ONE STEP AT A TIME - Stepping Stones DS

Annual Report 2014/15
ONE STEP AT A TIME
Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Stepping Stones DS
Address: Sentinel House, Ancells Business Park,
Harvest Crescent, Fleet, Hampshire, GU51 2UZ
Website: www.steppingstonesds.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steppingstonesds
Email: [email protected]
Banker: Barclays, Fleet Road, Fleet, Hants
Stepping Stones DS – Trustees
Emma Hall
Chair / Therapies /
Training
Sarah Sutton
Vice Chair /
Fundraising /
Communications
Vicky Worsfold
Treasurer
Jacky Mackenzie
Secretary
Rob Barton
Recreational Activities
Debra Bratt
Secondary Age
Provision
Martin Elkes
New Parent / Family
Support
Ann-Marie Funk
Trustee
Lara Rowlinson
Siblings Support
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Contents
Chairs’ Report ................................................................................................. 4
Treasurer’s Report .......................................................................................... 5
Accounts Summary ......................................................................................... 6
Fundraising, Communication and PR .............................................................. 7
Communication and PR...................................................................................................... 7
Recreational Activities .................................................................................... 8
Squirtz ................................................................................................................................ 8
Hydro Pool.......................................................................................................................... 9
Playball ............................................................................................................................... 9
Dance & Drama ................................................................................................................ 10
Horse Riding ..................................................................................................................... 10
Secondary Activities ..................................................................................... 11
Tennis ............................................................................................................................... 12
Educational and Therapies ........................................................................... 13
Baby Groups ..................................................................................................................... 13
Communication Groups ................................................................................................... 13
Outreach .......................................................................................................................... 13
Training ............................................................................................................................ 13
Family Support ............................................................................................. 14
Stay and Play .................................................................................................................... 14
Hospital Support .............................................................................................................. 14
New Parents ..................................................................................................................... 14
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Chairs’ Report
It is hard to believe that another Stepping Stones DS year has come to an end. The year has
been a whirlwind of activities, events, training, planning, fundraising and changes so it is
lovely to be able to take a moment to reflect.
Every year we say that Stepping Stones DS only runs because of its members, volunteers
and supporters but that truly is what makes the group so unique. Our volunteers /
supporters all come to the group with a story, a reason why they want to be involved and a
desire to be part of making things happen. Their reasons are all different - they talk about
families they know, children they have met and people they are related to but they all come
with a level of enthusiasm and commitment that means together we can achieve great
things.
Moving forward we have some very exciting projects underway. A new website is in
production which will hopefully help us to streamline some of our processes, our sibling’s
sessions are almost ready for launch, we are building greater levels of independence into
our secondary activities and the group hopes to become a CIO (Charity Incorporated
Organisation) over the next year.
On a personal note after nine years I am stepping away from the role of chair to concentrate
on my daughter’s school transition but know that I am handing the reigns to a dedicated
and passionate team of trustees. The projects we have been working on will be in very safe
hands and I am confident that they will continue to keep family support at the centre of
Stepping Stones DS.
It has been a difficult decision for me and I am very grateful for their support in allowing me
to keep a small role within the group whilst also giving me the freedom to take time out.
As always there are too many people for us to thank personally but we are very lucky to
volunteer for an organisation that includes some of the finest advocates, fundraisers,
organisers, planners, supporters, dreamers and families that this area has to offer!
Thank you.
Emma
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Treasurer’s Report
This report covers the financial year 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015. The total
available funds at 31 August 2015 was £159,517.75.
At 31 August 2015, the balances in each bank / savings account were:
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Current account £66,517.75
Virgin money instant access savings account £80,000
Shawbrook 100 day notice account £5,000 (from 12 March 2014)
CCLA £8,000 (from 20 March 2014)
Income in the year
During the year we received £48,470 in income:
We receive income from donations, these are from individuals, community groups and
companies.
The largest part of our income, came from smaller donations from family, friends, and
fundraising ventures. These smaller donations really do make a difference and contribute
greatly to our success.
Donations through Virgin giving have continued to contribute to our income. During the
year, we received £14,688.21.
We received less donations than last year, which is simply due to less larger corporate
donations.
Expenditure in the year
Our expenditure for the year totalled £62,196.46. The largest element is the cost of running
the vast range activities we provide for our members.
Our running costs have increased, which is due to a full year of office costs in the year.
Renting an office was an important step for us to enable us to grow and focus on the future
of steppingstones ds.
