Annual Report
Dyspraxia Education
For the period 1[st] October 2019 to 31[st] December 2020
January 2021
Charity Incorporated Organisation Number 1185572
Table of Contents
Trustees’ Annual Report……………………………………………………………………………………………...3 Financial Activities ...................................................................................................................................... 10 Balance Sheet ............................................................................................................................................ 11 Notes …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..12
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Registered address: 9 Malvern Rd Worcester WR2 4LE. England
Website: www.dyspraxia-ed.co.uk
Trustees Annual Report 1[st] October 2019 -30[th] December 2020
Trustees during the Period :
| rustees during the Period : | ||
|---|---|---|
| Name | Appointed | Status |
| Mrs Mary Prior | 1stOct 2019 | Still in post |
| Mr Geoff Rutherford | 1stOct 2019 | Still in post |
| Mr Martyn Walley | 1stOct 2019 | Still in post |
| Mrs Kim Hinchliffe | 20thFeb 2020 | Still in post |
Founder / Director: Mrs Cathy Parvin
Background
“ Living with dyspraxia is hard but living in a world that doesn’t understand my dyspraxia is harder”
Dyspraxia, also called DCD(Developmental Co-ordination Disorder) is a complex, hidden medical condition which not only affects a child’s co-ordination but also other areas such as, perception, sensory processing, organisation and handwriting. It has a profound impact on the child in all areas of life from learning in school, playing football, making friends and even sleeping at night.
Surprisingly, the number of children with DCD is high, yet the awareness, even amongst key professionals remains poor. Approximately 6% of children aged between 5-11 years are affected with 2% being severely affected[1] . This means that in every class there are approximately 2 children with dyspraxia. Due to this poor awareness of the condition, many children are not recognised as having dyspraxia and are assumed to have behavioural issues, frequently being disciplined for behaviour that is part of their condition.
After her daughter’s diagnosis of this condition, Cathy Parvin experienced this lack of awareness firsthand. Realising the very professionals she turned to for support had not received adequate training and did not have sufficient working knowledge to offer the support her daughter needed. Indeed it remains that few Initial Teacher Training courses offer any training in dyspraxia and concerningly, many SENDCOs ( Special Educational Needs and Disability Co-ordinators) admit to feeling that they lack training and knowledge in this condition. The end result is considerable silent suffering of misunderstood children falling through the net. Seeing this deficit in training and more importantly, the profound detrimental impact of this on her daughter, Cathy Parvin set up Dyspraxia Education in 2013. Originally a “Not for profit”, social enterprise called Dyspraxia Education Limited, it was converted into a charity in October 2019.
1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1847727/)
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The charity recognises that addressing this universal lack of awareness, amongst parents/carers, educationalists, health professionals and the wider community is absolutely fundamental in allowing children living with dyspraxia to thrive. To resolve this deficit, Dyspraxia Education offers training and specialist support to teaching staff, professionals and parents/carers. The ultimate goal being that every child with dyspraxia/ DCD will have teachers/professionals/parents/carers who are equipped and well trained to support them.
Objectives
For the public benefit of supporting children and young people affected by Dyspraxia / DCD (Developmental Co-ordination Disorder) in early years foundation stage, primary, secondary and tertiary education. Achieved by providing support, advice, education and training for families, teaching staff and professionals working with children and young people
Structure, governance and management
Dyspraxia Education is a CIO with a constitution. It was original run as a “Not for Profit” company but converted to a charity in October 2019. Cathy Parvin founded it in 2013 and ran it alone until she approached three trustees in 2019. The first Trustee meeting was held on 8[th] November 2019. There was then a period of overlap between the company ceasing to operate and the charity becoming fully operational, with the financial handover being completed by 1[st] April 2020.
A second trustee meeting was held in February 2020 when it was agreed to approach a fourth trustee Mrs Kim Hinchliffe who became a trustee on 20[th] February 2020. Unfortunately, the fledgling charity was then severely affected by COVID 19. Trustees and Cathy kept in touch via group email and it was agreed to have a meeting via Zoom on 11[th] January 2021.
Cathy has kept the charity running on a day to day basis and overseen the transition from company to charity. As the founder, she selected the trustees based on her connection and professional relationship with each of them and the experience and skills they could offer the charity.
As a fledgling and very small charity there is not currently a policy for electing trustees. At the moment there is no intention to recruit anymore trustees.
We do have some volunteers as shown on our website(www.dyspraxia-ed.co.uk) who support our work immensely.
All trustees, director and volunteers have access to all our policies. They are kept up to date with all proceedings via group email and open discussion is encouraged. All trustees are issued with a login to the charity’s finance software which is linked to the bank account for transparency reasons.
