## **ANNUAL REPORT AND STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS** **KEYNSHAM AND SALTFORD DEMENTIA ACTION ALLIANCE FOR THE YEAR ENDING DECEMBER 31[ST] 2023** Registered Charity Number 1181589 ## **KEYNSHAM & SALTFORD DEMENTIA ACTION ALLIANCE** ## **Annual Trustee’s Report for 2023** ## **Chair’s Foreword** 2023 was a real return to to the great work that the charity provides Keynsham and Saltford. From fully re-establishing Music for the Mind and increasing popularity, such that we have had to consider additional sessions and ways to support increased attendance. There have also been some great new trips that attendees have really valued. Myself and the charity are so grateful for the hard work of the volunteers who offer their time on a regular basis to help ensure we can run. I also wish to recognise those on the management committee without whom we could not organise and work with the local community, run new events and ensure the great impact we are having locally. I look forward to an exciting new year with some plans to increase funding and continue with the additional events. It will be fantastic if further trustees and volunteers can be sought to keep us moving forward. We are very lucky to have those that are so passionate about dementia and improving their lives in the community. ## **Background** The Keynsham & Saltford Dementia Action Alliance (K&SDAA) was established in December 2016 with a view to making Keynsham and Saltford more dementia friendly. The term “dementia” describes a set of symptoms that may include memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem solving or language. The DAA: - Covers and serves the needs of those living with dementia predominantly living in Keynsham and Saltford and surrounding area. - In January 2019 we became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. - The Keynsham & Saltford DAA does not employ any paid staff. All those involved are volunteers. However, it does engage a paid professional to facilitate our ‘Music for the Mind’ sessions. We use Keynsham Dial-a-Ride to bring dementia residents from local care homes to our sessions and also for any day trips that we arrange. - Music for the Mind sessions are held twice monthly on the second and fourth Thursday mornings of the month. The format is a social conversational half an hour over tea and coffee, cakes and biscuits and then an hour of singing, including light seated exercises. Attendance to these sessions has always been free of charge and this will continue. We stipulate that each person living with dementia who attends a session must be accompanied by a carer. - Before the first Covid lockdown in March 2020 we were probably averaging about 15 people living with dementia at each session plus their carers and our volunteers. We didn’t run any sessions between March 2020 and October 2021 and then ran limited sessions until February 2022 and have continued since then. We lost a lot of our regular attendees during the Covid pandemic but numbers recovered significantly during the year. ## **A Summary of 2023** - The year 2023 was significant because it was the first year since 2019 that we got right through the year without any cancellations. We only do a Christmas special in December so during the year we did 23 Music for the Mind sessions. Lindy Platt lead most of them and when she wasn’t available Mike Knight manfully stepped in to bridge the gap. The average number of attendees including those living with dementia, their carers and volunteers probably averaged over 50 and on a couple of occasions there were over 60 in the hall. Over the years we’ve had dementia residents from 6 local care homes but their attendance varies due to transport and care staff issues. St Phillips & St James care home are the most frequent attendees sometimes numbering up to ten residents. - With so much practice the singing of the group seems to be getting better and better. This is down to Lindy’s hard work but the other important person is June Brassington who has accompanied Lindy from the start and has missed very few sessions. We might not always be singing the notes that June plays but generally we’re not far off. - An innovation we brought in a while ago was the game of boccia. Boccia is similar to bowls and is played indoors while sitting down. It is a Paralympic sport and is suitable for all ages and capabilities. It has become increasingly popular so it was scheduled during 2023 and was played when there was a 5[th] Thursday in the month. This occurred 4 times in 2023. - Judith Lynn has done a fantastic job in the kitchen supplying and serving all the biscuits, cake and refreshments for everyone. She has been with us from the start and has only missed a handful of sessions. She has had excellent support from Jayne Leaves, her deputy, and from Jenny Woodham and Liz Edwards has filled in expertly when Judith and Jane have been absent. - As well as her work on the accordion June looks after our volunteers and organises the rota. Some of this work has now been taken over by Trish Wilson. - Merrial Knight, our secretary has done an excellent job keeping all our client’s information up to date and advising them with what is going on with a twice monthly e-mail. By the end of the year Merrial was liaising with almost 100 couples plus 3 care homes and our volunteers. We have now also formed links with several relevant organisations including Bristol DAA with Tony Hall, the Carer’s Centre in Bath, The RICE clinic in the RUH in Bath, LiveWell, Age UK, Alzheimer’s Society, Keynsham Town Council and the Saltford Community Association, the University of West of England and the local doctor’s practices. We aim to continue these links particularly with our local doctor’s surgeries. Relevant information