2023-08-31-accounts - Waltham Forest Dyslexia Association

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Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2023

Registered charity: 802993 www.wfda.org.uk

63 Ruby Road London E17 4RE

Waltham Forest Dyslexia Association Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2023

Patrons	David McLoughlin
	Benjamin Zephaniah
Trustees
Chair:	Lois Hood
Vice-Chair:	Katherine Hewlett
Secretary:	Siobhan Moore-Lynch_(to Nov 2022)_
	John McMenemy_(Secretary from Nov 2022)_
Treasurer:	Elly Pearce
Other trustees:	Marcia Brisset-Bailey	Shân Copeland_(from Mar 2023)_
	Katherine Marshall	Sadia Mirza
	Carol Newnham_(Safeguarding)_
Staff, Tutors, Support & Bank
Children’s Programme	Manager:Karen Sparkes
Class Tutors:	Carolyn Browne_(from May 2023)_ Dawn Budd
	Justine Gilbert_(to Jul 2023)_	Maxine Johnson
	Rosemary Jolliffe	Kathy Payne
	Sheena Penfold	Linda Witham
Screening:	Lois Hood	Katherine Marshall
	Kathy Payne	Elly Pearce
Adult Groups:	Marcia Brisset-Bailey	Katherine Hewlett
	Lois Hood	Sadia Mirza
Website:	Jane Walker
Helpline Volunteers:	Lois Hood	Debra Lewis
	Elly Pearce
Finance Volunteer:	David Pearce
Bank:	CAF Bank, West Malling, Kent

Waltham Forest Dyslexia Association Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2023

Trustees’ Annual Report

INTRODUCTION

This year will be the last year that I will write this report. After many years of being involved with WFDA I am bowing out. I first joined WFDA in 1999 as a parent and it was very supportive to me when I first knew my daughter was dyslexic. I later joined WFDA as a tutor and worked as a tutor from 2008 to 2016. I then became a trustee and for much of the time since then I have been chair. I now need to move on but am very proud of the achievements of WFDA during these years. We have worked with many children and families in our classes and our adult work has expanded exponentially. This work has only been possible due to our wonderful team of tutors for children’s classes supported by our excellent children’s program manager Karen Sparkes. The adult work has expanded mostly due to the work of Katherine Hewlett but has also been supported by Marcia Brisset-Bailey and Sadia Mirza, as well as myself.

Restrictions as a result of Covid 19 have been lifted but we have continued to work online both for our children’s classes and for our adult work. We have continued online with the children’s classes mostly because parents/carers have wished to continue in this way but also because our work has developed and some of our families live a good distance from Waltham Forest. Our adult work has stayed online again because many of our adults live outside Waltham Forest.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my fellow trustees, colleagues, staff, volunteers, children and their parents who use our services for their time, dedication, commitment and effort – it’s because of them that WFDA has managed to keep our services running successfully.

ADULT WORK

WFDA has continued to deliver the adult services as a virtual provision on Zoom. When lockdown happened in March 2020, we transferred all adult provision to the preferred virtual platforms of Zoom or Teams.

We are now in the second and final year for the National Lottery Partnership Fund Programme. This is for an Advocacy Programme supporting the mental health of neurodivergent (ND) adults to include screening. It ia a partnership project delivered by WFDA and AchieveAbility (AA).

The purpose of the programme:

to bring ND people together and build strong relationships in and across communities.
to enable more people to fulfil their potential by working to address issues at the earliest possible stage.

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Trustees’ Annual Report (continued)

This project is from February 2022 to February 2024 (£22,000).

During this financial year the following services have been delivered on a voluntary basis: the helpline and the monthly Adult Meetups and the monthly Advocate talks and screening. The numbers of participants and service users have grown exponentially, and even include national and international attendees for the monthly meetups. People can either regularly attend the sessions or drop into their session of preference. Although this has been delivered on a voluntary basis we are still able to provide our services free of charge, which makes them fully accessible. For all the work, people can be referred to or from our screening service and helpline. We are therefore providing a unique service, which is not replicated anywhere else in the UK. In this way WFDA, in partnership with AchieveAbility, has delivered two meetups for ND adults a month, since the start of Covid. Screenings have also increased with more people accessing our services; 18 full screenings and 112 checklist screenings. All people screened receive a report to outline the result of the process.

