2023-03-31-accounts - Winchester Go Ld

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Annual Report

1 April 2022 – 31 March 2023

Living life to the full

Winchester Go LD, The Arc, Jewry Street, Winchester, SO23 8SB

T: 01962 600281 W: winchestergold.org.uk E: info@winchestergold.org.uk Patron: Lady Portal (Louisa) MBE, DL Charity number: 1156536

Introduction

It seems that every year when we all pause to reflect on the previous 12 months we always seem to say, 'this has been a year like no other!' This year has been no exception. The ongoing cost of living crisis and the significant challenges facing local services to meet the most basic levels of support are all directly impacting our members' lives.

It is in this context that Winchester Go LD has continued to successfully grow and develop to make even more of a difference for our members. This does not just include some of the standout initiatives like our Travel with Confidence project that you will hear about later in this report, but also the day-to-day support and advocacy that our team provides. None of that would be possible without the hard work and dedication of our staff, volunteers and trustees, and so we would like to start this report with a huge thank you to all of you.

A special thanks to Janet Chierchia MBE, who stepped down as a trustee in November 2022 after an incredible 37 years. We can’t say thank you enough for Janet’s lifetime of service for the learning disability and carers community in Hampshire, and in particular Winchester Go LD (including in the organisation’s previous form of Winchester and District Mencap).

A big thank you also to all our donors, sponsors, volunteers and supporters who make such a valuable contribution to our organisation. Without your help we would not be able to make such a positive impact on the lives of so many people with learning disabilities in our community.

Finally, a huge thank you to all our members who help make Winchester Go LD the organisation we are so proud of today.

Shelley Talbot and Jamie Guerrier (Co-Chairs of Trustees) November 2023

Trustees

Stephen Ayling (Interim Chair, November 2021 – Jan 2023)
Shelley Talbot (Co Chair, January 2023)
Jamie Guerrier (welcomed, November 2022 and Co Chair, January 2023)
Mark Chapman (Treasurer)
Rob Silk (welcomed November 2022)
Rozmin Parpia
Marjon Zoon
Janet Chierchia (retired, November 2022)

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.

The object of the CIO is to help people with a learning disability, who are resident in Winchester and the surrounding area, as well as their families, dependents 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 practice to enable people with 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, dependents or carers

Reserves Policy

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 only for the particular purpose set out by the donor.

April 2022 – March 2023 Report

Winchester Go LD enables adults with learning disabilities to live life to the full with the choices and independence that they want. We promote self-development, friendship, self-confidence, creativity and learning. We try to share the experience, skills and talents of our members; we recognise that our members are experts through their lived experience of learning disabilities.

We form strong, long-term and trusted relationships with our members. We have a strong focus on mental and physical wellbeing. Winchester Go LD provides a range of regular one to one and group activities, small group workshops, life skills training, advocacy and referral or signposting to other appropriate statutory and voluntary organisations. Through a person-centred approach, we help our members to reach their goals and to aspire to set new goals. We also offer a network of support for our members and their families.

Active membership (members who have engaged with Winchester Go LD in a 12 month period) has continued to grow; between March 2022 and March 2023 we have seen a 16.5% increase in active membership, reflecting a steady year on year trend in growth. In the last 3 years our active membership has expanded by over 53% (from 78 to 120 active members). Demand for our work continues to increase and we have responded successfully by providing help to more individuals in more ways. In September 2022 active membership was capped at 120 to ensure Winchester Go LD could continue to provide the high quality level of services and positive impact that we pride ourselves on; which was at risk of being diluted by the continuous swell in membership numbers.

Our members and their families are trying desperately to bridge the gap between the services provided by the local authority and what is practically required. The pressures faced by the local authority means that gaps in adult social care provision are getting larger. Hampshire County Council’s announcement in November 2022 of looming financial crisis poses a huge and ongoing concern. This year Winchester Go LD has experienced an increase in both the number and the complexity of issues presented by our members to our staff team.

