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2022-09-30-accounts

Annual Report and Accounts

for the year ended 30th September 2022

TABLE

OF

CONTENTS

1 Reference & Administration information

2 Mission Statement 3 - 20 Trustees Annual Report 21 Structure, Governance and Management 22 - 23 Independent Examiners Statement 24 Financial Report 26 Trustee Declaration

Trustees’ Annual Report

Elayos is the legal name of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) granted charitable status on 23/09/2019

Charity Number: 1185455

Charity’s Principle Address: Elayos ℅ Southfields Farm, Packington Lane, Coleshill, Warwickshire, B46 3EJ

Trustees : Trustees who served during this period and up to the date of this report were as follows:

John Andrew Hart - Chair (Sept 2019 - current) Larraine Harper (Sept 2019 - June 2023) Rachel Hughes (Sept 2019 - June 2023) Emily Cooke (Sept 2019 - June 2023) Maggie Coleman (Dec 2020 - current) Abigail Vedder (Dec 2020 - current)

Financial Advisor:

Frank Harper 29 Meriden Rd Hampton in Arden B92 0BS

Bank:

Barclays Bank Plc, 38 Hagley Rd, Birmingham B16 8PE

Year ended 30th September 2022

1

Elayos Mission Statement

Elayos exists to bring compassion, support and advocacy to vulnerable and isolated birthing people in Birmingham. As doulas, we come alongside, build relationships, listen and equip with the information needed to empower our clients to have a positive and informed pregnancy, birth and postnatal period.

Our staff and volunteers offer continuity of care as we assist with emotional, practical and physical needs. Where appropriate, we signpost and collaborate with other organisations to ensure that the greatest range of support is given.

2

Aims

Objectives

Our qualified doulas & trained volunteers provide continuity of care by offering a wide range of one to one support to our service users who are referred to us by NHS professionals, support workers, charities and others that work with displaced families.

We work to relieve the needs of women in particular, but not exclusively, vulnerable and/or isolated women by the provision of one to one support, advocacy, distributing essential equipment for mum and baby, providing unbiased information, referrals to partner organisations and other relevant activities as is decided by the trustees.

3

Practical Objectives

Elayos currently employs 3 doulas and another 1 is funded from overseas. Unfortunately working with volunteers reduced significantly post-Covid as per restrictions in hospitals and other spaces.

4

Activities

Giving Unbiased Information: from the point of referral we arrange to meet and support you in preparing for the birth of your baby. From writing down birth preferences to going through the physiological changes that will occur in the body. Pain management, touch preferences, movement during birth etc

Practical / physical support: accompanying to antenatal scans and appointments, advocating in the room, often translating from English into the beneficiaries’ first language. Many times picking the client up, driving them to an important medical appointment that they would otherwise miss because they can’t afford to get their themselves.

Advocacy: Attending meetings held by Social Services as advocate support: as an impartial party we are in the unique position to be able to advocate for our clients during Child Protection meetings and Child In Need Meetings

Translation: Translation was needed for 15 beneficiaries and we were able to provide that. This presents in a variety of forms - either having someone with us in person who can translate, using google translate on our phones, having someone on the phone to translate during labour & delivery and/or having key leaflets translated.

Providing essential items : The majority of our clients do not have access to Public Funds and they cannot afford the essential items that they need. Therefore, we find out what items the client needs for their hospital bag, for the baby and for the postnatal period.

(Including: maternity items, hospital bag, nappies, bottles, bottle steriliser, formula, baby clothes, Moses basket, car seat, prams) We are able to provide these items free of charge from our self stocked baby bank storage unit. This is managed by a Super Volunteer Amy, who takes note of stock levels, arranges drop offs and pick ups from the general public who so generously respond when we ask for certain items and Amy also puts together complete packages providing items from newborn up to 9-12months.

Physical/practical support during labour and delivery: From the 38th week of pregnancy our doulas are “On-Call” to be ready to join the mum in hospital when she goes into labour.