In the second year of the Advocate Programme the partnership has worked hard to embed this set of talks with our more formal Adult Meetups. The purpose is to develop our Neurodivergent advocates into highly skilled speakers. Thus the Adult Meetups and the Advocate work are programmes integrated for a sustainable future for adult work at WFDA. This is to ensure sustainability after the National Lottery funded programme with adult meetups then delivered once a month. There are nine advocates drawn from a wide range of experiences and backgrounds. All Advocates are assessed as being neurodivergent and their expertise covers fields such as: Town Planning, Well being, Legal knowledge, Assistive Technology, Psychology, Social Work, Speech therapy, Social Media, Marketing and Retail. The Adult Meetups have drawn speakers from: Dyslexia Scotland, University of Leicester, Criminal Justice Alliance, Dyslexia Adult Network, St Mungo’s, Empowering Dyslexics and AchieveAbility.

Advocate key evaluation points

The training was thought to be well focused
The management of the project is working well with the right balance of structure but flexibility for advocates to make key choices. There is freedom but guidance is at hand
The programme has empowered the Advocates and enabled them to become more insightful of themselves and others.
They have developed new skills in: Communications, technology and how to work as a team.
The teamwork and networking has provided positive experiences and so there are fewer barriers and more skills for resilience

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The group works well, sharing concerns, issues, techniques for short cuts.
The tools for Advocacy enable the group to work effectively as role models
The teamwork is excellent as they are like minded people, they are less isolated with the peer support.

All Zoom sessions last 1.5 to 2 hours. There is regular attendance of 20-30 neurodivergent adults drawn primarily from London but also from: Scotland, Wales, Southern and Northern England. A Zoom invite is sent out three days before the event to 200 people on the WFDA database. There are flyers for each event, which are posted on the WFDA web site.

We now have a database of over 200 people who have expressed an interest in this provision. In addition, we use Jiscmail, Facebook and Instagram to raise awareness of our work. Many participants contact us through word of mouth, our partnerships and through the screening service, which can often be a progression route to our Zoom sessions. The screening can be a powerful experience for our participants as the information revealed means gaining much greater knowledge about who they are.

This work has now generated a WhatsApp group to continue and strengthen these voices for advocacy. In short we aim to ensure the LivedIn experience is truly supported by positive role models drawn from our ND community.

WFDA has taken the opportunity to develop its website. Thank you to Jane Walker who continues to support us very well with this work.

Participant quotes

“ Through the group I got the opportunity to develop a presentation and deliver it live on a zoom call. As my career to date had not required such skills I had no experience with presentations and had never given a talk, whether live on zoom or anywhere else. Now through this experience I have had the opportunity to learn how to put a presentation together and speak publicly about a subject that I have retrained in and I know will become my new career ”.

“I have now given 3 presentations to the organisation at work on dyslexia and neurodiversity. Without the WFDA and the Advocacy Group, I am not sure I would have been as confident to do it and also the information I share would not have been as good or impactful. As I was able to share a lot of the experiences I have that are common amongst other dyslexics and neurodivergent people”.

“ While I have had to actively listen with great care in my work for years, I found this training refreshing, and a great reminder of the value of deeply and wholly listening to someone (as well as oneself), I've been able to hear out a person in quite a few situations in which I may previously have been less tolerant”

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“Over my time with WFDA, it has been impactful for all of us who have been lucky enough to find out about WFDA and take part in the group. When I have been talking to advocates when preparing for my presentation, we all say the same thing about how beneficial we find the sessions as often it's just the talking and sharing of personal experiences that we all get so much out of and can relate to”

“I have been able to explore and understand the impact of my diagnosis of dyslexia. This community offer’s me a wealth of information and knowledge which has been gathered from individual lived experiences and a professional knowledge base. This process has shown me how each of us builds our resilience. I was able to share my master’s dissertation with AchieveAbility. With their help and support this was included in the AchieveAbility e-journal. I had previously felt that my work although it passed was not of an academic standard”

“I can't think of how it can be improved, as Katherine does a great job with all the communications. My hope it that it keeps going for many years to come and that it keeps being online so that myself and other people, who would not easily be able to make it to sessions in person, can online as this is more accessible and inclusive to all”.

