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2022-08-31-accounts

Annual Review Sept 2021 - Aug 2022

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 the national charity Home for Good www.homeforgood.org.uk but operate separately since Sept 2016 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, adoptive homes and supported lodgings, 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 connect and support families with these shared experiences builds strong resilient homes and promotes the best outcomes for these young lives.

Governance, Staffing and Volunteer Development

Trustees – Jane Jennison (Chair), Rachel Renfrew (Treasurer), Julie Daniels and Melissa Naish

Our trustees met 6 times during the year to ensure our charity objectives were being met, policies updated, ideas shared and finances tracked. They receive regular reports from our employed coordinators and treasurer so they know exactly what is happening, updated on future plans and our financial situation. In March 2022 they agreed a strategy document which identified the charities focus/key objects they wish to meet over the next 3 years (2022-2025).

The majority of meetings are now conducted on Zoom as this works best - avoiding traveling time and childcare difficulties.

We recruit trustees through Facebook posts, articles on Network Suffolk, and our mailouts to families and supporters. We are currently looking for one more trustee who will support with fundraising and grant applications.

Staffing

Melissa Naish and Louise Bunton are our part time employees, who coordinate Home for Good: Suffolk together - supporting each other but also with individual focus areas.

Melissa takes 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 either hosting one-off events or more regular meetups or by helping us share/ promote our work within Suffolk churches. With Suffolk being such a large county to reach, we depend on our volunteers in locations across the country to help develop our provision.

This year we have 14 active volunteers, including the 9 new ones, to help host our groups and activities and a further 8 active volunteers (known as Champions), who we connect with through our termly online Champion updates, so they can share our work with their churches.

What have we achieved this year?

This year through our 1:1 support, regular groups and one-off holiday activities/events we have had contact with 154 families/200 children aged 0-18 years either in foster care, adopted or have special guardianship arrangements.

----- Start of picture text -----
Ages of children we met
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Under 5 Primary aged Secondary Age 16 +
----- End of picture text -----

----- Start of picture text -----
Families who have connected with
us this year
Foster Familes
Adopted families
Families with Special Guardianship
----- End of picture text -----

We currently have 366 families represented on our mailing list (114 foster families, 198 adopters and 54 special guardians)

Regular Groups by Locality

Waveney and Suffolk Coastal

Ipswich and Mid Suffolk

Forest Heath, St Edmundsbury and Babergh

Some of our support remains online allowing all areas of Suffolk to access

Online information sessions

In addition to these regular groups, we have provided

Our activities and events we deliver are in response to surveys and conversations throughout the year to learn and listen to our family’s needs

Promoting and connecting with new families

As well mail out to families on our mailing list we also mail through Suffolk Fostering and Adoption. We attended the Waveney Foster Carers support group Nov 2021, Suffolk County Council Permanence Support party, April 2022 in Woolpit,

The Care Fair May 2022 in Ipswich and the Summer BBQ for children in care August 2022 in Saxmundham.

We held termly ‘learn about us’ online information session which new families could connect in and find out more.

Welcome bags

In addition to the 32 bags given out by Suffolk social workers to newly approved households, we also made contact with a further 16 families, bringing the total number of welcome bags given out this year to 48 (an increase of 11 on last year).

Each welcome contains useful information about what we do, as well as chocolates and useful books to support them too.

Further Support opportunities we have provided ….

TELEPHONE SUPPORT

This has been a very difficult time for many families and in addition to activities above we have connected with 6 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. Parent/Carers just need to text their prayers to 07434 462860 and these will then be shared confidentially with the prayer team.

ENQUIRIES AND APPROVALS

This year we have had contact with 8 household who have considered fostering or adoption. We know that 3 have been approved within the year and the rest are in the assessment process.

We have also started a new termly Early Steps – online information session. The aim of these sessions is to give a platform to help support those who want to discover more, those who are in assessment or those preparing to welcome children through fostering, adoption or supported lodgings

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 171 last year to 200 members (31st August 2021)

LENDING LIBRARY

We hold over 100 tittles of books and resources which we can post out to families to borrow. This year these have been collated using an online library cataloguing system called Librarika, allowing families to search according to topics and request them. The full catalogue can be found at: https://homeforgoodsuffolk.librarika. com/search/catalogs

Resources are suitable for adults, children and those going through assessment or wishing learning more about fostering and adoption.

We do hope this will increase its use, as more families become familiar with this service. Last year 31 titles were borrowed

CONNECTING WITH SUFFOLK CHURCHES

Through our Champions and social media platforms 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 Sunday

In November 2021 we provided a video and encouraged Suffolk churches to sign up and show this during a Sunday service with the following aims:

1. To help raise awareness of the constant need for more foster carers and adopters

2. To share how we support enquires and families once approved

3. Encourage individuals and churches to respond – challenging them how they can play their part in supporting us!

We believe our video was shown in 11 different churches.