Trustee training and development :
Trustees do not have direct contact with children, parents, carers or teachers. This is done by Cathy. Therefore, it was decided Cathy would attend Safe Guarding training which she did in Oct 2019 and is the DSO. She also has an enhanced DBS which she takes whenever she attends schools or homes.
All the trustees have received some training in dyspraxia and have access to the online workshops if required. They have a really good understanding and appreciation of the challenges these children and their families face.
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Volunteer training and supervision
Volunteers help with packing Jimbo Fun boxes. Unfortunately, due to their age this has halted this year and so Cathy has taken this role over. Sarah, manages the Facebook page by regularly posting. She always checks with Cathy anything which she posts. Currently there are no student volunteers helping due to COVID restrictions. Mark is responsible for all bookkeeping and I.T He also helps with video editing and website issues. Izzie helps with video editing and filming. All volunteers have a substantial knowledge of dyspraxia.
Relationships with other agencies:
Over the years Cathy has developed excellent relationships with many other agencies, from charities, occupational therapist departments, businesses, learning support teams and outreach bases. She is also a committee member for the National Handwriting Association.
Activities
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Helplines and face to face support.
The first port of call for a parent/carer/teacher/professional, of a child or young person affected by dyspraxia is the helpline. The helpline has been maintained through this difficult year and it has proved to be a vital source of support to many families. Whilst all but urgent face to face support has had to be suspended due to COVID 19 ,support has been delivered via zoom meetings. Contact has been kept with the families receiving ongoing support during this difficult year.
• Training professionals such as teachers in education settings in dyspraxia/DCD and offering them ongoing support.
Unfortunately all of the training for 2020 and the first half of 2021 has been cancelled. This is a huge loss for the charity because this is vital work in securing the support children need both at home and in the classroom. This also meant the loss of the main source of revenue.
- Online training courses for Parents and Teachers via our website.
Lockdown rapidly brought forward a plan to put dyspraxia training online for both parents/carers and for teaching staff. This was a huge undertaking for such a small charity with extremely low funds. However, with these limited funds, filming equipment was purchased but there were insufficient funds to contract professional film makers. It was decided Mark, Izzie and Cathy would self-teach and do this in-house. It was a steep learning curve with many lessons being learnt through mistakes, but the project is close to completion. This has meant hours of time but the first set of teachers workshops have now gone live and the parents/carers ones are on target for January 2021. Initial feedback has been overwhelmingly positive from schools who have purchased the workshops.
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“I have just finished your training and WOW. It was so interesting and informative.” (- Dept HT and SENDCO)
Planned for Feb 2021 is the filming and developing of handwriting workshops for both parents and teachers because many children with dyspraxia have difficulties with handwriting. Cathy has done additional training and gained expertise in this area specifically to help these children overcome this challenge. There is a dedicated website and helpline for handwriting difficulties www.jimbofun.co.uk. In addition, several “live” online seminars for universities, schools, colleges and charities have been delivered.
- In- school observations and specialist advice for school and home
Due to lockdown and government restrictions, only urgent in-school observations have been carried out. However, advice and help has been given via zoom or phone.
• Handwriting assessments and advice for school and home
These have been restricted and only carried out if urgently requested by a school and within government guidelines. Mostly advice has been given over the phone.
- Development and sale of the motor skills programme called Jimbo fun.
Between 2013-2015 Dyspraxia Education developed a programme to help children with handwriting difficulties called Jimbo Fun. These are sold into schools but sadly this year due to school closures, very few have sold, another loss to the children and also a loss of revenue for the charity.
• Raising awareness of dyspraxia by keynote speaking/ writing articles for media and exhibiting at trade shows such the TES Special Needs and Disability Show London
Unfortunately, most of the booked speaking events were cancelled and a few went online, such as The Dyslexia Show. Cathy wrote an article for Speechlink which is an online magazine for Speech and Language Therapists published in March 2020.
• Advocating for children or young people in meetings at educational settings .
Example 1 :
Last October 2020 Cathy attended meetings in a school for a child D.E has been supporting for several years, as an advocate for the child. She wrote several reports and supporting letters to enable him to receive the appropriate support and eventually he received an EHCP( Educational and Health Care Plan). D.E supported him and his family through a difficult time and in transferring to a different school. All made more complex by lockdown. D.E continues to keep in touch with this family.
Example 2:
In early March 2020 Cathy attended meetings and advocated for a university student who D.E have supported for a few years. In addition, she wrote a supporting letter for
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an appeal panel which had a successful outcome for the student and continued to maintain contact with the student and his mother through a difficult year. Much of D.E’s work is about developing relationships and increasing understanding for these children amongst key adults in their lives. Unfortunately, due to COVID much of this valuable work has stopped. However, the need will not have ceased to exist and many of these children will be adversely affected by the lockdowns and this is of huge concern. It is the impetus behind putting workshops online and keeping the helpline running.
