Annual Report 2014

3 Annual Report 2014

3 Board of Directors

2013/14

Project Managers’ Highlights

4 Adult Services

5 Children’s Services

5 Sherrick House

6 Equality Housing

6 Expect the Best

7 Financial Review

8 Thanking our supporters

2 ANNUAL REPORT 2014

35 Hendon Lane, Finchley London N3 1RT

Tel: 020 8349 3842

Fax: 020 8349 2192

Email: projectsupport @barnetmencap.org.uk

Website: www.barnetmencap.org.uk

Registered Charity No: 1089388

Affiliated to Royal Mencap Society

Working together with Barnet Council

A Company Limited by Guarantee

Registered in England and Wales

Company Registration No: 4274621

Design by David Gibbons davidjng@hotmail.co.uk

Printed by printpal 020 8343 0099 www.printpallondon.com

Contents

Smile! Top row: Stephen

Colby, Ricky Fernandes and

Grace Peters at Paradise

Wildlife Park; Tom Flynn cycling

with Tom Gardner. Middle row:

Gary Jelen with Jack Sparrow

on the Southbank; Mia Arnott

with mother Lisa at a Soft Play

session; Rupert Valia, Govind

Patel and Joanne Waters at

the Happy Healthy Fun Day.

Bottom row: Tessie Sarsfield

after the London Marathon;

Sally-Anne Everett with

makeup artist Donna-Marie at

the Happy Healthy Fun Day

Board Members

Angela Bloomberg

resigned 07/11/2013

Lindsay Games

resigned 07/11/2013

Meg Kirk

Sheila Oliver

Sally Wickenden

appointed 07/11/2013

B arnet Mencap recognises the need

for support that people with

learning disabilities and autism

have. From this autumn, it has a new

three-year contract to provide this

support for adults in the borough.

We continue to work closely with Royal

Mencap Society and they will be

providing employment services as part

of the contract.

In the past year we have developed

the services for children and young

people, including under-fives, and

maintained some short breaks for

children. People with learning disabilities

and family carers continue to value these

short breaks and the range of leisure and

learning projects available.

Healthwatch Barnet has been set up

to give people a say in local services

and Barnet Mencap has been involved

in identifying how to improve health

services for people with learning

disabilities.

Expect the Best, the peer quality

checking service, is working with five

other Mencap groups in London, and

is doing well.

Working closely with families and

through strong partnerships with other

organisations is the best way to help

Barnet Mencap thrive. We appreciate

enormously the confidence shown by

families in the services we provide, and

will continue to strive to ensure their

needs are met.

Next year is our 50th anniversary, a

time to look back and also to the future

and what comes next.

Peter Carter, Chair

Ray Booth, Chief Executive

2014 ANNUAL REPORT 3

Strong partnerships

Annual Report 2014

Chair

Peter Carter

Vice-Chair

Karen Bilkus

Honorary Treasurer

Mike Wiffen

Company Secretary

Teresa Skiba

Board of Directors 2013/14

Project Reports

T he Community Opportunities Project and

Fit2gether continue to thrive. The projects

now have a more certain future and we are able

to continue developing our work. In addition to

the wide range of community leisure and learning

and fitness sessions and courses, the project

offers a wide range of additional activities.

Healthwatch

As part of our work with Healthwatch Barnet

we researched the health care experiences of

people with learning disabilities. We obtained

feedback from 63 people through a variety of

means including focus groups and one-to-one

interviews.

Many people had had negative experiences

including not being spoken to directly by health

care professionals, not being given enough time

and not understanding what had been said to

them. The report, entitled ‘Talk to Me’, has

been received well locally and nationally.

The recommendations are being taken

forward at a local level and hopefully will be

implemented in the foreseeable future.

Cut Films

Early in 2014 we were invited by Cut Films

to make a short anti-smoking film. The

participants had to be aged between 16 and 25.

Three young people — Alexander Ward, Reece

Mullings and volunteer Shibani Datta, plus a

staff member — were supported by a worker

from Cut Films to make the two-minute film.

We thought it was a great project and all felt

very proud of the end product.

The film ‘One-Way Ticket’ not only went on

to win in its category in the Barnet competition,

but also got through to the national final (being

one of only 13 out of 352 entries) which was held

at BAFTA HQ. This was a mainstream

competition and we finished second in our

category nationally. A great achievement

by all concerned.

Hate Crime and Community Safety

We have continued to develop our hate crime

work by developing a number of workshops.

