## **Windmills - Acute Bereavement Support for Children & Young People In Staffordshire** **Registered Charity Number: 1187408** **Registered Address: 62, Windermere Road, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, Staffordshire. ST5 3HN.** ## **Annual Trustee Report** Trustees: Lindsey Wilmer, Scott Buckley, Helen McNicol-Buckley ## **Structure & Management including recruitment of Trustees** Founding Members: Zara Toussaint, Leeanne Clay & above stated Trustees. ## (2) **Eligibility for trusteeship** (a) Every charity trustee must be a natural person. (b) No individual may be appointed as a charity trustee of the CIO: • if he or she is under the age of 16 years; or • if he or she would automatically cease to hold office under the provisions of clause 12(1)(e). (c) No one is entitled to act as a charity trustee whether on appointment or on any re-appointment until he or she has expressly acknowledged, in whatever way the charity trustees decide, his or her acceptance of the office of charity trustee. (d) At least one of the trustees of the CIO must be 18 years of age or over. If there is no trustee aged at least 18 years, the remaining trustees may only act to call a meeting of the charity trustees, or appoint a new charity trustee. ## (3) **Number of charity trustees** (a) There must be at least three charity trustees. If the number falls below this minimum, the remaining trustee or trustees may act only to call a meeting of the charity trustees, or appoint a new charity trustee. (b) The maximum number of charity trustees is five. The charity trustees may not appoint any charity trustee if as a result, the number of charity trustees would exceed the maximum. ## (4) **First charity trustees** The first charity trustees are as follows and are appointed for the following terms – ........................Lindsey Ann Wilmer............................ for 4 years .........................Scott Ian Buckley............................... for 3 years ........................Helen Isobel McNicol-Buckley........ for 2 years ## **10. Appointment of charity trustees** (1) Apart from the first charity trustees, every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. (2) In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO. Above copied from the Charity’s constitution. Day to day management by founding members with key decisions agreed by all Trustees both formally & informally. ## **Activities and objectives to include achievements & performance in relation to public benefit.** Windmills differs from other child bereavement charities as it is not a counselling service. Rather, we focus solely on supporting the children and young people through the acute dying process and during the months following the death of someone significant in their lives. The focus of our support is helping the child or young person to understand death and its permanency, whilst also making positive memories for them. Our Specialist Acute Bereavement Practitioners provide 24-hour support to children and young people during the final days leading up to a loved one's death – this may be at a home, hospice or hospital. They have the skills and confidence to speak directly with the child or young person about death and dying and will break the news that death will occur. They also support other adults in the family to know how to include children and young people in the dying/death process. They help them explain what is happening in an age-appropriate way, whilst being on hand to support them. Whilst our focus is on helping children and young people understand and process the death of someone significant in their lives, our support encompasses the whole family. We support and equip parents and other adults in the family with tools and ways of communicating with children about death and dying. Our work creating Memory Boxes also gives adults a communication tool to start conversations with their children. We equip parents with age-appropriate bereavement books for their children allowing them to observe their child’s grieving process and open doors to talking about their loss. Parents or other caregivers feel far more comfortable talking to children about their lost loved one when they can see the joy of a memory which the child holds so dearly. The family gradually becomes united in their grief rather than it dividing families by “being the elephant in the room.”. This allows memories to be kept alive and promotes positive grieving for the whole family not only immediately post death but ongoing, such as on special anniversaries. Following the death, we continue our support for a few months depending on individual needs. In addition to making Memory Boxes, we also work with children through arts and crafts to reduce anxiety or to aid focus and relaxation. During this time, we also liaise, where appropriate, with other professionals and organisations that may be part of the child’s overall care and support network, such as school/college/university, GP, social services and hospice/healthcare. ## **Governance** Priority was given to ensuring Windmills met governance procedures with policies written to include, safeguarding, equal opportunities, data protection and lone working to mention a few. Windmills are also members of Child Bereavement Network & Support Staffordshire. Both founding members are, as registered Nurses, governed by the Nursing & Midwifery Council. ## **Funding/finance** We did employ a bid writer for a fixed term and currently have a fundraising company working on a pro bono basis for us. Multiple bids entered and we have been successful in some of these. We are holding our first Windmills Charity Ball in Sept 2022 As a point of note Windmills does not have any debts, liabilities, assets or funds held as a custodian trustee. Items of office furniture were donated free of charge. Exploring Service Level Agreements with local Hospices ## **Promoting Windmills** Website relaunched Social media - regular posts Still participate in developing strategies for Staffordshire and Stoke-On-Trent Bereavement Network Information shared with key departments within the local NHS trust Direct communication from local Hospices which resulted in referrals into Windmills. We have not yet taken any other volunteers who will be interacting with our families as yet but will ensure a robust screening and interview process once our volunteer programme is established. ## **Referrals** Anyone can refer into Windmills and we provide a 24/7 service. Intervention varies from client to client as we provide bespoke, focused and supportive acute bereavement care. Unfortunately, it is certain that we will all experience death at least once in our lives. Our little people and youngsters deserve to not only understand what death is and means but also to learn that it is normal to experience a range of emotions. We use crafts to reinforce existing memories whilst building new ones so that death and grief is not perceived to be a traumatic event, never to be spoken of. Memory making is a key part of what we do during the first few sessions with our families – when someone dies, we all worry that we will lose our memories of our loved one - this is no different for a child or young person. By gathering and saving special memories in a memory box, a child/young person can go back into the box and reconnect with those memories - happy or sad - when they are ready. While we are making the memory boxes with children/young people we talk about what their loved one may have liked, and us being able to talk about the one they have lost and to say their name confidently means they can too. This continued acknowledgement allows memories to be kept alive and hopefully helps them move forward. All the conversations we have whilst making memories/doing crafts, verbal or not, allows for loved ones to be thought about in a safe space. They can open up about things without having to make eye contact - it’s often easier for them to be honest that way. Part of our role is supporting schools. We receive many requests from schools regarding how to even broach the subject of death and loss with their pupils. Many struggle with knowing how to support and what to say and are extremely grateful when Windmills attends to provide 1:1 support to a child or young person. We desperately need to actively empower school faculty to open conversations around death and dying whilst providing support through education and normalising bereavement for the benefit of their pupils. We hope to deliver sessions in person to both the school faculty and pupils whilst also providing written resources and quite possibly electronic resources. In relation to our contingency plan in the event we become over capacity we offer phone support at the bare minimum with the aim to do a face to face meeting (if required) as soon as possible. Demand for our service has skyrocketed this last year and continues to do so - we had 6 referrals in 2020, 48 in 2021 and 120 in 2022. **Public benefit case study** **We first met Lily, Bobbie and Louis following a referral from a local hospice. Their Mummy, Sarah, had recently received a terminal diagnosis of stage 4** **metastatic breast cancer. Sarah’s diagnosis came 21 weeks into her pregnancy with baby Louis. She managed to get to 30 weeks’ gestation and then had to deliver Louis in order to start treatment.** **Sarah underwent both chemo and radiotherapy and then received the good news that she was cancer-free.** **But all came crashing down when it was soon discovered her cancer had not gone away and had in fact spread.** **The family faced the painful task of telling Lily (8) and Bobbie (10) that Mummy was going to die.** **Windmills Charity stepped in to support the family and help the children understand what was happening around them. Bobbie began to display anger towards Mum, hitting out and saying mean things to her. Both Lily and Bobbie were also shying away from Mum and were spending more and more time in their bedrooms.** **Their lives had changed so much and so quickly. Sarah moved back in with her mum - who was her main carer - and the children stayed with their stepdad at home. This left the children feeling resentful, sad, angry and confused. They had suddenly been thrown into a world of adult emotions yet only had the cognitive ability of children their age to process these thoughts and feelings.