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2022-03-31-accounts

WORKING TOGETHER FOR BETTER LIVES for children with disabilities or additional needs

Family Voice Surrey, CIO Annual Report 1st April 2021 to 31st March 2022

“If you need a differently accessible version of this report, please email contact@familyvoicesurrey.org or call 01372 705708”

Contents

Contents
The Trustee Board 2021-22 3
Chair Comments 4-5
Priorities for the Year 6
Highlights of the year 6
Family Voice Surrey in Numbers 2021/22 7
Who we are and what we do 8
Organisational appraisal 8-9
Partnership 9
Word from Julia Katherine 9
2021: Vacinations and Hope 10
Staf and Changing Workload 10
Funding 10-11
Engagement with members and other
parent carers 12
Events 12
Event Feedback 12
Expert Speakers 12
Annual Event: Early Years 13
Social Media 13
Surveys, focus groups, reports 14
What we heard 15
What our children say 16
Keeping in touch and being transparent 17
Swimming Project 17
Participation and Co-production with local
area partners and the 3rd sector 18
Meetings attended include: 18
Project Work 19-21
“Goodbye” from Benedicte Symcox, CEO 21
Plans for 2022-2023 22-24
Finance 25
2021-22 Accounts 26-27
Independent examiner’s report on the
accounts 28
Appendix: Structure and Governance 30-31
Acronyms used in this document 32

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The Trustee Board

This year saw some significant changes to our trustee board, including the departure of Simon Morley and Karen Lettington in November 2021.

We are so pleased to have welcomed two new trustees to the board, Sammy Edginton and Sarah Clarke, in September 2021. You can read more about our new trustees and our continuing chair, Sally Allen, below.

Simon Morley (Treasurer)

Simon joined FVS in 2017 and became a hugely valued member of the board. His calm yet uncompromising approach to the mission of the parent carer provided a sure compass and he was always committed to supporting all FVS staff. Simon initially joined the board as treasurer but subsequently also took on the role of chair of trustees while we worked to find new trustees.

He provided valuable mentorship and support to the incoming CEO Benedicte Symcox, and was instrumental in the organisation’s ability to navigate a period of turbulence and change.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Simon for the time and dedication he gave to FVS for the five years he was with us, and wish him the best in his next adventures.

Karen Lettington

Karen joined FVS as a trustee in 2019 and was always a strong voice in favour of inclusion, sharing her story at our annual event that year. Hers is a powerful story of advocacy and the power of true inclusion, but also one that demonstrates how a parent carer can change the outcome for their children by advocating strongly for them.

Karen drove the board and the organisation to do better at every turn, and was the key person to drive us to examine the accessibility of our work. We must be accessible to all if we are an organisation representing those with additional needs! Thanks to her, we make sure to create an “easy read” version of our annual report, and work hard to make all other reports simple to read.

Karen’s other commitments have led to her resignation from the FVS board this year and we wish her wonderful things for the future.

Sally Allen (Chair)

Sally was appointed to the Board in Sept 2019 and became our Chair in July 2020. Sally has 30+ years’ experience of working within local authority education, housing, social care, and voluntary sector settings undertaking both frontline service delivery and strategic commissioning and Senior Management roles. Sally has experience of living with difference throughout her life – the challenges and gifts that living with an additional need or disability has brought to people closest to her, and to her family as a whole.

Sammy Edginton (Treasurer)

Sammy joined the trustee board in September 2021. She brings a wealth of experience as an accountant,

along with direct parent carer experience. Sammy also brings to her role experience in running a small business, recruitment, Mental health first aider, counselling and befriending skills.

Sarah Clarke (Lead People)

Sarah, like Sammy, joined the trustee board in September 2021. Sarah’s SEND experience comes from her long term governor of a SEND school. Sarah has brings to her role years of experience as a Whitehall civil servant and as a senior HR adviser.

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Chair Comments... Sally Allen

This has been another year of change, of challenges and social upheaval for many people as we try to get to grips with what “opening up” looks like for us as individuals and our families.

There are many highlights of the year which are the essence of FVS and the reason for its continuing success.

Whilst parents, carers, communities and our public and third sector have all worked hard to support children through the pandemic, and many children and young people have benefited from this support and have coped with navigating the challenge, there are many of our families, children and young people whose wellbeing has been negatively impacted, with change being felt more acutely by some than others and the prospect of opening up and re-joining society proving challenging and to some unimaginable.

As we emerge from the pandemic, the stark fact is that systemic inequalities continue to exist alongside new complexities which have the potential to lead to further isolation or disadvantage for many SEND families.

I am immensely proud of our team, at Family Voice Surrey who have not only ensured that the vital lifeline of regular, friendly contact, connecting with people who understand and have access to resources and information that might unlock hope continues, but have also developed a blended offer with face-to-face opportunities alongside live online sessions and bite sized videos on special topics requested by our members. With a strong focus on parental wellbeing, the team continue to do everything they can to nourish and encourage families through some tricky times with information and peer support and have focused on the opportunities that can arise out of difficult times. As parent carers too and well used to adaptive parenting, our team bring valuable insight and skills to their important work in bringing about effective, positive change for SEND families.

