## **Upwards With Downs Trustees’ Annual Report Year ending 31 October 2020** 

## **Aims and Objectives** 

We are a small local charity that offers support and guidance to people with Down Syndrome and their families. We are based in Harlow, Essex and cover Essex, East Hertfordshire and North east London. 

Our mission is to ensure that all people with Down’s Syndrome, children and adults, are well supported to enable them to reach their full potential in life. We aim to do this by providing therapy programmes, social events, play opportunities, and support for parents and carers. We are also keen to promote awareness of Down Syndrome and change outdated ideas about the condition by educating, and providing information, to hospitals and children’s centres. 

From November 2019 to October 2020 the Covid pandemic has spanned almost two thirds of the accounting year.  Therefore the charity’s activities have been significantly affected, both in providing therapies and social activities for our members and in fundraising in order to provide these. However, we have found new ways of providing some therapy and of staying connected, and finding new online resources for our members. 

## **Income** 

## **Fundraising** 

In December 2019 we held our Christmas Ball which made a profit of £457 (some of the income and expenditure of this was in the previous accounting year). This was a great social evening for both our supporters, families and our adult members. We were fortunate in having much of the entertainment at a very reduced cost. 

We were not able to hold many fundraising activities this year including our annual Summer Fete which is a good source of income for the charity. 

## **Merchandise Sales** 

Through the skill and hard work of some of our members we have made takings of £1023 for products which are hand-made. This is despite not being able to have our Summer Fete at which to sell the merchandise. The expenditure figure on merchandise is £881; however this includes decorative items made for fundraising events and gifts for our supporters. 



## **Donations** 

We are very grateful for the many donations, large and small, from various sources. Notable donations include: 

£3043 from the Coop fund in November 2019 

£879 from a collection in memory of one of our members. 

£504 from collections held at 360 Play who made us their Charity of the Year in 2020. 

## **Grants** 

We have not been successful in securing funds from grants this year. 

## **Community Support** 

We were very grateful to 360 Play who made us their Charity of the Year. They held collection boxes for us and allowed us to use their premises for exclusive use free of charge. 

We are very grateful to the Treehouse Children’s Centre in Harlow which accommodates the preschool children’s group, the speech therapy sessions, and various sundry meetings, for no extra cost; and its staff for their invaluable support and advice, and the training opportunities they give to our volunteers. 

We are very grateful to the Great Parndon Community Association, both of whose venues we use: the GPCA for the Christmas Ball, and The Link for discos. Their staff are extremely helpful and without them we wouldn’t be able to carry out our large fundraising and social activities. 

We are grateful for the continuing support of MacDonald’s in Harlow which supplies catering equipment and some food for our events. 

We are grateful to local companies which support us through matched funding, sponsorship and donations of items for raffles and prizes, particularly Halifax (Lloyds) 

## **Expenditure on activities:** 

## **Speech and Language programme** 

Our main expenditure in the last financial year has been the provision of our Speech and Language programme for fifteen of our school-age members. Each member receives an hour of speech therapy each week during term time, delivered by trained assistants who are supervised by a qualified Speech and Language therapist from The Owl Centre. 

The outlay in training and fees was £5574, and we have charged a small fee for each child per session which over the year came to £1470, a net expenditure of £4104. This has been a decrease on the previous year because of the pandemic as the premises where most of our members received speech therapy closed at the outset and to date hasn’t opened yet. However, some members were able to access therapy in their homes or schools (when government regulations permitted), or online. 



## **Specialist Teacher** 

In January 2020 we recruited the services of a Specialist Teacher who has provided the following service: 

- visited schools to advise them about teaching children with Downs Syndrome, and about resources available to them. 

- assisted parents/carers with EHCP reports and meetings 

- carried out one-to-one sessions  with children in their homes 

- group advice sessions 

- training for LSAs 

The expenditure for the year was £4462. Parents/carers pay a small fee towards the service and schools have paid an agreed fee, most of which income came in the following accounting year. Upwards with Downs has been able to fund this due to receiving a generous donation in the previous year. 

Again, due to the pandemic, this service has not been used to its full extent. 

## **Preschool group** 

Until March 2020 the preschool group was meeting once a fortnight during term time at the Treehouse Children’s Centre. Most weeks there is either an activity for the children to do such as Little Signers, or a visiting professional such as a speech and language therapist, or occupational therapist, who is available to work with the children and advise the parents/carers. This group is a very valuable resource for new parents (and sometimes prenatal parents) as they are able to support each other and exchange information and tips. From April 2020 onwards the preschool group have had various online activities such as Little Signers and Sounds Right Phonics. The parents continue to support each other through a Whatsapp group. 

