OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2021-08-31-accounts

Annual Review Sept 2020 - Aug 2021

Making a difference in Suffolk

Who are we?

Home for Good: Suffolk is a Suffolk wide small organisation, founded in 2014. We are connected to national charity Home for Good (homeforgood.org.uk) but operate separately under the local charity Transforming Futures - Suffolk (Charity No. 1169250).

Like the national charity, we are providing a Christian response to the social need for more foster families and adoptive homes by raising awareness of the local need through connecting and partnering with Suffolk Churches. We do not assess or place children but signpost enquiries and work closely with our local authority, Suffolk County Council, and their Fostering and Adoption teams.

We also want to journey alongside ALL local families who foster, adopt or have special guardianship. Everyone is welcome to join in our activities and events throughout the year - regardless of faith or background. We want to ensure all families feel supported and connected. Looking after children and young people who are in care or have experience of the care system is a demanding and challenging job. These children have often experienced early trauma, abuse and neglect which can have a life-long impact. We feel that helping connecting and supporting families with these shared experiences helps build strong resilient homes and promotes the best outcomes for these young lives.

Governance, Staffing and Volunteer Development

Trustees - Hilary Harrington (Chair), Elaine Ward (Treasurer) Jane Jennison, Julie Daniels and Melissa Naish

Our trustees meet at least 6 times a year to ensure our charity objectives are being met, policies are updated, ideas are shared and finances are tracked. They receive regular reports from our employed coordinators so they know exactly what is currently happening and planned. The majority of meetings are now conducted on Zoom, as this works best - avoiding traveling time and childcare difficulties.

There will be a change of trustees for next year as both Hilary and Elaine are stepping down. We do thank them for all their hard work and support over the years they have been in their roles.

Jane Jennison will become the new Chair and Rachel Renfrew will be joining us as a new trustee and taking on the treasurer role from September 2021. This will mean we still have a vacancy for someone else to join us and we will continue to seek to fill this post.

Staffing

Thanks to grants from Suffolk Community Foundation, Groundworks and the Big Lottery Community Fund we have been able to continue to finance our previous coordinator post and in May 2021 we were able to bring a second paid co-ordinator on board.

Melissa Naish and Louise Bunton coordinate Home Good: Suffolk together - supporting each other but also with an individual focus.

Melissa is now taking the lead on Promotion, Fundraising and Enquiry support and Louise is focusing on Connecting and Supporting families.

Melissa Louise

Volunteers

We couldn’t achieve all we do without the dedication of our volunteers. Our volunteers help by hosting one-off events or more regular meetups such as our Walk and Talks, Coffee and Chat, Zoom chats or Stay and Play. With Suffolk such a vast county to reach, we depend on our volunteers in locations across the country to help our provision to develop.

This year we have 9 active volunteers - including the 4 new ones - to help with Walks, Zoom groups and summer activities. We’d also like to thank the children at Felixstowe International College who helped to pack our Christmas gift bags and planned one of our October trails, and members of St Augustine’s Church, Ipswich who helped wrap the Christmas gifts and prepare the Easter craft packs.

Please contact us if you would like to know more about how you/your church could help.

We also have volunteers, known as Champions, who are connected with a particular church which helps us share what we are currently doing, This year we have started termly Zoom catchup to share information and met with 10 champions.

What have we achieved this year?

Despite continued restrictions in meeting this year we have had contact with 182 families - around 300 children who are either in foster care, adopted or have special guardianship arrangements.

This is a 13% increase on last year

We currently have 91 foster families, 183 adopters and 53 special guardians on our mailing list.

We have continued to be adaptable and creative in order to reach, connect and inform our families including:

As restrictions have lifted we introduced new Wellbeing Walks (7 Suffolk locations available), and during the Spring term we have restarted some in person groups e.g. Stay and Play for Foster Carers (Ipswich) and Coffee and Chat for all carers (Hadleigh).

We were so pleased to be able to hold 12 Summer holidays events which brought families back together outside at beaches and parks and inside for climbing, roller skating, softplay, ceramic painting and crafts. It was so lovely to reconnect with our families in person after such a long time.

Telephone Support

This has been a very difficult time for many families and in addition to the activities above we have connected with 8 families for 1:1 advice, support and a listening ear through telephone support. Families can reach us on 01728 417001 or 07434 462860.

Prayer Support

For those that would welcome prayer, we have a Prayer Team ready to respond. Parents/Carers just need to text their prayers to 07434 462860 and these will then be shared confidentially with the Prayer Team.

Our closed Facebook group continues to be a safe space where families can share ideas and ask questions.

We have continued to see growth in this group from 158 last October 2020 to 171 current members.

Connecting with newly approved families

We have committed to provide all newly approved carers from April 2020 with a Welcome Bag. As well as useful information about what we do, we are providing chocolates and useful books to support them too. We are working with Suffolk Adoption and Fostering to give these to newly approved families or provide a link for them to request one. We hope this will allow families to know about us early on in their journey and know we are here to support them.

Between September 2020 and August 2021 we have given out 37 bags - 15 to new foster carers and 22 to newly approved adopters.

Lending Library

Our lending scheme of books and resources is now available through an online system. Families can request titles to further promote their learning around common topics in adoption or fostering or specific to additional needs their children may have. This year we have developed this further to include many children’s books which cover familiar topics such as feelings and how to manage them. As well as introduce new experiences and how to look after themselves.

This was achieved through a fundraising page set up to support us by a local Usborne book seller, in which we received 18 new titles.

We hope use of this resource will increase as more families become aware of this service. Last year 26 titles were borrowed.

