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2021-03-31-accounts

2020/2021

ANNUAL REPORT

Supporting children and young people with Down's syndrome and their community.

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN

This has been another challenging year for all charities who have had to navigate service provision in a pandemic and also maintain close contact with the communities that they serve. I am very proud and pleased to be able to report that our Charity Manager and the team at 21 Together have worked very hard to overcome these obstacles and have ensured that the charity has continued to support our local Down’s syndrome community in Kent throughout this year. The team have managed to not only maintain services, but they have exceeded expectations and delivered better and more innovative provision despite the challenging circumstances. Much of the year has fluctuated between online and face to face provision, and I am delighted to report that the team have all worked very hard to ensure continuity of service and to reevaluate the services that we can offer to allow for the flexibility needed due to the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to our many volunteers and, of course, the Trustee board, without whose freely offered time and support, the charity simply could not continue to go from strength to strength.

In the coming year we are seeking to add new staff members to the team and to grow our Trustee board. This will allow us to continue to expand our services and offering both face to face and online. One positive that has come from the changes brought about by the pandemic, is that we can now support our community online in addition to the face to face offering and this allows us to support more families within Kent and especially those for whom distance was a barrier to accessing the charity’s services. We will continue to work to provide this expanded and inclusive service into the forthcoming year.

I wish to congratulate and thank the whole team at 21 Together for another successful year and look forward to seeing the progress and growth continue into the next year.

Sarah Wildgoose, Chair of Trustees

THANKYOU TO OUR FUNDERS The Henry Smith Chctrity Childpen in Need ounded in 1628 . COMMUNITY FUND kent rassi-oots fund Kent County Council keni.gov.uk Garfield Weston FOUNDATION KENT COLYER THÉ FERGUSSON COMNUNITY FOUNDATION MERCERS, CHARITASLE TF4 U5T COMPANY TESCO O'KEEFE Bags of Help

TRUSTEES' ANNUAL REPORT

""Regular group sessions and holiday camps have provided a fantastic opportunity to socialize and learn communication skills. There is nowhere else our children can benefit from this interaction with peers and specialists."

Objects of the Charity

CIO - Foundation Registered 25 Jan 2016 as amended on 25 Sep 2020. Amendments made in Sept 2020 to allow digital projects to reach a wider audience. The projects remain focused on Kent based families but benefit a national community. Therefore, our Objects were changed to allow us to open up digital projects to a wider audience with great success.

1.To relieve the needs of people with Down's syndrome, living particularly but not exclusively in Kent and their families and carers through provision of training, support, education and practical advice, and by such other means as the trustees may determine.

  1. To advance the education of the public and in particular the parents and carers of people with Down's syndrome and professionals involved in their care and education, in the specific needs and abilities of people with Down's syndrome.

VISION

Everyone has the right to live their lives to the fullest of their potential, regardless of disability or disadvantage.

MISSION

To support children and young people with Down's syndrome and their families to access the right support to live full and vibrant lives.

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OUR AIMS
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Enable people with Down's syndrome to be fully included in society by giving them access to the early intervention and skills needed to achieve the best possible outcomes in their lives.

Educate families and professionals to enable them to provide the best possible support for people with Down's syndrome.

Support families through peer networks, parent support groups and online forums.

Advocate and build awareness of the achievements of people with Down's syndrome. Recognising the positive impact of our community on the wider world is key in promoting true inclusion and cohesion.

Promote raised expectations of what is possible within our community and the wider community.

Nothing for us, without us!

OUR WORK IS LED BY OUR COMMUNITY

Our work is rooted in the needs of our community.

We are committed to continuing a cycle of feedback and reform, so our community and stakeholders can see the impact of our work.

It is not enough just to listen , we have to share our findings, and how we use the information to plan for the future. The Trustees and staff have paid due regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit when planning all services and ensure the services delivered are in line with our Objects and Mission Statement.

"Co-production and community engagement lies at the heart of all decision-making at all levels within the organisation." - Charity Manager

“21 Together are doing a great job adapting to this ever-changing and challenging environment, to support our young people and their families. Well done and thanks.” - Parent / Carer

C O V I D - 1 9 I M P A C T

In a year of such disruption and change, we are proud to say that 21 Together stepped up. We continued a vast majority of services, either online or through other means. The needs within our community rocketed due to the impacts of the loss of learning, social isolation, and the collapse in access to public services.

The devastating impact on access to government help and support for our community inspired new services, as well as new ways of working. We took all our sessions online as live video conferencing sessions, as well as developing a prerecorded approach to support parents at home in lockdown.