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At the time of writing this report I also reflect on other important changes with gratitude and

hope. In July 22 we said sadly “goodbye” to Benedicte Symcox our CEO and former Board Member. Benedicte has been the familiar and reassuring face of FVS for over 6 years both as Member, Board Member and CEO. Benedicte’s magic blend of being “parent first” to three amazing young people with varying special educational needs, and abilities, creativity and skilled relationship management have been a real asset to our members and have significantly contributed to FVS growth and the strong position that we now find ourselves in an as organisation.

Benedicte’s extensive knowledge and experience of navigating complex systems and relationships alongside her overriding ethos of valuing the importance of respectful relationships has enabled families and FVS as an organisation to move forward with increased confidence that our members are seen as equal partners within SEND transformation. We all recognise that there is still much work to be done - never afraid to respectfully challenge and push for transparency we look forward to continuing to hear from and work with Benedicte as a FVS member.

I am delighted to welcome Claire Poole as Interim CEO for initially a 6-month period whilst we recruit to the permanent role. Claire has been associated with FVS since 2015, working closely with Benedicte and

the FVS team to keep us all on track as Head of Business, Planning & Development.

Claire brings valuable skills and perspective to the role with lived experience of being a looked after child as well as a carer and parent carer, an ability to question, maintain balance and perspective plus a keen eye on the detail whilst successfully juggling competing priorities.

Looking to the future I am confident and excited to see that FVS is gathering strength in its journey to bring about positive change for SEND families through its amplified voice, growing membership and focus on “family first”.

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Priorities for the Year

1. �Staff�Welfare : develop a robust appraisal and support system for staff, to include appropriate training and mental health support.

2. �Membership: build membership and increase diversity; offer training and information events for parent carers; continue to use Facebook live as a means of engagement; provide opportunities for parent carers to meet with council officers and practitioners.

3. Annual�event: “Early Years” a virtual event focussing on conception to school age.

4. Financial�stability: diversify funding; develop stronger commissioning relationship with SCC.

5. Participation: embed and improve our project approach; ensure that all participation work is evidence driven based on engagement work.

6. Webinars: build on the success of the Preparation for Adulthood annual event and develop videos with speakers to address parent carer issues.

7. Engagement: build on the parent training programme begun in the pandemic; develop tools to ensure that parent carer stories are heard and used in participation work.

8. Organisational�appraisal�and�business� planning: how are we doing? What do we want to achieve?

9. �Partnership: increased collaboration with the 3rd sector.

Highlights of the year

Work to influence decision making in Surrey includes:

1. Early Years Event : building on the success of the 2020 virtual annual event, we took our attention to the beginning of life and early childhood. We welcomed a plethora of practitioners from the local area, external speakers and spoke to families for several months ahead of the events to gather all the questions and issues that are relevant to these families.

2. Local Offer Redesign: we supported and continue to support the Local Offer team to ensure that language used on the local offer website is appropriate and helpful for parent carers.

3. Swimming for Children with Additional Needs: we worked in close partnership with Spelthorne Leisure Centre to pilot a swimming course for children with additional needs. This was hugely successful and is being rolled out to other leisure centres of the same franchise.

4. Preparation for Adulthood event in coproduction with SCC: this event was led by SCC officers, but co-hosted with FVS and was the first hybrid event since the start of the pandemic.

5. We began an ongoing project to develop EHCP bitesized videos with officers to demystify the EHCP process, governance panels and other decision making processes. These are available on our YouTube channel.

6. We supported Health colleagues in their Digital Navigator project, ensuring that the experiences of disabled children and carers were appropriately represented.

7. Emotionally Based School Non Attendance: we ran a survey that has lifted this serious issue to the top of the agenda in the council’s SEND thinking.

8. Board Recruitment: we ran a successful recruitment campaign in conjunction with our Local Council for Voluntary Services which meant we were able to strengthen our skills base and welcome two new members onto the Board this year.

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Family Voice Surrey in Numbers 2021/22

----- Start of picture text -----
Anxiety
CAMHS
Self care
professionals
60
External Condition
organisations training events specific
Local area
SEND law and
practitioners
processes and officers
----- End of picture text -----

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Who we are and what we do

We champion...

the needs and rights of families of children and young people 0-25 years with Special Educational Needs, chronic illness, including mental health conditions, and disabilities living in Surrey.

We are passionate...

about improving outcomes for our children & young people and keep this at the heart of everything we co-create, co-produce and do.

Our Members and staff are experts...

by experience and as such, have a unique understanding of how challenging and rewarding life can be raising a young person with SEND.

We inform, shape and monitor...

the development of local services so that they can continually improve and enhance the experience and life opportunities for children and young people, and their parents, families and carers.

We value partnerships...

and work alongside Surrey County Council and Local Commissioning Groups as a strategic partner, representing our members voice when key decisions are being made.

We are NOT...

a support group, a protest group and cannot advocate for individuals but… we rely on feedback from parents in order to represent their voice - they tell us their valuable stories.

~~Organisational appraisal~~

Vision

Mission

Values

A priority area this year was staff welfare, and we quickly realised that a broader approach was necessary. As an organisation that regularly champions co-production with system partners, it was important for us to use the same approach internally. As a result, this year saw a number of workshops to review the purpose of the parent carer forum, those aspects of our work that were most important to us, how we evidence the stories we hear and how we support our staff.

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Co-production is a slow and sometimes painful process but it focusses on ensuring that every voice is heard. One of the central ideas that we explored was the need for constant self-evaluation and improvement, and that we should never assume that this work is finished.

