## **Annual Report of the Dengie D-Caf 1st October 2022 – 30th September 2023**
## **A. Reference & Administration details**
The Dengie D-Caf was established as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 19th October 2015, registration number: 1164014 Address for correspondence: 19 Garden Close, Althorne, Essex CM3 6BP
## **B .Structure, Governance & Management**
Trustees: Jane English, Barry Butler ( New) ( Treasurer) Midori Abraham ( New) , Alexandra Southcomb, Non Trustee Member and Chair – Karen Butler
Under our governing document, we are required to have a minimum of three trustees.
This was the year we managed to revert to normality, following 2 years of COVID , where contact had been primarily phone calls, via text and email. We continued to take precautions against infection control and volunteers all made a aware to test when they have symptoms. The Dengie D-Caf continues to remain a small, local charity that is volunteer led and run. We have no paid staff. The Chair co-ordinates the sessions and the volunteers
We recommenced our quarterly trustee meetings with treasurer reports and some volunteers also attended to feedback on social activities.
We changed bank accounts from Barclays to Co-op and at the same time, increased our Trustees to 4, Midori Abraham joined us in October 2022 and Barry Butler who was the existing treasurer, also became a Trustee.
The Chair reports back on the sessions at trustee meetings and trustees continue to approve decisions outside trustee meetings, Jane English has taken the role as lead trustee and Chair will seek approval or advice inbetween meetings as and when necessary.
We increased our volunteers due to our membership steadily increasing throughout the year. The Chair continues to promote the WhatsApp group for volunteers and for Members. This helps with communication and used to remind about upcoming sessions and news and to wish people Happy Birthdays when required. Carers have stated that they find the Whatsap group a great source of support if they are struggling or sharing advice and tips.
All our volunteers require and have some experience of dealing with dementia in their family or friends to be able to be of support to the members. They also need approval from lead trustee before commencing their volunteering journey. Trustees continue to approve all decisions about members, activities and anything to do with organisation of the
group. Trustees review training needs and update policy documents as required, and the treasurer renews the website registration and files the annual return to the Charity Commission.
Dengie D-Caf continues to be a member of The Maldon & District Community Voluntary Services (MDCVS) which enables us to publicise our group throughout Maldon and the Dengie peninsula, to make use of their Disclosure & Barring Service for new volunteers and to keep ourselves updated about developments locally and nationally. Dengie D-Caf is part of Connect Well in the Maldon district, which both publicises the support we offer as well as enabling us to accept referrals from other members.
The Organiser/ Chair is the main point of contact and responds to telephone calls, any enquiries and messages. As well as existing members, Dengie D-Caf is contacted by people requesting more information about dementia. They are signposted to local services as appropriate and sent information leaflets supplied by Dementia UK or the Alzheimers Society.
## **C. Objectives & Activities**
Dengie D-Caf aims to promote a good quality of life by supporting people living with dementia, their carers, family and friends.
Dengie D-Caf dementia support group members normally meet on the 2[nd] Wednesday and due to our membership expanding we increased our sessions to include 4[th] Thursday of every month in a larger venue. Our main aim is to provide a safe, welcoming space and to actively listen and engage with all members. Activities are chosen by the group to reflect their interests and histories and to promote living well with dementia. We provide support and information to carers as well as to those living with dementia. Carers who are sadly bereaved are also encouraged to keep attending for friendship and support for others.
The monthly newsletters include photographs of the previous session, birthdays, local news and events, plus a monthly quiz to do in the session if time permits, or at home. They also include dementia related features, e.g. benefit advice, health related topics and articles to maintain independence at home for carers and helpful information to increase wellbeing for those living at home with dementia.
We held our first Christmas party since Covid, in December 2022. A local supermarket donated party food and we had presents donated by the local community initiative, ‘United in Kind’ where the local community donate suitable gifts, and we distributed these at our party by a local Santa. It was good to see members interacting together again on these occasions and to be able to assess how they were doing. We purchased gifts for the carers.
## **D** . **Achievements & Performance**
- We recommenced outings and introduced art and craft activities which proved to be very popular with everyone, especially the carers who found them relaxing and therapeutic. We started with Christmas crafts and members made their own gift cards and Xmas tree decorations.