Achievements
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Conversion from a Not for Profit Company into a charity. There was a considerable amount of work which had to be undertaken to achieve this transition.
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Policies Covering the Charity’s Activities written
• Operations Oct 2019 - March 2020
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a. Twenty four face-to-face training seminars carried out.
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b. Direct face to face support x12.
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c. Helpline calls / emails, unfortunately these were mostly unrecorded due to no system being established. This has now been implemented with phone call logs. In the period October 2019 to February 2020 we estimate we took approx. 150 – 200 calls and emails requesting help. The initial parent contact can last up to 2 hours often with lengthy follow up. However since March 2020 and the COVID-19 situation, calls have reduced considerably. We are concerned that a huge backlog of parents and young people is building up that will only come to light when the pandemic is over and things return to normal. Teachers are overwhelmed dealing with the crisis and parents find it difficult to call and discuss their concerns about their own children, when the children are at home.
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d. Between March 2020 -Dec 2020. To address the difficulties caused by COVID D.E began the ambitious project to put all training online for teachers and parents.
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e. The helpline was open even through school holidays.
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f. Advice was given using zoom and telephone.
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g. There was 1 face to face meeting with a parent whose child was in crisis.
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h. Two school visits for children whose teachers were concerned and reports written giving practical advice and suggestions.
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i. The first school who purchased our online workshops reported through evaluation sheets that:
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i. The online training had helped between 24 and 36 children in their school of 314 pupils.
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5 = Exceptional 95%
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4 = Excellent 4%
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3 = Good 1%
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2 = Poor 0%
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1= Disappointing 0%
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j. Some comments from the evaluation sheets:
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“I especially liked the real life stories you used as examples with your own child and your experiences in the school settings you have attended. These struggles are so real and until you yourself experience a child’s obvious discomfort in the classroom are you able to fully understand how to help them. I hope that using some of the strategies you have covered we can help our poor overwhelmed pupils feel more at ease and able to learn alongside their peers. I found myself identifying a pupil who clearly has Dyspraxia in my opinion, who until now I couldn’t put my finger on what his reason was for his outbursts and behaviour in class. Thank you. “
“You are doing such an amazing thing to support the children and the professionals supporting these children – Thank you”
Financial Review
It has been an especially difficult year because of the transition and setting up of the charity which was compounded by an unpredictable loss of income due to COVID.
As a Not for profit company, the company had just about managed to cover it’s running costs from the money it generated from the sale of training and the Jimbo Fun resources. The company had never borrowed money or gone into debt. However, Cathy made the decision to convert it to a charity with the aim of growing the support side of the charity. It was incredibly difficult for Cathy to grow it whilst running the business side and a helpline and support work, plus delivering training. She felt as if she were constantly treading water.
At the first trustees meeting it was decided to try and develop a set of online workshops so Cathy would do less training and be more available to develop the support work. Plus this would generate income for the charity.
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Ien COVID struck, overnight the main sour$ of income ased. Also the opportunity to market future training and Jimbo Fun sales stopped. As a fledgling charity funds were already low so it wss decided to accelerate the plans to develop onlin8 training workshops. As a resuft we used the donated camera and other equipment to develop these workshops in-house tecause there were insLrfficient funds to contract a company to do it. In September the charity applied to Hereford County Councrl 8nd were awarded some emergency funding £10,OCQ which has meant the survival of the charity. This was unrestricted funds and are being used for nJnning costs. In Novemter the charity was awarded £31XM) in the form of restricted funds by the National Emergencies Trust to complete the parent online workshops. This has partially been spent on renewing an editing software license and purchasing some stock images. The initial batch of video workshops are now complete and are available for sale on our website. The remainder of the restricted funds will be used to market the completed workshops in early 2021. They have the scope to reach more children than face to face training, plus generate on-going income. Declarations . The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees, report atyove Signed on behalf of the charity's trustees.. Signature(s) Full name(s).CIEbTFIEV i?LnNEIIFGRD 16 /0212011 Date:.