Vicky Worsfold, Treasurer
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Accounts Summary
Receipts and Payments for the period 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015:
This year
£
Receipts
Last Year
£
48,470
57,943
Payments
(62,196)
(58,053)
Reserve Account
Surplus for year ending 31-08-15
(13,726)
(110)
Surplus from previous year B/forward
173,244
173,355
Surplus for years to date to C/Forward
159,518
173,244
66,518
80,000
5,000
8,000
159,518
80,244
80,000
5,000
8,000
173,244
Represented by: Account 1
Virgin instant access a/c
Shawbrook notice account
CCLA investment fund
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Fundraising, Communication and PR
Fundraising: We are incredibly lucky at Stepping Stones DS to have amazing support from
our members, their families and friends and the local community when it comes to
fundraising. We continue to be supported by a
number businesses, organisations and community
groups. Some of these relationships are long term,
others for a finite period or a particular event. They
are all are extremely valuable to us and we are grateful
to all involved in creating and maintaining these
relationships.
Once again this year has seen a phenomenal effort by a huge number of individuals and
teams who go the extra mile to raise money for SSDS by running, cycling, swimming, walking
and more. As ever it is extraordinary how much money is raised through these individual
efforts and we are incredibly grateful for the support. With these individual challenges
Virgin Money Giving provides an excellent tool to allow people to raise money from remote
supporters, it is also very efficient allowing us to collect Gift Aid where appropriate and
therefore make donors money go further.
A new fundraising avenue for us this year has been through recycling a variety of waste
objects including Tassimo discs and baby food pouches. Astonishingly this revenue stream
has raised over £1500 in 9 months and has resulted in increasing the profile of Stepping
Stones DS over parts of our catchment area where local businesses have agreed to become
drop off points. Massive thanks to our Wombling team.
Communication and PR: As Stepping Stones DS grows it is vital that we
are able communicate successfully with both members and supporters.
This year we have refreshed our newsletter with the support of a
parent volunteer, Vicky Nixon, and it is now being emailed out to our
email distribution list half termly. Our relationship with our supporters
is vital to ensure they continue to engage with and support us. We
continue to use the yahoo group to share vital information between
members; this is backed up by Facebook and a texting service.
Our Facebook page remains an incredibly powerful tool to reach out to our supporters and
the wider community. It allows us to talk to a huge audience quickly, cheaply and
efficiently, and allows them to engage with us. We now have 856
likes and the page regularly reaches over 2000 people in a week! An
exciting development this year has been the agreement of a local
photographer, Kevin Ahronson, to become our official photographer.
Kevin will be visiting all our activities to provide us with a professional
and cohesive set of images for us to use across our media and
publications. Finally this year we have started the process of
updating our website which hopefully will see it being a more useful tool in the future.
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Recreational Activities
Sensory Suite: The Sensory Suite sessions are aimed at our younger preschool members,
from new-born up to reception school age to enjoy on a monthly basis. These sessions are
held once a month at the Parkside Centre
in Aldershot, the day and time is varied to
try to encourage as many families as
possible and also runs throughout the
school holidays.
They are able to
experience a room full of sensory lighting
and music, tactile wall pictures, bubble
lamps as well as a waterbed and lots of soft
play. These quiet intimate sessions are
perfect for our youngest members and it's also a great opportunity for their parents to chat
and to make friends. We would like to thank Nicki who has been running these sessions for
us since October 2012; Nicki is now handing over the running of the Sensory Suite to Rachel,
so thank you to Rachel for taking this on for Stepping Stones.
Squirtz: Our Squirtz groups are run for our younger members aged 6 months until they start
Reception. We have two groups Little Squirtz, a group of 5 who meet twice a month and Big
Squirtz, a group of 8 who meet once a month. Squirtz is a play activity to help children
develop their gross motor skills with a mixture of music, activities and games to keep
children’s interest; these are all tailored for the abilities and ages of the children in the
group by the Squirtz team. Squirtz sessions are also a great opportunity for children to
interact with their peers and also a great way for parents of similar age children to get to
know each other and form friendships. We would like to thank Rob who continues to
organise the Squirtz sessions and to Jen from Little Squirtz who runs the sessions.
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Hydro Pool: The fortnightly Hydro Pool activity continues to be offered across the whole
membership of Stepping Stones DS. It’s more popular among the families with younger
children as it can be an early introduction to swimming and
water play for the very young ones. The environment is
warm and safe and the children enjoy developing their
water independence with the confidence of having a
parent in the pool with them. It continues to be a popular
way for dads to be directly involved in an activity with their
kids and the Sunday afternoon session appears to be a
good time of the week.