- Due to the local need, we were able to make plans to increase sessions to 2 monthly as we had been described as a lifeline for the carers. We continued to use Creeksea Church hall as our Wednesday venue but members selected a bigger venue in United Reform Church in Burnham as our second venue on 4[th] Thursday of each month.
- We were lucky to have continued funding from Maldon CVS for a local cinema to provide a Bi Monthly relaxed Dementia Friendly film showings, which included the wider community, including 3 residential care homes, a day centre and the wider community. This was free and if the cinema didn’t have a suitable film, we agreed to provide a suitable DVD to show. This was hugely popular with approximate 40 plus people attending, with their carers.
- We provided emergency first aid training for all volunteers plus many of our volunteers did their Dementia Friends training.
- After Christmas, we reinstated the January planning session for our members to choose their activities for the following year. We were lucky that a local art and craft tutor became a volunteer and she helped with a huge variety of art and craft related activities, such as glass painting workshops, stone and pebble painting, decorating bird boxes and a huge variety of Christmas crafts. Our new grant also gave us the opportunity to completely restock our art and craft supplies, increase our outings for the next year.
- The impact of longer waiting lists for assessments with Social Care meant that carers were often left very stressed following diagnosis and no-where to get much needed support. We therefore identified the need to increase our sessions in 2024 and to include some outreach work in more isolated areas, by providing additional support for some carers who were struggling.
- We also had visits from a local ex police dog handler with their retired 3-legged dog, a local garden centre who helped members plant up pots with flowers and vegetables, we participated in a local Slipper Swap campaign, a brilliant initiative to reduce falls in the home provided by Maldon CVS ( Community Volunteer Service),
- Outings proved very popular and we visited a local vineyard twice who provided a ploughman’s lunch, plus we participated in the Local Burnham Art trail by accepting an invitation to a local artists home for a cream tea, and one of our members held a garden party which was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
- Towards the end of 2023, we applied for a grant and were very happy to have our application for a significant amount from Essex
Community Foundation approved for £6,000 in September 2023. This grant has conditions and ideally should be used in the next 12month period, so 2024 is going to be very successful with exciting times ahead to expand our services.
- We reviewed all our Policies and Risk Assessment with Trustees approval and introduced a new Volunteer Induction pack.
- Our membership increased steadily throughout the year and as at September 2023, we had 18 members living with dementia and 17 carers attending. Plus 2 bereaved carers. Sadly 1 person passed away and 2 moved into a Residential care home. We did open up a session to a local care home, however, our members found this a little overwhelming due to the advanced state of their dementia. So, our trustees asked that we reverted back to people living in the wider community only. We did however visit the care home to assist them starting their own memory café and helped them with some ideas to use within their care home environment. All our members live within our small Dengie Peninsular, which is a rural, fairly isolated area of Essex with poor public transport links and at least 45-minute journey to local hospitals.
- Our age group ranged from 60 to 99, although most were in their 70s and 80s. As well as dementia, some had parkinson’s disease, arthritis and diabetes.
- We had 3 additional regular volunteers, who worked alongside the Chair and 2 of the trustees throughout the year plus two supporters, who were bereaved carers who still attended Dengie D Caf and provided support for carers.
## **E. Financial Review**
- **Sources of funding** We started the financial year on 1st October 2022 with an **opening balance of £4356.70,** being made up of £4260.79 in the bank and £95.91in the petty cash.
- **A total of £9114.58 in donations and grants were received** : including £878 64 in memory of Carol White, £100 from Burnham Carnival committee, £493 from fundraising quiz nights, £200 from the Burnham Music Group, £120 sponsorship for the Burnham & Dengie Rotary Club Ramble and of course a £6000 grant from Essex Community Foundation.
- **Total expenditure for the year was £3294.22** , made up of £2770.57 via bank and £523.65 from petty cash.
- **Closing balance was £10,656.26** , of which £10604.80 in bank and £51.46 in petty c **a** sh.
Burnham Town Council continued to support us by printing out the newsletter and any other printing we needed. We do provide copying paper. Our main expenditure this year has been for outings, Rent and stocking up on supplies for a large range of art and crafts activities .
Our reserves policy for the next financial year will be to continue to hold £1,500 to cover one year’s insurance and basic running costs.
## F. **Declaration**
Overall, it has been a very productive and successful year for Dengie D- Caf and our members, and the trustees are satisfied that in this time we have managed to both adapt to the return of a full programme with outings whilst still taking care to safeguard our vulnerable members
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees report above.
