Daisychains Annual Report (covering period Jan 24 to Jan 26) Part 1: Chairs Report Jan 24 to Jan 25
Daisychains has become a registered charity this year, as a CIO. We have adopted a new foundation model constitution. We have had some changes to the Trustee body as Trudy Hankin and Hannah Salt step down after many years of service. Claire Murray has stood down as Chair but takes on the role of Secretary and Nessa Rackham takes on the role of Chair.
2024 has been a very special year for us, as daisychains celebrated its 10th Birthday in June. We held a big party in the form of a ‘Daisyfest’ and over 40 families past and present came along throughout the day to help us celebrate and re-connect.
We continue to have a dedicated team of Volunteers and Trustees who offer time, patience, empathy, fun, encouragement, expertise and commitment to enable daisychains to run and to develop. We have a new volunteer -Trudy Woodhall who has been visiting us in a professional capacity as an Early Years Advisory Teacher for a number of years but since her retirement has joined our team of volunteers and we are delighted to welcome her.
Our mission statement at daisychains is ‘Journeying alongside families of pre-children with additional needs’. We do this weekly at our sessions, and sometimes even daily on our ‘Whats App’ groups. Everyone is at a different stage of the journey - At the start : coming to terms with the individual developmental path each child will take in their own way and their own time, and learning about the different support available. Then learning to navigate the wider world of SEN, the jargon, the hoops to jump through and the battling and waiting to access the right provision. Sadly maybe even facing the end of the journey, which we have all experienced recently, as we mourned together the loss of one of our daisies, after a short illness. It was moving to see how our whole community came together to support his family and each other and participate in a celebration of his special life.
Interactions are at the heart of our sessions - whether it’s the supportive chats between parents and volunteers or the ‘Intensive Interactions’ we use as we have fun with the children to encourage their communication. All our children need support with their communication. We have been fortunate to buy in the support of Hannah Haslan, a SALT to lead us in this. She provides advice to parents and volunteers and models the strategies with the children.
We are grateful to have the support of many different people and organisations. Christchurch provides the premises and gives ongoing support through their safeguarding team who carry out our DBS checks for new volunteers. Claire Ginty, from Achieve OT , comes regularly to provide advice and expertise. Judith Russell, our parent coach, provides a regular valuable listening ear and extra counselling (up to 6 sessions) for individuals as and when needed. Nicky Freeman, the HV lead for SEN also visits regularly and supports many of our referrals. The Valiant Trust continue to support us financially through their generous donations. We have also received donations from The Inner Wheel and Tilehouse Street
We continue to offer a packed and varied programme to our families. Highlights of our regular weekly meeting include snack time, various sensory activities and crafts, bucket time and bubbles. Special events throughout the term include visits from ‘Pickles’ the therapy pony, swimming, visits to Mama Baby Play and the Play Café at the British Schools
Museum. A visit from the fire engine and a summer outing to Standalone farm were particular highlights.
Many of these activities are things that would not normally be accessible to our families for a variety of reasons. However, we can often arrange bespoke sessions that meet the needs of our families and children.
We have also worked hard to move our admin online and reduce our paper trail. So new families receive a digital Welcome pack and registration forms that they can fill in on their phones and which will automatically update on our google drive. We have also developed our Social Media presence via Instagram Thanks to Helen Bainbridge for all her help with this.
Under our new constitution, the trustees are the only voting members of daisychains and so our AGM will now be held as part of a trustee meeting. However, we do not want to lose the opportunity to have an event for families and partners to celebrate the work of daisychains each year so we will be thinking about the best way to do this.
Other plans for the next year include an away day for Volunteers and Trustees, the recruitment of new Trustees and a sustainability plan, gathering feedback and creating an impact report on our SALT offer and arranging a summer outing.
We remain very grateful to all our supporters for enabling us to continue this valuable work.
Financial report: Jan 24 – Jan 25
Income for the year was £1,351. We have one private donor who regularly gives. We have received two large donations from Tilehouse Street Baptist church and from Inner Wheel.
Expenditure for the year was £11,445. The biggest expenditure for the year was on the tenyear celebration (‘Daisyfest’) which was a great success connecting with past families. We have also spent on professional support with a focus on Speech And Language Therapy (SALT).