As part of this process, it was important to include our members, so we ran our first “FVS satisfaction survey”, the report of which can be found https://www.familyvoicesurrey.org/single-post/2021statisfaction-survey

Covid has had an impact on us all, and one area identified was the need for FVS staff to be equipped to support parent carers in mental distress. As a result, we offered all staff “mental health first aid” training and gave all staff a wellbeing day in December 2021 in recognition of the importance of looking after our own mental health. This created a little space for a much-needed pause and re-group.

Partnership

Julia Katherine, Assistant Director for Inclusion and Additional Needs at Surrey County Council

“Here in Surrey we are working hard to transform services to improve the experience that families have of the special educational needs system and to improve the outcomes children and young people with additional needs can expect to achieve.”

One example of a change we have made in response to feedback is in the language we use. Families have told us that they prefer us to talk about ‘additional needs and disabilities’ rather than special needs, wherever possible. This is why we are proposing that our new plan setting out our future priorities will be called the Inclusion and Additional Needs Strategy. We will be working with Family Voice Surrey to ensure there are continued opportunities for parents carers to contribute to this work, to help us get it right for all of our children and young people.

“We recognise that we still have room to learn and improve, and so the role of Family Voice Surrey is crucial to our aims. As our parent carer forum, Family Voice Surrey helps us to hear the voices of parents and carers (including those voices that are seldom heard), to better understand the lived experience of families with a child with additional needs. As a partnership, we continue on our improvement journey, together, with the ambition of embedding a culture of coproduction that recognises the value that parent carers bring.

Over the past year, Family Voice Surrey have ensured that we collectively keep families at the front and centre of our discussions and decisions. We were delighted with the response to our parent carer survey and we’ve really enjoyed the opportunities we have had to improve communication through the Facebook live sessions, and publishing ‘you said, we did’ responses to the action cards that have been raised with us. We have further developed the guidance on the local offer website www. surreylocaloffer.org.uk/ in response to feedback so that parents have the information they need to make informed choices.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed their experiences and time to make positive changes!”

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2021: Vaccinations and Hope

As we started a new financial year, our children were once again not sitting exams. Many were still at home for fear of catching Covid and either risking their health and lives or that of their loved ones. Regulations were still changing rapidly, but there was for the first time an end in sight, thanks to the vaccination program. In the event, most regulations were to be brought to an end in mid July 2021.

vaccination: was the vaccine safe for children, maybe necessary for the most vulnerable? Were unpaid carers eligible at the same time as professional carers? When would teachers be vaccinated? All these questions and more fed into a time of enormous uncertainty after a year that had proved exhausting for all, but unimaginably more so for those families who include someone with additional needs, disability or illness.

Our community of children with additional needs were at the forefront of much confusion regarding

Staff and Changing Workload

Family Voice Surrey continued its work “as normal”. We had become accustomed to recruiting staff virtually and worked hard to maintain our ethos of a safe and nurturing workplace. Team working has always been important, but challenging as we all work remotely. Staff meetings are essential but can also be difficult to arrange around the various responsibilities of parent carers whose children are of varying ages and needs.

Our two new participation managers, Leanne Henderson and Kate Goode, rose to the challenge of getting to know the FVS team without ever having met in person. But, also the multitude of local area officers and practitioners, never hesitating to ensure that parent carer voices and views are heard in each and every meeting they attended.

We welcomed four new district and borough coordinators: Shannon Thomas, Jenni Williams, Emily Hazell and Sara Draycott. They successfully built online communities and slowly ventured back into the community as the pandemic allowed. Coordinators are closer in many ways to parent carers than the rest of the team, and they were invaluable in taking the “temperature” of our community through the year.

Jenni subsequently changed role to become a project worker and has worked to support the Local Offer project as well as an exciting project with Emily to ensure that we are hearing the voices of the most severely disabled children in Surrey.

Funding

FVS has matured significantly as an organisation in the last few years, and as such, it has become increasingly important to secure sustainable funding. We are pleased to announce that this year we secured:

This combination of funding sources and the longevity of the agreements has given us a strong basis on which we can make longer term plans for the organisation. Trustees have taken this opportunity with enthusiasm and have hosted a series of business planning workshops with all FVS staff to co-produce this long term plan that will help the whole organisation move forward and work to improve the lives of parent carers throughout Surrey.

Please see the finance section for further details of our income and expenditure.

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Funding continued

----- Start of picture text -----
SURREY
COUNTY COUNCIL
----- End of picture text -----

£12,500

allowed us to increase staff hours to engage more frequently with parent carers, and to spend more time working with partners in the local authority and health services to convey what we were hearing. We also purchased 2 laptops, some Facebook training and Zoom licenses to reach families more effectively.

£5,000

supported the expanding need of our coordinator project. We focussed these funds in areas where we had the best resources and could have the best impact at the time. These were the districts and boroughs of Epsom and Ewell, Guildford, Tandridge, and Woking.

£7784

ensured that all staff were equipped with functioning laptops (a year of virtual working had taken its toll on equipment!). Importantly, this grant allowed us to support staff with a range of emotional wellbeing support. As they have been on the front line of traumatic stories, that support has become ever more necessary and we were grateful to Pears for allowing us to provide training and a First Aid Mental Health workshop.

My personal laptop was failing, resulting in disrupted connections during meetings, battery failures and microphone failures. Our work is primarily about communication and relationships, and this was increasingly difficult to achieve. The new laptop came in the nick of time and I have been able to continue working successfully. I also feel happier with a separate work machine given the sensitive nature of the work I do with partners.