We constantly spoke to our community about the support they needed and updated our approach. As part of these discussions, it became clear that those families with preschool children were really struggling to access any form of structured learning and that families were struggling to cope. Those discussions led to the development of Teach Me Too, a new project to ease the pressure on families and support professionals to keep delivering learning through this time. Teach Me Too was developed as an online video learning library designed for children with Down's syndrome. The response from the national Down's syndrome community was so strong that in January 2021 we were able to open up the digital content to support a wider national and international cohort of children and young people.

We remained Kent Children's charity of the year supported by the Kent Community Foundation and Wards.

"21 Together have been doing great to support the community remotely as best they can over the past months/year! So thank you - as it's not easy!!"

– Parent/Carer

Challenges

Covid -19

Covid-19 mortality incidence in vaccinated individuals is highest for those with Down's syndrome (12.7-fold increase). Many of our children and young adults were considered extremely clinically vulnerable and spent long periods in isolated situations.

Decreased access to education, health and social care

The disintegration of social/health care services for people with learning disabilities, created the perfect storm for additional mental health issues alongside the negative impact on health, education, and social care outcomes.

Remote Working

A team of professionals with no experience in online working or the necessary tech skills needed to re-train and in new ways of working. Keeping our community safe, but still delivering gold standard care is down to the sheer dedication of the staff

Volunteers

Volunteers have been a key part of this successful transition to remote working, with technical expertise hours donated to the charity exceeding 200 hours this year by one individual. Other volunteers took their skills online to provide support and friendship to young adults in isolated situations.

Fundraising

With our key planned events cancelled, we were able to access additional grant funding to go alongside some passionate fundraisers who wouldn't let Covid win! Their sheer tenacity helped ensure we had some community income to continue supporting our work.

WHO DO WE HELP?

USER TYPE TOTAL ALL CONTACTS 217 INDIVIDUALS 183 FAMILY GROUPS 130 PROFESSIONALS 34 ESTABLISHMENTS 28 PREVIOUSLY KNOWN INDIVIDUALS 110

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FINANCIAL
SUPPORT POLICY
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E Q U A L A C C E S S

This year we have continued to support families pursuant to our Financial Support Policy which enables families to apply for financial support to access our services. This is a critical part of the support that the charity provides to ensure that our services are available to everyone within our community, irrespective of means.

217 TOTAL CHARITY USERS IN KENT

SERVICE OVERVIEW

Communication for Life Project

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Total Users 60
Communication for
Life
Unique
40
Users
Number of sessions
21
offered
Communication Number of
126
Groups Hours
Unique
22
Users
Number of sessions
20
offered
Number of
Circle Groups 12
Hours
Unique Users 17
Number of sessions
offered 9
Social connection
Number of
20
Hours
Unique Users 21
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Our Communication for Life project continues to provide communication groups, circle groups, and holiday camps, which all focus on building the communication skills you need for real life. This can range from specialised speech therapy to social communication and friendship support.

This year the project has been funded through Children in Need for our 4 – 18-year-olds with additional support from independent donors and corporate donations from Wards to help us deliver this project to the over 18's. Children in Need are supporting the project for three years giving us stability and space to start building a longer-term future and looking at other projects.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic we were unable to run any camps this year. All other services ran online.

To ease isolation and lack of connection – Social Connections sessions were introduced to replace Circle groups in the interim until a new service provision could be created post-pandemic.

SERVICE OVERVIEW Education for Life Project

Education for Life, has progressed significantly. Early intervention groups were due to launch in March 2020, but this was cancelled due to lockdown. In response to this, we built the Teach Me Too project which enabled pre-school children, as well as school-aged children to access specialised learning in their own homes. Over 50 families accessed this resource before Jan 2021 when it became nationally available. Our objects were updated to enable us to deliver this support to a wider audience and maximise the benefit given it was an online resource.

Training continued online with great success. It included sessions like Learning Needs of a pupil with Down's syndrome, Managing Behaviour of a pupil with Down's syndrome, Maths Workshops and Me, My Body, My Friends, My Life (SRE).

Attendance at these training sessions:

"Fantastic course... learnt so much and so thankful to have a much clearer understanding of how my child with DS learns and the tools I can use to help her. Thank you!!"

"I loved the course being online as it's always really difficult to attend training days in person.

"The passion from the tutors really showed through which I loved. Their knowledge & experience was fantastic."

"Amazing course and only hope that anyone who has or involved with a child with Down syndrome has access to this course. It is a real eye opener as to how our beautiful little girls mind works"

"It is a lifeline to be able to learn, discuss, compare notes with others in the same situation, and improves the children's lives by helping their carers feel more together and capable."

