2022-03-31-accounts - Autism Support Crawley

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Trustees' Annual Report for the period

Period start date Day1 Month4 Year2021 To

Period end date Day31 Month3 Year2022

From

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name Autism Support Crawley

Other names charity is known by ---------- Registered charity number (if any) 1179383

Charity's principal address 1 – 7 Station Road

Crawley West Sussex Postcode RH10 1HT

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole year Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (ifany) 1 Maria Cook Chairperson 2 Charlotte Gover Vice Chairperson 3 Heather Eves Secretary Until 21/02/22 4 Janet Flanagan Publicity 5 Vee McMath Operations From 21/02/22 6 Dave Padwick Safeguarding 7 CathySeiderer Trustee/Founder 8 Jessica Grant Trustee Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees) Name Dates acted if not for whole year Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information) Type of adviser Name Address Groups Adviser Karl Parks Crawley Community & Voluntary Service, The Orchard, 1- 2 Gleneagles Court, Brighton Road, Crawley, RH10 6AD Richard Place Dobson Accountants Darren Harding 1-7 Station Road, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1HT Autism Specialist, Autism rights, School procedures. David Burns MBE No business premises Autism Consultant/Specialist Nicole Goodman No business premises Community Development Officer John Dale Crawley Borough Council, Town Hall, The Boulevard, Crawley, West Sussex ,RH10 1UZ	Trustee name	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year
	Maria Cook		Chairperson
	Charlotte Gover		Vice Chairperson
	Heather Eves		Secretary		Until 21/02/22
	Janet Flanagan		Publicity
	Vee McMath		Operations		From 21/02/22
	Dave Padwick		Safeguarding
	CathySeiderer		Trustee/Founder
	Jessica Grant		Trustee
	Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)
	Name				Dates acted if not for whole year

Groups Adviser		Karl Parks		Crawley Community & Voluntary Service, The Orchard, 1- 2 Gleneagles Court, Brighton Road, Crawley, RH10 6AD
Richard Place Dobson Accountants		Darren Harding		1-7 Station Road, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1HT
Autism Specialist, Autism rights, School procedures.		David Burns MBE		No business premises
Autism Consultant/Specialist		Nicole Goodman		No business premises
Community Development Officer		John Dale		Crawley Borough Council, Town Hall, The Boulevard, Crawley, West Sussex ,RH10 1UZ

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

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Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Constitution Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) How the charity is constituted

(eg. trust, association, company)

Elected at Annual General Meeting and up to two trustees can be coTrustee selection methods opted during the year by the existing trustees. All positions are advertised (eg. appointed by, elected by) on our closed Facebook page and by email.

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

Policies

Reviewed 2021 Financial Controls Whistle-blower Safeguarding

Existing policies Social Media Code of Conduct for Trustees Conflict of Interest for Trustees Environmental Policy Confidentiality Equality & Diversity Health & Safety Skills Audit x Induction for New Trustees Fundraising Policy

Autism Support Crawley organisational structure :. Chair, Founder, Vice-chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Operations, Safeguarding, Officers.

Induction of New Trustees New Trustees receive necessary training depending on their individual responsibilities. They are asked to undertake safeguarding training or provide evidence if they have had this training from another organisation.

Section C Objectives and activities

The objects of the CIO are for the public benefit to promote and protect the good health and relieve the needs of people and their families/carers affected by Autistic Spectrum Condition or social communication and interaction difficulties (with or without a diagnosis) living within the counties of Surrey, Sussex, Kent and Brighton and Hove by the provision of support, information and activities and such other means as the trustees deem fit.

Summary of the objects of the interaction difficulties (with or without a diagnosis) living within the charity set out in its counties of Surrey, Sussex, Kent and Brighton and Hove by the provision governing document of support, information and activities and such other means as the trustees deem fit. Summary of the main Autism Support Crawley improves awareness and understanding of activities undertaken for the Autism by providing talks delivered by their Trustees to front line public benefit in relation to organisations. This started by us working with Doctors Surgeries for these objects (include within which we won the ‘HealthWatch #ItStartsWithYou’ national award in this section the statutory 2017. Since then, we have continued working with local doctors’ declaration that trustees have surgeries and have also delivered talks to many other organisations had regard to the guidance including, staff and managers at Tilgate Nature Centre, local Job Centre

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issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