The cost of living crisis has had a profound effect on the learning disability community. Mencap explained part of the problem in their April 2023 report, “…people with a learning disability are often on lower incomes and face higher outgoings than the general population…”. Winchester Go LD has helped members access food vouchers (especially when online application is required) and food banks. We have also provided extensive advice around budgeting and managing fuel costs.

Staffing

This year (2022-2023) Winchester Go LD’s workforce has grown and adapted to meet the needs of our members, resulting in a planned and significant increase in budgeted payroll costs. The challenges of recruitment combined with the restructuring of the senior management team has meant that payroll spend this year is underbudget at £103K (the budgeted payroll spend for this

period was £145K). Winchester Go LD staff continue to be the organisation’s most valuable asset, representing 80-90% of our organisation’s annual expenditure.

The Winchester Go LD staff team have grown by 37% from 2.7 to 3.7 full time equivalents.

•	Betty Chadwick	CEO (full time)
•	Ann Hughes	Executive assistant (part time, started in November 2022)
•	Sharron Clements	Advocacy Lead (part time)
•	Emma Snagge	Communications and Engagement Lead (part time)
•	Gina Rouse	Operations and Volunteer Manager (left in November 2022)
•	[Sue Flemington	Volunteer and member Coordinator (part time) – started May 2023].

In September 2022 we were awarded funding from National Lottery Reaching Communities Fund for a 3-year volunteer coordinator role. This role was initially folded into the operations manager role resulting in an Operations and Volunteer manager. It has since been combined with member service delivery to form the Volunteer and Coordinator role).

In February 2022, the role of Advocacy Lead (Sharron Clements) increased from 21 hrs/week to 27 hrs/week in response to member demand.

Service Provision

We have a range of weekly and monthly activities; we also provide advocacy, information, safeguarding and skills workshops. Our calendar of events and activities can be found on our website: https://winchestergold.org.uk/whats-on/ . Each interaction with our members provides an opportunity for staff and volunteers to check in and identify any areas of concern.

• Advocacy and safeguarding

The need for advocacy work continues to grow. Working with our members and the people who support them is a key part of Winchester Go LD’s provision.

Winchester Go LD gives our members a voice, particularly when confronted with difficult choices and decisions involving Adult Social Care, NHS Health Teams, families and support providers. We see the consequences of troubled health and social care systems and we challenge the lack of joined up working. Our insight and experience provide valuable input in helping our members

realise and achieve their goals. We play a pivotal role in achieving positive outcomes for members in professionals meetings and support network (circle) meetings.

As vulnerable adults, people with learning disabilities are at increased risk of safeguarding issues. At Winchester Go LD we are troubled by the increase in safeguarding concerns affecting members; examples include (but are not limited to) financial abuse, online abuse, hoarding, selfharm/neglect, physical and emotional abuse. In July 2022, Marjon Zoon became our

Safeguarding Trustee. Winchester Go LD provides safeguarding training for staff, volunteers and trustees.

The Winchester Go LD team spend 25-35 hours a week focusing on member advocacy and safeguarding concerns.

• Online activities

Our online activities continue to be popular with Winchester Go LD members – on average we engage with 25 Winchester Go LD members via Zoom each week. They not only provide important social contact for members who are unable to access our face-to-face activities, but also provide a way to maintain and develop IT skills and confidence.


Online Activity	Number of Winchester Go LD members participating each week 2022-2023
Monday afternoon tea	10-12
Tai Chi	5-7
Thursday fit class	8-10
Sign with Steve	18-22

• Face to face activities

Based in the community space of the public library (The Arc), our regular group activities are engaging, sociable and fun. We exchange ideas, discuss current news and share information about upcoming events. Winchester Go LD activities are successful in building members’ confidence, encouraging members to ask for help and to share problems. They also provide an

opportunity for the staff team and volunteers to notice changes in member behaviour or presentation that may provide a clue that all is not well. We run two regular weekly 1 hour dropin groups: Tuesday drop in and Friday funky lunch.

