2021-03-31-accounts - Worthing Counselling Centre

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WORTHING COUNSELLING CENTRE

Annual Report for the financial year ended 31 March 2021

2020 - 21 ANNUAL REPORT

INTRODUCTION

Last year I began by saying that the year was finishing better than anticipated at one time and that I was very proud of the way that WCC, under the energetic leadership of Emma Castledine, our Head of Clinical Services, has responded to the national situation and is playing its part in facing up to the situation and the need for our services. Twelve months on I can only reinforce those points. It has been a year of major change and challenge, which WCC has met. We have had to counsel remotely and moved our headquarters.

Worthing Counselling Centre (WCC) is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) and as such the Trustees must apply the income of the Charity in furthering the following objectives: Counselling for the relief of people in need, hardship and distress caused by mental or physical ill health or by social or economic circumstances, by establishing, maintaining and developing a service for the provision of counselling and practical advice. This we have done. In spite of the pandemic, WCC carried out 2093 counselling sessions, not quite as many as last year but more than in any of the five years before that. This is a magnificent achievement. An example of WCC providing practical advice was the training which Emma gave to the management team of West Sussex Mind, and Annette Quinn’s reflexive practice sessions for Guild Care staff at a difficult time for the organisation.

STRATEGIC PLANNING

Strategic planning in a pandemic is testing, but Worthing Counselling Centre has passed the test with flying colours. The trustees and the management team have been proactive.

From the start, counsellors and clients have been very well supported so that work could continue. Emma with Annette set up training and gave clear guidance around remote counselling whether on Zoom or telephone. It has borne fruit and we able to maintain a high level of activity. It is clear that e-counselling and telephone counselling will remain part of our offering once face to face counselling can return.
Right from the beginning of lockdown WCC worked with the CEO of West Sussex Mind and with Guild Care. We have been aware for the last two years that increasing the amount of contract work was vital for WCC financially. The lion’s share of the big increase in our contract work this year has come from West Sussex Mind.
Probably the biggest strategic decision was to move our headquarters. The counselling service was founded in 1983 by the then Minister at Offington Park Methodist Church (OPMC), Rev Clifford Johnson, and Ian Wiseman, our first Director and we operated there for 37 years. We are conscious of, and grateful for, our past. However the pandemic has meant that access to the office we share with the church became so restricted that we decided we had to look for alternative premises. We examined various alternatives, and thanks to the initiative of Corrine Samaras (trustee), we began negotiations with Field Place, moving there in September - initially for three months. This worked well. South Downs Leisure (SDL), which runs Field Place, uses WCC for their Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) and we are good fit with their wellbeing programme. The SDL manager, has been extremely helpful and welcoming. The size of the rooms and opening hours were an advantage and the presence of a Duty Manager meant that it was a much safer environment for counsellors than OPMC. The site was well suited for walk and talk and had extensive, well-lit car parking. It is a big change but

it is good to have sole use of an office and a very therapeutic environment when we are able to start face to face counselling again. We do not need as many counselling rooms now and have other options if we require more capacity.

The two extremely generous donations from Chris Boulter were vital and gave us confidence that we could meet the financial challenges posed by the pandemic. Chris’s preference, as previously, is that his money is used to provide frontline counselling to those of limited financial means and/or other hardship but he recognised however that there could be pressures at the operational level. We are very grateful for his generosity and foresight.
The number of senior counsellors has fallen over the past two or three years, for a variety of reasons, nearly all unconnected with WCC. While we have recruited more student counsellors during the year, this has meant that we have had fewer counsellors able to take on more complex cases. By the end of the year 2 students had qualified as senior counsellors, and we have called on our associate counsellors which has helped. We have had to be strict on the minimum number of clients counsellors see if they are to justify a supervision group place. This has been enshrined in new counsellor contracts. The counsellors have accepted this and aided by the hard work of our Administrator, Sarah Poulton, and Emma, the waiting list has been reduced. From the beginning of the pandemic Emma has ensured that the sense of community has been maintained by regular meet ups for counsellors, deliberately scheduled at different times to allow maximum access and we held a very successful virtual Christmas party.
In February and March, the Trustees with Emma made a thorough re-examination of our business plan in the light of the pandemic. The most important developments were the recasting of our vision, mission and values and a close look at our objectives and priorities for 2021-22. These appear as appendix 3.

PEOPLE

The fact that WCC carried out nearly as many counselling sessions as last year is a tribute both to our counsellors and to our management team. Emma and Sarah have achieved wonders in very difficult circumstances with so little office access. Terry Atkinson, our Systems Coordinator and the third member of the management team, has made sure that new counsellors and student counsellors are inducted thoroughly. Terry has revised our safeguarding policy and with help from Emma and Corrine spent a lot of time revising counsellor contracts. This has been completed with full consultation with the counsellors. Annette acts as Emma’s deputy if she is away at all and has been a great support in our measurers to adjust to COVID-19 and putting together training materials.