I’m really looking forward to the first aid mental health course because many of the parent carers we speak to are in some crisis and I look forward to having more strategies to support them and build my own resilience.

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Engagement with members and other parent carers

Events

We host an average of 8 online events a month for parent carers. Throughout the pandemic, our members have told us that they particularly appreciate groups organised by need, though we remain open to change dependent on what our members need. This year, as well as for location based groups, we hosted events for the following groups:

Event feedback

Thank you for being my safe space.

I really enjoyed the NeuroGraphica session yesterday.

Expert speakers

We invite expert speakers to present to these groups dependent on the members’ requests, and also work closely with Local Area partners to allow parents to get information about their services and feedback their own experiences, thus informing the services directly of their effectiveness. Our events have two aims: to inform and train parents, and to hear their experiences. The following quotes give a flavour of what we have heard this year.

My child still has no school placement. SCC talked about a learning

package at home, but I have no update.

Very good service from Surrey continence team – they called ME! to check the products were still ok for my child.

Surrey doesn’t care about families like us.

Social workers don’t know what services are available.

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Annual Event: Early Years

Our annual event this year focussed on the Early Years and we worked closely with partners across the system to provide a wide ranging set of speakers, both from within the system and external speakers. It was a week long, virtual event. The recordings of the event can be found on our YouTube channel at https://bit.ly/3sFbYTq or use the QR code HERE ▶ allowing parent carers to revisit the speakers anytime they need support.

----- Start of picture text -----
Trudy Mills Pippa Gray
Liz Mills Dr Kathryn Hollins Frida Metcalfe
(Children’s Community Kat Link
(SCC) (Emotional Wellbeing) (Surrey Libraries)
Health) (SCC Early Years)
Jackie O’Kelly
Michael Pipe Angela Wheeler Yvonne Newbold Carol Hodges
(Family Support
(Local Offer) (Occupational Therapy) (yvonnenewbold.com) (Home Start)
Consultant)
Jenny Helyer Dr Mark Brown
Lisa Trend Fran Beale Jo Neville
Lucy Ross (Special Help
(SEES) (Family Support Worker) (Health Visitor)
(Speech & Language) 4 Special Needs)
Sarah Jordan Jane Gupta
(Community Nursing) (Early Years SEND)
----- End of picture text -----

Social media

Our Facebook engagement was increased during this week with approximately 1,400 members viewing, commenting and reacting to posts. The value of a virtual event is that all the recordings continue to be available to our members and viewing figures continue to grow throughout the year.

----- Start of picture text -----
Great�event�lots�
of�interesting�and�
Great�to�have�the�chance�
informative�speakers.�
to�watch�the�event�when�
convenient.
I�liked�the�
free�flowing� I liked the variety of speakers.
discussions.
----- End of picture text -----

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Surveys, focus groups, reports

FVS Surveys this year included:

Focus groups include our engagement work, but we also work with partners to support parent participation, for example:

Reports are produced once surveys have been analysed, as a result of parent discussions or as part of our participation work:

FVS Satisfaction Survey

Emotionally Based School Non-Attendance Survey

Everyone matters: representing children with severe or profound disability

Wouldn’t it be incredible if children and young people were so central to Surrey’s processes that they were enabled to attend their own planning meetings, annual review etc or if professionals routinely sought a meaningful way for their voice to be heard? It seems that children and young people avoiding school are communicating very clearly that placements don’t meet their needs when they do not attend, but this is not being meaningfully explored.

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What We Heard

We Heard

EHCP Processes are complicated and lacking in transparency.

Children who suffer from school anxiety are forgotten and ignored – there is no specialist provision.

Long waiting times for neurodevelopmental assessments and confusion around the process of assessment and diagnosis. Schools are still requesting diagnosis before providing support.

Many stories of parent carers unable to contact the SCC Transport team.

It’s too difficult to access specialist mental health support.

Communication continues to be the most quoted concern, particularly with caseworkers. Parents often tell us of the lack of transparency in the system and have many questions.

Sometimes, FVS is contacted by several parents about a particular school.

There are not enough short breaks spaces, and it’s hard to know what is available and when to book.

We Did

In partnership with SCC SEND teams, FVS created a series of bite sized videos explaining each stage of the process.

FVS ran a survey which received 370+ responses. We then worked with Surrey Youth Focus to produce an analysis. This has galvanised the system into realising the extent and severity of this issue.

FVS has worked with Mindworks to improve information about the new ND service, and works within the Autism Strategy to highlight these issues and ensure they remain at the forefront of discussion.

FVS worked with SCC to help resolve many individual issues. Our focus has been on encouraging SCC to improve their response to parents.

FVS has worked with the new Mindworks service to help families understand what the service offers, and what it hopes to do in future. We’ve hosted various leaders in the service in videos that help inform parent carers about each part of what is a very complex service.

FVS has developed relationships with SCC and now has a named person who is tasked with answering our questions. These are then published on our website.

This year, FVS has worked to improve relationships with schools. Such schools have welcomed us in to talk to their SEND parents and Inclusion staff about the forum. In this way, we aim to help each party understand the complexities of the system and refresh their relationship.

FVS worked with the Short Breaks team to provide a clear organogram of all the providers available for Summer 2022, with the links and booking dates. This was prepared ahead of the easter holidays.

Continued over /...