The theme was ‘recognising and reporting

Hate Crime’ and the sessions were facilitated

by Barnet Mencap’s theatre group The Biscuit

Theatre Company, made up of people with

learning disabilities, police officers and

professional actors. In total, five workshops

were held: four in Barnet and one in Brent.

Adult Services

195 people with learning disabilities and autism

aged between 17 and 82 attended. The venues

included Barnet and Southgate College,

Community Space and Oak Lodge School.

In addition we have run Bus Days. Working

alongside the Metropolitan Police Safer

Transport Team, we facilitate sessions which

enable people to feel more safe when out and

about in the local community and when using

public transport. The community safety work

won a prestigious London Problem Orientated

Partnership Award, which was presented at

New Scotland Yard.

Health4All

This was a 13-month partnership project

between the learning disability nurses and

Barnet Mencap. Monthly sessions were held

offering mini health checks and there was a

speaker at each session offering advice and

information. Topics covered included Healthy

Eating, Growing Older, Keeping Fit, Men’s and

Women’s Health and Footcare. 67 people

attended the sessions which were funded by

Awards for All.

4 ANNUAL REPORT 2014

Our anti-

smoking

film, ‘One-

Way Ticket’,

finished

second in

its category

in a

national

short films

competition

‘‘

’’

Clockwise from top: Service users, staff

and the Metropolitan Police at a Hate

Crime workshop; Shernette Morris and

Dominic Chilon on a Wembley Stadium

tour; focus group for Healthwatch Barnet

Sherrick House Short-Term Break Service

T his year has proven to be a busy and

exciting year for Sherrick House. Not only

have we continued to offer in excess of 1,200

nights to more than 40 visitors from Barnet,

Haringey and Enfield, we have also begun to

offer day support where families have

requested this service.

As a team, we have put a large focus on

supporting individuals to develop and maintain

life skills with the long-term goal of supporting

people to move on to shared accommodation

and supported living services. We want to work

more closely with families to help them plan

ahead with these long-term goals.

We have seen four of the people that we

support move on to supported living services

over the last 12 months. We continue to

champion others to reach their goals.

Between March and July there have been

five holidays to various parts of the country

and there are a further two planned for

September and October. In addition to this,

2014 is the second year of our summer

scheme. We have organised numerous day trips

to Thorpe Park, zoos, the seasides, bowling

and museums etc.

We have welcomed new visitors, and new

bank and volunteer staff to our team. Our

greatest thanks go to our staff who have worked

so hard to make this such a special year.

Billie -Jean Lockhart

Sherrick House Manager

2014 ANNUAL REPORT 5

As a team

we have put

a large

focus on

supporting

individuals

to develop

and

maintain

life skills

‘‘

’’

Andrew

Christodoulou

with mother Maria

in the Sherrick

House garden

Open Door

T his borough-wide project working with

under-fives and their families remains

a highly valued resource. Open Door East,

despite being threatened with closure, still has

a drop-in at Newstead Children’s Centre and is

currently funded until March 2015, and Open

Door West, with a drop-in at Greentops at

Grahame Park, has been refunded by Children

in Need for another three years.

The workers continue to advise families

about a number of matters including housing

and education and in the past year the projects

have also provided Soft Play sessions and are

now looking at a number of new play-related

initiatives.

We have welcomed Valerie Lam as the new

Open Door East worker and Nia Panayiotopoulos

continues at Open Door West.

We were very sad this year to hear of the

death of Pat Verity, who for many years was

the project worker with Open Door.

Pat helped a vast number of families and she

is remembered fondly by many people.

Family Support

Family Support, as always, continues to aid and

support a large number of families with learning

disabled children aged five and over. Edyta

Katna has been joined by Sandra Levell, who has

now been with the team for over a year.

Halfway through the financial year the project

was faced with having its funding reduced and

we lost the specialist Triple P parenting courses

that have helped so many people.

Shelley Gibbons,

Community Services Manager

(Adults and Children)

Robert Oprea with mother Janina at a Soft Play session

Children’s Services

I t has been a busy year for Expect

the Best which is a quality checking

service for people with learning

disabilities. The project employs

11 quality checkers who have worked

hard visiting residential homes, day

services and activities reporting back

on good practice and where

improvements need to be made.

Following a check, Expect the Best

speak to the managers and suggest

ways in which the service could be

improved and general findings are fed

back to the local authorities.

E quality Housing has had a busy

year but a very successful one!

Barnet Mencap won its bid to provide

services to adults with learning

disabilities and/or people with autism

and Aspergers in Barnet of which

Working for You is a large part.

