Dear AFC Supporter,
Act for Change operates within a complex and demanding environment. Regrettably, numerous young people and families find themselves without the vital support they require. Their lived experiences are often marked by increasing complexity. This shifting landscape not only underscores the evolving needs but also demands a concerted effort to mobilize resources within our sectors to ensure improved outcomes for all stakeholders.
Act For Change has made significant strides in enhancing its approach to addressing these needs, employing innovative and collaborative strategies. Our dedicated staff and Executive Director have risen to the challenges with renewed determination, conducting a thorough strategic review of our services in consultation with both internal and external stakeholders. This process has led to the refinement and alignment of our Business Plan to better navigate the evolving landscape. With a longstanding presence spanning the health and social care sectors, Act For Change has consistently emphasized the integration of social and health services. We remain committed to enhancing our operational structure to ensure robust line management for all staff and students, bolstering supervision practices. Looking ahead to 2024, we are steadfast in our commitment to further embed our ethos and methodology across the organisation, facilitating a more seamless and integrated service delivery approach.
We continue to seek and build complementary funding solutions independent of Tenders.
Our efforts to expand and build partnerships has continued throughout 2022-23.
This year saw the launch of the Changemakers Project a community-based initiative that aims at fostering community engagement and empowerment. It has already emerged as a beacon of success in its inaugural run.
We have been developing relationships with our funders and extended our services both within Local Authority and the Health sectors playing an active part in the reshaping of services that is currently taking place to provide more integrated care, creating ever stronger joins between our services and our partners.
2023-24 will see further efforts by act for change to capture new demand for act for change light touch and our network model and support engagement with a wide array of mental health provision.
As a learning organisation, act for change places training at the heart of our staff development. In addition, Act for Change has given a prominent role to delivering external training. Our management team and the scheduling of our internal trainings and supervision for our staff has now been embedded in the policies and processes of Act for Change. Communicating and motivating staff, new recruits and our partners to take part in this offering as part of self-care as well as part of developing a trauma-informed practice is a key focus for 2023-24.
The heightened demand for services has propelled us to develop effective, efficient systems for case management and connectivity that meets our requirements. We are now well positioned and ready for greater reach of act for change in 2023-24.
Without the commitment and dedication of our staff, volunteers and supporters, none of this would have been possible and as Chair, I am thankful for all their hard work this year and look forward to 2024 when we will integrate care in the communities we engage, to help narrow the gap and support the most vulnerable in our society.
Trustees’ report for the year ended 31 October 2023
The Trustees, who are also directors of the Charitable Company for the purposes of the Companies Act, have pleasure in submitting the report and financial statements of the Charitable Company for the year ended 31 October 2023. The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out on page 9 and comply with the Charitable Company’s governing document and requirements of the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities (FRS 102 SORP) issued in March 2015, applicable UK Accounting Standards and the Companies Act 2006.
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the Charity's [governing document], the Companies Act 2006 and "Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)" (effective 1 January 2019).
Our mission at Act For Change focuses on the development of interventions supporting children, young people and their families to overcome trauma and strengthen their mental health resilience.
We are committed to the principles that underpin Every Child Matters.
We create the context for better access and engagement by responding to their special cultural, communal and developmental needs with youth friendly services.
Providing local communities with the tools to continue the work and equip young people with the skills to Act For Change at crucial moments.
Who We Serve
The most disadvantaged young people in our partner boroughs. These young people are selected by their teachers, social workers and youth workers for the adverse experiences which they are grappling with and often their direct exposure to conflict.
The parents and carers who often struggle with their own mental health issues and so impact the outcomes of children and young people.
Practitioners, counsellors, mentors and volunteers in our partner boroughs.
Communities, Faith Communities and Charities to develop cultural health by facilitating communities of practice.
We work alongside Schools and Family Wellbeing Services, Children’s Social Care and Youth Justice in supporting families and young people.
About us
We focus our efforts to maximise the potential of every child and young person who has experienced childhood family and historical adverse experiences. Our holistic approach is based on DATIS (Developmental Awareness, Trauma Informed and Systemic) - our method developed in over 15 years of working with Social Services and Youth Justice teams.
We focus on the young person at the heart of a network of support.
We provide rigorous ongoing training and supervision to ensure our staff maintain a high-quality service
We provide a structured process that allows us to accurately measure and monitor progress.
We provide student placements.