“This project has been one of the most positive and invaluable experiences I have had the opportunity to take part in because of the confidence it has given me”.

Screening is part of the project as we recognise that screening is key to the mental health of neurodivergent adults and therefore is core to our work. We carry out two types of screening.

The first is a screening for dyslexia only which is carried out over the phone. We have processed 112 of these.

The second type of screening is in more depth and carries a range of neurodiverse learning differences including dyslexia, ADHD and autism. This type of screening is completed via Zoom. We have processed 18 of these. After the screening participants receive a report of the outcomes and some recommendations for the future.

People who wish to be screened come to us in a variety of ways. With some it is word of mouth with others it is through our adult groups or through social media including our website. Quite a few people come on the recommendation of their GP or another health professional. People who have been screened are invariably very happy with the process. We receive many positive comments which mention how it has helped them understand their learning differences and how it has helped them to move on as they more fully comprehend how to channel these learning differences into a more constructive outcome. Many of our Advocates have been screened by WFDA and have benefited from this greater knowledge about themselves and their way of thinking.

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WORK WITH CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

WFDA continue to provide essential support to children and young people who are dyslexic. 8 tutors continued providing excellent in person numeracy and touch-typing lessons and online support classes to 49 students. In the past year WFDA has seen children and young people attending tailor made classes that are engaging, fun and extremely supportive to the children and their families. These students come from a range of areas including those living within the borough of Waltham Forest and beyond such are the benefits of offering an online service.

The tutors at WFDA provide more than literacy and numeracy support, some have been involved with supporting families to secure Educational Health Care Plans (EHCP) and other additional resources that have had significant impact on the type of help and intervention these children receive within their schools and with their academic studies. WFDA classes continue to provide consistent support to children and their families when there are so many changes taking place in their lives and in our global world.

We were able to restart touch-typing classes at Stoneydown Primary School for only one term. Most of the children involved were from the school, as the venue proved hard to access for others.

In July of this year WFDA were approached by a local primary school, offering their venue for free to host our touch-typing classes. This came while the Childrens Programme Manager had submitted a proposal to a local secondary school requesting the use of their ICT suite for WFDA to run touch-typing classes. I am pleased to say that both schools have agreed to allow WFDA to use their premises for free to deliver touch typing lessons to children aged 6 years – 16 years.

One of the touch-typing classes started in September at Henry Maynard Primary School and the second class started in October at Walthamstow School for Girls. Both classes are face to face and provide an opportunity for WFDA to increase the number of children it supports, raise our profile, and foster positive partnership working with our local schools in the community. We are grateful to both schools for their support and hope that these classes will prove beneficial to all the students who attend.

WFDA continues to see an increase in the number of children attending classes who present with mental health challenges, with several of them requiring 1 to 1 support in classes. Last year we took part in training and this year we were able to purchase books with a focus on children mental health and how to support young people who are experiencing mental health challenges. It is important to note that although the tutors are not mental health specialist or counsellors, their support beyond the academic has been valued and appreciated by families whose children attend our

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classes and this is largely due to their flexible approach to supporting our young people.

The current climate that we are living in still feels like we are living in unprecedented times with the current cost of living crisis having an impact on those attending classes and WFDA. Last year WFDA saw almost a third of students in receipt of free or reduced cost literacy and numeracy lessons, however this has decreased this year, mainly due to a number of those children coming to the end of their 2- 3-year support with WFDA and therefore leaving. WFDA do still have a few families in receipt of free classes.

