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2023-09-30-accounts

Waves Additional Needs Support Group

Registered Charity number 1179923

Annual Report 2022-23

WAVES is an Additional Needs Support Group ran by a group of dedicated volunteers who are all parents of children with "Additional Needs." We are based in South Tyneside.

We offer a range of activities to help build and promote social skills among our children and young adults as well as friendship, advice and support to parents and carer's.

OPENING HOURS: Saturdays 12pm till 4pm

We offer lots of activities such as:

We offer (if able to secure funding) day trips and outings in the school holidays such as going to the beach, local BBQ event, camping, places of interest in order that the families can spend time together with additional support. Without this support these activities are difficult, if not impossible, for our families to access.

The disabilities the children have are vast and within these all come with difficulties in:

We fully support the siblings within these families as they often need to take a back seat due to their siblings needs/difficulties which can lead to emotional difficulties as well as a feeling of 'second best' which is obviously not the case.

Due to the number of medical and academic appointments, the parents/carers find it difficult to find suitable employment which will be flexible to their needs. Many of our families are unemployed and needing to rely on benefits. This also makes day-to-day life difficult which can cause stress and anxiety for the parents/carers.

Suzanne Jackson Chair of WAVES Additional Needs Support Group

Chair’s Report – October 2022 – September 2023

This year was a very successful year for WAVES Additional Needs Support Group (WAVES). We have seen our membership grow week by week, many of these being signposted from schools and medical professionals as well as word of mouth from families who access the activities and support that WAVES offers. As well as our regular activities such as arts/crafts/cookery/indoor and outdoor sports/therapy sessions, we have listened to the members and made a specific over 13s area where the older Wavelets are able to have ‘teen time’ playing pool, darts and table tennis. We have also introduced toddler time as we have a number of young Wavelets accessing WAVES – some of these children are siblings and others starting their difficult journey with SEN.

In the summer we managed to secure a number of off-site activities such as Beamish Open Air Museum, Hamsterley Forest, Down at the Farm, Washington Wildfowl Park, Butterfly World, Override Skate Park and Bedlam Paintballing. During the spring and summer we had great turnouts for Paddleability where we work closely with Luis and his team. We have also delivered a number of teen nights out such as bowling and going for food.

Whilst we always like to be involved in parades, this year has been extra special as a number of the mam’s have taken it in their stride to support Cultural Spring in developing the costumes to ensure the Wavelets turned up in style.

WAVES are always open to working with other charities/groups/community interest companies to ensure holistic needs are met. Presently we work closely with Bilton Hall and Escape Intervention Services as well as signposting members to organisations such as SURT (Stopping Unsafe Relationships Together).

WAVES’s success, as always, is down to a committed team of Committee and Volunteers and the members working together. WAVES is a community/extended family to many to ensure support is in an abundance and no one is left isolated fighting the SEN system.

In July 2023 WAVES was nominated in the #Love South Tyneside Awards and we were so happy to win the People’s Choice Award and I was also very humbled to win the #Love South Tyneside Award. Winning these awards mean so much to everyone connected with WAVES and their members.

It was a pleasure to receive a grant from the Mayor’s Charity and value the recognition given to a small charity like WAVES.

WAVES would not be able to offer as many activities as it does without the support of local and national funders. Thank you to these funders in believing in WAVES and supporting us to support others. Some of the local funders have been Hadrian’s Trust, Barbours, Sir James Knott, Doggerbank and many others.

I would like to personally thank the Committee, Volunteers, Members, Supporters of WAVES – I am proud to lead a very successful charity and long may it continue.

Suzanne Jackson Chair of WAVES Additional Needs Support Group

Waves Committee/Trustee’s

Waves Patron

“waves is a great example of hardworking volunteers coming together to form a terrific selfhelp group to support children with additional needs and their families. In these days of austerity, it has never been more important to support such groups who do so much for the vulnerable members of our community. Their drive and determination to do their very best for our ‘bairns’ is to be commended. In life we can either make Waves or calm troubled waters; they do both making sure their voice is heard and causes championed while giving their members a place in which to belong…I am honoured to have been asked to become their Patron”.

Ray Spencer MBE

Fundraising and Events

Events Oct 22 – Sept 23

Helen Wallace and Leoni White are both leads of Events and Fundraising. We have a dedicated team to support and help run all our events.

Oct 22

This month sees our yearly Halloween party. All our committee and volunteers dress up to ensure the children have an amazing time. We have games, dancing and a massive raffle. Every child gets to take home a spooky gift. It's always a fantastic time.