Financial Activities
October 2019 - December 2020
| Financial Activities October 2019 - December 2020 |
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|---|---|
| Total | |
| INCOME | |
| Delivery to Customers | 75.00 |
| Donations and Legacies | 15,817.51 |
| Dyspraxia Training On Site | 1,175.00 |
| Handwriting Training | 170.00 |
| On-line Training | 300.00 |
| Sales of Product Income | 2,005.00 |
| Services | 40.00 |
| Total Income | 19,582.51 |
| COST OF SALES | |
| Cost of sales | 864.00 |
| Total Cost of Sales | 864.00 |
| TOTAL | 18,718.51 |
| EXPENDITURES | |
| Bank charges | 10.44 |
| Computer Costs | 873.33 |
| Delivery Charges | 77.90 |
| Expensed Equipment | 119.14 |
| Images for Videos | 86.40 |
| Insurances | 517.49 |
| Internet Expenses | 494.55 |
| Video Hosting | 58.64 |
| Website Hosting& Maintenance | 479.99 |
| Total Internet Expenses | 1,033.18 |
| Legal and professional fees | 206.00 |
| Office/General Administrative Expenditures | 59.37 |
| Quickbooks | 72.00 |
| Total Office/General Administrative Expenditures | 131.37 |
| Office/General Administrative Expenses | 98.60 |
| Printing, Postage and Stationery | 45.97 |
| Telephone | 104.36 |
| Travel and Accommodation | |
| Mileage Claim | 98.19 |
| Total Travel and Accommodation | 98.19 |
| Total Expenditures | 3,402.37 |
| NET OPERATING INCOME | 15,316.14 |
| NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE) | £15,316.14 |
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Total
Balance Sheet
As of December 31, 2020
| Total | |
|---|---|
| FIXED ASSET | |
| Total Fixed Asset | |
| CASH AT BANK AND IN HAND | |
| Current | 12,220.11 |
| Restricted Funds | 2,403.67 |
| Total Current | 14,623.78 |
| Total Cash at bank and in hand | 14,623.78 |
| DEBTORS | |
| Debtors | 530.00 |
| Total Debtors | 530.00 |
| CURRENT ASSETS | |
| Stock Asset | 3,010.58 |
| Total Current Assets | 3,010.58 |
| NET CURRENT ASSETS | 18,164.36 |
| Prepayments and accrued income | 47.04 |
| CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR | |
| Trade Creditors | |
| Creditors | 290.26 |
| Total Trade Creditors | 290.26 |
| Total Creditors: amounts falling due within one year | 290.26 |
| NET CURRENT ASSETS (LIABILITIES) | 17,921.14 |
| TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES | 17,921.14 |
| TOTAL NET ASSETS(LIABILITIES) | £17,921.14 |
| CHARITY FUNDS | |
| Opening Balance Equity | 2,605.00 |
| Retained Surplus | |
| Surplus/(Deficit) | 15,316.14 |
| Total Charity funds | £17,921.14 |
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Notes forming part of the Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2020
1. Accounting Policies
The principal accounting policies are summarised below. The accounting policies have been applied consistently throughout the year.
(a) Basis of accounting
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. This initial accounting period begins on 1/10/2019 until 31/12/2020. Subsequent years will be a calendar year.
(b) Fund accounting
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Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.
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Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor or through the terms of an appeal.
(c) Incoming resources
All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities when the charity is entitled to, and virtually certain to receive, the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy. The following policies are applied to particular categories of income:
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Voluntary income is received by way of grants, donations and gifts and is included in full in the Statement of Financial Activities when receivable. Grants, where entitlement is not conditional on the delivery of a specific performance by the charity, are recognised when the charity becomes unconditionally entitled to the grant.
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Donated services and facilities are included at the value to the charity where this can be quantified. Stock of Jimbo Fun and Junior Jimbo Fun products to a value of £ 2605 was gifted by Dyspraxia Education Ltd in April 2020. The value of services provided by volunteers has not been included in these accounts.
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Incoming resources from charitable trading activity are accounted for when earned.
(d) Resources expended
Expenditure is recognised on an accrual basis as a liability is incurred. Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be fully recovered, and is reported as part of the expenditure to which it relates:
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(a) Charitable expenditure comprises those costs incurred by the charity in the delivery of its activities and services for its beneficiaries. It includes both costs that can be allocated directly to such activities and those costs of an indirect nature necessary to support them.
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(b) Governance costs include those costs associated with meeting the constitutional and statutory requirements of the charity.
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(e) Fixed assets
- a) A small number of fixed assets such as some computer equipment, lighting and video equipment etc. was donated at no cost to the charity from the previous limited company. As such they do not appear on the balance sheet and no depreciation is included in these accounts.
(f) Staff
- a) There were no paid staff during the period, all activities were carried out by volunteers
(g) Trustee Remuneration & Related Party Transactions.
- a) No trustee received any remuneration during the period. One volunteer received £98.19 for mileage expenses during the period. No persons related to the charity had any personal interest in any contract or transaction entered into by the charity during the year.
(h) Taxation
- a) As a charity, Dyspraxia Education is exempt from tax on income and gains. No tax charges have arisen in the Charity.
(i) Purposes of Restricted Funds
- a) A grant of £3000 was received in November 2020 from NET for the completion of the charity’s online training video workshops and the costs associated with marketing them during the first quarter of 2021.
Approved by the trustees on 11[th] January 2021 and signed on their behalf by:
M. Parvin
Treasurer
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