As stated in last year’s annual report WFDA was in the final year of a 3–year funding from The Three Oaks Trust and Children in Need. Fortunately, the Childrens Programme Manager was able to secure a further £30K over a 3-year period (2022 – 2025) seeing £10K per year for 3 years to support the children’s classes. This is from the Three Oaks Trust. Despite this generous support WFDA does require more funding to ensure classes remain open, therefore we are currently in the process of applying for funding with the hope of securing the funds we still need.

Earlier in the year we conducted a survey which revealed just how important and effective WFDA online support classes are to the families. Parents / carers shared just how impactful classes are on the students and their families as can be seen in the following data and comments:

74% of respondents said they had significantly grown in self-confidence at school and remaining 36% said they had started to grow more in confidence because of attending WFDA classes. When asked how WFDA classes help children with finding strategies they can use to positively engage and participate in the classroom 70% saw a significant increase with the remaining 30% saying that they were starting to see progress in this area. As a result of this they felt their resilience was being developed and strengthened. One parent shared:

“WFDA has given my child strategies to use in class and for reading words they would find impossible otherwise”.

The children expressed their appreciation of the classes with 100% of them saying they like their online classes. Here are some of the reasons why:

“I enjoy all the games that help me with my memory”.

“They (classes) are fun, and I learn at the same time”.

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“Because they give me strategies to learn and understand and helps me understand my dyslexia and not worry about it and be proud of my strengths”.

Parents have also shared their positive views about classes as seen in a couple of the examples below:

“As a single parent that works full time, I would not be able to access these classes if they were face to face, I can work while the class is happening. My child hates schoolwork…; my child’s tutor is so very kind and patient, my child really enjoys their sessions. There’s no trying to get out of it they are very happy to do them. My child has come so far, they are almost able to give up their reader pen at school which is mind blowing”.

“WFDA is a lifesaver, without it my son would be suffering mentally.”

“WFDA gives very helpful information and more understanding asking of dyslexia and how I can help my son.”

I am sure you will agree that these are really encouraging comments and highlights the positive impact WFDA is having. We thank The Three Oaks Trust and BBC Children in Need for their vital funding for classes. We have continued to receive funds from the Jack Petchey Foundation as part of their Bronze Achievement Award scheme where WFDA receive £300 per award and WFDA receive 3 awards per year.

In summary it has been another successful but financially challenging year, with classes remaining opening and tutors providing a fantastic service. Parents and students have expressed the vital support that classes provide. WFDA has managed to remain solvent, operational, and impactful for over 30 years providing an essential service to the dyslexic community which is expressed in the following comment made by a parent:

“The teaching, time and comment my son gets from his teacher at WFDA is outstanding and without this support I feel my child would be at further disadvantage within education. WFDA gives children the opportunity to learn and be taught in a way that they understand. The education children receive in school does not come close to what WFDA do, it’s just a huge shame that this support is not provided to all children with dyslexia. WFDA is a must for any child with Dyslexia.”

SUMMER CLUB 2023

The Summer Club 2023 was the fifteenth Summer Club. The first club was held in

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During the last sixteen years, the club only failed to run on one occasion. Due to the pandemic, we ran the club online for two consecutive years. We were so happy to return to running the club face-to-face this year.

The main idea of the Summer Club is to support Year 6 students in their transition to secondary school when they become Year 7. Each year, the children enjoy the week and gain confidence in their transition to secondary school.

At the start of the Spring Term invitations to attend the Summer Club went out to all Year 6 children in our WFDA classes. Advertising the Summer Club this year was very challenging. We thank everyone who diligently helped to spread the word about the club.

This year, the club encountered other challenges regarding finding tutors to run some of our sessions. Some of the tutors we normally used were unattainable or were no longer living locally. We successfully arranged new tutors for the cooking, drama, art and sports sessions. Unfortunately, we were unable to have our popular woodwork session.

