## **Trustees' Annual Report for the period** Period start date Period end date Day1 Month4 Year2023 Day31 Month3 Year2024 **To** **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** |1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10|**Trustee name**|**Office (if any)**|**Dates acted if not for whole**
**year**|**Name of person (or body)**
**entitled to appoint trustee**
**(ifany)**| |---|---|---|---|---| ||Maria Cook|Chairperson||| ||Lee Cook|Trustee|Co-opted 18thOctober 2024
/ Voted on at AGM 24
January2025|| ||Simon King|Trustee Safeguarding|Co-opted 18thOctober 2024
/ Voted on at AGM 24
January2025|| ||Carol Jackson|Trustee Secretariat|Voted on at AGM 24
January2025|| ||Jane Wilson|Agreed to continue as
Interim Treasurer|Voted on at AGM 24
January2025|| ||Georgina James|Trustee|Stepped down 24 January
2025|| ||Janet Flanagan|Vice Chair|Resigned with immediate
effect 15 October 2024|| ||Vee McMath|Trustee|Resigned with immediate
effect 23 August 2024|| ||Dorota Soronna|Trustee|Resigned with immediate
effect 15 October 2024|| ||Jessica Grant|Trustee|Resigned with immediate
effect 17 October 2024|| ## **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)** **TAR** March **2012** 1 |**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**Type of adviser**
**Name**
**Address**|**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| |**Psychotherapist**|Tara Cresswell|No Business Premises| |**Community Development**
**Officer**|Adam Wickings|Crawley Borough Council, Town Hall, The
Boulevard, Crawley, West Sussex,RH10 1UZ| |**Adastra HR Ltd**|Alison Daymond|Unit 10, Newhouse Business Centre, Horsham
RH12 4RU| |**CaPS Ltd (GDPR)**|Derek Mann|Freedom Works, Spectrum House, Beehive Ring
Road, Crawley, West Sussex, RH6 0LG| ## **Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)** ## **Section B Structure, governance and management** ## **Description of the charity’s trusts** Type of governing document Constitution - (e.g. trust deed, constitution) How the charity is constituted CIO (Charitable incorporated Organisation) - (e.g. 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 (e.g. appointed by, elected by) on our closed and public social media and via email to our stakeholders. ## **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 ## **Policies** **Reviewed 2021** Financial Controls Whistleblowing 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 **TAR** March **2012** 2 and procedures to manage them. **Autism Support Crawley organisational structure** : Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Safeguarding Trustee, Officers. ## **Induction of New Trustees** New Trustees receive necessary training depending on their individual responsibilities. They are required 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 **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. Autism Support Crawley is a parent/carer peer support charity for parents, grandparents and other family members over the age of 18, who help support someone with autism or other social communication difficulties. Our main support platform is our closed Facebook page, which is an invaluable source of carer peer support, where members can receive support, ask questions, share information and make friends in a relaxed understanding environment. We also add to the group page events, courses and services run by our charity and other relevant charities/organisations. We have over 2.6k members on our closed charity page. We also have a mailing list which we use to send all events, courses and services organised by our charity and other relevant **Summary of the main** charities/organisations to our members who do not use social media or **activities undertaken for the** don’t want to miss the information added to our page. We also have a **public benefit in relation to** professionals email list where we circulate events and services run by our **these objects (include within** charity that may be of interest to them or to share. For anyone who does **this section the statutory** not fit the criteria for our closed Facebook page we have the following **declaration that trustees have** platforms where anyone can follow our charity. Our public Facebook **had regard to the guidance** page has over 2K followers, we also have public accounts on X, **issued by the Charity** Instagram and LinkedIn. **Commission on public benefit)** We hold regular monthly meetings for our members. These are - coffee mornings, often with relevant speakers invited. Evening social face to face support meetings. Some of our members find it difficult to attend face to face support meetings because of their family/caring roles, therefore, we also hold a monthly evening online support meeting via Teams. This year we have added a new face to face evening meeting, which is currently held every three months for our male carers. We introduced these because we had noticed not many male carers were attending our main face to face or online meetings. These peer support meetings are proving to be very popular. Our meetings are held at The Coaching Halt in Crawley, who also organise fun events for our members **TAR** March **2012** 3 and their families, so they can relax and enjoy events in an inclusive environment. Last summer we returned to holding our annual family picnic for our members at Kilmarnock Horse Rescue where again our members can relax in a supportive friendly environment. Autism Support Crawley improves awareness and understanding of Autism by providing talks by its Trustees to front line organisations. This started by us working with doctors’ surgeries for which we won the HealthWatch #ItStartsWithYou national award in 2017. Since then, we have continued working with local doctors surgeries and have also delivered talks to many other organisations including staff and managers at Tilgate Nature Centre, Crawley Police Station, local Job Centre Plus, doctors and nurses at Crawley Urgent Treatment Centre, Leisure Centre staff/managers and staff at some children’s nurseries. These had to stop during the Covid 19 Lockdown/restriction periods other than a few we delivered remotely. We have now restarted our talks with more detailed content based on a new set of slides. We have delivered a refresher talk at a doctors surgery. We have received other enquiries for talks and are in the process of confirming dates for these. We also have close links with the Disability Engagement Officer for Crawley Police and Disability Liaison Officer at Crawley Borough Council. Our Chairperson Maria Cook represents our charity at meetings with Crawley Ambassadors Forum, Crawley Disability Forum