5

They will remain with mum until she is moved to the Postnatal ward or until feeding has been established.

Acting as birth advocates for the mother to ensure that she achieves the birth she desires.

Working in tandem alongside the midwives. Often providing interpretation services to the many women who don’t speak English.

Breastfeeding Support : As trained Breastfeeding Peers our doulas are able to assist with latch issues, demonstrating different positions & offering suggestions to support with feeding

Postnatal practical support (usually the mother is living alone):

Regular visits to check on well being of mum and baby

Hold baby whilst mum has a drink / food

Take mum to go and register the birth

Sort out HMRC forms now that circumstances have changed

Signposting to other relevant organisations

Achievements and Performance

6

This was Elayos’ first full year post-lockdown and it felt as though things had changed significantly. During the period of this report we did support less women than in 20/21. That is because one of our doulas was on maternity leave until January and we had to stop taking referrals several times during this period because we had more clients than we we had doulas.

As with the previous year, we saw an increase in the following issues which were exacerbated by the pandemic, as demonstarted in the following reasons being given for referrals:

Dealing with the fallout of the pandemic played a large role in our life as a charity this past year as well. With the NHS Trusts still dictating that only one person should attend the delivery suite with the birthing person ( to lessen the spread of the virus), we realised that we had to further narrow our referral criteria. This was to ensure that we were fulfilling our role as a doula charity, not just a baby bank charity that provided clients with items.

We continued with the implementation of tight safety restrictions for our employees and volunteers - in terms of mask wearing, social distancing and taking regular Antigen tests prior to visiting clients.

From October 2021 - 30 September 2022 we received 49 referrals in total

7

Who Are Elayos’ Benefciaries?

We can compare this to last year’s report that showed that are beneficiaries were: Asian Pakistani - 25%

White British - 25% Black African - 19%

We can conclude that the highest level of need for doula support remains with Asian Pakistani, White British and Black African women in Birmingham.

’ What were the main real-life issues facing Elayos Benefciaries / What specifc support did they need from Elayos?

8

In comparison to last year the need for baby bank packages decreased along with safeguarding concerns and translation services. However the number of

9

beneficiaries that are classed as homeless increased, as did the number of those that we were required to be On-Call for.

Where do our referrals come from/What are the occupations of those that refer to Elayos?

10

Once again the figures show that the NHS is the professional body that refers to us the most. With the number of referring Specialist Midwives and Community Midwives increasing on last years’ number.

Which Birmingham hospitals are our Service Users booked in to?

11

In keeping with last year’s numbers we received the largest number of our referrals for women living within the ward of UHB Heartlands. This correlates with the statistic that the East of Birmingham has the highest level of poverty in comparison to the rest of the city.

Other achievements

12

In September 2021, as a result of the large number of refugees fleeing their country, after it was handed back to the Taliban, we were asked by the Refugee and Homeless Midwife at UHB Heartlands Hospital to be “On-Call” as Birth Doulas for any Afghani refugees that may be new to the area

Christmas 2021 we set up an appeal so that we could gift each of our beneficiaries with a £20 One4all voucher that they could use in a variety of shops and restaurants.

Also at Christmas we were invited to team up with Keystone Foundation, a West Midlands charity with the aim to “empower families to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness”. They provided Christmas presents for each of the children of the families that we work with https://www.keystonefoundation.org.uk/

We welcomed Co-Founder and Co-Director Amelia back from maternity leave in January 2022

We were given the incredible opportunity to talk about the work of Elayos at The Blue Coat School in Birmingham (https://www.thebluecoatschool.com/) The Orchard Women Conference (https://theorchardwomen.com/about)

We had a website refresh in May with new team photos being taken of each of us

Funding

13

We received funding from the Aviva Community Fund - their new key area of funding was ‘Build Back Better’ - to actively help society to bounce back from the Covid 19 pandemic by addressing the health & wellbeing and economic impacts on communities and individuals.

Once again, we received funding from the Arnold Clark Community Fund.

We received funding from the Peddimore Community Fund .