"I have never been so engrossed in an online workshop! But I am a bit of a maths nerd too! It was excellent"

SERVICE OVERVIEW

Community Support

Community Support has been busy with a change in how the service is delivered. Due to Covid-19 the service was delivered solely by phone and via online video calls. We also increased the service available on our closed social media pages answering questions and supporting individuals to improve ease of access. In addition to our usual service, we also developed additional advice pages on our website that guided families through the everchanging complex legal changes to SEN law during lockdown. Colyer Fergusson Charitable Trust continues to support this service for the second year and we are looking at additional support to enable specialist teacher support for schools where needed.

The Community Support Service has been accessed 109 times by 44 unique users. Total time spent on the service was 172.75 hours separated as:

Support was provided in 7 different areas and accessed as detailed in the chart below:

SERVICE OVERVIEW

Community Support

Service quality, importance, and impact

·100% rated the quality of the service as very high (maximum rating).

·100% found the level of impact the service have on them and their family was extremely positive (maximum rating).

"I was feeling desperate after the antenatal diagnosis. Two people from 21 Together listened to me over the phone and talked to me in a way that calmed me down and made the situation more normal, easier to accept. After that, a video conference was organised in order for me and my wife to get introduced to other parents and hear their stories. They made us feel in good company and a lot less alone."

"Access to expertise and talking to a person who has been in similar situations and being able to TALK not just write."

"To have somebody who understands the profile (of T21) and who is independent from KCC to offer guidance/advice on the process."

"I received valuable advice and support in pressing for our daughter to receive help from the Disabled Children's Service which encouraged us to persevere and has resulted in substantial support being promised despite the Social Services' initial misgivings about our daughter's eligibility"

SERVICE OVERVIEW Family Support Groups

Supporting the people who are caring for the person with Down's syndrome is just as important as the person with Down's syndrome. We create a space where we can come together to share our stories, share our lives, and sometimes not share at all. A place where we can talk about our loved ones, or simply time to listen. A time that can be whatever the community needs it to be.

Play and Stay

Our Play and Stay sessions are specifically for those with younger children and expecting families. We have a new programme planned with regular speakers and expert guidance, as well as time to connect with families. When we are back together there will be areas for the little ones to engage in toys, books, and sensory play!

Wellbeing

As parents and carers life is always busy - They rarely have time to focus themselves! Therefore, 21 Together's Wellbeing Sessions are specifically aimed at those parents/carers/family members who deserve a little time to recharge and regroup. These sessions allow the opportunity to take a break from caring and focus on their well-being. Activities led by

instructors/speakers trained to build resilience and provide stress-relieving techniques.

Empowerment

Our Empowerment sessions are there to provide the knowledge and tools to best support their children and young people. Aimed at those with children of school age and beyond we will have regular speakers to provide expert guidance on various areas of social care and support. Trained 21 Together staff are available at all these sessions to provide individualised and tailored support to families that need it.

Overall statistics

SERVICE OVERVIEW

Family Support Groups

Parent Views

"I think this is a fantastic service which allows parents and carers to have a space where they can talk about their concerns with other parents without feeling judged."

"I've thoroughly enjoyed the wellbeing sessions. There's been a great mix of activities and I've attempted things i would have never done and found I really enjoy them. its great opportunity to do something for myself. I close the door and let the chaos continue the other side of it. Thank you"

"Really great to be able to discuss a topic such as transport in detail with the expert and to have my questions answered. Such a great resource!"

Volunteers

OUR UNSUNG HEROS

This year our work with volunteers was limited by Covid-19. We are very thankful for those volunteers working in the background to help build more efficient IT systems and help with building maintenance and equipment. We were able to utilise some new volunteers through our online programmes. This gave us access to regular individuals who developed peer support sessions and enabled projects like "Take Over" week, which saw our young adults with Down's syndrome taking over our social media to showcase their lives. Having a volunteer of a similar age to the young people to support them goes a long to improving confidence and ensuring age-appropriate interactions.

"This year we have loved our seeing young people continuing their volunteering online and outside. They do a fantastic job, supporting us at events, while simultaneously being the role models that our younger children need and deserve." - Charity Manager

About The Finances

The financial year 20/21 saw a significant growth of our charity income due to the planned increase in services funded by grants and trusts, such as the 'Communication for life' project funded by Children in Need. This saw an income of £33,454 from Children in Need to provide vital support services within this financial year. We secured grants from The National Lottery totaling over £53,700, including £36,200 dedicated to core running costs and liquidity cover. Multiple other grant makers with grant values of between £1000- £5000 have also had a significant impact. This has led to a big jump in restricted funds as we move into the next financial year. Our unrestricted reserves stay within our reserve policy guidelines and currently sits at £66,289. Our reserve policy considers the stability of forecasted income, economic factors, as well as the complex needs of our beneficiaries and the impact of gaps in provision of services.

