Annual Trustees Report
2023-24
For the period from the 1st April 2023 to the 31st of March 2024.
Charity name: Oxfordshire Discovery College
Charity registration number: 1196460
Principal address: Makespace Royal Scot House 99 Station Road DIDCOT Oxfordshire OX11 7NN
Oxfordshire Discovery College is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation. The governing document is the Constitution of the charity adopted at its registration on 8[th] November 2021.
Appointment of charity trustees
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Apart from the founding 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.
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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.
Number of charity trustees
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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 to appoint a new charity trustee.
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The maximum number of charity trustees is twelve. The charity trustees may not appoint any charity trustee if as a result the number of charity trustees would exceed the maximum.
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All Trustees give their time voluntarily and do not receive personal benefit from the charity.
Governance, Structure and Management
Governance is set out in the charity constitution, adopted on the 3rd of November, 2021.
The charity is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO).
Name of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| Trustee Name | Ofce (if any) |
|---|---|
| Liam Joseph Corbally (appointed 2021) | Deputy Co-Chair |
| Matthew Alan Slade (appointed 2021) | Deputy Co-Chair |
| Pauline Boerma-Collier (appointed 2021) | |
| Aarti Chapman (appointed 2022) | Chair 2022-present |
| Ian Tingley (appointed 2022) | Treasurer 2022-present |
| David Huxford (appointed 2022) | |
| Maria Bourbon (appointed 2022) | |
| Ella Buckingham (appointed 2023) | |
| Philip Purnell (appointed 2023) |
Corporate trustees - names of the directors at the date the report was approved
| Trustee Name | Ofce (if any) |
|---|---|
| Laura Harte | Founder |
Objects and activities
The objects of the Charity are set out in its Constitution as being:
- The relief of children, young people and families in Oxfordshire and its surrounding areas who are experiencing or are affected by, or who are at risk of experiencing or being
affected by, mental distress and disorder in particular but not exclusively by providing lived-experience-led opportunities to learn, connect and gain skills
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The promotion of the preservation of good mental health to the public by promoting understanding, disseminating information, raising awareness and challenging stigma
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The advancement of co-production of services to the public, in particular to bodies and agencies by, in particular but not exclusively, raising awareness and sharing good practice
For the purpose of this clause, ‘co-production’ means the design, development, delivery and evaluation of services by the stakeholders who might ultimately use and benefit from them.
Its vision and mission is:
We’d love to see a world where children and young people have the skills, support and control to create their own mental wellness, and to navigate times of mental ill health. This drives us to make sure that every child has what they need to transform their mental health.
The Charity has identified its strategic priorities as:
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Maintain and nurture our warm culture and high quality as we continue to grow
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Increase participant engagement through both programme participation and enrolment
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Continue to build our evidence base, demonstrating efficacy and return on investment and articulate it clearly
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Develop our public image, increasing our visibility and reputation locally
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Secure our core staff capacity, building a robust and skilled team of staff and volunteers
Public benefit
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Advancement of health or the saving of lives – working with our target audience of children and young people experiencing a mental health problem or poor wellbeing, and their supporters
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Health education or sickness prevention – using an educational model to improve knowledge, understanding and coping strategies for recovery and wellbeing maintenance
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Relief of those in need (age, disability, ill-health, financial or other disadvantage)
For these reasons the trustees consider that the Charity meets the public benefit requirement.
In setting the Charity’s goals and in planning its activities the trustees have given due consideration to the published Charity Commission guidance on the operation of the public benefit requirement of the Charities Act 2011.
Progress and Plans
2023-24 was a year of significant growth and change for the charity, moving from being a fledgling organisation with a changeable roster of fixed-term staff, to a more robust structure with longer-term staffing, a developing organisational knowledge base, and a fast-growing reputation for impactful youth work. We’ve worked hard to put down strong roots that will serve the charity’s journey for the years to come.