Plus, doctors and nurses at Crawley Urgent Treatment Centre, Leisure Centre staff/managers and staff at some children’s nurseries. We had to stop delivering these during the Covid 19 Lockdown/restriction periods other than a few that we delivered remotely via Zoom. We have now restarted our talks with a refresher session at one of the doctors’ surgeries we have previously visited. We hope to start booking other talks soon. We also have close links with the Disability Engagement Officer for Crawley Police and Community Development Officer (John Dale) at Crawley Borough Council, who also chairs the Crawley Disability Forum. Our Chairperson Maria Cook represents our charity at meetings run by Sussex Police Neurodiversity Team, Crawley Disability Forum and Gatwick Accessibility Forum. We are part of the Crawley Pathfinder Local Planning Group, a forum dedicated to improving mental health in the area. We continue to provide a free Welcome booklet which contains full information about our charity, Autism and other useful, reputable charities/organisations we recommend. These are distributed widely, and we currently give away around 500 a year. We have a lending library of autism related books our members can borrow. Autism Support Crawley continues to fulfil its public benefit statement by having a presence at events where members of the public can find out about our charity including Crawley Borough Council public town celebrations. During the covid 19 lockdowns/restrictions, some of these events had to be cancelled or were held remotely, but are now starting to return to face-to-face events. We have returned to face-to-face meetings for our members’ monthly coffee mornings and have relevant speakers at some of these. We are hoping to resume our face-to-face evening meetings soon, these are currently still held monthly via Zoom. At some of our meetings and events, we will continue to offer participation by Zoom as well. This will make the meetings accessible to those parent/carers who are unable to attend in person due to their family/carer commitments and post covid social anxieties. We continue to signpost our members to events and services, other appropriate charities/organisations provide, as well as providing information about Autism through our lived experiences. Our closed Facebook page continues to be an invaluable source of peerto-peer help, advice and support for our members. A pinned post at the top of the Facebook page states our guidelines for the page. We have a mailing list to inform members who are not on social media about the events and services we post on the Facebook page run by our charity and other charities/organisations. We continue to work closely with other charities/organisations to improve Autism Awareness. We continue to liaise regularly with Crawley Community Action, including being part of their social prescribing scheme. We also feature in Crawley Older Persons Directory and the West Sussex County Council Local Offer.

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We have a website www.autismsupportcrawley.co.uk which is currently being redesigned.

We hope to return to working with The National Trust (Nymans and Sheffield Park), which again had to stop because of the covid restrictions, to improve their Autism Friendly provisions.

We have been working with local theatres with their relaxed pantomime and helped some of our members and their families attend by offering a free carers ticket to the performance.

We are still holding regular committee meetings via Zoom.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

Contributions Made By Volunteers

The charity has only one part-time employee; therefore, most of the work is undertaken by the trustees and a few volunteers.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme-related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

A huge contribution is made every day by members offering peer support and answering queries from other members on our closed Facebook page.

Autism Support Crawley is very grateful for the time taken and advice given without charge by Crawley Community Action and Richard Place Dobson (accountants).

Autism Support Crawley hope to resume meetings at the Broadfield Children and family centre (WSCC) in 2023 and is very grateful to these organisations for offering their premises at no cost.

Manor Green does not charge us for the use of their premises when we host public speaker events, but we make a donation to the school funds.

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

Autism Support Crawley changed to holding coffee mornings and evening meetings via Zoom during the Covid-19 restriction period, we have now returned to face-to-face coffee mornings and some events. We hope to return to holding our evening meetings face-to-face soon. We will still offer attendance via Zoom at some meetings.

We send out emails with information about our events and also about other organisations. There is also an email list for professionals, this is so that we can send information out to those interested in our charity, but do not qualify to be members.

We have a popular Twitter page with 803 followers. Our Instagram has 384 followers and our public Facebook page has 1600 followers.

Our charity has 131 full members, the remainder is associate members. Full members are members who attend events in person or via Zoom. We have 171 associate members on the mailing list who do not attend events.

All those on our closed Facebook page are automatically associate members, any of the full members on our Facebook page are added to our mailing list where we store the information required for full members.

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Section D Achievements and erformance p

There is some crossover with associate Facebook members who are also on our mailing list, these are stored in an area that is fully GDPR compliant.

The closed Facebook page has continued to grow in numbers, and we now have over 2,000, members as at January 2023.

Our closed Facebook page is a lifeline for so many, a perfect social media platform to ask questions, share information and help with the isolation that is experienced by so many parent carers, in the security of a closed page. We have strict guidelines in place to protect ourselves and the individuals that have posts approved on the page. We asked members for feedback and received the following quotes. “I have been to evening meetings, coffee mornings and as a family we have attended parties @ The Knight Pub. Everyone is so helpful and understanding, it has helped our family through difficult times just having other people to talk to. The parties have been great for my son as he doesn’t get invited to school children’s parties and there is no judgement when we’ve had to leave early as it’s been too much for him. X”

“Every day reading through posts from Autism Support Crawley members gives me inspiration, compassion and understanding. I feel inspired from the love and support of everyone's posts. When people are having a difficult time, I wish I could step into the post and give them a hug!” “Thank you everyone for every scrap of advice, for sharing the ups and downs and for just being there.” Pre-pandemic we were resident supporters at London Gatwick Airport’s twice yearly Accessibility Days, usually held in April and November. We regularly helped 40 plus families familiarise themselves with the Hidden Disability Programme by visiting check ins and security searches, meeting the police, border force & their dogs and the fire brigade. As well as this they provided rides on the assistance buggies, visits to the Sensory Room, access to an aircraft and talk to staff about how they can navigate the airport successfully when they go away. The airport staff have been concentrating on recovery after the pandemic, but we are hoping for the Accessibility days to resume later in 2023. The Relaxed Panto which is held at our local theatre The Hawth in January 2022, was attended by some of our members, we offered free carer tickets to help them afford to attend and it was very successful. The talks given by trustees have been very well received.