We undertake research to fine-tune and continually develop our interventions
We join up with local community partners
We bring a community together to discuss issues from all sides.
Act For Change deploys creativity and innovation for systemic wins.
Act For Change brings attention to the different roles in any conflict in a way that diffuses tension and enables everyone to come out a winner.
All our programs use our
Act for change model of practice tm
A trauma-informed practice which enables practitioners working with young people to address the complex systemic and developmental issues impacting their lives within their families (including parental conflict, domestic violence).
The Changemakers project is our newest deploying a trauma-informed practice across schools and communities.
This community-based initiative aims at fostering community engagement and empowerment and has emerged as a beacon of success in its inaugural run.
The project has the potential to make a lasting impact on communities across the region with a particular emphasis on encouraging traditionally disadvantaged or disengaged communities to actively participate when the project is rolled out in their neighbourhoods. The Changemakers Project has demonstrated its effectiveness in bringing about positive change and empowering participants.
“We have found huge benefits in introducing the Changemaker programme to both our students and faculty. Use and exploration of ‘The Tribe Within’ helped our students greatly with approach to crises and conflict resolution. Building from the programme, we have also developed a ‘Trauma Informed Practice’ within our faculty which has been an extremely useful tool in managing the wide range of issues within the cohort, whilst also nurturing the team’s own boundaries and welfare.”
Gary Watson
Ambassador & Artistic Associate
London College of Performing Arts
Our Activities
We provide the following targeted support:
Early therapeutic interventions for young people at severe risk of violence (Counselling and High Intensity Mentoring)
Developing a culture of systemic safeguarding
Systemic family support to the parents or carers of these young people
Facilitate conversations in person and online to meet individual needs
Engaging with communities through group work
1:1 counselling, high intensive mentoring
Systemic family support to their families and carers / foster carers including Family Therapy
Reducing Parental Conflict Intervention Training and parenting/ carer support
Trauma-Informed Practice Training for social workers and practitioners
Mentoring
Undertaking Research and building an evidence-base for our body of work
Practitioners, counsellors, mentors and volunteers in our partner boroughs of Bexley took part in inter-parental conflict intervention training and an induction into trauma-informed practice as we gear up to delivery in 2022-23 to a wider base across the Borough. This program de-escalating conflict is intended to reduce the demand on Social Services with families in which inter-parental conflict often escalates into increased intervention.
In Ealing the continued fortnightly Community of Practice facilitation has been growing awareness of systemic safeguarding. This has been increasing the ability of a community to address the first signs of vulnerability to abuse taking place.
To grow Community Safety together with our Bexley partners, Community Circles supported by volunteers in our neighbourhoods in North Bexley is being piloted to provide continuity of care to young people at risk of violence who have received support by Act for Change counsellors and wish to continue to have a supportive contact within their own communities.
With our University partners, University of West London and Durham University, we have been working to reduce the systemic barriers to cultural health particularly as regards human dignity and abuse of power. With both the University of West London and the South East London Integrated Care Board we have partnered separately towards understanding diverse engagement with mental health services.
By undertaking research into those barriers and then raising awareness of how we might mitigate the barriers, we are making a dent in the barriers to diverse engagement and strengthening community resilience.
Counselling and High Intensity Mentoring
For Young People
Intensive programmes (20 weeks) with a focus on increasing self-awareness, emotional resilience and the ability to manage conflict.
For Parents, Carers and Families
In tandem, we offer family support and interventions wherever these are most effective within the family system. (Systemic Family Therapy).
Research
Common Fault Lines and Common Ground Research and presentation of findings by running forums, round tables, conferences, studies and talks on:
• Diverse Engagement (systemic discrimination)
• Community-based systemic safeguarding
• Inclusive Education through (systemic win implementation)
Training
We run a range of trauma-informed trainings that follow our Trauma, Developmental, Systemic Model. In particular, we are running communication trainings for parents and carers in conflict situations, as well as training practitioners and counsellors in conflict intervention.
- 1:1 counselling, high intensive mentoring (for 11 years+ )
- Playtherapy for under 11s
- Systemic family support to their families and carers / foster carers including Family Therapy
- Reducing Parental Conflict Intervention Training and parenting/ carer support
- Trauma-Informed Practice Training for social workers and practitioners and schools
- Mentoring
- Undertaking Research and building an evidence-base for our body of work
- Playing a lead role in the Family Togetherness Conference spearheading our Community Engagement work
Practitioners, counsellors, mentors and volunteers in our partner borough of Bexley took part in reducing parental conflict intervention training and an induction into trauma-informed practice. We are gearing up for delivery in 2023-24 to a wider base including parents across the Borough. This program de-escalating conflict is intended to reduce the demand on Social Services with families in which inter-parental conflict often escalates into increased intervention.