Activities
We delivered ten programmes in 2023-24, a significant increase from previous years, and a trajectory that is still increasing. After successful initial programmes in two Didcot primary schools, the Head Teachers shared their positive experiences with their peers and we expanded to Chilton, Sunningwell, Harwell and Cholsey. We also delivered two programmes to young adults in Witney. All of these areas were new to us, but despite being an unknown quantity to these communities we were able to work with 71 new participants: 63 under the age of 11, and 8 young adults. We had 106 enrolments - children, young people and adults who want to participate in programmes with us.
All of this was only possible because we invested in expanding our staff team, bringing in three new Facilitators. We were joined by Rebecca Kerry in August 2023 to replace Carmel Segev who unfortunately had to leave her role with us in June due to a change in personal circumstances, and then by Pia Saunders-Patel and Frankie Jones in January 2024, bringing our Facilitator team to a group of four with varied and rich expertise and both lived and learned experience. To host this dream team, we moved into a larger office space in January 2024, providing us with more suitable space for programme preparation and administration, but also access to suitable spaces to meet with children and parents for their pre-programme Learning Support Plan appointments.
We also added additional expertise to our Board of Trustees, welcoming Ella Buckingham who brings particular expertise in social media and communications.
Whilst all of this has undoubtedly set a fierce pace of work for the small but growing team at Oxfordshire Discovery College, none of this really demonstrates the significant impact that the efforts of our staff and volunteers have had on the children and families we serve, or the challenging circumstances that they’ve made these achievements within.
Challenges and achievements
In October 2023 our volunteer CEO, Laura, had a baby and spent six months on maternity leave. Laura provides day-to-day leadership and vision to the organisation, but she is also the sole internal fundraiser. We planned for this period carefully and were able to secure around £54,000 before the end of October, ensuring a robust financial position with which to enter this period.
We also recognised that staff capacity was limited against the climbing demand we were seeing, and that more resource would be needed to see us through these pivotal six months, so we increased
our Coordinator’s hours to 0.6FTE. She was able to use some of these hours to participate in the Clore Leadership Development Programme, further enhancing our infrastructure by deepening her skills and knowledge of values-led leadership.
All staff and board members pulled together and took on additional tasks and responsibilities in Laura’s absence, working in close collaboration and not only maintaining momentum but actually driving the charity through a period of growth. We wish to express our deep gratitude for the commitment of the entire staff team and board of trustees, but in particular to Leila Rawes Barton, Coordinator, for consistently going above and beyond to ensure Discovery College continued to thrive.
It was affirming for our model and way of working that we also saw positive indicators of impact resulting from our programmes, with children and young people reporting improvements in wellbeing. 62% of young people showed and increase in wellbeing metrics from participating in just one programme with us, with ‘I’ve been feeling calm’, ‘I think good things will happen in my life’, and ‘I’ve been getting on well with people’ showing the largest improvement.
For our Identity, Resilience and Reflection programme for young adults, 100% of participants reported improved wellbeing according to the Warwick and Edinburgh Scale as a result of attending.
The SENCO of one school shared ‘a parent who is normally very negative about school and what is on offer was full of praise during parents evening for the ODC Big Feelings Programme that her child was currently accessing through the school. She had explained that it had had a huge positive impact on her child and that they were able to use the strategies that were being taught and that she was seeing a change in behaviour as a result.’
This encouraging early-stage impact data garnered some interest from local services and partners, culminating in us being invited to present at the annual children’s mental health conference for Oxfordshire, Youth In Mind. The event, hosted by Oxfordshire Mind and Oxfordshire Youth, welcomed professionals from education, health, and the charity sector. We were asked to present a workshop exploring perceptions of mental health in young people, which was oversubscribed, and to also host a presentation in the lecture theatre showcasing our innovative Self Harm -> Self Care suite of programmes. It was valuable to have the opportunity to share some of our learnings from these early years of testing our model with the wider service community, and to grow the network of support that the families we work with can access as part of their recovery journeys.