The club was attended by five girls and five boys. However, one of the students only attended for a day and a half. As this student's attendance was short, he was not asked to participate in our evaluation survey. The students came from varied ethnic backgrounds – parents defined how they saw their ethnic background (see Appendix One). Learning difficulties were defined in the main as dyslexia. One of the students did not have dyslexia but was diagnosed with Developmental Language Delay. Some of the difficulties she experiences overlap with dyslexia.

The students came from eight different primary schools. Four students went to Waltham Forest Primary Schools and will be attending Secondary Schools in the same borough. Three students attended a primary school in Redbridge. One student attended a school in Epping Forest, and another went to a primary school in Newham. These students will attend Secondary Schools in the same borough as the one they attended for primary school, except for two who will be attending school in Tower Hamlets and Redbridge.

The most popular activities were swimming and cooking. During the swimming session, the students were given free time in the pool and were supervised by Sylvestrian Centre staff. Floats were put in the pool, and it was a fun session. The cooking session was run by Carol Cameron, who guided the students in making delicious cookies. They were all able to save some of their cookies and share them with their family.

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The art session was run by Terri Timms. In this session, Terri demonstrated a stepby-step guide on how to paint Vincent van Gogh’s “Starry Night” painting. The students created fantastic replicas of “Starry Night” on canvas. They were all delighted to take their painting home with them.

The drama session was run by Deana Henry. The students were introduced to various drama techniques, and they were fully engrossed in each activity. The adults also participated in the session and had as much fun as the students. To end the session, the students worked as a group to perform sequential movements to the beat of salsa music.

The sports session was run by Michelle Winter. The students took part in some team games on the grass area. However, when the rain started to fall, the students were brought inside. Michelle used her initiative and created various active memory games for the students to play indoors.

Other activities involved the children choosing their own group names, making a paper chain of their talents and designing their own crest to portray their strengths. The students were also given the opportunity to look at a typical secondary school timetable. They were given an idea of how a two-week timetable works in secondary schools. They were also shown how their day may be set out between different lessons, which would be held in different classrooms with different teachers. In addition, they were shown the type of equipment that they may need for their various lessons and how they could organise themselves for the day. The mentors were invaluable in sharing their knowledge of being in secondary schools and were able to answer questions and allay some of the children’s worries.

The main classroom activity involved the students taking turns to read a story relating to starting secondary school. Then, they did hot seating to get a better idea of how the characters were feeling. The children created a storyboard using pictures and short sentences to follow this up.

At the end of the week, there was an awards ceremony, the aim of which was to congratulate the children on their achievements during the week. Each student was given a certificate of attendance. The students also performed a dance they had created and showcased their creative work.

At the end of the transition summer club, we asked the students and the parents to evaluate their experience of the week.

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We received positive responses from all nine students who participated in our survey. All students said they enjoyed the overall experience of coming to the Summer Transition Club and feel more positive about transferring to Secondary School since attending the club. Seven out of nine students said their favourite activity was the cooking session. Seven out of nine students said they enjoyed swimming. Three out of nine students said they enjoyed the drama session. Two out of nine students said their favourite session was art; similarly, two out of nine said their favourite session was the timetable task. One student said their favourite session was learning about transitioning to secondary school.

When asked what did we do well and what could we do better, here are some of the student's responses:

"I like that all the teachers participated in all the fun!"

"It is okay, but not as much writing next time."

"The club was amazing and wonderful. I would come here again if I could."

We also received feedback from nine parents. Their feedback was also very positive , with all parents saying that their child enjoyed the week very much and their child felt more positive about going to secondary school as a result of their experience.

When asked if the club provide the support needed by your child and, if not, what would you have liked us to have done differently, here are some of the students' responses:

“Yes, definitely, and my son enjoyed the experience thoroughly.”

“Yes, I think so. She seems to be much more confident and less stressed. Again, she really enjoyed the timetable session as she had been worried about this.”

“Yes, my daughter loved coming to the course. She has been full of praise for the tutors. She loved meeting new friends. Thank you.”

“Yes, they spent time getting to know other children and their experience of dyslexia in the classroom and how it makes them feel. They also learnt different coping strategies that they could use.”

