KCIL annual report 2014 - Kingston Centre for Independent Living

KCIL annual report 2014
End of year report
Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL) has been striving to be the leading service provider
for all disabled people in Kingston-upon-Thames over the past year. Progress has been made with regards to
raising our profile, representing the views of disabled people on local and regional initiatives, extending our
services through partnership working, achieving quality standards and continuously working to improve our
services. Some of the highlights over the past year include:
•
•
Raising our profile at a number of events over the past year including Surbiton Festival, University of Kingston Job Fair, Kingston Carnival, Cambridge Road Estate Fun Day and The Big Red Bus Day.
•
Achieving the Investors in People Quality Standard and working towards PQASSO Quality Mark.
•
Achieving Commitment Level of the Healthy London Workplace Charter in March 2014.
•
Initiating an Equality Impact Assessment for Surbiton Health Centre.
•
Successful fundraising bids to the City Bridge Trust to provide an Independent Brokerage Service over the next 3 years and to Kingston Voluntary Action for an Infrastructure Grant for IT systems.
•
Participating in a new innovative pilot project on Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) personal budgets for children and young people.
•
Scoping a pilot project with the Clinical Commissioning Group and the Royal Borough of Kingston for Personal Health Budgets for adults.
•
Participating in negotiations with RBK in order to devise a way forward for the Self-Directed Support Service Level Agreement.
Representing disabled peoples’ interests on numerous forums and groups including Kingston Advice and Information Alliance, the Voluntary Sector Board, the Carers’ Partnership Board, the Equalities Forum and the Mental Health Network.
The last year has also seen changes to KCIL’s staff team as the Self-Directed Support (SDS) Co-ordinator,
Tracy Fell-Smith, left in March 2014 and Theo Harris, CEO, left in June 2014.
Following Theo’s departure, Lisa Ehlers, who was originally appointed as Service Manager for the SDS
service, has been acting up as Interim CEO. We feel optimistic about the future for KCIL with new opportunities
arising in personal health budgets for adults and SEND budgets for children and families. We also look forward
to working with partner organisations in Kingston and Richmond to develop and improve services for local
disabled people.
holiday grants
Kingston Centre for Independent Living (KCIL) HOLIDAY GRANTS REPORT 2013/14
KCIL
has responsibility for administering Holiday
Grants funded by Kingston Council to disabled and
older people living in the Borough.
Holiday Grants assist disabled and/or ill people who
otherwise would not be able to afford to fully fund a
holiday for themselves.
We received an allocation of £13,800 from RBK for
2013/14. There was an underspend of £3414 from the
previous year which we carried forward.
Applications Increased
The number of applications received this year rose to 111 from 101 last year. Of those, 101 were awarded
grants. The average grant awarded was £150.
There were 69 requests for the maximum award (£175) from those whose applications we supported. In 80% of
the cases applicants did receive £175.
We were unable to support 10 applications because they were submitted retrospectively, received too late to
administer or didn’t meet other criteria that applies to these grants.
Amount of awards increased from last year
In total we paid out £15,036 in awards – nearly £2,500 more than last year - leaving a balance of £2,528 (including
write-backs from uncashed cheques) which we have been allowed to carry forward to 2014/15. We are grateful
to the Council for allowing us to carry forward the underspend.
If you are disabled, living in the Royal Borough of Kingston and would like to take a holiday but need financial
support, please contact Robert Reilly for an application form on 020 8546 9603
or email him at [email protected]
Please make sure to contact us at least a month before you intend to travel.
Self-Directed Support
Self-directed Support Service (Direct Payments and Personal Budgets Support)
The Self-Directed Support (SDS) Service gives disabled children and adults control, choice and independence
by giving them the tools that they need to live independently. The service provides support and monitoring
for people who receive a Personal Budget (or Direct Payment) to employ their own personal assistants or
agencies instead of receiving services directly from the council.
The service continues to grow with increases in all age ranges this year, in particular with people in the
18-60 age range.
Over the past year, the SDS Team has provided more one-to-one support to service users with an increase
in the number of people being visited in their own homes or coming in to our offices. The number of calls
the SDS Team has made and received has also increased from 1549 last year to 1796 this year.
Some comments from users of the service include:
“Nice to know they (KCIL) are always there for any problems.”
“One staff member who visited recently is excellent and understanding to my needs.”
“Good support. If it hadn’t been for KCIL I wouldn’t be using a personal budget now.”
When asked what the benefits are of having a personal budget people have said:
“Independence, freedom to select own staff and organise their hours and work.”
“Can do things when necessary and in my own time.”
“More freedom to lead an autonomous lifestyle.”
Brokerage
Thanks to funding from the City Bridge Trust, KCIL set up a support brokerage service supporting disabled people
in the Borough of Kingston upon Thames in September 2013. The service aims to enable people to take control
of their own support in order to promote independence, health and wellbeing and social inclusion. The support
broker, Sophie Marshall, supported 32 individuals in the past 7 months to access services in the local community.
Some of the services they have accessed include support services, education, rehab groups and leisure services.