Summary
2023-24 could have been a year of significant upheaval, that might have slowed our progress and prompted us to consolidate and narrow our focus. Instead, we’re incredibly proud that the team managed to not only sustain the upward momentum gathered last year, but to drive us forward through an exciting period of growth and expansion, becoming more the reliable and high quality
service for families that we’ve always aspired to be. This has only been possible due to the dedication of every individual involved in the work who all believe so fervently in what we’re trying to achieve, and to the children and young people who inspire us by bravely coming forward to seek support even on the days that it feels an impossible task.
“The programme pushed me to think that I can't hide behind a shell. Doing these activities has helped. I never used to go out and try new things but have now started to a little bit more and I feel proud of what I have achieved.”
Plans
2024-25 will be a year to bed in the expansion of this period - settling staff, embedding processes, capturing data and consolidating. Whilst our income generation for this year was strong, we expect the next financial year’s fundraising to get off to a slow start due to the maternity leave of our CEO, so we’ll also be investing time and energy into nurturing our fundraising pipeline, seeking out multi-year opportunities that will better enable us to plan in the longer term. We’ll be making use of some mentoring and training opportunities made available to us by the School for Social Entrepreneurs, and adding Storytelling Case Studies to our repertoire of impact data collection.
We will continue to roll out our programmes to new cohorts in new locations, ensuring that we’re reaching as many young people as our capacity allows, and drawing on their feedback to continually evolve and improve our service offering.
Our Strategic Priorities for 2024 support are:
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Increase participant engagement through both participation in high quality programmes, and enrolment
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Continue to build our evidence base, demonstrating efficacy and return on investment, and articulate it clearly
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Boost our fundraising capacity, working towards securing multi-year funding
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Develop our infrastructure to ensure robust and sustainable organisational growth
Financial Review
As at the 31st of March 2024, the cash held by the charity totalled £71,134, of which £22,332 represented unrestricted funds. The trustees consider the cash held to be sufficient to cover operating costs for the year ahead.
No restricted funds of the charity are materially in deficit.
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
| Signature(s) | |
|---|---|
| Full name(s) | Aarti Chapman |
| Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) |
Chair |
| Date | 7th November 2024 |
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ Oxfordshire Discovery College members of On accounts for the year The 31st of March, 2024 Charity no 1196460 ended (if any) Set out on pages 10 and 11
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Charity”) for the year ended 31 / 03 / 2024.
Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have Independent examiner's come to my attention in connection with the examination which gives me statement cause to believe that in, any material respect:
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the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
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the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
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the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Date: 27/10/2024 Signed: Name: Michael Russell Relevant professional Chartered Institute of Management Accountants qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 40 Levery Close Abingdon, OX14 3XX
Income and Expenditure
| Balance Brought Forward Income Grants Other Income Total Income Expenditure Salaries Training Overheads Materials Expenses Marketing Recruitment Equipment Partner Costs Venue Hire Total Expenditure Surplus/Deficit Balance Carried Forward |
Total 42,900 76,733 1,884 78,618 39,775 561 5,884 812 1,161 104 2 2,040 0 45 50,384 28,233 71,134 |
Unrestricted Funds 21,411 6,263 1,819 8,083 0 90 5,490 150 142 104 0 1,187 0 0 7,162 921 22,332 |
Restricted Funds 21,490 70,470 65 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 70,535 | |||
| 39,775 472 395 662 1,020 0 2 853 0 45 |
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| 43,223 | |||
| 27,312 | |||
| 48,802 |
Balance Sheet
| Current Assets Cash and Bank Bank Account 71,133 Petty Cash 1 Total Current Assets Net Assets Funds Position Restricted Funds Unrestricted Funds Total Funds |
71,134 |
|---|---|
| 71,134 | |
| 48,802 22,332 |
|
| 71,134 |
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
| Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date |
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|---|---|
| Aarti Chapman | |
Chair |
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| 7th November 2024 |