This was a fantastic achievement as

we were competing with national

organisations and it is thanks to the

hard work and commitment of all of

the staff involved.

The project will double in size and

Project Reports

Expect the Best

6 ANNUAL REPORT 2014

Equality Housing

Tom Flynn,

Janette Hauff and

Denise Webb

relaxing in an

Equality Housing

shared house

we hope to reach and help many

more people in the borough,

especially those who have no formal

support from the council.

We are currently updating/

decorating our three shared houses

and the results so far are looking

great. We still have some vacancies

but hope to fill them soon.

14 tenants have been supported to

‘move on’ to situations of greater

independent living and we have taken

on more outreach clients. We are

Expect the Best has carried out 472

checks, 114 of which were in Barnet.

A lot of people who use services said

that they would like more reviews and

regular meetings to talk about

changing support needs and that they

would like more information about

safeguarding and how to raise

complaints.

Training is provided for all staff and

we are delighted that some of the

quality checkers are now making Easy

Read documents, using Talking Mats

and providing Facilitator Training.

We would like to thank everyone

who has supported Expect the Best

over the past year and we look

forward to working with quality

checkers, customers, service

providers, local authorities and

voluntary agencies in the coming

year.

If you are interested in becoming

a quality checker please email

info@expectthebest.org.uk

Francine Beadsworth

Director

Expect the Best

currently recruiting three new staff

members to keep up with the work!

Many of our Equality Housing service

users have been supported to save for

holidays abroad and have enjoyed the

many and varied social events we

offer. They have very busy lives and

have all achieved a great deal over

the year developing their skills at

work, college, home or in the

community — well done everybody!

Lucy Clifford,

Equality Housing Manager

2014 ANNUAL REPORT 7

I ’m pleased to report on

another good year

financially for Barnet Mencap

in which we made a surplus of

around £59,000, following a

similar result in 2012/13. Our

unrestricted reserves now

stand at £416,000. Both our

income and expenditure

increased by around £70,000

in 2013/14, with around half

of this representing our share

of the North West London

Mencap Consortium’s contract

with the Department of

Health, ‘Expect the Best’.

The winning of the Council’s

contract for Learning

Disability and Autism services,

with Royal Mencap as our

sub-contractor for

employment services, is

worth around £350,000 per

annum from this October,

and together with further

funding for three years from

Children in Need for Open

Door West brings a period

of relative stability for

Barnet Mencap.

However the economic

environment remains

uncertain — although the

headlines suggest recovery is

underway there are many

more reductions to be made

in public spending that will

inevitably impact on resources

available to Barnet Mencap.

We will ensure that we

obtain the best value for

money with our purchasing

and continue to seek

additional and new funding

sources to maintain and

improve our services.

Mike Wiffen, Treasurer

Summary Statement of Financial Activities 2013/14

Financial Review

WHERE OUR MONEY CAME FROM . . .

Contracts and Grants £698,000

Outreach and Respite £229,000

Residents' Charges £148,300

Donations £32,300

Other Income £74,900

TOTAL £1,182,500

. . . AND WHERE IT WAS SPENT

Equality Housing £424,900

Sherrick House £251,900

Community and Family £136,300

Community Opportunities £159,400

Expect The Best £40,100

Governance £57,800

Office and Other Costs £53,100

TOTAL £1,123,500

In the last year we made a surplus of £59,000

. . . AND WHAT WE ARE WORTH

Our Investments £161,000

Office Equipment £3,500

Money we are owed (Debtors) £154,900

Money in Bank £171,100

Sub total £490,500

Minus

Money we owe others (Creditors) £54,300

TOTAL £436,200

This is a summary of the information contained in our audited accounts for the year ended

31st March 2014. For a copy of the full Annual Report and Financial Statements 2013/14

please visit our website at www.barnetmencap.org.uk

Barnet Mencap would like to thank you for your support in 2013/14

Baily Thomas Charitable Fund Big Lottery Fund Children in Need

Cut Films GLL Healthwatch Barnet Help a Capital Child Interactive

London Borough of Barnet Metropolitan Police Service

New North London Synagogue Sainsbury’s Santander Saracens RFC

St Mary-at-Finchley Times Series Waitrose Wingate & Finchley Football Club

And all the individuals who give their time to help us

and contribute to our work

Above: Peter Christodoulou and Yosef Elmkies at a Soft Play session

On the cover: Nick Cox, Shibani Datta, Reece Mullings and Alexander Ward at the national Cut Films awards at BAFTA HQ