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We Heard

We Did

Parents don’t feel supported in the transition from primary to secondary school. There is huge confusion about the transition to adulthood - in areas of education, health, care, housing, employment etc.

FVS is focussing the 2022 annual event on the transition from primary to secondary school.

FVS now host a group for parents of children 16+ where we bring parents and officers/practitioners together.

FVS has made representation to the Short Breaks team to consider an offer for 18-25 year olds FVS was involved in the development of the new EHCP template, which includes a different template for 14+ focussing on Preparation for Adulthood issues.

On those occasions where professionals focus their attention on the needs of the child and the family rather than their own organisational processes, the outcomes can be very positive and the sense of distrust and animosity starts to dissipate surprisingly quickly.

What our children say

This year, we started asking parent carers to tell us what their children have to say about their lives. The following quotes are examples of what we hear:

I love playing guitar: it makes me feel so relaxed.

My fidget ring really helps me concentrate in class.

My learning is deteriorating. I am losing brain cells. All my teachers either leave or move to a different class.

I want to go to school and one to be found for me as soon as possible. I need friends and that is the way I want to live my life.

Other children bully me because I am slow with my learning.

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Keeping in touch and being transparent

We have now been producing a monthly overview and newsletter for 17 months which gives us ongoing information about what parent carers are saying, and also how our participation work is progressing. Two additional benefits of this transparency became clear in early 2022: we provided a summary report of parent carer issues to inform the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) and Surrey County Council’s self-evaluation. In each case, our report was received with gratitude and respect and considered with the seriousness that we would expect from any evidence gathering process.

The Swimming Project

In November 2021, we received a flurry of comments from parent carers expressing sadness and frustration at the lack of swimming lessons for their children.

We used to go to the Spelthorne pool, but the centre staff had a go at me for sitting by the poolside, we left. As an autistic person myself, confrontation is really frightening for me, so it put me off straight away. We have never been back since.

Those parents who could afford it were finding 1:1 lessons, but even those were few and far between, and significantly more costly than a swimming course at the leisure centre.

FVS approached Everyone Active leisure centre in Spelthorne and proposed a pilot. Lessons would be offered at a comparable price to mainstream courses, with classes of 6. Parents would be allowed by the poolside or in the water, and the class would be run by a qualified teacher. The pilot started in February 2022.

The two classes sold out in a matter of hours and there is already a waitlist for both classes. Following a successful trial of the SEND swimming in Spelthorne, the class has been made permanent and runs as a 10 week course. We are now implementing the trial in Sunbury with the families who were on the waiting list. On the back of the successful swimming course, Spelthorne will be trialling a trampoline course for children with additional needs, starting in March.

Parent Carers found the courses very beneficial for their SEND kids. Our courses are unique in Spelthorne and adjacent boroughs, as there are no other swimming lessons exclusively for SEND children. We are setting a trend locally!

Fantastic news! It would be incredibly helpful to get into the pool with N to help build his confidence. Thank you so much for organising this!

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Participation and Co-production with local area partners and the 3rd sector

Family Voice Surrey’s overall workplan is developed from feedback from parent carers, by business planning and in partnership with SCC colleagues, based on the priorities identified by listening to parent carers as well as those priorities determined by council officers.

Once an area of work is identified with SCC, we meet to decide on the nature of the participation work, the outcomes we are aiming to influence and what meetings we may be required to attend.

In addition, FVS sits on a number of boards and attends meetings that aim to ensure representation of parent carers at a system level. These include the SEND System Partnership Board, Schools Forum and the Carers Partnership Board. We also meet regularly with senior leaders within education, health, care and adult services as well as elected members of the council and third sector organisations.

Meetings attended include:

SEND Systems Partnership

Schools Forum

LD & ASD Programme Board

Short Breaks Strategic Planning Groups ASD Strategic Board and related groups

Regular meetings with Designated Clinical Officers

Preparation and implementation of the new Mindworks service

Children’s Community Health meetings

SEMH Project Board

Inclusion steering group NNPCF regional meetings Local Offer Project Board

0-4 Workstream meetings Carers Partnership Group

Direct Payments meetings

Quarterly meetings with elected members of SCC

Monthly meetings with senior council officers

Monthly meetings with SEND Advice Surrey, UVP team, Surrey Youth Focus

Attending meetings is an important part of our work. FVS remains committed to being an active participant and takes responsibility for being part of effective meetings to ensure that the parent carer voice is heard. Meetings if successfully run can help people to feel included, trusted, and that they are important contributors to the table and ultimately positive outcomes for our Members.

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Project work

We developed a workplan based on parent carer feedback and in collaboration with SCC and Health partners:

EHCP Processes

We embarked on a long project to create bitesized videos with SCC officers explaining the various aspects of the EHCP process. These can be found on our YouTube channel at: https://bit.ly/3DotJLP

We also met regularly with SEND teams and ensured they were aware of ongoing issues.

Inclusion

This became a large project, including a pilot “Team Around the School” working to develop an “Ordinarily Available” offer, inputting in, to what is considered an “Autism Friendly” school and others.

Work to highlight the plight of children whose anxiety around school prevents attendance became increasingly important and we chose to create a new project half way through the year to manage the workload.

Autism Strategy • To represent the voice of parent carers in the development and implementation of the strategy.

The strategy was published in September 2021 after a very encouraging process of co-production. Implementation has included FVS in two work streams.

