and carers, 23 households attended; these evenings will become a regular biannual event. Our use of IT has developed enormously this year. The update of our IT systems in 2019 coupled with homeworking encouraged us to use a secure shared drive for storing and sharing files within our team. At the end of 2020 we launched a new CRM (client relationship management) platform, Salesforce. Our trustee, Rozmin Parpia, has been instrumental in designing this database for Winchester Go LD and in providing training for staff and trustees on its functionality. Salesforce has revolutionized how we record and report data, there is clearly much more for us to learn, and we keen to use this tool to help us develop and grow. The Covid-19 pandemic forced cancellation of all our regular and relied on face-to-face fundraising events. These events would normally expect to generate some 20% (£20,000) of our annual income. Our Fundraising Committee adapted and successfully raised funds through the delivery of a murder mystery evening, wine tasting and quiz night online. They also published a selection of Winchester Go LD member lockdown stories which are available on our website. We are very grateful for the support of Santander, who donated money through price matching of our online fundraising events. Lockdown brought with it a huge amount of uncertainty. Our paid workforce was reduced to 3 parttime staff, office manager, communications and engagement lead, and advocacy and PCP lead (we made the difficult decision make our grants administrator role redundant) and we continued to rely heavily on volunteers. Two staff members increased their hours during lockdown to help absorb the increased need for member support. Our trustee, Betty Chadwick, took on a full-time voluntary role supporting the design and delivery of Covid response projects and bid writing. Our approach to bid writing during the pandemic was tailored to bidding for Covid relief funding, core funding requests and project-based funding. We have had success this year, being awarded just under £90,000 in grant funding. 5 Local government cuts and contract restructuring have resulted in Winchester Go LD suffering a loss of £15,000 per annum through statutory funding for advocacy and person centred plan work from Hampshire County Council. Despite the withdrawal of this funding stream Winchester Go LD has continued to respond to our members’ need for advocacy and person-centred work. Winchester Go LD members represent our local learning disability community at the Purple LIG (Local Implementation Group) and at the Hampshire Learning Disability Partnership Board. Regular meetings during lockdown were hosted on MS Teams. A review of how our services match the demand from our members was conducted through work with students from University of Winchester’s SIP (Social Innovation Project) May to July 2020. This involved focus groups, online questionnaires, and interviews. We are pleased to be a participant led organisation. The follow up review in December 2020 shows that we have been able to respond to the key findings in this SIP report. - More exercise through the introduction of Thursday Fit Class and weekly Tai Chi - Routine use of small group breakout rooms on Zoom calls - Continuation of Walk and Talk program Providing clarity about the services we offer and identifying opportunities for future growth is one of the 3 key themes of our Business Plan 2021-2024. We were sad that Covid-19 pandemic prevented us from hosting the Paralympic Personal Bests in 2020. An alternative outdoor and socially distanced “rule of 6” sports day was launched, our Sporty Fun Day. Hosted at the Winchester Rugby Club we were supported by 10 volunteers and our local partner, Munch CIC. 24 Winchester Go LD members took part. We look to keep the Sporty Fun Day as part of our summer program in the future. 6 Our summer day trips are a highlight for many Winchester Go LD members. These too were prevented by the pandemic. Winchester Go LD and FirstBite worked collaboratively on the Friendship through Food project, funded through the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Community Foundation NHS Covid 19 fund to provide 6 socially distanced delicious picnics each week. 52 Winchester Go LD members attended these picnics at the River Park playing fields in the centre of Winchester. In November 2020 our Wellbeing Project was launched. A 12-month module project focusing on 6 – key wellbeing themes (work and education, nutrition, health mental and physical, recreation and hobbies, friendships and relationship, social and economic). 