TOUCHSTONE - LEEDS

FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2009

Company Number

2200394

Charity Number

1012053

TOUCHSTONE - LEEDS

REPORT AND ACCOUNTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2009

CONTENTS

Page

The Trustees Report1 –12

Report of the Auditor 13–14

Statement of Financial Activities15

Balance Sheet16

Income and Expenditure Account17

Notes to the Accounts18– 27

TOUCHSTONE - LEEDS

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2009

The trustees of the Charity, who are the directors of the Company, are pleased to present their report and audited financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2009.

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Touchstone-Leeds[1] is constituted as a Registered Company Limited by Guarantee and is registered as a Charity.

Full Name:Touchstone-Leeds

Charity Registration Number:1012053

Company Registration Number:2200394

Registered Office:Touchstone House

2-4 Middleton Crescent

Leeds

LS11 6JU

Auditors:RSM Bentley Jennison

Chartered Accountants

Registered Auditors

2 Wellington Place

Leeds

LS1 4AP

Bankers:Yorkshire Bank plcThe Co-operative Bank

1 Penny Hill Centre41 Vicar Lane

Church Street, LeedsLeeds

LS102APLS1 1HJ

Board of Trustees:

Sylvia Landells
Virginia Minogue / Chair
Kate Karban / (Resigned 27 October 2008)
Alan Judd / Vice-Chair / (Resigned 6 July 2009)
Maria Trainer
Nick Brown
Abdur Khan
Ramindar Singh
Eileen Moxon / (RIP 5 June 2009)
Janet Reynolds
John Bell / (Appointed 30 March 2009; resigned 15 June 2009)
Julie Laxton / (Appointed 30 March 2009)

Senior Officer (Chief Executive):Alison Lowe, MA BA(Hons)

Company Secretary:David Jorysz

STRUCTURE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Governing Document

The organisation is a charitable company limited by guarantee, incorporated on 30 November 1987, and a registered charity. The company was established under a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. In the event of the company being wound up members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £1.

Appointment of Trustees

Trustees serve on the Board in the capacity of both Company Director and Charity Trustee. They receive no remuneration and any expenses reclaimed are set out in note 5 to the accounts. Appointments to the Board are made by and from Members of the Company at the Annual General Meeting in accordance with the detailed regulations set out in the Articles of Association. Between Annual General Meetings, the Board itself has the power to make further appointments to the Board.

One third of the trustees retire at each Annual General Meeting and are eligible for re-election. In 2009Nick Brown, Abdur Khan, Sylvia Landells and Virginia Minoguue retire by rotation and, being eligible, offer themselves for re-election.

The Board is conscious that it is heavily reliant on a small number of trustees and has been actively seeking to increase its membership. This year there has been a net increase of one trustee, however membership remains an agenda item at every Board meeting. It has been agreed to repeat a skills and diversity audit of existing trustees and for this to inform a recruitment strategy.

There are four places for Service Users on the Board, representing all those in receipt of Touchstone’s services. The individuals involved are able to decide in what capacity they wish to attend: either in an advisory capacity or as an appointed trustee.

Trustee Induction and Training

Potential trustees would generally meet with the Chair of Trustees and the Chief Executive, and can be invited to attend at least one Board meeting as an observer, before joining the Board. There is an induction pack of organisational information for new trustees.

There is an annual Board Awayday that is more reflective than a business meeting and usually includes an element of training. This year the Board looked at its own performance as a trustee body, considering how to achieve greater impact and identifying what training and resources were needed. The result was a comprehensive action plan to improve the effectiveness of the Board and trustees to ensure optimal governance for the delivery of responsive services. The training element sought to improve the financial understanding of the Board by looking at four specific topics.

Trustees are supported to attend other relevant training that this year included a conference in London.

Organisational Structure

The Board of trustees, which shall not have less than 6 or more than 20 trustees, is responsible for the strategic direction and governance of the organisation. The Board meets at least five times a year and there are now fourcommittees covering Finance & Resources, Quality Standards, Business Development, and a Joint Negotiating Committee.

The management structure is headed by the Chief Executive, who is appointed by the Board to manage the day to day operations of the organisation. The Chief Executive has delegated authority, within terms of delegation approved by the trustees, for operational matters including finance, employment and service delivery.

The Chief Executiveis responsible to the Board for the operation and development of the organisation, in line with the Strategic Business Plan, and for advising the Board on strategy and policy issues. In this, the Chief Executive is assisted by the Senior Management Team of the Operations Director, Finance Director, Business Development Director and the Human Resource & Administration Manager.

Service delivery is organised into a team structure with team managers being responsible to the Senior Management Team. Currently there are seven team manager posts.

Risk Management

The Board conducts an annual review of the major risks to which the organisation is exposed. This includes assessing the potential impact and likelihood, identifying the controls in place, and those that could be put in place, to mitigate the risk.