In Ealing the continued fortnightly Community of Practice facilitation has been growing awareness of systemic safeguarding. This has been increasing the ability of a community to address the first signs of vulnerability to abuse taking place.
To grow Community Safety together with our Bexley partners, Community Circles supported by volunteers in our neighbourhoods in North Bexley is being piloted to provide continuity of care to young people at risk of violence who have received support by Act for Change counsellors and wish to continue to have a supportive contact within their own communities.
With our University partner, University of West London, as with faith communities, we have been working to reduce the systemic barriers to cultural health particularly as regards human dignity and abuse of power.
Spread and Scale and Collaborate
We continue to partner with other charities, research institutions and those equally committed to understanding diverse engagement with mental health services such as the South East London Integrated Care Board and the University of West London.
By undertaking research into those barriers and then raising awareness of how we might mitigate the barriers, we are making a dent in the barriers to diverse engagement and strengthening community resilience.
In 2023 our Service has continued to grow.
Act for Change is on the cusp of a transformative phase. This past year we have developed a change plan which integrates feedback from narrative audits and highlighted potential pathways for growth. Building on our Business Plan 2022-25 we have crafted a comprehensive three-year strategy for the charity’s evolution taking us from 2024-2026.
We have strengthened our systems and line management and this has enabled us to consistently grow and develop our counselling and mentoring team with fortnightly trainings and supervision.
We have developed the Act For Change Learning Hub section of our website providing resources for practitioners, mentors, counsellors and social workers as well as community and family support workers. This will come online in early 2024.
Information management system - our system is now poised to drive efficiencies and provide a data driven growth in our ability to deliver new services, and to build an evidence base for our methodology.
We have continued to strengthen our governance structures with internal systems, building our organisational capacity for a heightened pace of growth.
We grew our partners across London.
We continue to grow our connections through the London Engagement Collective.
We are playing our part and building connections with the South East London Integrated Care Board.
We are now nearing completion of a Multi-site evaluation project led by the Centre for Youth Impact to evaluate mentoring practice with youth at risk of violence.
Plans for future period
We will continue to distribute our knowhow by training other charities and public sector practitioners, parents, Carers and Volunteers within Communities.
We have set out our goals for the coming year around two streamlined strands and one Project:
1. Research at the heart of everything we do: we will embed research into our clinical provision and training and focus on the four specific issues affecting mental health which we are focused on expanding. From Trauma, Child Abuse, Diverse Engagement and Mentoring Practice. Establishing the evidence-base of our AFC method to engage a growing range of young people and families.
2. Training practitioners: we continue to roll-out our reducing parental conflict programme for practitioners and now also parents across the Council, Community and through voluntary sector organisations and housing associations. We will continue to run and expand our induction training for new social workers in trauma informed practice.
Changemakers Project
This Project is part of our Community Engagement work. We will report back on its achievements and this will likely pave the way for future initiatives aimed at making a tangible difference in communities far and wide.
We work closely with our best placed partners to intervene early, we will run Deep Democracy Forums together with Faith Communities and Housing Associations and tailor our provision to their specific needs. We will recruit within and in partnership with, Faith Communities and Housing Associations.
We will continue to build up a network of Community Circles on housing estates and in faith communities to address the diverse engagement needs of our beneficiaries and bring down barriers to engagement with services.
We will support at-risk youth with Light Touch Interventions and social prescribing, enabling us to reach larger numbers of young people in need, based on our DATIS Method.
We will continue to build our capacity and to establish partnerships which will further integrate community care for our beneficiaries.
We are creating, piloting and growing the evidence base of a light touch approach to disseminate and support care through community networks.
We are embedding systems which will enable light-footed growth.
Governance
As the charity grows, we have sought to bring in additional expertise onto our Board. We have grown the number of Trustees we have from three to five. Trustees oversee the charity and bring their expertise to their specific briefs. 40% of our Board has direct lived experience of the issues we deal with.