The trustees have been particularly active this year. We have had more meetings, 7 instead of our usual 4 and 6 of these on Zoom. In spite of the fact that we have not met new colleagues in person, the trustees have worked together more effectively than ever before. We have been strengthened by 3 new members. Joseph Saville joined us in July and his local government and finance background has proved useful. Louise Welcome who joined us in July played an important role in our successful bid to Worthing Community Chest. Revisiting the business plan was important and we identified the need to work on digital transformation and our social media presence. We invited Paula Spencer-Snell to join us and take the lead in this area. We are delighted that she has accepted. Helen Knox, the secretary to the Trustees, has stood down. Helen was an extremely efficient minute taker and we are grateful for her 7 years service and her work in maintaining communications with GP surgeries.

Right across the organisation we came together to work out what would be required for the return to face to face counselling. A thorough plan is in place and a risk assessment has been carried out. We have worked closely with Field Place on this.

WCC has lost some experienced counsellors over the year. Some have made contributions which have gone well beyond counselling alone, and we are grateful to them. Cathy Servante has stepped down as an associate counsellor. She has been a great help in ensuring that, at a time when we have been under pressure, we have been able to fulfil contracts. Melanie Green has joined us in this role, and it is a great help to have an experienced counsellor available when we are faced with more complex cases. We shall miss all the counsellors who have left.

ESTABLISHING RELATIONSHIPS WITH STAKEHOLDERS AND POTENTIAL PARTNERS

Nationally

As well as our membership of BACP, WCC is a founder member of The National Counselling Network (NCN). Emma and I have attended the regular Zoom meetings which allow all centres in the network to exchange ideas and good practice on coping with the COVID-19 crisis. It is reassuring that all are facing the same challenges and have similar experiences.

Locally

Our most important local relationships are with South Downs Leisure (SDL) and West Sussex Mind. SDL are not just our new landlords but they use us for their Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). Emma ran a very well received Work Place Champions session with them. We are excited that our relationship with West Sussex Mind is developing strongly and anticipate it becoming a partnership in 2021.

As mentioned earlier we have also worked closely with Guild Care. Guild Care is a major Worthing charity providing over 30 community services to support older people and children and adults with learning disabilities. We also have contracts with CSM and Compass Travel (Sussex).

Some connections have had to be placed on hold - like our fruitful partnership with Blueprint 22, an organisation for, and run by, young people aged 16-25 - as they have been unable to continue through the pandemic. The Broadwater Carnival and Fire Station Open Day, a major event locally, which has proved a good fundraising opportunity, was cancelled in 2020 and will not take place in 2021 either.

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Thanks to the Mind contract we finished the year strongly. The operating deficit (excluding donations and grants) of £3,328 was considerably less than looked likely at one stage. The big increase in contract work (see appendix 2 ) has been crucial. It allows us to offer financially supported counselling and we have done so. If the number of sessions of supported counselling and bursary sessions are added together, the amount of supported counselling is actually higher than for the 3 years before 2019-20. Full fee sessions however have fallen very sharply indeed and underlines the importance of contract work for the future.

As mentioned earlier, the two extremely generous donations from Chris Boulter were vital and gave us confidence that we could meet the financial challenges posed by the pandemic

We made a successful bid to the West Sussex County Council Micro fund for equipment to prepare for face to face counselling and were awarded in full the £750. We are very grateful to Elizabeth Sparkes, our local county councillor, for her support. Another successful bid was for £1500 to Worthing Community Chest for youth counselling training, granted at the end of March. WCC will be featured in their 20[th] anniversary celebrations in 2021.

At the end of the financial year our total funds stood at £68,058 evenly split between restricted and unrestricted funds.

TRAINING

The year began with training for all counsellors in remote counselling, devised by Emma and Annette. There was also group and individual support from the supervisors. The Mind contract meant that we were now working with 16 -18 year-olds and further training was needed for those involved. As this is becoming an increasing part of our work, Emma and Annette have developed a top-up course on Young People’s counselling, which they hope to get BACP accredited. This will be funded by the successful Worthing Community Chest bid. The course will take place in June and consist of 20 hours on a Saturdays and two Sundays. All WCC counsellors may access the training.

As proposed in the business plan, Julia Foster (trustee) and Emma had a full discussion on training. The main focus would be on in-house provision as the pandemic has seen a growth in provision of on-line CPD and we have a close and effective provider in Brighton Therapy Centre.

Emma has begun EMDR Trauma training. Marjorie Dale is qualified in this area but it is valuable to have more expertise in the team.