One of our regular Hydro Pool users writes “It has helped X
soooo much!!!!! It gives him a chance to regularly practice
in a warm pool, so he can stay in for longer. He has gone
from having no swimming skills to being able to do lengths
with arm bands! It’s great for babies and big ones alike”
This last point is worth considering as, in the winter months it’s lovely
to be warm in the pool, but in summer time it can get a little humid,
particularly for family members sitting poolside. On a different note,
the recycling campaign, to which all members of Stepping Stones DS
can contribute, has fully covered the cost of this year’s fortnightly
activity, which is the target which we had set. We would like to thank
Ali who continues to organise our Hydro Pool sessions.
Playball: This activity is still popular with our members and in the last year we saw new
members joining from Little Squirtz. This is set to continue in the next academic year, whilst
older members will move from Playball into
secondary activities. Playball is a sports
session which is held on the second
Saturday of each month for children who
are walking confidently. The sessions are
designed to help the children develop their
gross motor skills and last 45 minutes per
session.
We currently have five Playball groups
which is the maximum we can have and we
have 28 members who take part in Playball
from Reception up to Year 6. We would like to thank Rob who continues to co-ordinate the
Playball groups and to Kari from Playball who runs the sessions.
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Dance & Drama: This activity is one of Stepping Stones’ most successful activities, sessions
are run twice a month and we currently have four Dance &
Drama groups with a total of 27 children who take part. The
group’s ages range from Year 1 up to the end of Year 6. Our
Dance & Drama sessions are intended to help develop skills
in the performing arts, increase confidence and self-esteem,
and help to develop social skills and friendships.
The children are able to participate in the activity without
support from parents, as we have two instructors running
the sessions with a team of helpers. We would like to thank
Rob who continues to co-ordinate the Dance & Drama
sessions, and to our Dance teacher Leila and Drama teacher
Ruth who run the sessions, so thank you all.
Horse Riding: Stepping Stones DS riding groups are open to children in Years 1 to 6. The
children have the opportunity to ride once a month from September through to July
(excluding December) at Cloud Stables, Arborfield, near Reading. The aim of this activity is
to give the children the opportunity to experience horse riding and to enjoy spending time
with the horses and ponies, rather than to ride competently. Cloud Stables has an
established Riding for the Disabled group and uses the same group of quiet and calm ponies
for Stepping Stones lessons. All of the children
wear back protectors and riding hats to ensure
that they are as safe as possible, with reflective
jackets also worn when going out on a hack down
a local byway. Each rider has a leader, with side
walkers on each side to keep the riders safe and
to encourage them.
Horse Riding can have significant benefits for the
rider, the warmth and movement of the horse is
transmitted through the rider's body, gradually
improving relaxation and suppleness, as well as
strengthening core stability and improving
posture, balance and coordination, most
importantly of all it really is good fun!! Jo has
taken over the running of this activity from Sue
who did such a sterling job setting up this activity
back in May 2010. The groups have a full
subscription each week and this activity continues
to be a huge hit with all the children involved. We would like to thank Jo who continues to
organise our Horse Riding sessions.
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Secondary Activities
During the year, we were very fortunate for The Stopgap Dance Company to work with our
young people every Saturday during term
time. Stopgap Dance Company is the resident
dance company of Farnham Maltings and the
University of Surrey and is a truly inclusive
company that employs both disabled and nondisabled dancers. Our young people were able
to perform in the Farnham in Bloom festival as
well as numerous platforms throughout the
year where they could show case their work.
Some of our young people were also
successful in gaining their bronze Arts Award, a major achievement for them.
As part of the 3 year plan, our aim is “to help our children move towards independence by
giving them opportunities to get involved and express their opinions”. The trustees have
committed to hearing our young people’s voice and this year, we’ve made a step towards
achieving that aim.
In April 2015, all young people in year 7 and above were asked to take part in a young
person’s survey. Just under half of the young people completed the survey. Following on
from that, in July, we held a bowling event where the young people could prioritise what
they would really like to do with almost all of them attending. Such a high attendance
enabled us to gather a broad representation of views.
It was clear from what the young people said that they wanted to have some fun activities,
with their friends and definitely not with their parents. All typical teenage stuff! They were
particularly keen on having an overnight activity. This has highlighted how we need to do
things differently in Stepping Stones to meet the changing needs of our families as the
young people move towards adulthood.