Other talks and events

We have also shared a similar message during

Christmas tree festivals

For the first time this year we took part in five Christmas trees festivals across the county (Sudbury, Great Barton, Ipswich,

Stowmarket and Beccles). This was another opportunity to share the work we do with host churches and the public.

New Seasonal Prayer Cards introduced

We believe in the power of prayer and wanted to make it easy for people to support us by praying with us for specific needs and giving thanks for our developments/resources. Since Spring 2021 we have produced seasonal prayer cards that is shared on our Socials, with our champions, supporters and local churches.

FINANCIAL REVIEW 1 September 2021-31 August 2022:

Annual Income: £15188

Achieved through… Church donations £3686, Individual donations £2588 Contributions to activities £779, Grants – Groundworks £2,000.00, Co-op Community Cares Fund via Suffolk Community Foundation £4,625.00, Missionary Friends Trust £500, Locality Funding (local councillors Paul West, David Roach and Judy Cloke) £974.99, Fundraising £32 , Miscellaneous Income £3

Annual Expenditure: £16835

Our main expenditure is our salaries (£9111) and activity costs (£4080). Other costs include insurance, bank charges, telephone, postage, travel, volunteers, DBS’s and training

Reserves

The trustees keep the reserves of the charity under review, considering the nature of the income and expenditure streams, the need to match variable income with fixed commitments and the nature of the reserves.

The trustees consider that to provide a buffer for uninterrupted services and/or event of winding up, a designated reserve of £6000 equating to 6 months operational costs is appropriate.

The current level of free reserves is £6290, £4000 of which is set aside in a deposit account.

Monthly Giving

To help us become more financially sustainable we took the decision in February 2022 to include a small charge for our activities and groups, rather than continue to accept donations only.

The cost of activities is usually discounted, as we want to encourage families to attend, however we give financial assistance to attend as we don’t want money to be a barrier and families to feel excluded.

Last year we launched ‘Friends of Home for Good: Suffolk’ which encourages families and supporters to make a monthly donation. Families who make a monthly contribution of £5 or more a month get all our activities and events for FREE. Last year we had only 5 monthly givers and we now have 20, meeting our target for this year.

You can sign up to give monthly here https://www.give.net/20258808/regular

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

Transforming Suffolk (Home for Good)

Financial Summary to 31 August 2022

Income
Church donations
Individual donations
Contributions to activites
Grant income
Big Lottery
Groundworks
Suffolk Community Foundation
Locality Funding
Missionary Friends Trust
Fundraising
Bank interest
Total Receipts
Expenditure
Bank charges
Donations to home for good
Salary costs
Office Equipment
Activity costs
Postage, telephone etc
Marketing & publicity
Library purchases
Insurance
Volunteer costs
Welcome Bags
Staff Costs
Other Costs
Movement for year		 Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Previous year
3,685.70
3,685.70
1,961.86
2,587.68
2,587.68
2,502.26
779.49
779.49
396.75
0.00
9,094.00
2,000.00
2,000.00
2,000.00
4,625.00
4,625.00
2,923.49
974.99
974.99
0.00
500.00
500.00
0.00
31.97
31.97
0.00
3.04
3.04
0.00
7,587.88
7,599.99
15,187.87
18,878.36
93.00
0.00
93.00
84.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
109.00
3,481.58
5,629.72
9,111.30
6,371.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1,926.50
2,550.64
1,529.43
4,080.07
3,379.27
242.39
0.00
242.39
193.41
537.30
0.00
537.30
18.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
281.41
154.00
0.00
154.00
154.00
29.97
60.00
89.97
37.74
1,275.66
85.85
1,361.51
52.00
935.76
147.00
1,082.76
44.50
82.76
0.00
82.76
9,383.06
7,452.00
16,835.06
12,650.83
(1,795.18)
147.99
(1,647.19)
6,227.53

Transforming Suffolk (Home for Good)

Financial Summary to 31 August 2022
Brought forward funds
Movement
Carried forward funds
Represented by:
CoOp current account
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
Locality Fund
Suffolk Community Foundation
Total restricted funds
Total funds held		 8,086.37
4,477.05
12,563.42
6,335.89
(1,795.18)
147.99
(1,647.19)
6,227.53		 8,086.37
4,477.05
12,563.42
6,335.89
(1,795.18)
147.99
(1,647.19)
6,227.53
6,291.19
4,625.04
10,916.23
12,563.42
6,869.26
44.30
8,563.42
4,002.67
4,000.00
10,916.23
12,563.42
BF
Income
Expenditure
CF
7,096.16
7,587.88
(8,423.93)
6,260.11
535.38
(535.38)
0.00
454.83
(423.75)
31.08		 8,563.42
4,000.00
12,563.42
8,086.37
7,587.88
(9,383.06)
6,291.19
(1,999.96)
2,000.00
0.00
0.04
6,477.01
0.00
(6,477.01)
0.00
974.99
(974.99)
0.00
4,625.00
4,625.00
4,477.05
7,599.99
(7,452.00)
4,625.04
12,563.42
15,187.87 (16,835.06)
10,916.23