Dec 22

This is always the busiest time of the year for our events team. Every week in Dec leading up to our Christmas party at the end of the month, we have some sort of Christmas activity. This year the theme was Grinchmas. We had a movie day with green hot choc and cookies, Christmas face paints, amazing holiday hairstyles, arts and crafts making Grinch window decorations to name just a few of the things we did.

Every year we have our very own Christmas dinner at Waves. We served over 80 this year. It's always such a lovely day, prepping from very early in the morning to finally serving our members with Christmas songs playing in the background.

We took part in the South Tyneside Christmas parade, again taking part in workshops to create flags, costumes and banners. Amazing to see our children walking the parade representing our group.

Singing Christmas carols to the residents of a local care home is always a heartwarming day with lots of laughter.

A cold visit to Beamish open air museum is again a yearly trip for us. We all visit Santa, have hot choc and spend the day exploring the world as it was many years ago.

We end December with our Christmas party. This is the biggest party we have of the year. Santa pays us a visit and all the children get a present from him. Our event team always put on a surprise Christmas dance and are all dressed up as Elves. The children love this! We have a massive raffle with a Christmas family hamper as 1 of the prizes. This is always so big and heavy it has to be wheeled into the room! It's the best way to end the year.

Jan 23

We start the year off arranging coffee mornings every 2 weeks for our parents/carers. This is a chance for them to get support/ guidance and just a time to make friendships within the group.

In January we also held our annual Paddleability presentation night. Every year we celebrate with certificates given out to all members that took part the previous summer. We have food, bingo, raffle and end the night with a sing on the karaoke.

Feb 23

Mr Lip Lee comes to visit us every Chinese New Year and brings in lots of arts and crafts for the children to take part in. This year they created fans and lanterns. He even brings in a Chinese dragon for the children to dance around in.

March 23

We had a visit to Down at the Farm. A coach full of our members had a great day seeing all the farmyard animals and having fun on the tractor rides.

Easter 23

During waves we hold an Easter egg competition, egg hunt and all activities that day are all Easter themed. We even have a visit from a real bunny called Stanley who the child have the opportunity to hold. Every child gets an Easter egg from the Easter bunny who pays us a visit.

April 23

We arranged a visit to a local skate park called Over ride. We did a private hire so only our members on the park at the time. This is a massive help to some of our members who struggle with anxiety. Here the children were able to explore, ride and just have fun on scooters. Some even managed jumps and drops they had never done before. Well done kids!

May 23

The Kings Coronation was a lovely day. The sun was shining and we decorated the outside area ready for our afternoon tea. We had games, face painting, music, dancing and a lovely supply of cakes/sandwiches made by our lovely members. A great day celebrating our King.

July 23

Waves held their very 1st auction night. We had been collecting donations/prizes all year and had quite a good selection on the night. We had items ranging from bikes, clothes, bags, homemade pies and even a piece of space shuttle from NASA. We ordered in pizza, kebabs, chips for the members. We held some bingo games then the main auction. It was an amazing night and lots of people were happy with items they won. This will be come a yearly event due to it being such a good night.

July / Aug 23

Every week in the summer holidays we put on a trip or activity. This year we had the following:

We also worked with outside organisations Williby Rocs to hold pizza nights in their amazing gardens and South Shields Surf School with sessions held at the beach.

Sept 23

We ended the summer holidays taking part in a costal parade along South Shields seafront. Working with an outside organisation we created costumes, flags and headdresses. On the day there was not only the walk but lots of dancing and celebrations. A great time was had by all.

Equipment

Stu Wallace’s main role within WAVES is to maintain equipment and repair / replace when necessary.

Volunteer co-ordinators

Stu Wallace and Carrie Tate are WAVES volunteer coordinators, our volunteers help the committee run WAVES. All our volunteers are fully DBS checked and undertake annual safeguarding training.

Paddle Ability

Each year we run 6 monthly sessions of Paddle ability as well as sessions with the local sea cadets. These sessions are organised by Stu Wallace with various water activities which include powerboating and sailing.

These sessions are very popular with the members and are a lot of fun whilst also gaining new skills on the water.

Health and Safety

Charlie Torrence is Waves health and safety lead. He is responsible for ensuring all risk assessments are carried out and up to date, including trips and activities as well as inhouse on a Saturday.

Charlie also runs staff first aid training and gives safety advice to our members.

I.T.