Darren Johnson
Joanne Boddison
Marc Keidan
Natalie Machta-Joseph
Sean Clarke
Our Trustees oversee the performance of our delivery to ensure we consistently meet our high standards and Continuous Improvement as set out in our Quality Assurance Policy and Procedures and deliver each of the expectations placed on staff - as set out in our Clinical Governance, Safeguarding and Information Sharing and Compliance Policies. Our Board meets quarterly.
This past year we have focused on data management and communications systems. In the coming year we are undertaking a re-alignment of our HR capacity to ensure we have a robust infrastructure in place to accommodate for the growth we are experiencing. Act For Change is a mission driven charity, and we will strengthen our recruitment, inductions, training and the organisational culture to align with our mission.
We have an informal youth advisory board. Our youth advisory board (past and present participants) help us understand the youth voices and plan future activities. This board is run informally, behind the scenes, as young people involved in gang activity, for example, might be at further risk of ‘reprisals’ by their peers were they to be seen actively in such roles.
Management
The day-to-day operational management of Act for Change rests with the Chief Executive who receives Management supervision from the Chair of Trustees. She is supported by a Research in Health and Wellbeing Lead and a Training Lead covering our main areas of responsibility: Research in Practice and Training. This team is ensuring the Charity is able to manage the complex and growing demands placed upon it from a range of stakeholders particularly as regards Community Engagement.
The Chief Executive of AFC works closely with the Leads. The CE and the Chair of Trustees meet on a regular basis and this will continue for the foreseeable future as the Charity develops its services and new distribution channels in line with its plan.
Induction and Training of Trustees
We have adopted a policy for the induction and training of Trustees and will continue to strengthen the implementation of it in the coming period.
Co-opted Volunteers / Supporters
Act for Change benefits from having many people who know of its work and wish to contribute their skills and services. Most of their time is given freely without recompense or payment. Where such persons are known to or related to persons employed by Act for Change, the charity has introduced a register of persons so that it remains transparent in the relationships persons engaged in the business of the charity have. Conflicts of interests or appearances of favouritism will be avoided by use of the register which will be available in any FOI request.
Remuneration Policy
Act for Change aims to ensure that all staff are paid above the London Living Wage (currently £13.15/ hour) and appropriately according to the nature of their work and experience, knowledge and skills needed to carry out their job.
The charity is committed to principles ensuring that pay and conditions of employment do not discriminate unlawfully and are free from bias.
We are working to build an evidence-base for our systemic grounds-up approach and to this end in addition to the Universities, we have partnered with:
Sports London
Faith and Belief Forum
Our Funding partners
CYI
Department of Work and Pensions
London Councils
London Engagement Collective
National Lottery
MOPAC
St. James Place
Ealing Abbey
Benevity
We will continue to expand our network of partners best placed to pick up the pieces when things go wrong.
The Trustees' report was approved by the Board of Trustees.
The Trustees, who are also the directors of Act For Change for the purpose of company law, are responsible for preparing the Trustees' Report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the Charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the Charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
I report to the Trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Act For Change (the Charity) for the year ended 31 October 2023.
As the Trustees of the Charity (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (the 2006 Act).
Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the Charity are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act). In carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.
Since the Charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which is one of the listed bodies.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 386 of the 2006 Act; or
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
the financial statements do not comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the 2006 Act other than any requirement that the accounts give a true and fair view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination; or
the financial statements have not been prepared in accordance with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice for accounting and reporting by charities applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102).
The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.
These financial statements are prepared under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice- Accounting and Reporting by Charities (FRS 102 SORP), applicable UK Accounting Standards and the Companies Act 2006. The principal accounting policies used, which have been consistently applied, are set out below.
The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the Charity. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.
The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention, [modified to include the revaluation of freehold properties and to include investment properties and certain financial instruments at fair value]. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.
At the time of approving the financial statements, the Trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the Trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.
Income comprises grants and payments receivable for delivering the programmes and activities of the charity.
Resources expended are included in the Statement of Financial Activities on an accrual basis.
Provision of workshops and training
None of the Trustees have received any remuneration from the Charitable Company during the year.
The remuneration of key management personnel is as follows.
The charity is exempt from taxation on its activities because all its income is applied for charitable purposes.
The restricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used.
The unrestricted funds of the charity comprise the unexpended balances of donations and grants which are not subject to specific conditions by donors and grantors as to how they may be used. These include designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes.
There were no disclosable related party transactions during the year (2022 - none).