We also began co-chairing a newly formed Children and Young People’s Autism Partnership Board to mirror the existing adult board.

FVS were involved in the strategic planning of this work and hosted a number of focus groups. We also co-hosted an event for young people and their families. We are currently supporting work to produce a family guide to post 16 and PfA.

Our 16+ and 19+ groups offered a space for parents to share experience and knowledge and we offered training based on their needs. This included supported housing providers, Transition Team officers and others.

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Early Years

• To host a multi-disciplinary annual event informing families and practitioners about SEND in the 0-6 age group

This week long virtual event was prepared after speaking to parent carers to find out what would most have helped them in the early years of their child’s life. We welcomed speakers from the following organisations and services, and the full playlist of the event’s videos can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1PIh3UFcWk9eMCyFNgEmqA/videos

Surrey Libraries; Home Start; Shooting Star Hospice; Dr Mark Brown; Yvonne Newbold; Surrey Local Offer; Contact “Money Matters”; Children and Family Health Surrey; SEND Advisors; CHES; SCC Early Years; Early Years SEND team; Dr Kathryn Hollins; Early Years in the health system and two multidisciplinary talks on a range of topics chosen by parents.

SEND Transport

• To monitor and support a refreshed transport service

2021 transport issues were complicated by the pandemic, a shortage of HGV drivers meaning that taxi drivers changed career, together with a fuel crisis. The impact on SEND families was considerable and FVS provided significant support to families who were unable to reach the SCC transport team. And we continue to work with the council’s team to improve communications and will also be helping produce a parent guide to SEND transport in the coming year.

We provided parent carer feedback during a consultation reviewing the current Home to School transport policy.

Emotional To support the development of a strong website Wellbeing and Mental Health • To ensure the voice of parent carers is heard by the Mindworks service

FVS has worked hard to help the new service understand parent carer issues, and to help parent carers understand how the service aims to work. Part of that has been a series of videos with providers, while continuing to work strategically with partners.

We supported the new service to work with a group of parents on the design of the new name and website of the service, all the while helping officers understand that a focus on branding might be received with little enthusiasm by families who were desperate for clinical support.

Social Care

The world of social care and additional needs is complex and often confusing for families. In an effort to improve communication and transparency, FVS worked with partners at SCC to map that system. This work proved beneficial not only for parent carers, but also for those who work within the system and we look forward to diving deeper into each of the services on offer.

Short Breaks

The short breaks offer in Surrey has been the subject of a strategic review this year. While being involved in this process, FVS also highlighted the need for clarity of offer and booking for Summer 2022 in order that families use the service fully. We were pleased to contribute to an organogram explaining clearly what short breaks would be available and how and when families should book.

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Health
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We have worked with a range of health colleagues to ensure that parent carer experience is represented. This included work on the Digital Navigator project, continuing health care guidance input, sexual assault recovery group work, children’s community health focus groups and wheelchair services feedback from parent carers.

In considering the wider determinants of health, we worked in collaboration with Active Surrey to provide training to sports coaches ahead of the Surrey Youth Games. We also collaborated with “Everyone Active” leisure centre (see “swimming project” above).

Communication • To support an improved digital information service and Information

Surrey’s Local Offer website has been redesigned in the last year, and we have supported the team by providing some testing of the site by parent carers as well as working with SCC colleagues to ensure content was appropriate for parent carers in tone and language.

“Goodbye” from Benedicte Symcox, CEO

“I’ve had the immense privilege of leading Family Voice Surrey for the last three years. I’ve been supported by a phenomenal group of parent carers who work with me at FVS, but also members who’ve taken the time to share their experience so that we can, together, help practitioners and council officers understand the complexities of life when your child has additional needs.

I’d like to give special thanks to a number of people who have helped me along this rollercoaster of experience! Simon Morley and Sally Allen as chairs were hugely supportive and provided great mentorship whenever I needed it. Claire Poole, Emma Hambleton and Rachael Foley have been with me through this journey and been great friends as well as colleagues. To all my other colleagues, at FVS and throughout the SEND system in Surrey, I’d like to give my enormous thanks and great affection. There is no doubt that I will miss spending time with people who genuinely want to improve the lives of families like mine.

It’s time for me to move onto other things – becoming a grandmother is a life event of seismic proportions! And I’m excited to see FVS continue to build effective

and collaborative partnerships that ensure parent carer voices are heard and placed at the centre of decisions that affect them and their children.

I leave this organisation with huge optimism. The relationships we have built in the last few years allow the parent carer forum to challenge the system when needed, and our engagement with members means that we have the evidence to back those challenges up. In turn, this has allowed us to secure sustainable funding which allows us to plan for the future.

So as I move on to grandmotherhood and other adventures, I will continue as a member of FVS, and look forward to seeing the organisation grow from strength to strength.”

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Plans for 2022-2023

Our plans for the next year have been put together following feedback from parent carers on the areas that they would like to see us focus on (via surveys), parent carer experience (your stories), our work with partners on change projects and our own business planning, involving all staff.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to help us plan for the year ahead. For this year’s

report we have provided more detail to honour the comprehensive feedback that we have received. The long list of projects is prioritised 1-3. 1 = within the first 6 months, 2 = within 6 – 8 months, 3 = 8 - 12 months and into 23/24. As we progress these projects we will continue to learn and be open to review and adapting within the changing SEND environment.