Steph Law is responsible maintaining the Waves Additional Needs Support Group website (www.waves-support-group.com). This is used as a professional way to deliver information on our group in addition to our community Facebook page, while also offering an alternative source of information to those without Facebook. The regular maintenance of the website includes:

Sports

Jonny Stephen is our sports coordinator. His responsibilities include organising and running sporting activities and ensuring the safety of our members whilst doing this. We offer a range of sporting activities during Waves and outside of Waves for our members and parents/carers. Our sporting activities promote social interaction, communication, listening skills, teamwork, problem solving and building confidence. We listen to our members’ suggestions and have started offering more sporting activities.

Some of our activities include:

Young Voices

Jonny Stephen and Steph Law- organises our Young Voices meetings. Young Voices play an important role within Waves and they are there to bring suggestions, improvements, things that are going well, things members would like to see and health and safety to meetings where we will discuss and vote. We discuss topics on bullying, respect, consent, and inclusion and make sure we as a group have things in place to help others. The young voices are also in the process of making suggestion boxes, QR codes for suggestions and you said we did. We are also going to be working with other community groups who have asked us for feedback on their services. Young Voices promotes working in a team, good listening and communication skills, problem solving, planning, and following instructions.

Waves Minibus

Having our own minibus has meant we have been able to offer transport for our members who don’t have their own transport and to reduce the cost of travel for our members. We have been able to put on more trips such as paddle ability, Supertramp, bowling, inflatanation, crazy golf, Beamish, Kielder, sensory den to name a few. We have been able to organise more days out in school holidays, evenings and residential trips.

Arts and Crafts

Arts and crafts throughout the year, we've experimented with mica powder and the changes it has in paint and in liquid, during October through to December. October Waves bought 130 pumpkins for the waves members to decorate during the session, this is always a huge hit. Making cards and gifts for Valentine’s day. Easter, we decorated styrofoam eggs with various gems, fabrics, paper, feathers, chips etc. We've been making jewellery, such as earrings, bracelets etc which is proving to be a very popular activity. In March we spent £74 on fresh flowers for the children to put into the baskets they made for Mother's day" along with a handmade card. We've been trying new things such as fridge magnets and paper crafts, just to see what the members prefer. I've been asking the members regularly of what they'd like to do on arts and crafts, Messy Play was a request from quite a few people and very much enjoyed. The low melt glue guns are popular, and more children are able to use these, although we do still insist a staff member assist. In each session we always make sure there's plenty of paper and colouring pens just to make sure there's something for an alternative to whatever going on in the session.

Cooking

Waves runs regular cooking sessions, this year we’ve done a range of foods and sweet treats including a variety of different cheesecakes, Halloween cupcakes and some Valentine’s Day biscuit. The members always enjoy the cooking sessions, these help the children try new things while having fun and learning a good life skill.

Sensory and Therapy Room

We opened our sensory and therapy room at waves on the 14th august 2021. This was opened by our patron Ray Spenser MBE, Lee’s family, Leah Denny (member) and the chair of waves Suzanne Jackson. The sensory room had been named after Lee Neo Ternent after his family donated a collection at Lee’s funeral and donated the funds to waves, Lee passed away in 2019 at just 17 years old, a plaque and photo have been placed in the room in memory of Lee. The total cost of the room was about £6500, this was used out of our unrestricted funds that was raised by events and raffles to raise the money. The sensory room is used as a calm, quiet and relaxing environment for the members to feel at ease. Each piece of equipment in the room is designed to stimulate the members. The sensory room is used every Saturday 12/3 and enjoyed by our members of all ages. Our therapy room is used by our therapist Nicola she offers back massages, feet and hand massages, facials, as well as reiki. All treatment is done fully clothed and lasts 10/15 minutes, only nonperfumed massage cream is used. The treatments are carried out either on a massage chair or table. Nicola also offers crystal healing and mindfulness group sessions for our members in a calming relaxing environment and when funds are available, she is able to offer parent and carer sessions.

Tuck Shop

We opened our tuck shop November 2022. This is made affordable for our members with a good variety of sweets and drinks. Some of our children love helping with the running of the tuck shop, which also gives some of our younger members the independence to come and pick what they want to spend the money on. We made a profit of £824.00 this goes in our unrestricted funds and helps with the running of waves buying anything needed and trips for our members to enjoy.

Shop/Selling Page

WAVES has had a successful Selling Page since July 2017 and has run a small shop since 2019 with the help of volunteers. All funds raised from sales go back into WAVES unrestricted funds.

We have built many relationships over the years and have a strong relationship with Bede’s Helping Hands and Bilton Hall Community trust where we are based. We have welcomed opportunities to work alongside Hoodex, where we pass on branded goods that we can not sell for them to be able to do so.