** **Leeanne and Zara from Windmills began weekly sessions with Lily and Bobbie, building trust and getting to know each other. They explored their feelings and were able to break down why Mum was dying, what this meant for them and what was making them so angry at Mum. Windmills helped the children make galaxy glitter bottles to help them sleep at night and stress balls to use when they were angry. They had great fun doing this and made a big mess which the kiddies loved!!** **After only 2-3 weeks Bobbie settled down and stopped hitting out at Mum. Leeanne and Zara had worked hard to help him make sense of Sarah’s illness and to reassure him it wasn’t his fault or his mum’s fault (which is what he initially thought). It was lovely to see him happier and more confident around his mum too. The sessions were fun, interactive but short as Bobbie would get very easily distracted. We revisited themes regularly and positively reinforced how special the time they had left was going to be and we helped them make the most of that time building memories with Mum and the whole family.** **Towards the end of Sarah’s illness, Leeanne and Zara would spend time with the children around her bed, playing board games, top trumps and painting - such simple things but so heart-warming to see the smiles and hear the laughter of them altogether. Sarah was very confused at times and came out with some random comments which had the kids in hysterics! Previously they had been scared of her outbursts but with our help** **they realised that this was “just Mum” now and it was nothing to be frightened about.** **The week before Sarah died, Bobbie told us he was “ready for Mum to die now”. He had made sense of things and could see she was suffering and in pain. Even though he was going to be heartbroken when Mum eventually died, this showed just how important it is to prepare children prior to death, helping them process information and emotions and allowing them to enjoy the time they get to spend with their loved one right up until the end.** CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Wlndmllls .Acute berèavament support for chlldrèn and un le In StBffor(l$hlr• Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the perlod from To 0110412021 3110312022 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestri¢ted funds to tho noarost RestrS¢ted funds Endowmènt funds Total funds Last ￿ar to tho neDr•$t £ to tho ne4TgSt £ to th• neargot £ to tho nearMtE A1 Recelpts Fundraising Dtrnaiitsns 434S 4.345 22,933 22,933 24,703 Sub total (Gross incom8 for AR) 22,933 27,278 24,703 A2 Asset and Investment sale5, Iso• labl•}. Sub total 22,933 4,345 27,278 24,703 A3 Payments Fundr8ising acijviles Days out and making Cr2ft 8L¢ppIF8S Rent 1,333 2,914 709 2,914 709 4,200 635 6S7 2,818 1,969 4,200 635 657 2,618 2.190 Offic8 sunL1r￿S Bid thter 5eivtes travel Professional cos1$ Repayment lo L C ank tharg&s 252 60 70 670 131 70 670 131 14.247 Sub total 10.513 5.733 5.1Q7 A4 Asset and investhient purchases, {see table ITe ul mgnt 1.132 Sub total 1.132 10,513 3.733 14,247 6.239 Net of receipts/(paymonts) A5 Transfers betsveen funds A6 Cash funds last year end Cash funds this year end 12,420 611 13,031 18,464 16,854 29,274 2,609 3.220 19.463 32.494 18.464 CCXX R1 accounts ISSI 1610112023 2cff 6 Sutsnerrt of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestrlcted funds to nèzièstÉ Restricted funds lo neèrest £ Details Bank 29,234 Pettycash 40 Total cash funds 29,274 3,220 1#5¢vD bAlar￿5 Wilh recoipt5￿ acry)urt(811 Unr8Stricted funds Re5trict•d fund5 t¢) n•aro$t £ . Endowr funds ¢0 Mar•s¢ £ Details to ne8rgSt £ Fund 10 whlch osset belo Curr•nt value tlonal Dètails ¢o•t lopt10￿1) B3 Investment assgts . Za4• Fund to whlch a5S£t belon Details IT equipmern Cost lopuonall 1,132 Current valu• B4 Assets retained for tho charity'5 own use Fund to whl¢h relatss Amount due lonal When Details LC Inibal funding 626 3111217022 85 Liabilities ZT inilal fvnding 31112r2022 Si9n8d by one or two tru$tèes on behall of all the Iru8tee8 Date of roval Slgnatur8 Print Name Lindsa n Wllmer c￿ R2 aL¥)>ffits ISSI 1610112023 ## **Independent examiner's report on the accounts** **Section A Independent Examiner’s Report** **Report to the trustees/** Charity Name **members of** Windmills – Acute Bereavement Support for Children and Young People in Staffordshire **On accounts for the year** 31 March 2022 **Charity no** 1187408 **ended (if any)** ## **Set out on pages** 1 I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended **31/03/2022** . - **Responsibilities and** As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation **basis of report** of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”). I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed 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. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect: - accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or - the accounts do not accord with the accounting 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:** 16/1/2023 **Name:** Jo Clarkson on behalf of Davenport Accountants Ltd **Relevant professional** Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales **qualification(s) or body (if any): Address:** Yew Tree Cottage, Bowers, Staffordshire ST21 6RW **October 2018** 1 **IER** **Section B Disclosure** Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners). **Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose** . **October 2018** 2 **IER**