and Sussex Police. She has advised Sussex Police on autism acceptance and inclusion. We are part of the Crawley Pathfinder Local Planning Group, a forum dedicated to improving mental health in the area. Autism Support Crawley continues to fulfil its public benefit statement and raise acceptance and awareness of autism, by having a presence at events where members of the public can find out about our charity and autism. These include Crawley Borough Council public celebration events in the town centre. We have attended disability events throughout the year with our information stand to provide parents and other family members with information of how our charity can support them and their families. We hold an annual event that is open to anyone who is interested in attending, not just our members, with a relevant speaker at Manor Green College Crawley. During the covid restrictions this was held online and since resuming after the restrictions were lifted, we made these talks even more accessible by continuing to offer a hybrid option. This has also enabled people to attend from all over the UK. We continue to work closely with other organisations to improve Autism Acceptance. We continue to liaise regularly with Crawley Community Action, including being part of their social prescribing scheme. We also feature in the West Sussex Local Offer, Crawley Older Persons Directory.and CCA’s Volunteer Directory. We have been working with local theatres with their relaxed performances and helped some of our members and their families attend by offering a free carers ticket to the performance. We produced a guide to help people attending the relaxed performances. We are still holding regular quarterly committee meetings via Teams. For the last few Christmases one of our trustees decorates their house and front garden with an amazing lights display to raise funds for our **TAR** March **2012** 4 charity, we are so grateful to them for putting in so much time with this display to help our funds. |**Additional details of objectives**
You**may choose**to include
further statements, where
relevant, about:
•policy on grant making;
•policy programme related
investment;
•contribution made by
volunteers.|**and activities (Optional information)**| |---|---| ||
The charity has one part time employee, which is a secretarial position, to
assist the trustees, committee members and volunteers.
A huge contribution is made every day by members offering support and
answering queries from other members on our closed charity 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).
**We would like to thank the following organisations for their support**
**with awarding our charity with much needed grants.**
**National Lottery Community Fund**
**Sussex Community Foundation**
**We would also like to thank the following organisations for their**
**support.**
**The Coaching Halt, Crawley**for letting us use their premises for our
support meetings and for all the other help and support they give our
members with their events.
**Kilmarnock Horse Rescue**for letting us use one of their fields to host
our members picnic, showing our members and their children the animals
and for making us very welcome. We returned back again after a
successful event in 2022, but in a different location closer to Crawley.
**Manor Green College**for the use of their premises for public speaker
events and for other help throughout the year. We chose to give them a
donation for the use of their premises for our public talk, but they do not
charge us directly for this.
**The National Lottery Community Fund**for donating the funds to allow
us to develop our new website
**Tesco Hazelwick**for donating food and drinks for our events throughout
the year.
**Tesco Distribution Centre**for donating food and drinks for our events
throughout the year.
**Waitrose, Horley**for their ongoing donations and support.
**Our Trustee of Fundraising/Marketing, Gina James and her Partner**
**David**for their Christmas lights display to raise funds for us.
**Fred and Rosemary Lane**for their kind donation towards our next
members meal and social evening.
**Stockwell Lodge Masons**for their kind donation.
**UK Garrison**for their unmatched loyalty in helping entertain our families!| **TAR** March **2012** 5 Plus, a huge thank you to everyone else who has supported us with volunteering their time and donated to our funds. We are so grateful for the help and support we have received. Section D Achievements and performance We have increased our support meetings and introduced an online **Summary of the main** support meeting. We send out regular emails with information about our **achievements of the charity** and other charities/organisations events, training courses and services. **during the year** 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 popular public accounts on X, Instagram and our public Facebook page which has over 1500 followers. We also have a LinkedIn page. Our membership continues to increase. We have over 2K members on our closed Facebook page and mailing list. We have over 150 full members and the rest are associate members. Full members are members who attend events in person or via Teams list who do not attend events. 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 have restarted our information talks and stands that were halted by the pandemic. Pre-pandemic we were resident supporters at London Gatwick Airport twice yearly Accessibility Days, usually held in April and November, regularly helping 40 plus families familiarise themselves with the Hidden Disability Programme by visiting check ins and security searches, meeting the police, border force and their dogs and the fire brigade as well as a ride on the assistance buggies, visit the Sensory Room, access 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. **Section E Financial review** Autism Support Crawley always ensures that a full year running costs for **Brief statement of the** the charity remains in the bank account. **charity’s policy on reserves Details of any funds materially in deficit Further financial review details (Optional information)** **TAR** March **2012** 6 You **may choose** to include additional information, where relevant about: - the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising); - how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity; The key objective of our charity is to support our parent/carers and their families to help them feel connected and not alone. We organise events to help prevent feelings of isolation for our families and therefore they can feel relaxed in a non-judgemental and supportive environment. Our funds have enabled us to achieve this, and we have plans to expand our events and services to benefit our members by bringing back some of our popular events that we held before the pandemic e.g. Golf Day / Evening Fundraiser and applying for grants to fund the provision of some informative and invaluable workshops. - investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted. ## **Section F Other optional information** We are currently in the process of redesigning our website www.autismsupportcrawley.co.uk The new website will be an invaluable resource for information, signposting and will be celebrating our members events. To make the website accessible, it will be disability friendly and available in other languages and was dependent upon a successful funding application to The National Lottery Community Fund, for which we are very grateful. ## **Section G Declaration** **The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.