Friends of Home for Good: Suffolk

This year we launched ‘Friends of Home for Good: Suffolk’ which encourages families and supporters to make a monthly donation of between £5-£10 to help maintain our service provision. Its simple to set up - just visit https: //www.give.net/20258808/regular

We currently have 5 monthly donors, totalling £94.25. We would love to increase this to 20 by the end of next year, totalling around £300 by the end of the year.

Connecting with Suffolk Churches

We have encouraged Suffolk Churches to take up national campaigns to raise the profile of the number of vulnerable children who come into the UK care system every year - highlighting the constant need for more foster carers and adopters. Home for Good creates resources for Mothering Sunday and Father’s Day which are available from their website during the right season - www.homeforgood.org.uk

Home for Good National are no longer providing materials for Adoption Sunday (November) however we have decided to keep November as the month to promote our work within churches - Home for Good Sunday. This year we made our own video to share in churches across Suffolk during their online services. We believe this was shared in 5 Suffolk churches. We will continue with this approach for future years, with better sign up and review procedures to be able to evaluate its effectiveness.

Our first Foundations course was run (every other week) from Feb-May on Zoom. Foundations is a six session course including a combination of Bible study and reflection, practical information, real-life stories, and opportunities for discussions, questions and prayer. It aims to help increase understanding of fostering and adoption for anyone wishing to explore things further.

We had 5 households attend and they found it extremely informative. This included a Champion, foster carer, church member and two households exploring adoption or fostering. We aim to get these running more regularly next year - online or in person.

Enquiries and approvals

This year we are aware of two households who have been approved as adopters and we currently have one still being assessed. There are another two other households who are still at the enquiry stage that we are still connected with. These people were influenced by information evenings, the Foundations course or signposted to us through the national enquiry line.

What do we hope to achieve next year?

Connecting and Supporting Families

We will continue to survey and listen out for the needs of our families across Suffolk, so we can respond with appropriate events and information sessions.

Other ideas we are considering for next year are:

Raising awareness

We want to increase the number of Christians who hear of the Fostering and Adopting needs in Suffolk and share how they can play their part in making a difference. We aim to do this through speaking in more church services. We would also love to increase the number of churches that we are connected with ,and together, host Home for Good meals and/or the Foundations Course.

How can you support us?

1. Become a Friend of Home for Good: Suffolk and give a monthly financial gift

2. Donate as you shop - Amazon Smile/Give as you live

3. Join our team of volunteers

4. Create your own fundraising activity or help us plan an event

5. Help us share our work with a Church you know

6. Pray for us!

For more information contact us

homeforgoodsuffolk 07434462860 / 01728 417001 homeforgoodsuffolk.org.uk hello@homeforgoodsuffolk.org.uk

home forgood Suffolk

Transforming Suffolk (Home for Good)

Financial Summary to 31 August 2021

Income
Stewardship donations
Church donations
Other donations
Contributions to activites
Grant income Big Lottery
Groundworks
Suffolk Community Foundation - salary funding
Suffolk Community Foundation - activity funding
Total Receipts
Expenditure
Bank charges
Donations to home for good
Salary costs
Office equipment
Software costs
Activity costs
Postage, telephone etc
Library purchases
Insurance
Volunteer costs
Other costs
Movement for year		 Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Previous year
2,247.26
2,247.26
1027.88
1,961.86
1,961.86
1926.38
255.00
255.00
2582.6
396.75
396.75
413.34
9,094.00
2,000.00
1,637.00
1,286.49
14,017.49
14,017.49
1170.3
4,860.87
14,017.49
18,878.36
7,120.50
84.00
0.00
84.00
60
109.00
0.00
109.00
452
441.23
5,929.77
6,371.00
3461.23
0.00
1,888.10
1,888.10
40
0.00
38.40
38.40
0
441.93
3,022.94
3,464.87
3466.17
194.41
0.00
194.41
104.97
106.96
174.45
281.41
0
154.00
0.00
154.00
154
37.74
0.00
37.74
204.99
27.90
0.00
27.90
867.08
1,597.17
11,053.66
12,650.83
8,810.44
3,263.70
2,963.83
6,227.53
(1,689.94)

Transforming Suffolk (Home for Good)

Financial Summary to 31 August 2021
Brought forward funds
Movement
Carried forward funds
Represented by:
CAF current account
CAF deposit account
Total fund held
Summary of funds:
General funds
Designated
Welcome bags
SEN Connect Group
Total unrestricted funds
Restricted funds :
Groundworks
Big Lottery
Library
Suffolk Community Foundation
Suffolk Community Foundation
Total restricted funds
Total funds held		 4,822.67
1,513.22
6,335.89
8025.83
3,263.70
2,963.83
6,227.53
(1,689.94)		 4,822.67
1,513.22
6,335.89
8025.83
3,263.70
2,963.83
6,227.53
(1,689.94)
8,086.37
4,477.05
12,563.42
6,335.89
BF
Income
3,780.46
4,860.87
587.38
0.00
454.83		 8,563.42
6335.89
4,000.00
0
12,563.42
6,335.89
Expenditure
CF
(1,545.17)
7,096.16
(52.00)
535.38
454.83
4,822.67
4,860.87		 (1,597.17)
8,086.37
-
2,000.00
-
9,094.00
174.45
-
1,286.49
1,338.77
1,637.00		 (3,999.96)
(1,999.96)
(2,616.99)
6,477.01
(174.45)
0.00
(1,286.49)
0.00
(2,975.77)
0.00
0.00
1,513.22
14,017.49
-		 (11,053.66)
4,477.05
6,335.89
18,878.36		 (12,650.83)
12,563.42