We received funding from the CoOp Community Fund .

We launched the Elayos 500 Club - an initiative to encourage 500 people to donate £10 per month to Elayos

14

JOIN THE ELA YOS500 CLUB JOIN THE ELAYOS500 CLUB we need 500 people to support Elayos. by giving just £10 per month 8nio oossoAv73 3HI NIOC 8nio oossoAv73 3HI NIO 15

Training

We attended various training events throughout this period namely:

Maternity Voice Partnership:

BUMP

Safeguarding CoOrdinator and Designated leads training

Midlands Maternity Festival

16

Elayos held four Trustees Meetings between October ’21 - September ’22. We met virtually via Google Meet.

17

A benefciary testimonial

"My story is that I am from Albania, I fell in love with someone who I thought would look after me but he ended up being a dangerous man who beat me, threatened my family and passed me around to his friends. I was used by many violent men and I was moved from city to city. I ended up in the back of a lorry and when they stopped at a petrol station they left the door open and I escaped. Somehow I had ended up in London. After being taken to a police station, the Home Office moved me to a house in Birmingham. I didn't know that I was pregnant at that time. When I was 6 months pregnant with my son, my Community Midwife asked if she could refer me to a charity that supported pregnant women like me. This is when I met my doula, she arranged to meet me at my home and she bought me some food and we got to know each other over the next few weeks. She told me that she could come with me to the hospital when I had my baby, she bought all of the items that I needed for my hospital stay and for the baby. I was scared about people touching me when I was in labour but my doula showed me that I had choices and could say what I wanted, she called it my "Birth Preferences". It was a great relief to me to have someone come alongside me at this time. Knowing that I had someone to call when it came time to have my baby boy was a relief to me. My doula stayed with me all through my labour right up until they took me to the postnatal ward. I ended up having a c/section and I was so exhausted I just wanted to sleep but my doula stayed and held my baby boy whilst I rested. My doula has come to see me at home since I had my baby and we are going to go to a group in the church over the road so that I can make new friends. I am so grateful to the charity for all that they do and I didn't know that people could be that kind."

AB

18

A testimonial from 2 of our referrers

“Elayos is a fantastic service that support some of our most vulnerable women, their services have such a positive impact on the women who access it and they feel well supported by the service . Elayos go above and beyond to support vulnerable women with an individualised support plan depending on their needs. The amount of women who would benefit from Elayos's services has increased and i believe they are an invaluable to support our most vulnerable patients during their pregnancies and postnatally.”

Hannah Williams - Specialist Midwife

“I work for Anawim a Women’s centre whose clients are vulnerable women. I’m so grateful Elayos exists as a service, as I’m able to refer women (who may be completely isolated and suffering from trauma) and know they will have support through a particularly important time in their lives. Working together we can look holistically at the needs of women and aim to reduce some of the harm they might have experienced otherwise.”

Holly Rackham - Support Worker from Anawim

19

Structure, Governance and Management

Elayos have a Constitution as it’s governing document

Elayos is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation

Trustees are appointed and elected

20

Independent Examiner:

Colin Eric Hingston

Hon. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management 65 Dean Garden Rise High Wycombe Bucks HP11 1RF

Independent Examiner’s Statement:

I have completed my examination and confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

  1. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those 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 a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

21

Financial Review

Brief statement of the charities policy on reserves

The charity does not currently have any significant liabilities; the trustees will keep the need for a reserves policy under review.

22

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Elayos

I report on the accounts of the charity for the year ended 30 September 2022.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the charity trustees you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ( ‘ the Act ’ ).