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Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the

Reserves Policy The charity’s running costs in the bank account (around £2,000)

charity’s policy on reserves

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

The charity holds a Lloyds bank account.

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

Sources of income are donations from individuals

Other Charitable organisations and Waitrose green token schemes. Golf Day in September 2019.

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);

We did not hold a Golf Day in 2020, 2021 or 2022.

Although our income has been and will be severely depleted this year, we also have not had as many outgoings as usual, therefore the charity remains financially healthy.

how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
investment policy and objectives including any virtual setting. ethical investment policy adopted. The charity has no assets.

Online banking has been invaluable, helping us to make payments in a virtual setting.

Section F Other optional information

Autism Support Crawley continue to have a good relationship with Manor Green Primary and Manor Green College, the local schools for children with Special Needs. We have been able to use their buildings when we need more space for evening meetings, conferences or other events we hold.

We had to stop these events and our face-to-face meetings from March 2020.

We are gradually going back to face-to-face and at some meetings/events are still offering remote attendance as well.

Our committee have decided to continue to hold holding committee meetings via Zoom, as our trustees with young children don’t have to arrange child care to attend, this is more environmentally friendly than travelling to a venue for our meetings.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

[Maria Louise Cook ]

Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair) Chairperson for Autism Support Crawley

Date 26/01/2023

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Autism Support Crawley 01104121 31103122

bank balance

lloyds restricted petty cash balance brought forward £ 13,441.66 £ 6,979.16 £ 70.96 income £ 2,341.10 £ - expenditure £ 1,655.73 £ - current balanance £ 14,127.03 £ 6,979.16 £ 70.96

Autism Support Crawley 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020 Income Expenditure

Date	Income	General	Restricted
###	Donation	£ 399.81
###	Amazon Smile	£ 33.15
###	Arnold Donation	£ 500.00
###	Amazon Smile	£ 26.87
###	Paypal Donation	£ 7.50
###	Amazon Smile	£ 23.93
###	Christmas lights donation	£ 885.73
###	Amazon Smile	£ 40.11
###	Donation	£ 424.00








	TOTAL INCOME	£2,341.10	£ -	£2,341.10

	Expenditure




















	TOTAL EXPENDITURE		£ -

	Excess Of Income over Expenditure			£ 2,341.10

Autism Support Crawley 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020 Lloyds Payments Payment Advertising, Committee transfer to Type/Cheque Promo & Group Party/ Social Dads Speakers & Members Meeting & restricted expenses Date Details Number Total total expenses Welcome B Books Gifts Golf Day Meetings Events Evening Travel Conferences Donations Panto Insurance Meal Training Events Refunds Misc funds form invoice total £ 1,655.73 £ 1,655.73 £ 548.05 £ - £ 109.90 £ - £ 5.00 £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 130.00 £ 287.40 £ 500.00 £ - £ 75.38 £ - £ - £ - 04/14/2021 food vouchers - jane £ 500.00 £ 500.00 11/11/2021 Zurich insurance £ 287.40 £ 287.40 11/11/2021 Charlotte expenses £ 34.90 £ 34.90 11/22/2021 Charlotte expenses £ 75.00 £ 75.00 12/13/2021 Creative pod £ 537.00 £ 537.00 01/04/2022 Panto ticket - SC £ 26.00 £ 26.00 01/10/2022 Panto ticket - MF £ 26.00 £ 26.00 01/12/2022 Panto Ticket - MB £ 26.00 £ 26.00 01/18/2022 Heather expenses £ 12.90 £ 12.90 01/31/2022 Charlotte expenses £ 62.48 £ 62.48 01/31/2022 Panto Ticket - MC £ 26.00 £ 26.00 02/16/2022 Panto Ticket - GJ £ 26.00 £ 26.00 03/21/2022 Revenue Guru £ 11.05 £ 11.05 03/28/2022 Lee Cook £ 5.00 £ 5.00

£ 1,655.73

£ 1,096.10 £ - £ 219.80 £ - £ 10.00 £ - £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 260.00 £ 287.40 £ 1,000.00 £ - £ 150.76 £ - £ -

Autism Support Crawley 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020 Petty Cash Expenditure

Stationay Golf Day Group Printing & Date Details Total (Restricted Funds) Meetings Posting Misc

TOTALS

£ 70.96 £ - £ - £ -