As a result, there was a net deficit for the year of £10,094. The opening cash balance was £36,875, so we ended the year with £26,781.
The results are presented in the table below which show the main items of income and expenditure and the cash position.
Financial results for the year ended 2024
Daisychains Annual General Report:
Part 2 : (Covering period Jan 25 to Jan 26)
Chairperson’s Report
We have had 13 families attending daisychains throughout 2025 and currently have 4 families attending regularly. Since the autumn term our numbers have been unusually low with no families on the waiting list. Having been in contact with other professionals it is apparent the numbers of families in need is still high, especially with county services being cut back. We have reached out to those working with these families to promote daisychains and pass on our promotional leaflets.
We have 28 parents connected on our WhatsApp group from past daisychains families who continue to support each other remotely and occasionally join us for our half termly coffee mornings at the British Schools Play café.
We have 11 regular volunteers who remain committed to the weekly sessions by sharing their expertise, time and fostering compassionate connections with our families. Our dedicated volunteers remain at the heart of us being able to hold true to our mission statement which is to ‘journey alongside’ families of pre school children with additional needs. We continue to provide a predictable structure to each session including a welcome, free play supported by an Intensive Interaction approach, snack time, circle time with singing, bubbles and joint attention activities.
We maintain our positive working partnerships with local Health visitors and other Early Years specialists who visit the group when they can. We are grateful for the ongoing support that Christchurch give us by supporting us with DBS checks for volunteers and safeguarding training.
The Pool House enables our families to access opportunities for swimming once a term in a small, quiet and supportive environment.
Pickles the Therapy pony continues to attend our session each term and brings a lot of joyful interactions.
Hannah from The Mosaic Practice provides regular SALT support as our focus is always on communication and especially as our current cohort are nonverbal. We are working on maximising the smallest opportunities for interactions and recognising the children’s fleeting attempts at communicating.
Judith Russell offers1:1 counselling and has worked with 4 families this year to provide valuable support when things feel overwhelming or the world of SEN provision feels difficult to navigate.
Over 35 of us met for our annual trip to Standalone farm and enjoyed tractor rides, water play, feeding the animals and a picnic, all supported by visuals and Makaton signs.
We provided a 6 week block of evening Makaton training and this was attended by 6 parents and volunteers and was reported to be very valuable.
The trustees this year have been focussing on streamlining the trustee board to enable them to effectively fulfil the obligations of the charity oversight and governance. This has led to the emergence of a separate operational management committee. The new way of working is currently being trialled.
Mike Rickard stepped down as a trustee and treasurer, having been in post since daisychains started in 2014, and we are so grateful for his years of dedication, expertise and commitment. Our sincere thanks also go to Georgia Willian who has also stepped down as a trustee. We are pleased to welcome Jeremy Rackham and Stephanie Breker to the board of trustees.
Financial Report
The funding source for daisychains remains through donations and we continue to plan for how we can remain financially sustainable over the next few years. These allow us to cover our running costs, including room hire, insurance, software and licensing resources as well as
continuing to provide the valuable services, creative resources and equipment for use during the weekly sessions. Trustees and volunteers are not paid and all monies are spent on the families.
Our financial position for 2025 and budget for 2026 are shown below:
| Our fnancial position for 2025 and budget for 2026 are shown below: | Our fnancial position for 2025 and budget for 2026 are shown below: |
|---|---|
| Daisychains - Actual 2025 and budget 2026 | |
| Income and expenditure Opening balance Income Total income Expenditure Total expenditure Income - expenditure Closing balance |
BUDGET ACTUAL 21,168 26,781 Year ended 31 Dec 2026 Year ended 31 Dec 2025 £ £ 500 4,054 10,520 9,668 |
| - 10,020 - 5,613 11,148 21,168 |
Notes: We started 2025 with £26,781 in the bank. We received some very generous donations of £4,054 and spent, as we had planned, at £9,668. As a result we finished the year with a lower balance of £21,168.
As we look to 2026 we need to be seeking new donations as we have a projected shortfall of £10,200 which means we will end 2026 with a balance of just £11,148. We have no regular donors, and we therefore need to consider potential fund raising activities if we are to continue at our same level of expenditure