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Moving forward, the secondary aged subcommittee have met to try to plan and organise
the activities that the young people have identified. Our plan is to organise one off activities
during the year to incorporate as many of the events that the young people said they
wanted. This will include an overnight event and a separate teenager Christmas Party.
Exciting times ahead!
Another one of our aims in the 3 year plan is “to provide opportunities for friendships to be
developed both for parents and young people”. This can be a challenging time for teenagers
and we recognise the importance of friendships and I’m pleased to say that the group of
young people in this age bracket have formed some truly lovely friendships. It’s been
wonderful to see the group welcome new members too and to see new friendships starting
to develop. The parents have also developed good and supportive relationships with one
another and use the time when their son/daughter is in an activity to share views,
information and stories!
Tennis: This activity was the first ongoing activity organised for our Stepping Stones’
secondary aged children; there are currently
12 secondary school aged children who attend
our Tennis lessons on Saturdays at the Bourne
Club in Farnham. The classes are kept small
(six per class) so as to aid concentration and
therefore players are rotated each week so
that everyone can have an opportunity to play.
The children are coached by Head Professional
Andy Warry who has an excellent relationship
with our children and has really developed their confidence. The aim of the Tennis classes is
to, Learn a sport and therefore develop the confidence to try other sports, Provide an
opportunity for exercise, Develop eye hand coordination and visual attention skills, Develop
ability to follow instructions and Develop social skills and friendships. The setting of the
Bourne Club is also an excellent forum for parents to bond and exchange ideas. We would
like to thank Juana who continues to organise the Tennis sessions for us and to Andy from
the Bourne Club who runs the sessions.
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Educational and Therapies
Baby Groups: Our Baby groups provide developmental therapy for children aged 4—18
months and we continue to employ the services of Rebecca Baxter from Let’s Go! to
facilitate these sessions for Stepping Stones DS. Each baby group consists of up to five
families with the monthly session lasting an hour. The session includes support and
information for parents whose children are between 4 and approximately 18 months of age.
Each month includes information on the needs of children with Down syndrome and the
support, services and checks they should be receiving. In addition the group will include
activities for parents to carry out with their children throughout the month to support and
promote development.
Communication Groups: This year our communication groups have continued to provide
speech and language therapy services to our
children from the age of 18 months to when
they start school. These sessions are also
being run by Rebecca Baxter. The sessions
occur monthly and last for one hour. The
group consists of targets across the range of
development including; communication,
speech, receptive and expressive language,
number, memory, reading, play and
cognition.
Outreach: Our Stepping Stones Outreach Service has continued to grow and develop. The
service is provided by Rebecca Baxter and Sue Jones from Let’s Go Ltd and includes;
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Half day visit per child per term to include observation of the child working within the
class room.
One-to-one session to look at current level of development and targets.
Bullet point summary and recommendations.
Support, information and advice for SENCO’s, teachers and assistants.
Training: We have offered a varied range of
different training workshops this year. These
sessions have included information on reading,
numeracy, behaviour, starting school and
differentiation. Our training sessions have
received very positive feedback and are
attended by parents and professionals from
across three counties.
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Stepping Stones DS Annual Report 2014/15
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Family Support
Stay and Play: Stepping Stones continues to provide a monthly Stay and Play session at
Turners Wood Children's Centre in Fleet, for babies,
toddlers and pre schoolers, although everyone is
welcome. The Stay and Play activity has proved a
fantastic starting point for new families. This
session gives members the chance to speak to
others who may have children of an older age, who
are able to pass on their experiences and
knowledge. The centre has a great stock of toys, as
well as both indoor and outdoor play areas, with
plenty of seating, giving members the chance to
relax and chat with each other in an informal setting. This activity is just what the group is
all about, peer to peer support.
Hospital Support: It has been a difficult year in regards to hospital liaisons. We are
currently updating our group literature, with new business cards, information leaflets etc, so
we can leave new support packs with our three local hospitals, Frimley Park, Basingstoke
and The Royal Surrey. We will then start a campaign, asking
these hospitals to actively participate and give out these
packs to families with a diagnosis of Down syndrome, as well
as the standard NHS Literature.
New Parents: Jo is our New Member Support liaison for the
group, and continues to give first point of contact help and
support. New Parent support continues to be busy, with 13
new families joining the group this year. Part of the support
we have been able to offer is supporting young members and
their families who have had hospital stays, some for quite
long periods. A steady stream of get well messages, as well
as one to one support really makes a huge difference to the
whole family. A buddy group system operates, with new
members put in touch with Trustees from their area, as well as local member families that
may have similar aged children.
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