## **Charity no: 1165555** ## **Annual Report and Accounts January 2020 – December 2020** ## **Contents Page** ||Page| |---|---| |Charity Information|2| |Mission, Values and Ethos|3| |Governance and Management|3| |Summary of Achievements|5| |Plans for the Future|11| |Accounts and Financial Review|13| |Declaration|17| 1 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report ## **General Information** Charity name: Pregnancy Options Centre Other names charity is known by: Options Registered Charity Number: 1165555 Address: St Johns House St Johns Street Chichester PO19 1UU Website: optionschichester.org.uk Email: office@optionschichester.org.uk ## **Trustees** 1. Ashley Kuchanny (Chair of Trustees) 2. Sally Morgan 3. Carol Grove 4. Juliet Wood 5. Dave Loveman (from 29.01.2020) 6. Joanne Kondabeka (resigned 29.01.2020) ## **Advisors** Roy Twaites (Treasurer / Signatory) ## **Independent Examiner** David Grove ## **Senior Staff** Anna Madge (CEO/ signatory) ## **Charity Structure** The overall responsibility for the Charity rests with the Trustees who meet approximately 4 times per year to receive reports on the charity’s activities. The CEO supported by other employees who are responsible for the day to day management. All staff are part-time. 2 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report ## **Our Mission Statements** - To provide free, non-directive and confidential counselling support for women and men facing an unplanned pregnancy, pregnancy loss or post abortion difficulties. - To deliver interactive educational sessions to teenagers on the myths and facts about relationships, sex, and the consequences of risky sexual behaviour including an unplanned pregnancy. ## **Our Values and Ethos** As an organisation with Christian foundations, Pregnancy Options Centre’s foundational value is to respond with compassion, care and respect to our clients, regardless of their faith, race, income, sexual orientation or employment status. We are not a campaigning organisation, and we do not have a political agenda. We recognise that abortion is a controversial issue that divides people in a polarising debate. As an organisation, we want to bring a non-judgmental approach by supporting clients at their point of need. Our goal is to provide accurate information, counselling and practical support so those in crisis can reach a healthy, well informed decision that is their own. We will safeguard our clients to ensure this decision is not influenced by coercion, manipulation, or misleading information. We uphold the following values: - Alleviating personal distress and suffering - Respecting human right and dignity - Appreciating the variety of human experiences and culture - Ensuring the integrity of the client/counsellor relationship - Providing honest, accurate, evidence-based information - Respecting the right of others to hold beliefs and values of all faiths or none - Ensuring that educative work is evidence based, non-judgmental and participative ## **Structure Governance and Management** Options has a Constitution: Trustee Selection Methods: Constitution of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) whose only voting members are its charity trustees. The Constitution was last amended on 28[th] July 2016 Apart from the First Trustees all charity Trustees must be appointed for a term of 3 years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills 3 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. The current trustees are responsible for appointing new trustees. The charity trustees will make available to each new charity trustee, on or before his first appointment: A copy of the current version of the constitution and a copy of the CIO latest Trustees Annual report and statement of accounts. ## **Public Benefit** As a small charity, below the Charities Act’s audit threshold, the report focuses on the main activities undertaken by the charity to further its charitable purposes for public benefit. The ‘Summary of the Charities Achievements of the Year’ provides a brief summary of the activities undertaken. The trustees confirm they have had due regard to the Charity Commission’s Public Benefit Guidance and will continue to follow this guidance in future plans. ## **Risk Management** The Trustees acknowledge they have a duty to identify and review risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error. Policies and procedures are reviewed regularly throughout the year, including a Risk Management Policy. Key areas to manage risks posed to the charity are: - Recruitment procedures take into account the importance of volunteers and paid staff who will offer unconditional acceptance and respect to all members of the public, and especially to clients who will be very vulnerable when they come to the Centre. These involve interview and references as well as training appropriate to the role, and a probationary period. - Delivery of the service is monitored through continual professional development and supervision, and through analysis of feedback obtained from service users. - Our volunteer counsellors are required to adhere to the Ethical Framework of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) Ethical Framework, of which the charity is an organisational member (250716). - Supervision is a requirement for all volunteer counsellors, and takes place in small groups run by an experienced external Counsellor, Psychotherapist and Counselling Supervisor. Professional advice from a local Bereavement Midwife is available if needed. - The Charity works with vulnerable adults, children and young people. It has a written safeguarding policy and procedure. The charity is a member of thirtyone:eight, independent safeguarding specialists. A named Safeguarding Officer can be contacted 4 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report with any concerns relating to safeguarding children or adults at risk. All personnel involved in the Centre complete a DBS check. - The Trustees hold Employer’s Liability Insurance, Professional