You have told us we need to: We are planning to:

Increase awareness of Family Voice Surrey

Outcome: Families have a strong collective voice

Reach more families

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• Launch a new website (1)
• FVS Engagement and Communication Strategy (3)
• FVS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (3)
• Review FVS volunteer role (parent carer groups led by
volunteers, refreshed job description) (1)
• Continue to review use of social media, online presence
in line with FVS Member requirements - exploring
opportunities to collaborate with neighbouring parent
carer forums (1)
• FVS Satisfaction survey to include questions about
whether individual parent carers feel treated and valued
as equal partners in their child’s support (2)
• FVS Satisfaction survey to be run annually with members
and publicised widely (2)
• Set up a communications working group - member
reps, staff and other vol org/PCF reps to aid with the
development of Engagement and Communications
Strategy (2)
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Create a short video explaining our role

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You have told us we need to:

We are planning to:

Work with faith groups and 3rd sector organisations to reach more diverse communities

Engagement

Outcome: parent carers are supported to understand their rights and choices

Participation

Outcome: parent carers are valued as equal partners within the LA and Health

Continue to bring the lived experience to the heart of decision-making

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Plans for 2022-2023

You have told us we need to:

We are planning to:

Challenge assumptions that do not line up with parent carer experience

Make sure we share a wide range of parent carer experience

Outcome: FVS is a professional, parent carer led organisation

Train and inform professionals

Alongside our training offer we will offer opportunities for professionals to learn from parent carers to improve their practice and benefit families

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Finance

The accounts are prepared, in accordance with Charity Commission guidance CC16, on a Receipts and Payments basis.

The net result for the year to 31st March 2022 is a surplus of £54,448 (prior year to 31st March 2021 was a surplus of £2,397). The reserves at 31st March 2022 have increased as a result, to £123,969 (£69,521 at 31st March 2021).

Income for the year was £219,097 (2020/2021 £140,343). This was due to the award of a National Lottery Grant at the beginning of the financial year.

Expenditure increased following the award of this grant to maintain service delivery. Our expenditure for the year to 31st March 2022 was £164,649 (2020/21 £137,946).

Our reserves position remains within our 3-6 month expenditure policy.

Since the end of the year, we have reintroduced face to face support and events to combine with the existing online offer.

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Finance report

The accounts are prepared, in accordance with Charity Commission guidance CC16, on a Receipt and Payments basis.

----- Start of picture text -----
Family Voice Surrey 1175460
Receipts and payments accounts CC16a
Period start Period end
For the period date To date
from
01/04/2021 31/03/2022
Section A Receipts and
payments
Unrestricte Restricte Endowmen Total
Last Period
d funds d funds t funds funds
to the to the to the nearest to the to the
nearest £ nearest £ £ nearest £ nearest £
A1 Receipts
-
Surrey County Council Grant 85,016 - 85,016 83,000
Contact 17,500 - 17,500 15,000
Contact Discretionary - - 5,000
2022 National Lottery Grant 81,500 - 81,500
- 1,620
CFS Grant 10,000 10,000
CFS Health & Wellbeing/Covid - 5,000
19 24,975 24,975
Pears - - - 7,784
SCC Covid 19 - - 12,506
Mole Valley Covid 19 - 10,000
Donations 26 80 106 105
Other income - - 328
-
- -
Sub total (Gross income 85,042 134,055
for AR) - 219,097 140,343
A2 Asset and investment
sales, (see table).
-
- - 0
Sub total -0 - 0 -0 -0 -0
Total receipts 85,042 134,055 - 0 219,097 140,343
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----- Start of picture text -----
A3 Payments
Salaries
63,628 63,655 - 127,283 92,942
Travel and expenses
674 1,816 - 2,490 2,295
PfA event
2,072 - 2,072 4,081
Other events / meetings
848 1,205 - 2,053 1,870
Training
59 324 - 383 6,259
Marketing and Publicity
106 1,301 1,407
IT/Infrastructure & computer
assets 9,068 3,762 - 12,830 10,467
Rent
188 7,822 - 8,010 11,039
Telephone, Stationary and Post
1,936 86 - 2,022 499
HR, payroll, consulting,
recruitment 3,929 - 3,929 5,540
Subscriptions
20 500 - 520 900
Seldom Heard
- 108
Other
- 375
Insurance
630 - 630 611
Independent Examination
1020 - - 1,020 960
Sub total
80,249 84,400 - 164,649 137,946
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total
- - - - -
Total payments 80,249 84,400 - 0 164,649 137,946
Net of
receipts/(payments) 4,793 49,655 - 54,448 2,397
A5 Transfers between
funds - - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year
end 64,184 5,337 - 69,521 67,124
Cash funds this year
end 68,977 54,992 - 123,969 69,521
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Categories
B1 Cash funds
B2 Other monetary
assets
B3 Investment Assets
B3 Assets retained for
the charity’s own use
B5 Liabilities

Signed on behalf of all
the trustees		 Details
Cash at Bank		 Unrestricte
d funds
to nearest £
68,977
-		 Restricte
d funds
to nearest £
54,992
-		 Restricte
d funds
to nearest £
54,992
-
-
-
- - -
Total cash funds
(agree balances with receipts and
payments account(s))
Details		 68,977
OK
Unrestricte
d funds
to nearest £		 54,992
OK
Restricte
d funds
to nearest £
-
- - -

Details
Details
Details

Zoom		 Fund to which
asset belongs
Fund to which
asset belongs
Fund to which
liability
relates

General		 Cost
(optional)
Cost
(optional)
Amount
due
(optional)

1,727
01 April 2022
Orb X General 3,922 01 April 2022
SCA
Signature		 General
762
Print Name
Sammy Edginton
Sammy Edginton		 01 April 2022

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Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees/ members of Family Voice Surrey On accounts for the Charity no period ended 31 March 2022 (if any) 1175460 Set out on pages 25-28 26-27 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the period ended 31 March 2022.