PLANS FOR THE NEXT FINANCIAL YEAR

The year will still be dominated by COVID-19 and its impact on society. However, WCC is in very positive mood we look forward to returning to face-to-face counselling and making the most of our new surroundings. We look forward to developing partnerships and our objectives and priorities are set out in our updated business plan (see Appendix 3) and are in train already.

CLOSING REMARKS

I look forward to presenting this report at a real rather than virtual AGM. Under Emma’s leadership WCC has faced up to and coped with the unprecedented crisis very well. An enormous amount has been accomplished. I am very grateful for all the work and commitment of our counsellors, supervisors, management team and my fellow trustees. We may have changed our headquarters but it is the people who make WCC the fine counselling service that it is.

Chris Corin

Chair of Trustees

Appendix 1 Details of the Service

Headquarters Worthing Counselling Centre Field Place Manor House, The Boulevard, Worthing BN13 1NP

Contact Details Telephone: 01903 212275 and 07565 546604 E-mail: info@worthingcounsellingcentre.org Website: www.worthingcounsellingcentre.org

Board of Trustees Chris Corin (Chair) Trustee since 1985 (Chair since 1995) Jack Delbridge 2015 Julia Foster 2013 Christine Ryder 2017 Treasurer from June 2017 Corrine Samaras 2018 Joseph Saville 2020 Louise Welcome 2020

Management Team Emma Castledine 2018 Head of Clinical Services Sarah Poulton 2018 Administrator Terry Atkinson 1995 Systems Coordinator

Independent Examiner David Barnes 2 Gorse Avenue Worthing BN14 9PG

Bankers Santander 37 Chapel Road Worthing BN11

Charity Registration Number 1181141

Appendix 2 Counselling sessions provided by WCC 1 April 2020 - 31 March 2021

A Statistical summary

1.1 20-21 19-20 18 - 19 17 -18 16-17 Initial Consultation Sessions (Assessment) Number of Initial Consultations held 123 90 65 67 55 1.2 Supported Counselling Total number of sessions 1,147 1,791 1261 1271 1208 1.3 Bursary clients Total number of sessions 187 1.4 Full paying Clients (before 2020 Fast access clients) Total number of sessions 113 406 690 655 519 1.5 Contract or Employer Funded Total number of sessions 523 88 64 27 48 1.6 Total number of counselling sessions during the year 2093 2375 2080 2033 1898

Notes

Contract sessions have gone up exponentially thanks to the Mind contract.
Before 2020 Fast Access clients did not have a separate Initial Consultation, it was their first session.
The bursary fund was established in October 2017 but until this year sessions for clients accessing it have been included in supported counselling figures. If the same thing was done for 2020-21 the number of sessions of supported counselling is actually higher than for the 3 years before 2019 -20.

Appendix 3 Key elements of our business plan revised March 2021

Our vision

Our vision is to be a well-recognised point of access to support the emotional and mental wellbeing of those who need it in the Worthing area through providing an excellent counselling service with allied support.

We will provide services to as wide a group as possible through our caring and compassionate ethos, regardless of ability to pay.

We will maintain a committed, dedicated and well- trained team with a strong sense of community and identity.

We will continue to maintain and build partnerships wherever they help to improve our service.

Our mission

Our mission is to support people in Worthing and the surrounding areas by enabling them to make the changes in their lives and relationships, which will improve their wellbeing.

This will include improved family and working relationships, improved overall health, better performance at work, decreased sickness absence and greater community cohesion. Outcomes depend on the individual concerned - we will work with people to enable them to make the changes they need within their individual circumstances.

Our values

Competence - through our qualifications and training, the wide range of our counsellors’ skills, our supervision programme and our understanding of the local area and issues, we will continue to look for ways of improving our service.

Ethics and safety – we are BACP accredited and work within the Ethical Framework for the Counselling Professions, we adhere to high standards of care, confidentiality & safeguarding. Our work with clients is reviewed through regular, consistent supervision.

Compassion - we care about our clients and the community and want to make a difference. We remain environmentally aware and take account of this in all our actions.

Community - our commitment comes from working with others who share the same values of wanting to make a difference.

We take people as they are - regardless of income, age, ability, ethnicity, beliefs, sexuality, gender. As far as possible, we do not impose time limits on counselling, preferring to work at the client’s pace.

Objectives & priorities this year

Prepare a road map for a return to face to face counselling at Field Place and other possible venues.
Recruit a new supervisor, ideally with responsibility for training.
Recruit more counsellors within financial limitations and client need. Calculate the number of paid counsellors and supervision groups we can afford.
Fine tune staff contracts throughout the organisation.
Work on team roles, responsibilities and job descriptions to enable collaborative working.
Set up a working party on training to develop a robust CPD e.g. regular IC training to enable recruitment of more IC counsellors.
Develop online training for mandatory training.
Explore and develop training as a source of income making the most of our new venue.
Networking to develop longer-term partnership relationships e.g.
Building partnership with Mind which the Head of Clinical Services is developing, and with SDL’s well-being community hub. Such partnerships, and the funding which contracts bring in, are vital to allow us to continue to provide supported counselling.
Strengthening links with Brighton and Chichester Universities, important for providing student counsellors. Investigate further links with Chichester University Marketing course.
Work, ideally with Paula Spencer-Snell, on digital transformation and our social media presence.
Develop opportunities for counsellors e.g. Young people’s counselling and relationship counselling.
Consider the re-introduction of Fast Track to help pay for supported counselling.
Funding proposals
a. To identify appropriate national / regional / local funders. Louise Welcome (one of the Trustees) will take the lead here.