Liability Insurance and Trustee Assurance, and have an agreed reserves policy. - Trustees, staff and volunteers continue to adhere to and adjust current working practice as they arise to suit GDPR regulations. - Covid-19 policies and procedures have been created and regular reviewed in line with government guidelines and restrictions. ## **Summary of Charity Achievements in the Year** 2020 was undoubtedly a challenging year for everyone. Throughout the pandemic, isolation, being away from usual support networks and uncertainty for the future made sometimes difficult situations and experiences even more challenging for our clients. We saw an increase for the need in our counselling service and knew that we had to continue providing support. In April, our face to face counselling service quickly moved to online and telephone support. We received a grant from CAF Emergency Fund to invest in Office365 and set up remote working for our staff and volunteers. Additional training was also provided to do this to ensure those still available to volunteer were able and safe to do so. Sadly, our schools project was put on hold from April 2020, after a very successful start to the academic year. However, after a period of being furloughed, our Education Lead returned to work and began developing primary school sessions to pilot in 2021. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, 2020 was a year of growth and development at Options, as the need for our services became even more evident. A more detailed summary of the work of each project follows: ## **Counselling Project** This project provides counselling for women and their partners and/or families facing unplanned pregnancy or struggling after an abortion or pregnancy loss. We use a bereavement support programme called _Time to Heal_ , which enables our clients to address their painful issues of loss and find healthy ways of processing their experiences. In 2020, we received 70 new client referrals, with 65 clients attending support for unplanned pregnancy, miscarriage, post-abortion, still birth, pregnancy support and therapeutic termination. This was an increase of 45% compared to 2019’s referrals. Referrals came from 62 females and 8 males during the year, including 1 couple for miscarriage support and 2 couples for unplanned pregnancy. We continued to support 6 clients from our 2019 caseload. 47% of referrals in 2020 were for unplanned pregnancy support, compared to 33% in 2019, again reflecting the impact of the pandemic on women’s anxieties for the future. Our CEO, along with the support of another Centre in Bristol, adapted our post abortion materials for phone work. To help respond to clients and broaden our accessibility, we also set up a webchat service. This meant individuals could chat with us without having to speak on the 5 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report phone if their home environment was not private or safe. In September, we began to resume face to face support on a case by case basis in line with government guidelines as they changed. This was offered only to clients who were not able to access our service due to lack of privacy or safety in their own homes. Online and telephone support continued to be our primary offer. This type of support will continue in the future, creating a hybrid approach, combining in person and telephone support depending on what is most accessible for individual clients and/or counsellors. During 2020, we also began training 10 new counsellors for crisis pregnancy and pregnancy loss/post abortion support from 4 different Centers across West and East Sussex; Chichester, Folkestone, Burgess Hill and Horsham. Training began in January, was on hold during the height of the pandemic, and then resumed face to face and online. 3 of the trainees who successfully completed the course(s), began volunteering in our Centre in December. This training has enabled us to grow our capacity, increase our sustainability and meet the demand of our service users, avoiding long waiting lists. We use quantitative and qualitative monitoring tools which show significant impact, including using NHS approved psychometrics depression scores, record by PHQ-9 forms. In 2020, at the start of support, 91% of clients said they suffered from depression, 82% a sense of emptiness and over 50% suffered with flashbacks/nightmares. By the end of support, only 28% continued to suffer from depression, 14% with a sense of emptiness and 15% continued to suffer with flashbacks and nightmares. With our support, clients are able to move forward and build positive futures. Programme evaluations show that clients experience non-directive and nonjudgmental support. Clients express feeling safe and able to fully explore their options and open up about their experiences. Some feedback from clients is below: _‘Throughout the program my counsellor was brilliant at actually getting me to speak and took into account my other mental health issues that made parts of the process slightly harder for myself. At times where I found it difficult to explain the emotion I felt or had felt (given how much time had passed) she had unique and intuitive methods to help me describe what I wanted to say. Over time I learnt to recognise feelings I hadn’t acknowledged and dealt with them_ .’ – Miscarriage Client _‘The sessions with my counsellor were the only times I could talk about my miscarriage openly and honestly. I would not have got through all this without my counsellor. I was desperate to speak to someone and Options was the most comforting support in my search for a counsellor. My counsellor is the kindest, caring, helpful person and got me through some of my hardest, darkest times. I owe so much to the Options programme. Thank you so much for the time and support.’