2021-03-31-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

From

Period start date Period end date Day 04 2020 31 03 2021 01 To

To

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name

Activity Station

Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any) 1165502 Charity's principal address 30 Lowther Road

Postcode SW13 9ND

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

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Name of person (or body)
Dates acted if not for
Trustee name Office (if any) entitled to appoint trustee
whole year
(if any)
1 Christine Chittick Chair 30.01.16 Activity Station (AS)
Sam Hurst Founder 30.01.16 Resigned Jan
2
2019
3 Heidi Mansfield 21.04.16
4 Hester Larkin 24.02.17
5 Coral Allen 11.05.17
6 Humphrey Hawksley 21.2.20
7 Claire Eaves Founder 30.01.16
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser

Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Activity Station’s governing document is a ‘Foundation model Type of governing document constitution

Whose only voting members are the charity trustees

• (eg. trust deed, constitution)

Activity Station is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated How the charity is Organisation constituted

(CIO)

• (eg. trust, association, company)

Appointed by charity trustees

Trustee selection methods

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

• policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;

• the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;

• relationship with any related parties;

• trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Activity Station (AS) recruit trustees and volunteers who will benefit the charity with their personal knowledge and experience and further the purposes of the CIO. All trustees and volunteers are inducted and receive training before they start. All trustees & volunteers (age appropriate) are DBS cleared before they commence with the charity. All volunteers under the age of 18yrs are vetted with school references. They are given an induction pack to read and understand before their induction and training day. This includes, a volunteer policy, safeguarding policy, health & safety guidelines, risk management awareness and health declaration forms to complete. The trustees receive a copy of the charity’s governing document and related material including the CC publication about being a trustee – CC3 “The Essential Trustee: What you need to know.” All Trustees are Safeguarding trained relevant trustees First Aid trained.

Trustees meetings are held quarterly, minutes are taken and decisions and actions are noted. The Chair has been appointed by the charity trustees. The Finance Manager/ Trustee is present at meetings and reports quarterly to the trustees about the financial position of the charity. The trustees collaborate with

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many service providers who deliver existing services to people with learning disabilities (e.g.Mencap & AFC) to ensure their expertise is passed on to Activity Station activities and social events. All trustees review and consider risks regularly. A risk management plan and procedures are in place to ensure maximum safety. A risk register of individual risks for each event is also maintained.

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

The objects of AS CIO are to support the needs of children, young people and adults with learning disabilities, their families and carers in the LBRUT and the surrounding boroughs in particular, but not exclusively, by all or any of the following means:- 1. Providing activities and social events for people with learning disabilities (PWLD), their families and carers. 2. Collaborating with other service providers and public services to facilitate and deliver activities and social events. 3. Working to increase the choice of activities available to and promoting social inclusion of PWLD and their families and carers.

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AS provide a choice of activities and social events for PWLD such as, sports events, music therapy and music concerts, drumming, singing, cooking, pottery and creative arts, dance and drama, discos, days out, sensory cinema screenings, gardening and rambles, free events i.e. specially adapted pantomimes, Christmas singalongs. The exclusive use of hired venues, all our activities and services promote the public benefit of health and wellbeing, social inclusion, anti-discriminatory environment, advocacy, equality (free events for deprived areas/families), independence, adult learning; encourages personal responsibility of financial budgeting. For some service users who find interaction with others difficult our volunteers can offer social support to avoid them being socially isolated.

By offering a choice of activities and for the PWLD to understand the options, planning routes and transport to our events and making the choice will promote advocacy. It will also encourage financial budgeting for instance if there is more than one activity to choose from.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

AS have the exclusive use of their venues they hire for most of their activities. Exclusive use of venues ensures an accessible & safe environment for users, carers and their families. Users can enjoy the space and make full use of the activities free from any interaction with the general public. We provide relaxed sensory cinema screenings, with subtitles, lowering of lights, reduction of loud noises. During lockdown we had to adapt our service for our service users (please see Section D).

This improves health and wellbeing of the PWLD, families and carers and promotes safety by being in a quiet, safe and accessible environment. They will not be rushed when purchasing refreshments at the café, the café staff are all trained and understand to be patient. The families and carers can also relax in the knowledge that the public will not be rushing the service user or reacting to them if any challenging behaviours occur.

By having exclusive use of venues and a café area it offers a chance to promote social interaction between service users. We have noticed friendships forming whilst communicating over lunch together. By having private use of the café we are able to promote healthy eating by requesting café staff remove unhealthy food from sight which might be tempting to buy. It also enables PWLD, parents and carers to bring their own packed lunch to eat. We have noticed this helps support those who have a special diet or may choose unhealthy food and perhaps are unable to budget for purchasing any refreshments as well. This would not be possible in a public café.

AS help PWLD, families and carers without computers or the internet e.g. registering people for activities. AS download information for them and communicate with the support workers and care homes.

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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

• policy on grantmaking;

• policy programme related investment;

All AS volunteers are inducted and trained before they start. They are expected to read and understand all aspects of the AS policies i.e. safeguarding, health and safety guidance and risk policies. They contribute significantly to the success of AS by offering additional support and encouragement. With the help of our volunteers it gives families and carers respite. The volunteers know when to support and when to allow the PWLD to do a task on their own which encourages independence and confidence to grow. They support with access & registration on arrival of attendees and work with our service providers to ensure activities are well prepared, inclusive to everyone, & also help with support encouraging our users to take part and have fun.

• contribution made by volunteers.