OFFINGTON COUNSELLING SERVICE trading as WORTHING COUNSELLING CENTRE Charity no 1181141

CENTRE Charity no 1181141	CENTRE Charity no 1181141	CENTRE Charity no 1181141	CENTRE Charity no 1181141
2020/21 2020/21 2020/21 Unrestricted Funds Restricted Funds Total Counselling Income Client Fees 38,618 38,618 Contract 23,523 23,523 Initial Consultations 62,141 62,141 Statement of Financial Activities for the year ending 31 March 2021				2019/20

Counselling Income
Client Fees Contract Initial Consultations
					56,067
					4,038
					2,805
					62,910
Other Income
Training Interest Student Supervision Receipts DBS Grant Income Grant Income to match expenditure Misc Recs/Donations Gift Aid	1,800 72 1,000 370 20 5 3,267	750 20,000 20,750	1,800 72 1,000 370 750 20,020 5 24,016

					650
					223
					380
					296
					10,900
					3,148
					425
					16,022

Expenditure
All Counselling Costs Contract Counsellors Initial Consultation Supervisors Annual Leave Training salary Associate Counsellor All Payments to Counsellors Management Costs Head of Clinical Services Systems Co-ordinator Administration Grant expenditure for admin Pension Costs Total Management Expenditure Bank Charges Broadband Covid DBS Safety Checks Grant Expenditure Head of Clinical Services Supervision Insurances Marketing &Publicity Costs Misc/Audit/Leaving Gifts/Travel New office expediture Payroll Photocopying, Printing & Stationery Postage Rental of Premises Subscriptions Telephone Training Costs Website Total of Operating Expenses TOTAL EXPENDITURE Surplus/Deficit (-)	1,670 5,442 330 9,637 884 1,080 4,990 24,033 22,921 2,748 8,510 881 35,060 69 274 158 374 825 1,429 318 177 458 702 49 2,009 374 534 1,382 511 9,643 68,736 -3,328		1,670 5,442 330 9,637 884 1,080 4,990 24,033 23,880 2,748 8,852 881 36,360 69 274 158 374 97 825 1,429 318 177 458 702 2,009 374 534 1,382 511 9,691 70,085 16,025

					1,477
					15,860
					1,698
					10,212
					2,480

					1,400
					33,127


					18,600
					0
					2,431
					6,742
					1,791
					705
					30,269


					0
					400
					25
					274
					462
					4,252
					1,429
					356
					440
					549
					584
					72
					6,836
					369
					892
					150
					333
					17,423

					80,819

					-1,887

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Balance b/f SOFA Transfers Balance c/f	33,213 -3,328 3,328 33,213	17,768 50,981 19,353 16,025 -3,328 33,792 67,005

Notes

Notes 1 - Grants received in 2020/21

The charity received £749.63 from West Sussex County Council for additional costs relating to future face to face counselling

Note 2 - related parties

There were no trustee of other related part transactions or remuneration payments in 2020/21

Balance Sheet as at 31 Mar 2021

Current Assets Cash at Bank Debtor Liabilities Other Creditor Rent Creditor Manual deposits Total Assets Less Liabilities The Funds of the Charity Restricted Funds:- Unrestricted Funds:-		2020/21 64,372 5,949 -2,124 -1,052 -140 67,004 33,791 33,213 67,004	2019/20
			50,761 1,979 -1,069 -552 -140
			50,979
			17,767 33,212
			50,979

Reconciliation of The Funds of the Charity *Restricted Funds:-* Chris Boulter Fund Bursary Grants with specific allocation Library Danielle Henderson - Family Bereavement Ian Wiseman Fund - Training *Restricted Funds - Total* *Unrestricted Funds:-* General *Unrestricted Funds - Total* *Total Funds*
	2019/20 b/f Income	Expenditure 20/21
	7,050 20,000 -3,328 23,722 4,170 4,170 4,359 750 -1,397 3,712 96 96 908 908 1,184 1,184
	17,768 20,750 -4,725 33,791 33,213 3,328 -3,328 33,213
	33,213 3,328 -3,328 33,213 50,981 24,078 -8,053 67,004

Signed By

Chairperson

Treasurer

Examined By

Date

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