“I’m not sure. My daughter has not talked much about the experience. She said she would have liked less writing.”

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“Overall, he enjoyed the week, but it would be good if there were more sportsoriented activities.”

When asked to comment on any aspects of this week that your child did not enjoy or found difficult, their replies were as follows:

“He didn’t find anything difficult, but he wasn’t keen on the story-writing activity.”

“She seems to have had a wonderful time here and has said that the staff have been so kind and friendly.”

“My daughter was positive about the experience.”

“It was a shame there weren’t more children, but it was also nice that it was a small group who got on well with one another.”

We are truly grateful for the funds transferred from the “Handbook pot” (aka LBWF schools’ fund). This financial support meant that we could offer places at the Summer Transition Club free of charge to families, many of whom could not afford an opportunity like this.

We also thank Lois Hood for her continued support with the club.

HELPLINE

Our helpline team this year was Debra Lewis, Elly Pearce and Lois Hood. The Helpline team provide speedy responses and we give special thanks for the effort and commitment our volunteers show to all those who call or email. It is a timeconsuming task, with volunteers taking an average of two enquiries a week - covering anything from general advice for parents wanting to help their children with dyslexia, to how to book a screening. We also have many enquiries from adults, of all ages, who seek support. With regards to adults, the helpline and screenings have largely merged, so that the screening is integrated with the help and advice provided.

SCREENINGS

Our team of screeners this year was Elly Pearce and Kathy Payne (primary), Katherine Marshall (secondary) and Lois Hood (adult). All the team are dyslexia specialists who have completed assessment training, and consequently are able to give a specialist view, rather than just a simple result from the computer programmes or from the other assessment tools used.

As we have continued without suitable premises due to Covid, Elly did 45 primary screenings in her home during the year. On the website, parents are encouraged to

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contact Elly Pearce by email. Kathy went into one school to carry out 8 screenings but doesn’t feel comfortable to do any at home.

We are continuing to use the LUCID screening tools as before. Primary ones are online.

The hoped-for return to Frederick Bremer hasn’t happened so screening in our homes will continue, as the demand is still there. We caught up on our backlog due to Covid but requests are still coming in a regular stream showing this service is still needed. Some of the children screened progress to our online classes. In other cases we can provide information on how to find a tutor or where to get a full diagnostic assessment.

Secondary screening is for students aged 11 - 18. The screening is a much quicker and cheaper option than a full assessment and can be a useful start to understanding the difficulties that the student is experiencing.

Katherine screens from her home, usually on a Monday after school, using the LUCID LASS test for 11 - 15 year olds and LUCID LADS for those aged 16 - 18. Often some extra tests are included. Katherine screened 19 students. There were also a number of calls from parents wanting to talk over the difference between a full assessment and screening. We do seem to be getting referrals from a few particular schools and we will now keep a record of these. Lois has carried out two secondary neurodiverse screenings.

The screening for adults is described in the section on Adult Work.

SAFEGUARDING AND CHILD PROTECTION

Safeguarding and Child Protection and Safeguarding Adults are taken very seriously at WFDA.

Safeguarding is what we do to prevent harm, while child protection is the way in which we respond to harm. Safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility, not just those who regularly work with the children and adults.

We have safeguarding and child protection policies and procedure documents, that are regularly updated, with the last update in May 2023. We also have recently approved a new Safeguarding Policy for Adults (September 2023), for our growing work with adults, some of whom would be considered as “adults at risk” (previously known as “vulnerable adults”). There are separate designated safeguarding officers (DSO) for both children and adults and a dedicated email address for safeguarding concerns, which can be found on our website.

Safeguarding is a regular item on the agenda of both trustee and tutor meetings. All tutors and screeners and anyone working with children have enhanced DBS certificates and these are regularly checked and updated. Our umbrella company for DBS checking remains as Atlantic Data. DBSs are valid for 3 years and people are encouraged to sign up to the DBS Update Service so renewals can be easily

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checked. There is no legal requirement for DBS screening for those working with the adults that we engage with, as we are not involved in “regulated activities” with them; however our adult lead does have a valid enhanced DBS.