I report in respect of the examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination and confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

  1. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act; or

  2. the accounts do not accord with those 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 a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed: Date: 14[th] . July 2023

Colin Eric Hingston Hon. Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management 65 Dean Garden Rise High Wycombe Bucks HP11 1RF

Elayos Elayos Elayos Elayos Elayos 1185455 1185455 CC16a
Receipts andpayments accounts
For the period
from		 10/1/21 To 9/30/22
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted funds Endowment
funds		 Total funds Last year
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Regular donations 6,409 - - 6,409 4,816
One Off donations 10,527 - - 10,527 5,400
Grants received 12,842 - - 12,842 13,976
Gift Aid - 0 - - - 1,311
Other 206 - - 206 224
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
Sub total_(Gross income for AR) _
29,984		 - - 29,984 25,727
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- 0 - 0 - 0 -
- 0 - 0 - 0 - - 0
Sub total
- 0		 - 0 - 0 - - 0
**Total receipts **
29,984		 - 0 - 0 29,984 25,727
A3 Payments
Fund raisingfees 301 - - 301 715
Client costs 8,411 - - 8,411 8,615
Staff costs 21,410 - - 21,410 16,986
Operation costs 1,382 - - 1,382 1,516
Governance 317 - - 317 278
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
**Sub total **
31,821		 - - 31,821 28,110
A4 Asset and investment
purchases,(see table)
- 0 - 0 - 0 -
- 0 - 0 - 0 -
**Sub total **
- 0		 - 0 - 0 - - 0
**Total payments **
31,821		 - 0 - 0 31,821 28,110
**Net of receipts/(payments) ** -
1,837		 - - -
1,837		 -
2,383
A5 Transfers between funds - 0 - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 2,307 - - 2,307 4,690
**Cash funds this year end **
470		 - - 470 2,307
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories Details Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted funds Endowment
funds
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds Barclays Bank 460 - -
PayPal 10 - -
- - -
Total cash funds 470 - -
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))		 OK OK
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted funds Endowment
funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets - -
- - -
- - -
Elayos Elayos Elayos Elayos Elayos 1185455 1185455 CC16a
Receipts andpayments accounts
For the period
from		 10/1/21 To 9/30/22
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted funds Endowment
funds		 Total funds Last year
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
Regular donations 6,409 - - 6,409 4,816
One Off donations 10,527 - - 10,527 5,400
Grants received 12,842 - - 12,842 13,976
Gift Aid - 0 - - - 1,311
Other 206 - - 206 224
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
Sub total_(Gross income for AR) _
29,984		 - - 29,984 25,727
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- 0 - 0 - 0 -
- 0 - 0 - 0 - - 0
Sub total
- 0		 - 0 - 0 - - 0
**Total receipts **
29,984		 - 0 - 0 29,984 25,727
A3 Payments
Fund raisingfees 301 - - 301 715
Client costs 8,411 - - 8,411 8,615
Staff costs 21,410 - - 21,410 16,986
Operation costs 1,382 - - 1,382 1,516
Governance 317 - - 317 278
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
- 0 - - - -
**Sub total **
31,821		 - - 31,821 28,110
A4 Asset and investment
purchases,(see table)
- 0 - 0 - 0 -
- 0 - 0 - 0 -
**Sub total **
- 0		 - 0 - 0 - - 0
**Total payments **
31,821		 - 0 - 0 31,821 28,110
**Net of receipts/(payments) ** -
1,837		 - - -
1,837		 -
2,383
A5 Transfers between funds - 0 - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 2,307 - - 2,307 4,690
**Cash funds this year end **
470		 - - 470 2,307
Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
Categories Details Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted funds Endowment
funds
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds Barclays Bank 460 - -
PayPal 10 - -
- - -
Total cash funds 470 - -
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))		 OK OK
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted funds Endowment
funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets - -
- - -
- - -

CCXX R1 accounts (SS)

28/07/2023

1

- - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which asset
belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B3 Investment assets - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which asset
belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use		 - -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
liability relates		 Amount due
(optional)		 When due
(optional)
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
-
-
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf
of all the trustees		 Signature Print Name Date of approval
John Andrew Hart 28/07/2023

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

28/07/2023

2

Declaration

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Signature

Full Name

John Andrew Hart

Position (eg Secretary, Chair etc)

Chair of Trustees

Date

28/07/2023