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Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Overnight we adapted our service to offer online sessions to our vulnerable service users during Covid ‘19. We were running 10 online sessions per week for the majority of this year offering music, singing, drumming, art, drama, pottery, dancing, cookery movement and excerise classes and the Christmas panto. We developed a new online safeguarding policy and trained all our volunteers and trustees to be able to host and safeguard all the sessions. We also ran a delivery service to homes where people were unable to get out. Our clients were suffering from social isolation and this was a safe way to offer a service with familiar teachers and staff providing them structure to their day which all carers and parents found essential. On average we had 10 users attending each session plus carers and care homes.

We were delighted to be able to reach so many people during Covid the increase in reach and numbers was outstanding. The feedback from users, parents, carers and care homes was so positive and highlighted the importance of providing our service.

Quantitative results have shown from our data that there has been an increase in attendance in the last year, some being our regular attendees returning, but also includes a larger number of newcomers. Qualitative information has shown from surveys sent out what activities PWLD they would like and their needs, which has enabled us to introduce two different ways of delivering our music sessions for example. We deliberately keep attendee numbers small to allow for positive and safe experiences by all of our service users. This is especially important for our online sessions. It enables our facilitators to provide more individual teaching which makes the service users feel valued and involved. This can so often be lost in a busier environment or mainstream activity. From completed AS evaluation forms, our service has been described by users, parents and carers as excellent and includes very positive comments and feedback. We have had many people give us positive responses from conversation analysis. We have service users attending that have been referred to us by other parents and carers. Existing partners and organisations (which includes, Mencap, Crofters Club, RUILS, SEN family support group, social work & disabled teams, Skylarks, Richmond CVS, RHLT & Achieving For Children) promote our activities and have recommended us to new organisations and parents/carers increasing our network.

By adapting our service and going online with our sessions and increasing the number of online activities for PWLD of different ages, has made our activities more accessible with an increase of service users from other boroughs.

Plans for the future

• Continue to adapt to ever changing Covid restrictions and to return to ‘in person’ activities as soon as it is safe to do so.

• Introduce a respite service for SLD service users to help

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Section D Achievements and performance

provide respite to families with severe/complex needs.

• Increase the number of free events at key calendar dates during the year.

• Update our website and research social media

• Evaluate user and carer views of our service and identify unmet

needs.

• Increase our fitness and wellbeing activities.

• Increase current programme of days out during school/college

holidays. D Achievements and performance

Statement of Public Benefit

• We ensure service providers/facilitators make reasonable adjustments to their services so PWLD can access them in the same way as other people (sensory screening, panto and all our activities).

• We enable them to choose what activities they would like to undertake.

• We promote healthy eating and a choice which also promotes financial budgeting.

• We offer wellbeing, social, health and fitness activities and encourage them to participate in a safe and stimulating environment.

• We work in partnership with other agencies and providers to improve our service for vulnerable people.

The objectives, activities, achievements and performance for the past year addressed throughout this trustee annual report clearly sets out the activities which AS undertakes for the public benefit. The trustees, in setting our aims, objectives and planning our activities have given careful consideration to the Charity Commission general guidance on public benefit.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

We continue to implement our reserve policy. Our activities and social events programme is flexible and can be tailored to run any number of activities at any given time out of an annual ‘rolling’ planned programme. In the event of uncertainty of future income we can reduce the number of activities and also remove activities which are more expensive to run and introduce new less expensive ones. As a small charity that does not have fixed assets or overheads such as staffing costs, the amount put aside in reserves is considered to be low risk.

We seek to maintain a reserves policy of approximately 50% of the total expenditure used. Currently £10000 has been agreed by the trustees to be put aside for reserves. This will allow for at least 6 months to develop new sources of income or to reduce the number of activities we run accordingly.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

• the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);

Fundraising

We made the decision at the beginning of lockdown to provide our online service for free. We have received generous donations from users and were successful with grants from the National Lottery and Barnes Fund which enabled us to do this.

• how expenditure has Fundraising events on hold due to covid 19 restrictions.

• supported the key objectives of the charity;

• investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

Section F Other optional information

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

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Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date 16.12.21

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CHARI￿ COMMISSION fOR ENGLAND AND WALES ACllVITY STATION Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the perfod from To 01,.0412020 31103Q021 Section A Receipts and payments Unre$tri¢trd lunds R¢std¢ted lunds endowmenl lunds Total lund• Last year toth• n•awat É A1 Ree¢l ts Donow)s 14¥It1￿E¥enrs GT3.ry1 Nabtr.al LoLtÈYy G[￿t RPLC OB3 470 76 47D 9.950 17,Qty) ross incon ARJ IT.￿3 17,503 A•$•t •n Total recelpts 17.&)3 A3Pa ents eni Eywthiure (knrmads 16.X)2 1.070 16,￿? 1.070 7,100 5.469 Sub total 17.9n 17,971 12,569 A4 AsJ9t and invpstm¢nt ureh•8e8 gee table Sub total 17.972 17,972 12.519 Net of recelptsl(paymentsJ AS Transfers bÈfv4een funds A6 Cash lunds last year end Cash funds this yearend 469 469 8,291 469 469 8,291 CCXX ft14cco￿ts (ss) 21104Q021

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unresidcied funds Restfltied funds to noar•st£ Endowmont lunfls to n•amt E noa¥oBI £ B1 C$h funds Ply￿1 Total G3h funds 36.753 UnrMtrf¢l•d lund8 to nMrHi £ Aestrl¢tsd lunds Enrjowmenl funds to MAm•t£ Fund l• Dai•1 oN•I B3 Investment ass•ts Fu•0 10 which t•lon ¢oKiopb"LwwI} Cvryvnt volu• onil B4 A$$•t8 r•taln•d for th• charity's own u88 F¥nd io *hkh Vth•n d DL..ails onal BS Llabllltl•s s￿)￿¢￿ by one or Irust••s on behèif of All InJ$i•é$ Print Name Dale tsf roval CCXX R2 awJunts ISSI 2110412021