Walk and Talks

This continues to be a valuable and popular service offered by Winchester Go LD. Our staff and volunteer team delivered just under 300 Walk and Talks to 33 members in the year 2022-2023.

In February 2023 Winchester Go LD members started working as part of the delivery crew Winchester Magazine. This has proven to be a popular project with our members. This is a paid role and contributes towards our member generated income. The magazine delivery provides engagement and inclusion in the community, a sense of purpose, physical activity, teamwork, fun, publicity through Winchester Go LD and a great platform to build more local connections.

Go Socials

Monthly Go Socials have included pub trips, walks around Winchester, online and face to face discos. 42 Winchester Go LD members have attended Go Social events this year (compared to 37 attendees in 2021-2022).

In February 2023 our Sign with Steve Makaton choir partnered with local band ‘Hydeout ’to cohost a joint member Go Social and fundraiser – Our Golden Valentine’s party. This community event raised approximately £1,000 and brought new supporters to Winchester Go LD.

Summer trips (Summer 2022)

The staff and volunteer team delivered a successful and popular program this summer, catering for our members ’range of budgets and interests. 53 (48%) of our active members took part in one or more of the 18 activities we offered. Train strikes and extreme weather (e.g. heat wave) added further challenges to the planning of our trips.

Wellbeing project (18 months February 2022 – August 2023)

Wellbeing is at the heart of being able to live life to the full and key to our members’ ability to thrive. Our wellbeing project, part funded by Hampshire County Council’s Get Going Again Grant has been separated into 6 key themes (modules): nutrition, health, training/education, work/volunteering, social/economic and hobbies/recreation.

We have delivered workshops, life skills and training relating to each of these six modules in a holistic way across all our services and activities. All 120 of our active members have interacted with our wellbeing project. Our work with train travel and collaboration with South Western Railways and Hampshire Community Rail Partnership also links to the work, education and training module. Nutrition and Health have been addressed through the Monday afternoon tea discussion group on Zoom and through to Winchester Go LD cookery workshops. We have also successfully signposted 7 Winchester Go LD members to the Step Out cookery courses run by our partners at Munch CIC.

The Paralympic Personal Bests 2022

In August 2022 we held our 10[th] annual Paralympic Personal Best event at the Everyone Active Sport and Leisure Park and University of Winchester Athletics track. This event has continued to grow and has become a key fixture in the diary of the local learning disability community. The Paralympic Personal Bests offers a fantastic way for Winchester Go LD to connect with other local learning disability groups. It also offers an opportunity for participants with an introduction to local regular sports groups (such as disability football, parkrun and super 1s cricket). Funding was welcomed from Simplyhealth (£4,188) and Connect to Support Hampshire (£999). A huge thanks to the 47 volunteers from our cooperate partners at Santander, Strategic Solutions and Simplyhealth plus the many friends and families who got involved.

Travel with Confidence

In December 2022 Winchester Go LD was awarded £10,000 funding from Hampshire Community Rail Partnership to deliver the Travel with Confidence project. £3,232 of this restricted funding has been allocated in reserve for Travel with Confidence project spend in the first few months of 2023-2024.

Members took part in developing their skills at independent train travel and shared their experience through peer-to-peer coaching with other adults with learning disability groups across Hampshire. We trained 14 Winchester Go LD members to become train travel experts and to share their expertise with 8 local groups. Through this project we successfully trained 110 individuals in train travel. Videos were produced to help reinforce our members’ messages, these can be found on the Winchester Go LD website and on YouTube

(https://winchestergold.org.uk/travel-with-confidence-2/ ) .This award winning project highlights the importance of lived experience and co-production in project design and delivery.

We were delighted to have Henry Pugh as a temporary addition to our staff team to help us deliver the Travel with Confidence project in the beginning of 2023. We are very grateful to his contribution to the success of this project.