is passed on to our clients. - We organised some excursions during the year. In February we took some of our regulars on a day out to Bradford-on Avon on the train and in March we had a similar day out to Bath. Both journeys were arranged by a lady who worked for the Severnside Community Foundation and paid for by British Rail. The aim was to show how adaptable train journeys could be for disadvantaged people. In April we took 32 on a steam train on the Avon Valley Railway. The weather was awful but it didn’t stop us having a great time. We had a return trip and then retired to a posh static railway carriage for a cream tea. In October we organised two trips to Oakham Treasures using Keynsham Dial-aRide to get us all there and back. Oakham Treasures is full of all kinds of old relics from the past which brought back wonderful memories for everybody. We had a drink first before looking round and then met up for lunch before returning home. The final outing for the year was to Cadbury’s Garden Centre in November. This is when they have all their Christmas decorations set up so a fun time was had by all. We all met up for lunch and had time for a bit of Christmas shopping before returning home. As usual there was a good old fashioned singsong on the way. ## **Trustees** We still have the same 4 trustees, Tim Blowers. who is the Chair, Liz Edwards, Judith Lynn and Mike Knight. Despite advertising for new trustees we are yet to receive any expressions of interest. We will continue the search to find at least two more preferably from outside the group to provide more experience and variety. The trustees meet about every 4 months. ## **Management Team** At the beginning of the year we had 8 on the management team with June Brassington as Lead, Merrial Knight as Secretary and Mike Knight as Treasurer. The other management team members were Liz Edwards, Sue Stevens, Tim Blowers, Jayne Leaves, and Trish Wilson. Meetings are generally held about every 2 months. Christine Hall has now joined the committee. ## **Financial Situation** The DAA is financially stable although in 2023 expenditure exceeded income by just over £2.000 but we still had £11,471.97 in the bank at the end of the year . Income for the year was £3,377 mainly coming from 2 grants from Keynsham Town Council and Waitrose totalling £1668 and 5 donations from local organisations totalling £1202. These included the Keynsham Good Afternoon Choir, the Saltford Hall Sunday Afternoon Tea Group, St Monica’s Trust and B&NES Council councillors fund. The trustees have recently set an income target of £5000 for the 2024 income. Expenditure for the year was £5,476.37 which was higher than usual. However, £750 was carried over from 2022 because a cheque to that amount to St Dunstan’s for hall hire was not cashed in before our year end. Usually our annual expenditure is between £4,000-£5,000. Almost 80% of our costs are associated with running Music for the Mind. That includes hall hire, Lindy’s costs and Dial-a-Ride. The extra costs were due to public liability insurance, excursions, stationery and a new cupboard for storage of books and instruments at St Dunstans. ## **Volunteers** We have a wonderful group of between 15-20 volunteers who are mainly involved with ensuring that the Music for the Mind sessions run smoothly. They do a wonderful job preparing the tables in the hall, meeting and greeting our friends in the car park and helping to get any wheelchair users into the building. Then inside the building everybody needs to be registered and provided with drinks and food before we can start the singing. And then everything has to be cleared away and the hall left in a tidy state. A small number of volunteers have not returned after Covid but others have joined during the year. ## **Going Forward** This was first year since 2020 that our charity was not seriously affected by Covid. We didn’t have to cancel any of our Music for the Mind sessions. We also managed to run 4 sessions of boccia when we had a 5[th] Thursday in the month and ran had several outings during the year. We will be looking to continue these activities throughout 2024. We haven’t seen so much of the care homes this year. The main problems are lack of transport and a shortage of care staff which is a shame because they all enjoy it when they can join us. St Phillips and St James are still regular visitors but Dial-aRide have had problems with the reliability of some of their vehicles. they have had problems with transport and a lack of care staff. Sadly we haven’t been able to do any Dementia Friends talks because the Alzheimer’s Society replaced Dementia Champions with Dementia Ambassadors and none of our Champions wanted to take it on. Tony Hall from the Bristol DAA has offered to help with this if necessary. We are still trying to find new trustees and we still need a liaison officer to link up with local businesses and organisations as our aim is still to make Keynsham and Saltford more dementia friendly. Mike Knight Treasurer and Trustee Keynsham and Saltford Dementia Action Alliance July 2024 ## **KEYNSHAM & SALTFORD DEMENTIA ACTION ALLIANCE** **Balance Sheet for period 1st January 2023 to 31 st December 2023** ## **Balance in bank on 1/1/23 £13571.67** |**Income**
Money received from grants (2) £1668.00
Donations from organisations (4) £1202.00
Donations in memorium (1) £300.00
Donations from direct debits (1) £72.00
Collection tins
£135.00
|**Expenditure**
Music for the Mind£3853.76
Public liability insurance £187.25
Excursions (6) £585.90
Cupboard for storage £182.25
Stationary £227.21
Dial-a-Ride £440.00| |---|---| **TOTAL INCOME £3377.00 TOTAL EXPENDITURE £5476.37** INCOME MINUS EXPENDITURE -£2099.37 PLUS THE BALANCE ON 31/12/2022 £13571.67 **BALANCE IN BANK ON 31/12/2023 £11472.30**