52 of our members have engaged with our Wellbeing project. We collaborated with local partner organisations, Munch CIC and Compassionate Cuppa CIC to deliver these modules and we look forward to working with these organisations again. We have used our regular online group activities and our Walk and Talks to focus on these themes, we have also used small group workshops. In the nutrition module we delivered cooking courses to 12 individuals on Zoom. We have learned that Zoom is a useful way to help our members practice cooking at home in a real time, it also gives us an insight into their kitchens. I am extremely proud of Winchester Go LD’s hard work and successes in this most difficult of years. Our achievements were marked by two Mayor of Winchester Awards, the Local Hero Award and the Community Award. A big thank you to all our donors, sponsors and supporters who make a valuable contribution to our funds and supplement the grants we can obtain to continue the services we provide to our members and their families. 7 11. On behalf of Winchester Go LD I would like thank all the Trustees. stsff. volunteets and fundraisers for their haftj work dLtfing these 12 mrmths. helping us to navigate a hugety Chal￿ngEng lime and in the enomiousty positive u)ntitJutw)n Vlfjnchester Go LD makes for peop￿ wth leaming disabilith?s and their families. Con￿*1￿19￿S to our memt*rs for all they have achieved during Kevin St ns ch of the Trustees OV8mb&r 2021 WINQIESTERGOLD IPKIThIEW4D ￿PENDITuREAcc0jNY FL¥1 THE ENDED31MAI(H 2021 2020 Re5trlrted Unrestritted ReArkted UnrestrKtal Trtal Total InMm• CardSale5 Fundraislng Donatlors Tr￿5 Grèrts Statutory Income.. HCC PCP& LIG Coow66raN Memtersales lfjo Smoothie Blkel Memters Everts{GoktKal.Go￿rts Pafa PBS) nterest Legacles Commth)tty Events CL¥nmuntty Gro Swn50red Events OnlineCommi55i Grft AKI Rtr¢lalrn 2J117 3￿75 722 2Q17 3*75 6,722 89.132 4*77 2yS 55 1,6X) 21,898 4,447 L630 2U98 4,447 20,220 1,720 14,872 323 5,465 142 28.926 14220 820 55 2(M) 45 323 3,257 142 io,cx)) 2D33 10) 5,071 22L 45 3.533 i(NJ 5.071 510 2Q183 179 6252 20.183 279 6252 TotslR•cdpts 28.926 l(WJ32 136958 33.7LKI 56,162 89A62 E¥•ndltur• Cardsales Fundralsin8 Rent Inetl Pa￿011 (Grarrts ￿￿MIN5tratw. GOWNIPCPI Casual Wage5 General Runn1￿ CtytS Mem￿r5 Event5 (Go knhi1.60Swrt5 P¥r• PBsC Lottery Consultlng Stsff Tfalnlni andTra 632 83 632 83 1,192 3,357 1.192 3,357 21184 49269 71A53 25￿4 29,728 270 5,952 4433.33 20 S4￿ 270 7,341 6,107 3￿53 174 4.752 2.334 1fi74 4320 574 4320 574 14.44) 71 71 Totsl E¥ffidlbJr• 2&218 64.104 90322 30.146 65.514 IID•lkltloflnrorn• 0v•rEyndknr• 17C8 43927 46,636 3554 19,3521 IS,PJ81 at 31hilRCH 2021 2021 Re#¥Kted Unre5trKte 2020 RÈstrftted UAre5tricted Total Total Current Assets Bank thccowAS 19.763 125573 145336 21555 77,145 98,7( IrKome and EX￿ndr(ure Acr(xrt Balance bro￿h1 forward IAW 2L555 77.145 22501 81997 IC4A98 Exce5s/IDeftf(lof Ir￿c￿e ExFendkure 17DY 43?27 46fi36 3554 P3521 15.7981 Trarsfer tetweenfunth I45￿) Balance carr*dfon¥ard 31March 19.763 125.573 145336 21555 77,145 In FY 2020andi fvndsln prkn ofthelU￿hell Ir￿Catedth•tse￿ral iternaltytsiq4wedthJnts had Iwn recordsj a5 rstrirte( cortiTMEto i ore£lassTrsomecfthe5efrom RtstrktèJto Unresrrkted. r5. Adi K5t￿er$ Tr￿tee Mcha Date Independent examinerfs report to the trustees of Winchester Go LD Charitable Incorporated Organisation (the "CIO") I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 31 March 2021. ReSponsibilit￿S and basis of report As the charity trustees of the CIO you are ￿spOnsible for the preparation of the accounts in ccordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 20111.the Act'l. I report in respect of my examination of the CIO'S accounts carried out under sectlon 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 1451511bl of the Act. Independent examlnerfs 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 respert.. accounting records were not kept In respert of the CIO as required by sertion 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. [DoTrJ Andra Banning, CPA, CA 5 Ashen Close, Pine Road Chandlers Ford E3Stleigh Hampshire 5053 ILH anadal