We also take regular stalls at Cheeky Monkeys car boot selling toys, baby and children’s clothes and equipment. Our customers also enjoy 50p sales which are held two or three times a year and our popular container sales when our storage become too full.

Our selling page has grown vastly and currently has 2,800 members and counting. We are also run by 11 volunteers. Four shop staff who cover various days, Home Uploaders and two drivers; one driver delivers stock and collects orders to/from Home Uploaders on a weekly basis, one delivery driver who takes orders to our customers who buy a lot of item or who live too far to travel to us. Everyone is overseen by four shop Leads who are on hand at all times to assist with Home Uploaders and the running of the shop.

Waves Additional Needs Support Group

Trustees Report and Financial Statements For The Year Ended 30 September 2023

Charity No. 1179923

Legal and Administrative Information

Name:

Waves Additional Needs Support Group

Reg'd Charity No: 1179923

Trustees:

Suzanne Helen Jackson Rachel Jane Moreton Helen Louise Wallace Gaynor Elizabeth Tate Leoni Taylor Patricia Campbell Leanne Bagley John Paul Bagley Alison Denny John Stuart Wallace Stephanie Law Charlie Torrence Carrie Tate Jonathan Stephen Sarah Devlin Address: 44 Whiteleas Way South Shields NE43 8LH Bankers: Lloyds Bank Independent Examiner: Mark Thompson MAAT VODA Spirit of North Tyneside Wing 2nd Floor, Wallsend Customer First Centre 16 The Forum Wallsend NE28 8JR

Waves Additional Needs Support Group

Trustees' Annual Report

The organisation registered with the Charity Commission on 13 September 2018, and these financial statements reflect the first twelve months of the registered charity. The organisation is governed by a Management Committee.

Activity during 2022/23

We have had another extremely busy year and saw a big increase in membership. We have a lot of younger members due to expanding families and new families attending. Due to this we have developed new activities including Sensory Play and Toddler time, we also attended the Sensory Den which is for age 6 and under. We now have an area for age 13 and over where they can play pool and darts, this gives our teen members a bit of time to socialise without interruption from our younger members. We also hold monthly meetings for our Young Voices, this is a team of children/ young adults who put forward ideas of how they would like to see WAVES develop, activities they would like to take part in and any bring forward any views they have.

We enjoyed a wide range of trips including visiting Beamish open air museum, Hamsterly Forest, Down at the Farm, Washington Wildfowl Park and Butterfly world. We also attended Override skate park and Bedlam paintballing. As always we took part in Paddleability where our members go out on the river, due to a bigger demand in members wanting to attend we bought life vests for our younger members and 4 new paddle boards.

This year we have worked closely with Cultural Spring designing and making our own costumes as we had been invited to take part in all the South Tyneside parades. We attended the Summer, Winter, and Coastal parade. Our members really enjoy these opportunities and take a lot of pride in representing WAVES.

We held our first ever Auction night which was a huge success. This will now be a yearly event. We celebrated each seasonal event including Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day, and Chinese New Year.

Another successful year for WAVES and we look forward to what the next one brings.

Trustees’ Responsibilities in relation to Financial Statements

Charity Law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which comply with the regulations set out in the Charities Act 1993.

Signed: ………….………...……Chair, on behalf of Trustees

Date February 2024

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT

Notes to the Waves Additional Needs Support Group accounts, 2012

On accounts for 30 September 2023 Charity no 1179923 the year ended Respective The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year responsibilities of (under section 43(2) of the Charities Act 1993 (the Act)) and that an trustees and independent examination is needed. examiner It is my responsibility to  examine the accounts (under section 43 of the Act),  follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 43(7)(b) of the Act), and  state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Basis of My examination was carried out in accordance with General Directions independent given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review examiner’s of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the statement accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audit opinion on the accounts. Independent In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention: examiner's 1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in, any material statement respect, the trustees have not met the requirements to ensure that:  proper accounting records are kept (in accordance with section 41 of the Act); and  accounts are prepared which agree with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Act; or 2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: 27 February 2024 Name: Mark Thompson MAAT Address: VODA Spirit of North Tyneside Wing 2nd Floor, Wallsend Customer First Centre 16 The Forum Wallsend NE28 8JR