Of the 32 people supported by the brokerage service; we helped people access 38 new services they had not
been using before, supported 19 individuals with benefit issues, 3 people were supported to apply for funding
from outside organisations, 5 people were supported to use their personal budget and come up with different
ways to spend the money they have and 13 people were told about services in the Borough available to them.
Clients expressed their gratitude regarding the support they were given.
“I was supported to get voluntary work, negotiate PA hours with the Council and support to access services that
helped with housing.”
“Sophie helped me to find activities for my son. She is friendly, hardworking, punctual and quick. I really
appreciate what she has done.”
“Sophie was warm and friendly, knew what she was talking about, and wanted to help us.”
“Sophie went out of her way to be helpful and supportive and I am grateful for her help at a very difficult time.”
KCIL also received positive feedback from professionals regarding the brokerage:
“It makes me appreciate joint work with other organisations such as you in particular from KCIL. I have felt very
relaxed working with you on this case and you seem to understand what we all want for this young man without
being judgemental or biased. Without your input, this would not have been possible.”
Information & Advice
During the year KCIL continued to deliver a specialist Benefits Advice Service which was pump primed
through reserve funds until November 2013.
The service primarily provided advice around benefits. However, since many people presented with a
number of other issues, the Adviser also provided advice and advocacy for clients. Over eight months, the
project dealt with 36 clients presenting with 65 issues.
Advice AreaNumber of new enquiries
Benefits (claiming)
24
Challenging benefit decisions
3
Housing4
Other
5
Figure Shows the number and type of issues dealt with by the Advice and Advocacy Service.
This project (in its last seven and a half months) increased the weekly income of 18 disabled people to a
combined total of £1,567.32, which over a year amounts to a combined growth in income of £81,500.64.
The Benefits Advice Worker supported 4 people with housing issues over the past year. The recent changes to
the benefits system have left a large number of our members concerned about their finances and their
living situations.
A 48 year old woman with depression, anxiety disorder and agoraphobia required help with Housing Benefit
for her two-bedroom council flat where she had lived for 41 years. She lived in this flat with her parents,
but they both died and the client ended up living in a property with a spare bedroom. From April 2013
she was affected by the Under Occupancy Charge (bedroom tax) and had a 14% cut applied to her
Housing Benefit. In order to cover for the shortfall, the client claimed Discretionary Housing Payments. It
was only a temporary measure and the client was horrified by the prospect of having to move out. The
government has not taken into account what impact the move may have on the people’s health. Most
people get anxious and depressed at the very prospect of having to move, but they also cannot afford
the shortfall as their income is very low.
KCIL is helping to raise awareness about the impact of the bedroom tax at the various forums and meetings it
attends in Kingston, London and the surrounding areas.
Unfortunately, KCIL was unsuccessful in our fundraising efforts to continue our Advice and Information
project. Our Independent Broker supported clients that were already actively involved in the service to
increase their yearly income by £5987.80. As members of the Kingston Information and Advice Alliance
we are currently working with other organisations in Kingston to enable the provision of sustainable and
robust advice services in the local area.
Finances
Statement of Financial Activities
Notes
Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted Funds
Services
Agency
to disabled funds
people
Total
2014
Total
2013
£
£
£
£
£
211, 980
44,766
29,749
286, 495
242,107
1,045
-
-
1,045
1,370
Bank Interest
1,115
-
-
1,115
2,302
Other Income
1,243
-
-
1,243
3,182
215,383
44,766
29,749
289,898
248,961
Incoming Resources
Donations, grants and similar
2
Subscriptions
Investment income
Total Incoming Resources
Resources Expended
Charitable activities
Grants payable
3
-
-
31,248
31,248
28,7281
Support costs and overheads
4
202,631
31,766
-
234,397
218,618
202,631
31,766
31,248
265,645
247,346
26,711
-
-
26,711
27,174
Total Resources Expended
229,342
31,766
31,248
292,356
274,520
Net (outgoing)/incoming resources
(13,959)
13,000
(1,499)
(2,458)
(25,559)
Funds balance at 31st March 2013
145,299
-
6,574
151,873
177,432
Fund Balances at 31 March 2014
131,340
13,000
5,075
149,415
151,873
Total direct charitable expenditure
Governance costs
4
Volunteering
This article is written by a KCIL volunteer, Patrick Goodacre.
I started working as a volunteer at KCIL two years ago. I believed that I had something
to contribute and felt sure I could gain some new skills in the process. I am only one of
the KCIL volunteers, disabled following an accident, I am an SDS user (KCIL Self-Directed
Support user). Users can offer support back to the charity in a range of areas. I began by
supporting the ‘Get Active’ project legacy. The main purpose of this is to encourage others
to volunteer and offer what they can to this extremely valuable charity. An independent,
wheelchair user of a range of public transport, I wanted to offer help, by sharing my
knowledge involved. I was a co-founder of the ‘Kingston Action on Transport’ forum. I
created the kingstonactionontransport.blogspot.co.uk
More recently, I have started offering my graphic design skills, to help the charity.
Kingston Centre For Independent Living
River Reach, 31-35 High Street, Kingston Upon Thames, Surrey, KT1 1LF
020 8546 9603 www.kcil.org.uk [email protected]
If you require this in another format (such as large print, or on tape)
please let us know.