Fundraising Events

Our Fundraising Committee have had another successful year. Despite a grey and wet day, the Garden and Plant Fair on 11[th] May 2022 generated approximately £10,000 for the charity. We are very grateful to Cobbs at Winchester for their donation of £1,000 to Winchester Go LD in support of the Garden and Plant Fair.

Other popular Fundraising Committee events this year include the annual Bridge Tea, Quiristers Concert, Car Boot Sale and Quiz Night. We are enormously grateful to Ros Nell and her team of committee members for all the energy, hard work and enthusiasm they give to raising much needed funds for Winchester Go LD. We’d like to thank the Fundraising Committee for raising a fundraising total of over £17,800 for Winchester Go LD this year.

Member generated income

Winchester Go LD members have generated £6k of income through the sale of their member designed merchandise, Christmas cards and the smoothie bike. The popular fruit and vegetable range of tea towels, oven gloves and aprons were created as part of our healthy eating module in the wellbeing project. Staff member, Emma Snagge, combined our members ’artwork into these beautiful and stylish designs.

We have had success selling our member merchandise at local fairs, community events and via our online shop. We are also delighted that Cobbs at Winchester stock our tea towels, aprons and oven gloves to sell in the farm shop.

Our members made a staggering 357 smoothie and generated an income of just over £600 from smoothie bike sales in the summer of 2022.

Corporate Donations, Funders and Grants

National Lottery Community Fund (Reaching Communities)

Simplyhealth

Lloyds Bank Foundation Hampshire County Council (Get Going Again Grant) Hampshire County Council (Connect to Support Hampshire) Hampshire and Isle of Wight Foundation (Watts Family Trust) Hampshire and Isle of Wight Foundation (Martin Wheeler Fund) Cllr Warwick Cllr Hiscock Action Hampshire (Voices in research) RBC Brewin Dolphin

Hampshire Community Rail Partnership

Thomas Roberts Trust

Sir Jeremiah Colman Gift Trust

Winchester City Council (Priority Outcomes) NISA (Otterbourne village shop – Making a Difference Locally) Tricycle Shop Waitrose (Give a Little Love) Cobbs at Winchester

A big thank you to all our donors, sponsors and supporters who make such a valuable contribution to our organisation. Without this help we would not be able to make such a positive impact on the lives of so many people with learning disabilities in and around Winchester.

Winchester Go LD’s staff and volunteers have excelled in their care and commitment to all our members again this year. The team at Winchester Go LD have demonstrated resilience, flexibility and ambition. Thanks too to our trustees who have generously given their time and skills to help steer Winchester Go LD through another successful year. We can all be extremely proud of how our organisation has grown and developed this year.

The biggest thanks and congratulations to our members for their courage, positivity and sense of fun in all they have achieved during the year.

Shelley Talbot and Jamie Guerrier (Co-Chairs of Trustees) November 2023

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Independent examinerfs report to the trustees of Wlnchester Go LD Charitable Incorporated Organisation (the "Cl) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 31 March 2023. Responslblllties and basis of report As the charlty trustees of the CIO you a responsible for the preparatlon of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 20111'the ACVI. I report In respect of my examlnatlon of the CIO'S accounts carrled out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my exomination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llbl of the Art. Independent examlnerfs ststement I have completed my examination. I confimi that no material matters have come to my attentlon In connection with the examlnatlon glving me cause to belleve that in any materlal respect: l. accounting records were not kept in respert of the CIO as requlred by sectlon 130 of the Act,. or 2. the accounts do not accord wlth those records. I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection with the examlnatlon to whlch attentlon should be drawn In thSs port In order to enable a proper under5tandin8 of the accounts to be reached. oteJJJ Andra Bannlng, CPA, CA (Canada) 5 Ashen Close, Pine Road Chandlers Ford Eastlelgh Hampshire S053 ILH