As the charity has continued to expand, the Board of Trustees has undertaken an entire organisation restructure and staff review. We have also accessed resilience funding from Kent County Council via the Kent Community Foundation to work with a professional fundraising consultant who helped us produce and start to action a robust fundraising strategy to secure the charity's financial future. Restricted funding in core costs will enable us to deliver on that strategy, increase the number of staff responsible for fundraising, and relieve pressure on the current Charity Manager. Alongside this decision-making, the board also agreed to fund a full-time admin role to support the projects and teams. This allows charity leaders to spend more time on strategic planning, resilience building, and quality assurance.

In April 2021, it appears we have a very high level of funds available in core costs. However, this money is already assigned to support these new staff and restructure its first year. We anticipate that this fund will be depleted by the end of March 2022, and we will need to ensure the team we have in place are supported to find new funding to support further projects and cover the cost of their employment.

The increase in staffing costs was a vital exercise carried out to build future fundraising capacity and resilience, whilst ensuring the skills of the current staff are utilised effectively, and the charity sees good value in the tasks completed by each team member.

We remain confident that our current levels of both restricted and unrestricted funds put us in a position where we can continue to build resilience for the difficult years ahead while growing and enabling more families to access our services. We need to make use of this year to fully diversify and explore other fundraising options by delivering our fundraising strategy. We are aware that the next few years will be challenging, and we have planned to ensure we maintain safe financial levels and excellent services.

Not only that, but we ended the year with exceptional news in March 2021 that the National Lottery have awarded us three years of funding to allow us to design, implement and evaluate a much wider education for life programme including groups from birth through to age seven, alongside delivering our training and learning programmes. We are hugely grateful for this support, and we have great plans for the future. As we come out of lockdown, we will have a generation of children with even less access to early interventions. This programme will help us provide the much-needed support those families who need it.

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF 21 TOGETHER

Independent examiner's report to the trustees of 21 Together

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of 21 Together for the year ended 31 March 2021.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011(‘the Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trustee’s accounts carried out under section 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 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner's 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 respect:

  1. accounting records were not kept in respect of the Trust as required by section 130 of the Act

  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.

S.R. Sampson BFP FCA FCIE DChA Ashdown Hurrey Auditors Limited 20 Havelock Road

Hastings East Sussex TN34 1BP

Date: ………………………………………

14/12/2021

21 TOGETHER

RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Notes
RECEIPTS
Grants
2
Donations
3
Fundraising
4
Charitable Activities
5
Total
PAYMENTS
Costs of Generating Funds
6
Charitable Activities
7
Management and Administration Costs
8
Other Expenditure
9
Total
NET RECEIPTS / (PAYMENTS)
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds brought forward
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD		 Unrestricted
funds
£
8,522
20,869
3,247
5,333
37,971
775
24,794
8,291
1,333
35,193
2,778
63,511
66,289		 Restricted
funds
£
129,599
54,613
5
13,016
197,233
-
81,959
4,398
1,614
87,971
109,262
12,750
122,012		 Year Ended
31.03.2021
Total funds
£
138,121
75,482
3,252
18,349
235,204
775
106,753
12,689
2,947
123,164
112,040
76,261
188,301		 Year Ended
31.03.2020
Total funds
£
24,456
25,796
2,107
9,854
62,213
4,002
83,165
6,254
2,218
95,639
(33,426)
109,687
76,261

21 TOGETHER

STATEMENTS OF ASSETS AND LIABILITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Monetary Assets
Cash at Bank and in Hand
Debtors
Accounts Receivable
Current Liabilities
Other Assets
Computer Equipment
Accounts Payable		 Unrestricted
funds
£
66,289
66,289
20
20
180
180		 Restricted
funds
£
122,012
122,012
-
-
-
-		 31.03.2021
Total
funds
£
188,301
188,301
20
20
180
180
31.03.2021
Cost
£
2,916
2,916		 31.03.2020
Total
funds
£
76,261
76,261
3,215
3,215
-
-
31.03.2020
Cost
£
2,055
2,055

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees on ………………………..…… and were signed on its behalf by:

…………………………………

S Wildgoose - Trustee

………………………………… S Ainsworth - Trustee

21 TOGETHER

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis.

2. GRANTS

3.

4.