Waves Additional Needs Support Group

Statement of Financial Activities

for the year ended 30 September 2023

Receipts
Grants
2
Donations
Selling Page/Waves Shop
Fund Raising Events
Kitchen & Christmas Dinner Takings
Raffles,Lottery,Bingo,Tombola etc
Admission Fees
Adult Activities
Tuck Shop
Total Receipts
Payments
Trips Out
Centre Activities & Games
Sports & Outdoor Equipment
Computer Equipment
Website & Emails
Kitchen & Christmas Dinner Expenses
Repairs & Maintenance
Uniforms
Postage, Stationery & Office Equipment
Bilton Hall Rent & Room Hire
Swimming
Advertising
Parking & Travel Expenses
Minibus Insurance
Minibus Accessories
Insurance
Resource Books
Subscription
South Tyneside Council - Bin
Container
PPE & Cleaning Materials
Accountancy Fee
Miscellaneous Expenses
Workshop
Depreciation
Total Payments
Surplus / deficit for the year
Net Transfer between Funds
Funds at 1 October 2022
Funds at 30 September 2023		 Unrestricted
Restricted
Total
Total
Funds
Funds
Funds
Funds
2023
2023
2023
2022
£
£
46170
46170
23325
5080
5080
2876
8180
8180
7972
2855
2855
1964
398
398
572
2669
2669
1962
5120
5120
2922
33
33
273
824
824
0
25159
46170
71329
41866
292
17510
17802
5182
4015
2873
6888
15634
3633
818
4451
6561
221
221
2767
230
230
379
14
560
574
392
305
305
0
655
655
996
1762
1762
0
8880
8880
8560
832
832
988
296
296
399
427
427
2513
831
831
869
912
912
2869
159
159
162
0
0
67
67
0
0
144
0
0
0
0
370
370
350
116
116
369
0
124
3994
3994
4992
15180
34592
49772
54250
9979
11578
21557
-12384
24996
9871
34867
47251
34975
21449
56424
34867

Waves Additional Needs Support Group Balance Sheet as at 30 September 2023

Fixed Assets
6
Current Assets
Cash at Bank & in Hand
Total Cash Balances
Current Liabilities
Net Current Assets at 30 September 2023
Net Assets at 30 September 2023
Represented By:
Restricted Funds
Unrestricted Funds		 2023
£
15974
40450
40450
0
40450
56424
21449
34975
56424		 2022
£
19968
14899
14899
0
14899
34867
9871
24996
34867

Signed …………….……………………… Position …………………………………..

Date ……………………………………….

Waves Additional Needs Support Group

Notes to the accounts, 2023

1. Basis of accounts

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015) – Charities SORP (FRS 102), the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) and the Companies Act 2006

Waves Additional Needs Support Group meets the definition of a public benefit entity under FRS 102. Assets and liabilities are initially recognised at historical cost or transaction value unless otherwise stated in the relevant accounting policy note(s).

1.1 Fixed Assets are depreciated over a useful lifeline at the following rates: Motor Vehicles 20% reducing balance

2.
Grants Received:
Asda Community
Bernacia Foundation
Children In Need (Project 4)
Community Foundation 2023
Doggerbank
Magic Little Grants 2023
National Lottery 2023
Province Durham
The Toy Fund
TK Access Solution
Total Grants		 2023
800
10,000
10,120
10,000
1,000
500
10,000
1,000
2,500
250
46,170

3. Trustees and Staff

No salaries were paid during the year.

4. Costs of financial services

The cost for the Independent Examination for the financial period will be £370

5. Restricted Funds balance at 30 September 2023

Magic Grants - Wall Climbing
Rothley Trust
Children In Need (Project 2)
Children In Need (Project 3)
Children In Need (Project 4)
Grantham Hospital
Hadrian Trust Kielder 2022
Sir James Knott - Kielder 2022
Barbour Foundation 2022
Asda Community
Bernacia Foundation
Community Foundation 2023
Doggerbank
Magic Little Grants 2023
National Lottery 2023
Province Durham
The Toy Fund
TK Access Solution
Total
6.
Fixed Assets
Cost
As at 1 October 2022
Additions
Disposals
As at 30 September 2023
Depreciation
As at 1 October 2022
Charge for the year
Disposals
As at 30 September 2023
Net Book Value 30 September 2023		 Balance
Income
Expend
Balance
01/10/22
30/09/23
500
500
673
673
176
176
-
72
72
-
250
10,120
9,640
730
200
200
-
1,000
800
200
5,000
5,000
-
2,000
2,000
800
800
10,000
8,029
1,971
10,000
10,000
1,000
1,000
500
240
260
10,000
10,000
-
1000
1000
2500
360
2140
250
75
175
9871
46170
34592
21449
Minibus
31200
31200
11232
3994
15226
15974