Tutors and screeners receive regular safeguarding training and British Values training, including “on-line safety”, as our classes remain mainly online and will do for the foreseeable future. Our tutors and screeners are vigilant in their approach to safeguarding and child protection and this year raised one concern with our DSO, which was successfully actioned through communication with several agencies, including social services and the student’s school, resulting in a positive outcome for the student and the student’s parent. WFDA continue to monitor the situation whilst the child remains a student of WFDA.

FUNDRAISING

We have not charged for adult screenings but many adults have made voluntary donations. People continued to use the Amazon Smile scheme but Amazon have now stopped running this scheme. Much of our usual fundraising has not taken place since Covid 19. Some of our children’s families have also made donations. We are grateful to the 4 people who have recently completed sponsored events for WFDA.

In the section about adult work there is information about funding from the National Lottery. In the section about children’s work there is information about funding for the children’s classes.

THANK YOU

There are many people to thank for the support they have given over the year. David Pearce has continued to manage our finances, which includes ensuring that people are paid on time. David also processes many other aspects of WFDA administration and so we give him special thanks. We thank all volunteers who help us with our work

TRUSTEES

Waltham Forest Dyslexia Association (WFDA) is a registered charity governed by its constitution as an Association. The constitution sets out the Association’s objects as to advance the education of persons who are Dyslexic, provide support and information, and advance the education of the public to make society more dyslexicfriendly.

The honorary officers of the Association and not more than twelve other trustees are elected at the Annual General Meeting of members. The trustees may co-opt other persons to be trustees, provided that the number of co-opted trustees does not exceed one third of the total number of trustees.

We welcome Shân Copeland to the trustee board.

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Congratulations to Marcia Brisset-Bailey, who has recently been appointed a trustee of British Dyslexia Association.

RESERVES POLICY

The WFDA Reserves Policy is to maintain sufficient level of reserves to enable normal operating activities to continue should a shortfall in income occur and to take account of potential risks and contingencies that may arise from time to time.

In order to make a judgment on the amount of reserve the Trustees have considered the risks in respect of expenditure, unrestricted income and where appropriate restricted income. Also taken into consideration are any external identified potential major risks to income and expenditure during the year under consideration.

After reviewing our current position the trustees have decided the following:

WFDA should hold in reserve approximately one year’s funding for classes and related activities, which within the current budget period and allowing for grants already agreed, equates to £14,000 (currently £15,282 see note 2)
The General Fund (currently £14,844 see note 1) is sufficient to provide day to day working capital and allow WFDA to fund new developments.

This policy will be reviewed annually by the trustees.

PUBLIC BENEFIT

The trustees have complied with their duty to have due regard to the Charity Commission’s public benefit guidance when exercising any powers or duties to which the guidance is relevant.

SUMMING UP

As a final note, we would like to thank all our members, parents of our pupils, adults who take part in our adult groups and other friends for their continuing support of our fundraising and other activities. We are also grateful to our members who gift aid their subscriptions and donations enabling us to reclaim tax they have paid. Thank you to you all for your interest, support and commitment to WFDA now and in the future. As I often say to people, WFDA does an enormous amount with limited resources.

Lois Hood Chair of Trustees 13 November 2023

Waltham Forest Dyslexia Association Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 August 2023

Independent Examiner’s Report to the members of the Waltham Forest Dyslexia Association for the year 1 September 2022 to 31 August 2023

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Charities Act”) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to:

(1) examine the accounts under section 145 of the Charities Act,
(2) to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145(5)(b) of the Charities Act, and
(3) to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.

Basis of independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair’ view, and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements
to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; and
to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Charities Act

have not been met; or

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Zita Derbak MAAT AATQB Independent Examiners Ltd Unit 2 The Broadbridge Business Centre Delling Lane Bosham PO18 8NF 14 November 2023