Signed: _K J Butler_ Full name: Karen Butler Position: Chair /Organiser
Signed: _J English_ Full Name. Jane English, Lead Trustee.
Date: 2[nd] July 2024
Dengie D-Caf Accounts 2022/23
## D Caf Accounts October 2022 to Septemeber 2023
|||Opening bala|£4,260.79||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Income|||||||Payments|||
|Date|Descripton|Source|Amount|Refresh|Statonary|Insurance
and|Gifs|Outngs|Workshop supHall Hire||
|28th October|Donaton|A Warren|£40.00||||||||
|**Total Oct**|||**£ 40.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|
|**28th Nov**|**Donaton**|**Midori Abrah**|**£ 30.00**||||||||
|9th NovemberDonaton||Midori Abrah|£ 30.00||||||||
|18th NovembeDonaton||Linda Bugg|£ 20.00||||||||
|**Total Nov**|||**£ 80.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|
|15th Dec||||||£ 16.60|||||
|12th Dec|Donaton|Quiz Night ma|£ 287.20||||||||
|28th Dec|Donaton|Midori Abrah|£ 30.00||||||||
|9th DecemberDonaton||Burnham Carn|£ 100.00||||||||
|**Total Dec**|||**£ 417.20**|**£ -**|**£ -**|
**£ 16.60**|**£**|**- £ -**|**£**|**- £ -**|
|**15th Jan**||||||£ 16.56|||||
|28th Jan|Donaton|Midori Abrah|£ 30.00||||||||
|**Total Jan**|||**£ 30.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£16.56**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|
|**15th Feb**||||||£ 16.56|||||
|28th Feb|Donaton|Midori Abrah|£ 30.00||||||||
|**Total Feb**|||**£ 30.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£16.56**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|
|15th March||||||£ 16.56|||||
|28th March|Donaton|Midori Abraha|£ 30.00||||||||
|**Total March**|||**£ 30.00**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ 16.56**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ -**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|11th April||||||£ 20.00|||||
|11th April||||||||||£ 60.00|
|11th April||||||||||£ 275.00|
|14th April|Donaton|K & R Harmer
|£ 100.00||||||||
|14th April|Donaton|Liz Smith
|£ 300.00||||||||
|14th April|Donaton|Burnham Mus
|£ 100.00||||||||
|14th April|Donaton|D & G Shearin
|£ 50.00||||||||
|15th April||||||£ 16.56|||||
|18th April|||||||£358.16||£ 98.56||
|17th April|Donaton|Carol White
|£ 748.74||||||||
|28th April|Donaton|Midori Abrah
|£ 30.00||||||||
|**Total April**|||**£ 1,328.74**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ 36.56**|**£ 358.16**|**£ -**|**£ 98.56**|**£ 335.00**|
|1st May|||||||||**£ 95.71**||
|12th May|Donaton|Burnham Mus
|£ 200.00||||||||
|19th May|Donaton|Carol White (p
|£ 80.00||||||||
|19th May|Donaton|Carol White (R
|£ 40.00||||||||
|16th May|Donaton|Easyfundraisin
|£ 25.64|||£ 16.56|||||
|25th May||||||||£450.00|||
|28th May|Donaton|Midori Abrah
|£ 30.00||||||||
|31st May|||||£ 169.00||||||
|**Total May**|||**£ 375.64**|**£ -**|**£ 169.00**|**£ 16.56**|**£ -**|**£ 450.00**|**£ 95.71**|**£ -**|
|**12th June**||||||||||£ 25.00|
|**12th June**|||||||||||
|**16th June**||||||£ 16.56|||||
|**28th June**|**Donaton**|**Midori Abrah**
|**£ 30.00**||||||||
|**29th June**|||||||||||
|**29th June**||||||||£ 60.00|||
|**Total June**|||**£ 30.00**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ 16.56**|**£ - £ 60.00**|**£ - £ 25.00**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**4th July**|||||||||
|**12th July**|||||||£ 240.00||
|**12th July**|Donaton|Carol White
|£ 50.00||||||
|**14th July**|Donaton|Diane-Sponsor
|£ 60.00||||||
|**16th July**||||||£ 16.56|||