As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). Responsibilities and basis of report I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act. Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: examiner's statement  accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or  the accounts do not accord with the accounting records I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. This report is made solely to the charity's Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Part 4 of the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008. My work has been undertaken so that I might state to the charity's Trustees those matters I am required to state to them in an Independent examiner's report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, I do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the charity and the charity's Trustees as a body, for my work or for this report.

Signed: 13-Jan-2023 Date: Name: Janice Matthews

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Appendix: Structure and Governance

We are constituted as a membership organisation, now with over 2700 members. Membership is open to anyone who is interested in furthering our purpose and who, by applying for membership, has indicated their or its (if a corporate body) agreement to become a member and acceptance of the duty of members. Our constitution is available on request and sets out the rights and responsibilities of our members.

The charity also has a Board of Trustees who manage the affairs of the charity and may, for that purpose, exercise all the powers of the charity. We hold an Annual General Meeting of the members, at which the Trustees present their Annual Report and Accounts. We always welcome new members and details of how to sign up can be found on our website and sign up leaflets.

We must maintain a minimum of 3 trustees and are always keen to recruit new trustees. We welcome applications from parent carers of children with SEND, as well as people who have experience in the running of small charities, or with finance/ treasurer, HR or fundraising skills, and people who have worked in Education, Health or Social Welfare particularly if with children with SEND. In particular, we welcome applicants from diverse ethnic, religious or other minority interest groups. The trustee board provides steer for the charity, ensuring that the operations team develop strategies and activities that will allow Family Voice to meet its objectives.

While day to day operations are led by the CEO with guidance from head of business planning and development and business and engagement manager as required, strategic decisions are taken as proposals to the trustee board for sign-off. Our constitution sets out the objectives of the charity

(as described in the “Introduction” of this report) and the methods for recruitment and appointment of new trustees, and the general running of the charity.

The Trustees have considered Charity Commission guidance on the provision of public benefit. The Trustees believe that FVS provides a public benefit to individuals with a special education need and/ or disability, their carers, their families and the local community through the services provided to them. In addition, the services benefit public services by providing support not provided elsewhere. These services add value to the current statutory education, health and social care services, whilst providing value for money.

Major risks as identified by trustees have been reviewed and systems established to manage them. Any organisational risks are identified and discussed as a regular monthly agenda item. All trustees give their time voluntarily and received no remuneration or other benefits.

We have a Risk Register which is updated and checked on a regular and ongoing basis. Additional policies include: Code of Conduct, Confidentiality, Data Protection, Equal Opportunities, Lone Working, Safeguarding and Data Protection. All have regular annual review dates.

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FVS MEMBERS

11 DISTRICT & BOROUGH COORDINATORS

BUSINESS PROJECT WORKERS ASSISTANT PARTICIPATION PARTICIPATION ENGAGEMENT BUSINESS MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

HEAD OF BUSINESS PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT

TRUSTEE BOARD

The business support and support services team (in green) are responsible for day to day business processes and event management. They keep us running!

work with partners on messaging, all in a wide range of areas pertaining to SEND.

Our coordinators work with our members, gathering their stories to be collated as evidence to strengthen the voice of the participation managers, and supporting members in a variety of ways. These include providing a space to talk and get mutual support, organising speaker events and signposting to local organisations where needed.

The operations team (in blue) work in two broad ways: our participation managers work with local area partners to inform them of issues facing parent carers. They are involved in strategic meetings, have input into some policy documents,

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Acronyms used in this document

ASD Autistic Spectrum Disorder LD Learning Disability
CEO Chief Executive Ofcer NNPCF National Network of Parent Carer Forums
CYP Children and Young People PfA Preparation for Adulthood
CCG Clinical Commissioning Group SPA Single Point of Access
CHES Community Health Early Support SEMH Social Emotional & Mental Health
EHCP Education, Health and Care Plan SEND Special Educational Needs and Disability
ESBNA Emotionally Based School Non-
Attendance		 SENDCo Special Educational Needs and Disability
Coordinator
FVS Family Voice Surrey SCC Surrey County Council
FAQ Frequent Asked Questions UVP User Voice and Participation
HR Human Resources

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family voice surrey Notes 33 Speaking up fvr the families of children &youngpeopie with additional needs in Surrey

family voice surrey Notes 34 Speaking up fvr the families of children &youngpeopie with additional needs in Surrey

family voice surrey Notes 35 Speaking up fvr the families of children &youngpeopie with additional needs in Surrey

Work with us to improve the future of children with disabilities or additional needs. We can’t achieve this without your support. Join us and add your voice to ours. Together, we’re stronger.

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Family Voice Surrey
Connect House
Kingston Road
Leatherhead
Surrey
KT22 7LT
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Charity number: 1175460 Tel: 01372 705708 Email: contact@familyvoicesurrey.org Website: www.familyvoicesurrey.org

www.facebook.com/familyvoicesurrey

@FVSurrey