Grants
Training Income / Grant
Speech Camps Grant / Revenue
DONATIONS
Donations
Direct Public / Corporate Support
Virgin Money Gving
Other Donations
FUNDRAISING INCOME
Fundraising
Christmas Cards
Shop		 31.03.2021
£
138,121
-
-
138,121
31.03.2021
£
75,482
-
-
-
75,482
31.03.2021
£
2,565
590
97
3,252		 31.03.2020
£
-
22,248
2,208
24,456
31.03.2020
£
-
536
8,532
16,728
25,796
31.03.2020
£
2,107
-
-
2,107

21 TOGETHER

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MACRH 2021

5. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES INCOME

Communication Groups
Circle Groups
Courses
Education Services
Early Intervention Fees
Early Years Resource Packs
TMT 1st Edition Pack
6.
COST OF GENERATING FUNDS
Fundraising Events
Products for Fundraising
50/50 Winners
7.
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES EXPENDITURE
Summer Camp
General Training Costs
Staff Traning
Venues
Travel
Groups
Rent
Wages
Symbol Costs
Speakers / Trainers
Bought-in Services
Supervision
Early Years Intervention
Cleaning
Easter Fun Day 19 Resources		 31.03.2021
£
5,922
1,975
3,153
236
1,415
583
5,065
18,349
31.03.2021
£
-
432
343
775
31.03.2021
£
-
-
620
(99)
1
636
10,678
52,380
1,000
6,633
30,990
3,748
140
31
(5)
106,753		 31.03.2020
£
5,796
3,498
560
-
-
-
-
9,854
31.03.2020
£
4,002
-
-
4,002
31.03.2020
£
4,224
12,597
3,376
7,447
1,154
4,507
7,844
42,016
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
83,165

21 TOGETHER

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MACRH 2021

8. MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION COSTS

Website
Advertising
Office Costs
Insurance
Printing, Postage & Stationery
Computer Expenses
Accountancy
Bank Charges
Legal and Professional
Payroll, Recruitment and Staff Costs
Subscriptions
Telephone and Internet
9.
OTHER EXPENDITURE
Trustee and Volunteer Expenses
Sundry Expenses
General Resources		 31.03.2021
£
595
223
-
69
2,579
2,191
1,380
233
3,450
856
609
504
12,689
31.03.2021
£
66
166
2,715
2,947		 31.03.2020
£
2,248
520
1,097
426
383
-
1,344
236
-
-
-
-
6,254
31.03.2020
£
135
2,083
-
2,218

10. RESTRICTED FUNDS

Fund Name
Communication for Life
Core Costs
Training
Early Years Full Project
Community Support Service
FSG
Teach Me Too		 At 31.03.2020 Receipts
Payments
£
£
£
-
44,713
(36,951)
638
76,448
-
9,527
3,098
(5,429)
2,572
-
-
13
6,200
(6,443)
-
7,000
(4,717)
-
59,774
(34,431)
12,750
197,233
(87,971)		 At 31.03.2021
£
7,762
77,086
7,196
2,572
(230)
2,283
25,343
122,012

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Charity Registration Number: 1165305

Trustees during reporting period:

Sarah Wildgoose (Chair) Sinead Ainswoth (Treasurer) Katerina Pollard Barbara Makie (Dec 2020 – Feb 2021)

Trustees joined after the reporting period:

Rachel Butcher 16/06/2021 Diane Jenner 16/06/2021 Rebecca Clark 16/06/2021 Jemma Kemp 16/06/2021 Melissa Jones 16/06/2021

The Key Management Personnel are the Trustees and the Charity Manager:

Johanna Aiyathurai – Charity Manager

Registered Office & Operational Addresses:

Registered Office: MCSC, 39-48 Marsham Street, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1HH

Independent Examiner:

S R Sampson BFP FCA FCIE DChA, Ashdown Hurrey Auditors Limited, 20 Havelock Road, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 1BP

Bank:

CAF Bank, 25 Kings Hill Avenue, Kings Hill, West Malling,Kent ME19 4TA

Governance and Structure:

Type of governing document Foundation Registered 25 Jan 2016 as amended on 25 Sep 2020

How the charity is constituted

Foundation CIO

Trustee selection methods

Trustees are appointed by the existing Trustees

DECLARATION: The Trustees conflrm that they have covnplied with thelr duty to hav• due regard to the Charlty Commlsslon's public benefit guidance when exerclslng any powers or dutles to whlch the guldance Is relevanL Si8ned on behalf of the Trustees: Sarah Wlldgoose Chalrman Signature Oildr." Date IIF 11 Li Slnead Alnsworth Treasurer Signature Date Is. 12-a