## **Social activities** 

**Disco** : This is a regular event, sometimes themed, enjoyed by all our members to which they bring their families and friends. It is a great social and family event for all ages and all abilities. This year we made a profit of £365. Although the profit made was small, the primary purpose of the discos is to provide an opportunity for a social event for all our members. We have held no discos since February 2020. 

**Indoor soft play sessions** : until March 2020 our members have been able to take part in these fun sessions which are offered at minimal cost to the family. Other family members are also welcome to take part where space permits. 

## **Fundraising costs** 

Fundraising costs were £2020 which was entirely for the Christmas Ball. 

## **Merchandise costs** 

See note on Merchandise sales above 



## 



|||||Unre3t,lctEdfurds<br>f<br>iestrictedEndo{nnent<br>funds<br>fundsTotalfunds<br>ffff|Unre3t,lctEdfurds<br>f<br>iestrictedEndo{nnent<br>funds<br>fundsTotalfunds<br>ffff|Unre3t,lctEdfurds<br>f<br>iestrictedEndo{nnent<br>funds<br>fundsTotalfunds<br>ffff|Unre3t,lctEdfurds<br>f<br>iestrictedEndo{nnent<br>funds<br>fundsTotalfunds<br>ffff|tastyear|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|A1Recelpt$|||||||||
|SpeeehandLanguage|parents' payments|||LATO|||L,470|2,198|
|Specialistteacher||||76|||||
|Swimmingclasses|||||||||
|LATCincome||||||||1,545|
|Othercoursesparents'payments|||||||||
|Activities parentsrcontributions<br>OutinBs parents'contributions||||55|||-<br>65|5;|
|Discotakings||||840|||8rtO|L,787|
|FunDaytakings||||||||3,478|
|FunDayfees||||145|||145|520|
|Fun Daymatchedfunding<br>Fundraisingevent receipts(not||Fun Day)|||||2,7ffi|2,000<br>23,719|
|Merchandisesales||||L,W4|||1,024|7,287|
|Donations<br>GiftAid<br>Paypal||||5,456,*..|||5,456<br>,o:|2,976<br>31<br>113|
|Grant (restricted)||||||||10350|
|Othersalesor income||||||||30|
||||Subtotal|r2,80|||12,08;|50,090|
|A2 Assetandlnvertmentsales,||etr|||||||
||||Total receipts|12,080||:|12,080|s0,090|
|A3 Paymems<br>Speechandlanguage thenapy classes||||2,869|2,7A5||5,574|7,329_|
|Specialistteacher||||4,462|||4,462||
|Swimmingclasses||||2,427|||2,427|3,945|
|LATCcosts||||||||z,Lt7|
|Other courses||||10|||10|204|
|Activities||||52|||52|L,302|
|Costsof outings||||75|||75|1.526|
|Costsofdiscos||||475|||475|2.s36|
|Costoffunday||||340|||340|886|
|Fund raisingeventcosts||||2,020|||?Aaa|456|
|Merchandise||||881|||881|1,953|
|Preschoolgroupcosts||||445|||446|466|
|Donations<br>Members'gifts||||673|||673|zsg<br>767|
|Goodwill||||66|||65|105|
|Training,firstaidcoursesetc,||||52|||52||
|Licenses||||20|||20|20|
|Marketing||||||||31|
|Web$ite costs||||122|||122|742-|
|lnformationdays|||||||||
|Telephone||||..|||||
|Postage(otherthan newslefier)||||4-||||89|
|Stationery||||o:-|||4t|231|
|Provision of specialist|information||||||||
|lnsurance|||||||||
|Equipment|||||||||
|Purchaseof boolc,leafletsandvideos<br>Storagefacilitycosts<br>Otherexpenditurc<br>Subtotal<br>A/[ Assetardlnyestmem nurchases,,etc<br>[otalpayments<br>Net of feceiFrsl(payments)||||13;:<br>15,1702,705<br>:r.J7;<br>z7o;<br>(3,090)(2,7Os)|||135<br>t7,875<br>17,87;<br>(s,795)|395<br>24,798<br>24,7s;<br> 2s,2s2|
|A5Tramfersbetween|funds||||||||
|A6 cashfunds last yearerd<br>Cashfunds|||this year end|67,?49<br>64160|2,705||69,954<br>64,L60|44,664<br> 69,955|





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|81|Cashfunds|Current account|
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|82|Othermon€taryassets||
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|93|lnvestmenlassets||
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|84|Assetsretalnedforthe charfty's ownuse|Vlnylcuttingmachine|
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