_ – Miscarriage Client _‘This programme helped me to finally face my grief and pain following my traumatic decision to have an abortion. Before starting the programme I was caught up in a spiral of recycled_ 6 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report _bitterness, anger and desperation. The programme helped by breaking down the whole experience and supporting me with tools to move forward and eventually begin to forgive myself for the heartbreaking decision I had to make. For me this programme was very well balanced, even if an aspect wasn’t covered in enough detail my counsellor made it clear we could always go back over a topic until I felt I had discussed all I needed to. This meant I never felt rushed to recover or to move on. I took it upon myself with my counsellor’s encouragement to journal my whole experience, so have access to all the tools we went over to help support me. It is a relief to know I have those to hand when a tough day comes by.’_ – Post Abortion Client _‘Thank you for your help, honestly it made a world of difference to me. Thank you._ ’ – Unplanned Pregnancy Client _‘Your help has been absolutely massive and words can't thank you enough. When I talked to you, it felt like you really understood what I was saying and was very supportive.’_ - Unplanned Pregnancy Client 7 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report Age Ranges ioc 15 -19 20-24 25-29 Clien re feeling o sense of omptiness ut the 5turt •f 5UPPOrt 21% 1796 30-34 35-39 40-49 depression wpport Th•fod thth Opli•n* li Mr4i¢• w•$ irwoluabh 05 a sing1• rnothw ¢¥n a low incom•. atr•h￿h ofth• •mtili•ni during th• ¢•wM•lliry sessions irKredibility intens• tim•1 ond y•t I f•lt J¢rf• ond wpp•rt•d throughout th• experienc•. 16di•ve I hryw• k•pt th•s• pow•rful qmotions bottl•d ¥plwth• r••t of m lif•. with detrimantfjl t¢>nM9u￿I* I not r•c•bv•d th• support I did. ESTEEM R¢ports Of Iknshl￿cksI of svpport . Post Al>ortion Cli•nt Pregnancy Options Centre Counselling Impact Report 2020 Type of Support Refeèrals iknpknnn•d Pr•gngney W•bsit• Midwives ond GP'S Rthirning Clients M•ntal H￿￿h T•qms Locol Or9onisotions Educotion work Mixtsrri•g• locations Chi£h•st•r? n, Hors1￿M qnd South.East Hompshir• St*llbirth 0 10 20 30 40 Wom•n ¥M••• w•r• rwlly h•lpfvl h•lp•d Ithv• IMt•ndsvJr•d. Thank y•Jqpoin. Thu Communtty Trust rjii co 8 | Page Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report ## **Education Project** This project provides interactive educational sessions for local schools and youth settings on topics surrounding healthy sex and relationships, including consent, internet safety, sexual health, the pregnancy timeline and the three options of an unplanned pregnancy: abortion, adoption and parenting. At the start of 2020, our schools work was thriving. Between October 2019 – April 2020, we had engaged with 1066 students, delivering sessions on healthy relationships and consent, the pregnancy timeline, STI’s, contraception and attended 2 Fresher’s Fairs. Our newly appointed Education Lead had developed new sessions and methods of recording our impact. This was achieved by using the ‘OMBEA’ audience response equipment to track what students had learned in a session and mapping their ‘distance travelled’. Targeted sessions had been developed and begun with young people in Year 9, who were identified by the schools as vulnerable to Child Sexual Exploitation. Before the pandemic hit, we had 85 sessions booked until Summer 2020, with 7 local secondary schools, seeing approximately 1800 students. In April, we decided to take the tough decision to furlough our Education Lead. This was due to school closures and the uncertainty on when schools may resume a style of teaching that we could be involved with. Our Education Lead returned to work for 4 weeks in June, before taking contracted time off in the summer school break. These 4 weeks were spent reflecting on the current climate and the challenges/successes of the academic year so far, reconnecting with schools, researching training opportunities for the autumn term, gathering ideas to begin a new primary school project, and beginning to adapt our sessions to be COVID secure. After the summer break, our Education Lead returned to work on a combination of fully contracted hours and flexi furlough, as the operational abilities of schools were uncertain. In the Autumn/Winter term, she completed a Level 4 Certification in Sex and Relationships Education, completed training in Relationships and Sex Education in a primary school context, researched and began developing 6 pilot sessions for primary school work on healthy relationships, families, the menstrual cycle and wellbeing, and puberty. Although 2020 was a challenging year for our education project, we believe that it is sustainable and attainable for the future, and needed by young people now more than ever before. We are looking forward to 2021 with anticipation and excitement about what the project will achieve with the addition of our primary school pilot project. Qualitative feedback is also collected after sessions and has been exceedingly positive from staff and pupils. All feedback and data is used to evaluate our work and enable us to adapt materials where necessary, to meet curriculum guidelines, as well as addressing key issues that are relevant to young people. 9 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report ## Student and Staff quotes: _‘I think all of KS4 need to be part of these sessions’_ – Staff Member _‘The whole class were so engaged throughout the entire session’_ – Staff Member _‘Thank you- such a brilliant session!’ -_ Staff Member _‘We definitely need this again next year -_ Staff Member _‘I would 100% recommend this! Session’_ – Staff Member _‘Thank you for visiting and delivering an amazing lesson’ -_ Year 9 Student _‘I cannot believe I learnt so much in just one lesson’ -_ Year 9 Student _‘I wish we had more time to learn about these subjects’ -_ Year 9 Student _‘The lesson was informative, eye-opening and very interesting’ -_ Year 9 Student _‘Best lesson ever! It had a really good influence on me’ -_ Year 7 Student 10 | P a g e Pregnancy Options Centre 2020 Annual Report Schools .' FelFthamCo arKI Colleges Chichèst¢r HS Sessions Chi