|**18th July**|Donaton|Quiz-Queens
|£ 137.00||||||
|**28th July**|Donaton|Midori Abrah
|£ 30.00||||||
|**Total July**|||**£ 277.00**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ 16.56**|**£ - £ 240.00**|**£ - £ -**|
|**11th August**|**Donaton**|**Spons Walk Di**
|**£ 60.00**||||||
|**11th August**|Donaton|K & R Harmer|£ 100.00||||||
|**16th August**||||||£ 16.56|||
|**25th August**|Grant|Essex Comm F
|£ 6,000.00||||||
|**28th August**|Donaton|Midori Abrah
|£ 30.00||||||
|**29th August**|Donaton|Quiz Night
|£ 256.00||||||
|**Total August**|||**£ 6,446.00**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ 16.56**|**£ - £ -**|**£ - £ -**|
|**18th Sept**||||||£ 16.56|||
|**28th Sept**|Donaton|Midori Abrah
|£ 30.00||||||
|**29th Sept**||Clayhill Vineyard|||||£ 331.50||
|**Total Sept**|||**£ 30.00**|**£ -**|**£ -**|**£ 16.56**|**£ - £ 331.50**|**£ - £ -**|
## **Total Oct**
£ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ -
**Total**
Yearly Total **Total Income £ 9,114.58**
**All income**
|||||Balance|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Website|Maldon CVS|Training|To Pety Cash||
|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|||**£4,300.79**|
|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|||**£4,380.79**|
|**£ -**|**£ -**|||**£ 4,781.39**|
|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|||**£4,794.83**|
|**£0.00**|**£0.00**|||**£4,808.27**|
|**£**|**-**|**£**|**-**|||**£4,821.71**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||£|32.00||||
|**£**|**-**|**£**|**32.00**|||**£5,290.17**|
||||||£100.00||
|**£**|**-**||**£0.00**||**£100.00**|
**£4,834.54**|
|||||£240.00|||
||||||£50.00||
**£ - £ - £240.00 £50.00 £4,472.98 £ - £ - £4,493.42 £ - £ - £10,922.86 £ - £ - £10,604.80**
£ -
£ -
£ - £ - **£10,604.80**
**Expenditure t£2,770.57 Year end bank£10,604.80 Petty Cash £9.46 Total funds 10614.26**
## **Opening Balance Petty Cash 2022/2023**
**£95.91**
|**Date**|**Income**||**Expenditure**|||**TOTAL**|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||**Descripton**|**Amount**|**Descripton**|**Amount**|||
|14th|||Milk||£1.25||
|14th|||Rafe Tickets||£2.00||
|13th|||Golf Lunch||£105.00||
|15th|Quiz Night|£287.20|||||
|20th|||Vineyard Lunc||£190.00||
|**October**||£287.20|||£298.25|
**£84.86**|
|**10th**|||Milk and Cofe||£5.65||
|**November**||£0.00|||£5.65|
**£79.21**|
|**11th**|||Xmas Craf||£24.95||
|**December**||£0.00|||£24.95|
**£54.26**|
|**25th**|||Stamps||£7.60||
|**January**||£0.00|||£7.60|
**£46.66**|
|**February**||£0.00|||**£0.00**|
**£46.66**|
|28th|||Rubber Bands||£2.00||
|**3rd**|||Supplies||£6.62||
|**March**||**£0.00**|||**£8.62**|
**£38.04**|
|**April**||£0.00|||£0.00|
**£38.04**|
|**19th**|From Bank|£100.00|||||
|**11th**|||Postage||£2.25||
|**14th**|||Ground Cofee||£9.78||
|**14th**|||Supplies||£28.10||
|**30th**|||Flowers - Alex||£35.00||
|**May**||£100.00|||£75.13|
**£62.91**|
|**13th**|||Flowers - Jill|£35.00||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**13th**|||Accident Book|£4.99||
|**29th**|From bank|£50.00||||
|**June**||£50.00||£39.99|**£72.92**|
|**12th**|||Gus Hamper|£12.66||
|**12th**|||Stamps 1st cla|£8.80||
|**July**||£0.00||£21.46|**£51.46**|
|||£0.00||£0.00|**£51.46**|
|August||||£0.00|**£51.46**|
|**8th**||£0.00|Cards|£7.00||
|**September**||£0.00||£7.00|**£44.46**|
|16th|||Flowers-Card|£35.00||
|**October**||||£35.00|**9.46**|
**Total Income**
**£437.20** Total Ependitu **£523.65 £9.46**