The Pain Exchange Charity registration number 1166229 The Church of St Dunstan with St Thomas Friars Place lane W3
Email: admin@painexchangeteam.org www.thepainexchangeteam.org.uk
Trustees Annual Report 1[st] January 2021-31[st] December 2021
Welcome to The Pain Exchange (PEX) annual report for 2021. The Pain Exchange is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), that seeks to support people who live with persistent pain. The trustees of the CIO are, Retha Welding, Audette James and James Riddiough. Sharon Morgans runs the PEX and sits on the board of trustees. She would like to thank her fellow trustees for their continued time, expertise, support and wisdom.
Services Provided at the PEX in 2021
As the Covid pandemic continued, services continued to be provided online from January to July. We hope to see more stability as time progresses. Services included in term time a weekly exercise and relaxation class. Art classes were provided once per month, and nutrition and education workshops were provided once per term.
In July 2021, as the pandemic started to ease, and the population was increasingly vaccinated, the PEX celebrated with a summer lunch. This provided an opportunity to meet and socialise in person. It served as a gauge in confidence and desire to meet face-to-face. Furthermore, it started to build confidence in face-to-face interactions.
In September 2021, the PEX decided to reinstate face-to-face art, relaxation and exercise classes. This was in response to government guidelines, confidence in vaccinations and the opening-up of society. It was decided to limit the class size to 8 and a booking system was implemented. Places were offered on a first come first served basis. The decision was also made to keep a weekly exercise and relaxation class online and to continue with on-line workshops. In December 2021 there was an increase in Covid cases and the PEX stopped the face-to-face sessions, reverting to holding all classes online.
Staffing at the PEX in 2021
Helen Alsop, physiotherapist, Fleur Borrelli, nutritionist, Leidy Moreno, art teacher, Sue Bolton, volunteer and Sharon Morgans physiotherapist and manager, continued to work and provide services at the PEX. We were sorry to lose Ruth our admin assistant, due to increased family commitments. We miss her and her attention to detail and hard work. A huge thank you to Ruth.
Recruitment for a third physiotherapist has been on hold for 2021; ,the plan is to progress with this in 2022. Additionally, there is still no counselling available at the
PEX. Those who are struggling with mental health issues are currently referred either to the local IAPT service or their GP for onward referral. One area identified during 2021, is the need for supporting participants with motivational skills. The plan is to explore how help with this could be provided in 2022.
Sharon Morgans continued with her Masters in Pain Management at UCL and is due complete her studies in summer 2022. Her dissertation will explore the impact of loneliness on pain experience.
PEX Statistics January – December 2021
| PEX Activity | 2020 | 2021 |
|---|---|---|
| Class attendances | 865 | 456 |
| New patients | 22 | 6 |
| 1:1 sessions | 88 | 55 |
| Telephone calls | 22 | 8 |
| Art Class attendances | 24 | 40 |
| Nutritionworkshops | 6 | 16 |
| Education workshops | 30 | 24 |
| Walks /help | 12 | 4 |
| Craft and chat/lunch | 12 | 16 |
| Hospital attendance | 1 | 0 |
| Relaxation | - | 456 |
| Total patient contacts | 1082 | 1081 |
The 2021 statistics show that activity was down compared to 2020. This reflects several factors. For the first time, the PEX noted an unprecedented number of cancellations secondary to Covid, or other illnesses. These cancellations were compounded by the limited spaces available in face-to-face classes. Furthermore, classes were cancelled secondary to staff Covid and other illnesses. We think that these unprecedented levels were a feature of opening-up of society following the lockdowns. Additionally, we suspect that with dividing the service between online and face-to face, we have lost some of the community feel from the service. From previous service evaluations, community is an important feature for participants. A final contributory factor was loss of activity data secondary to a computer crash; activity data was not fully retrievable.
The PEX is looking forward to a more stable 2022.
PEX Thank -Yous
The PEX would like to thank the team, Helen, Fleur, Leidy and Sue. They continue to bring their professional expertise to the PEX for the benefit of participants. Their hard work and dedication is greatly appreciated, not just by the trustees but also by the participants.
The PEX did not have the opportunity to fundraise in 2021 and would like to extend its heartfelt thanks to all those who have supported the work through the Just Giving donation button on the website, and all those who have donated by other means. All funds very much gratefully received, thank you.
A huge thank you to St. Dunstan’s & St Thomas church East Acton, which continues to welcome the PEX and which kindly did not charge rent during the lockdowns.
Finally, a huge thank you to Guy Sears who continues to give his time and expertise to checking the PEX accounts and holding the PEX to account regarding good practice book-keeping.
PEX Policies and Procedures
The suicide policy and procedure was updated in 2021. Staff attended an interactive safeguarding training update. Policies and procedures were checked and updated.
Review of 2021 at the PEX
The PEX experienced difficulties, challenges and highlights in 2021.The difficulties included the continuation of the challenges presented by the pandemic, limited management time secondary to studying for a Masters in Pain Management and loss of the admin support. These meant that many of the hopes for 2021 were put on hold until 2022, e.g., seeking an additional physiotherapist and fundraising for development of the website. Furthermore, the PEX was not successful in grant applications wito start the gardening project St. Dunstan’s church. The net result was that the PEX focussed on maintaining services.
However, there were highlights. The PEX participants continued links with the Ealing community pain service, helping to co-design meetings and to shape the community pain service.
The suicide policy and procedure was completed.
The summer lunch in July was a real highlight with the first face to face contact with participants since March 2020. The lunch was attended by 16 participants and the sun shone for the occasion.
In September it was good to start face to face classes and marked a milestone in the pandemic. These classes, particularly the art classes were well received by those attending. The challenges were number of spaces available and unpredictability of who would be able to attend secondary to illness.
It was good to keep the online class going for the more vulnerable participants. A thank-you to Helen who kept these exercise and relaxation classes going.
Hopes for 2022
The hope for 2022, is first and foremost good health for the volunteers, staff and participants. We hope to run all the services face-to-face as health and safety allows.
We plan to re-apply for funding for the gardening project. We will look to develop the PEX, by seeking a more sustainable source of funding. The hopes are to develop a more user-friendly website, to reinstate admin support, and improve access to the service and as required increase staffing.
We plan to evaluate the service and determine whether the charitable objectives are being met and use this to help apply for sustainable funding. We also hope to find ways to better support mental health.
| Receipts and payments accounts and | |
|---|---|
| statement of assets and liabilities of The | |
| Pain Exchange, a CIO, for the year | |
| ended 31 December 2021 | |
| Incoming Resources | £ |
| Class income and donations | 2,891.64 |
| Grants | 3,944.88 |
| Interest on bank accounts | 0.00 |
| Total Income | 6,836.52 |
| Direct Charitable Expenditure | |
| Course leaders | -5,074.49 |
| Rent | 0.00 |
| Website | -267.00 |
| Equipment & materials | -135.26 |
| Food & drink | -97.73 |
| Utilities | 0.00 |
| insurance | -762.79 |
| other misc expenses | -115.12 |
| fundraising | 0.00 |
| Total Direct Charitable Expenditure | -6,452.39 |
| Other Expenditure | |
| Administration | -115.12 |
| Total Expenditure | -6,567.51 |
| Net income/expenditure for the year | 269.01 |
| Net movement in funds | 269.01 |
| Net assets at 1 January 2021 | 9,697.70 |
| Net assets at 31 December 2021 | 9,966.71 |
| represented by (there being no liabilities, no | |
| guarantees and no express charges over any | |
| assets): | |
| Cash at bank | 9,802.21 |
| Float cash | 164.50 |