** **Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees** **Signature(s) Full name(s)** Maria Cook Simon King **Position (e.g. Secretary, Chair, etc)**[Chairperson ] Trustee of Safeguarding **Date** 30[th] January 2025 **TAR** March **2012** 7 ||**Autism Support Crawley**|**Autism Support Crawley**|**Autism Support Crawley**|**1179383**|**1179383**|**1179383**|**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**For the period**
**from**|01/04/2023|**To**||31/03/2024||| ||||||||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||||| |**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**8,562**
**5,312**
**71**
**20,000**
**-**
**1,259**
**-**
**-**
**35,204**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**35,204**
**9,398**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**2,300**
**2,001**
**1,298**
**200**
**-**
**15,197**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**15,197**
**20,007**
**-**
**13,818**
**33,825**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**7,000**
**-**
**500**
**10,000**
**17,500**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**17,500**
**121**
**4,723**
**4,518**
**1,089**
**-**
**-**
**500**
**909**
**6,549**
**18,409**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**18,409**
**- 909**
**-**
**1,321**
**412**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**||**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**8,562**
**5,312**
**71**
**20,000**
**7,000**
**1,259**
**500**
**10,000**
**52,704**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**52,704**
**9,519**
**4,723**
**4,518**
**1,089**
**2,300**
**2,001**
**1,798**
**1,109**
**6,549**
**33,606**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**33,606**

**19,098**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**| |golf day|**8,562**||||||**-**| |donations|**5,312**||||||**3,476**| |pettycash|**71**||||||**-**| |west sussex|**20,000**||||||**-**| |sussex community|**-**||||||**-**| |co op|**1,259**||||||**-**| |meal donation|**-**||||||**-**| |grant|**-**||||||**6,500**| |**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for_
_AR)_|**35,204**||||||**9,976**| ||||||||| |**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||| ||**-**||||||| ||**-**||||||**-**| |**_Sub total_**|**-**||||||**-**| |**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||| ||||||||**9,976**| ||||||||| |staff|**9,398**||||||**4,091**| |office supplies and equipment|**-**||||||**3,504**| |creativepod|**-**||||||**-**| |advertising/promo|**-**||||||**-**| |golf day|**2,300**||||||**-**| |groupevents|**2,001**||||||**-**| |members meal|**1,298**||||||**-**| |misc costs|**200**||||||**8,234**| |speaker|**-**||||||**185**| |**_Sub total_ **|**15,197**||||||**16,014**| ||||||||| |**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||| ||**-**||||||| ||**-**||||||| |**_Sub total_ **|**-**||||||**-**| |**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||| ||||||||**16,014**| ||||||||| ||**20,007**|**- 909**|**-**||
**19,098**||**- 6,038**| ||**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**||**-**| ||**13,818**|**1,321**|**-**||**15,139**||**-**| ||**33,825**|**412**|**-**||**34,237**||**- 6,038**| CCXX R1 accounts (SS) 1 ## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**|Signature
**Details**
bank account
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**33,825**
**412**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**33,825**
**412**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Maria Cook,Chairperson
Simon King, Trustee Safeguarding|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| |---|---|---|---| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||OK| ||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**-**| ||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||| ||||Date of
approval| |||Maria Cook,Chairperson|23.12.24| |||Simon King, Trustee Safeguarding|23.12.24| CCXX R2 accounts (SS) 2 CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANO WALES Independent examinerfs report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl mèmbers of Autism Support Crawley On accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 Charity no (rfany) 1179383 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity {￿he Trusf) for the year ended Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust. you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the a¢¢ounts in accordan￿ with the requirements of the Charities Ac* 2011 ('the Acr). I report in resped of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried OLrt under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in ¢arying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5){b) of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confinn that no material matters have come to my attention (other than that disclosed below") in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material Independent examiner's statement accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord wtth 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 proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. . Please delete the words in the bTrckats rfthey do not apply. Signed: Date: Name: Darren Harding Relevant professional qualifiG*ionls) or body (rfany): ACA FCCA DChA Address: Richard Pla￿ Dobson, 1-7 Station Road. Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 1 HT IER October 2018 Section B Disclosure Only complete rf the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Inde￿ndent examination of Charity accounts: directions and guidance for exarniners). Glve her• brlef details of any items that the examiner wlshes to dis¢lose. IER October 2018