A risk register is maintained of risks faced by the organisation under the headings of governance, financial, external and operational. It is jointly compiled by trustees and managers with particular attention paid to risks considered to have a high potential impact and a high residual likelihood of occurrence despite existing controls. Key amongst such risks are the small Board of trustees, the loss of key strategic staff, communication and the impact of government policy. The full register is reviewed and updated annually by the trustees, most recently in June 2009 when the impact of the changed economic climate was also considered and the disaster plan reviewed.

OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES AND PUBLIC BENEFIT

Aims and Objectives

The charitable objects defined in the Memorandum are “to relieve sickness and promote the fostering of positive physical and mental health and the prevention of breakdown among members of the community by establishing guiding and supporting, the promotion of self-help groups, and provision of personal counselling, housing and other practical facilities and by the advancement of education for the public benefit of lay and professional health care workers”.

More particularly, Touchstone’s vision statement is “Inspiring communities, transforming lives” and this is underpinned by six values to:

  • promote the wellbeing, recovery and entitlements of our service users and carers;
  • ensure quality is at the heart of all we do and to strive for continuous improvement;
  • have integrity and be open at all times;
  • make independence possible by working with and for people and our partner organisations;
  • be person-centred, valuing difference and celebrating diversity;
  • give respect and ensure dignity for all.

Touchstone aims to secure its values by:

  • ensuring the views, entitlements and wishes of our service users and carers inform every aspect of Touchstone’s service delivery and design;
  • working with partner organisations to create better recovery and wellbeing and to minimise harm;
  • being community focused as well as strategically relevant;
  • targeting our resources in ways that make the best and most cost effective impact;
  • recognising and rewarding staff as our ambassadors – committing to providing high quality leadership, training and support to underpin the provision of excellent services.

Specific objectives for the year under review were set out in Touchstone’s Strategic Business Plan 2007 – 2017, approved in March 2007. The Plan sets out three aspirations for Touchstone by 2017 and five strategic objectives for the next ten years with detailed steps for the next three years and an indication of the actions in the middle years.

The three aspirations are that, by 2017, Touchstone will:

  • be leaders across Yorkshire and the Humber in delivering quality health and preventative services for diverse and vulnerable communities;
  • be recognised as experts in our field and be commissioned to share our unique models of good practice across all sectors via training, consultancy and research;
  • work in partnership with service users and carers to deliver recovery services that are empowering, relevant and life affirming.

The five strategic objectives are to:

  • secure new developments to support the delivery of the wider curative and prevention agenda, within and beyond the Leeds Metropolitan District Boundary and in line with the strategic context
    [in 2008/09 by identifying development opportunities concentrating on areas of expertise, implementing appropriate structures and developing and implementing a PR/Marketing strategy];
  • exploit opportunities for partnership within the statutory, public and private sectors and in line with the existing government agenda
    [in 2008/09 by identifying and building partnerships to develop new services, recruiting ‘members’ of Touchstone, continuing and developing further the I3 partnership with Adult Social Care, scoping and developing new or different models of service delivery with partners and funders];
  • develop Touchstone as a learning and training organisation
    [in 2008/09 by developing models of good practice to share, completing research on an evaluation toolkit, reviewing QAF and developing a training package, implementing the risk review and developing new tools to market as good practice];
  • develop co-production as a tool to involve service users and carers in all aspects of service delivery and design
    [in 2008/09 by monitoring progress of service user/carer strategy, developing knowledge of better routes to involvement and training in it, implementing review of communications and ensure it meets the needs of all stakeholders, delivering the service user evaluation toolkit work];
  • recognise and develop staff as a resource who are essential partners in the delivery of quality services
    [in 2008/09 by maintaining Investors in People accreditation, appointing the Business Development Director, reviewing/improving pension arrangements, commissioning staff training according to need and organisational objectives, maintaining corporate identity, further improving attendance].

Each strategic objective is developed into specific objectives with action plans. The Strategic Business Plan is further supported by individual team actions plans.

Activities

Primarily Touchstone provides services for people with mental health difficulties, those vulnerable to such problems and to their carers. Through this work, and seeking to ensure services were available to the whole of our diverse community, Touchstone has developed a particular strength working with Black and Minority Ethnic communities. This now gives a secondary focus that has evolved into more general health promotion work and neighbourhood support.

The services Touchstone provides are:

  • Accommodation and housing support – supportedhousing is provided in a range of settings including a hostel and individual tenancies, as appropriate to individual need;
  • Daytime activities and support – provided through drop-in services and more structured programmes and in settings appropriate to the needs of diverse communities. Principally these services are provided from the Support Centre in north Leeds and Touchstone House in south;
  • Assertive outreach and support – providing support to people in community settings including those with clear needs but who are reluctant to engage with services. This is the main area of work for the Community Support Team;
  • Co-ordination of the MEMHO Healthy Living Centre – working with small community groups and organisations within Black and minority ethnic communities to address issues of healthy living;
  • Community development work – improving access to mental health services for people from Black and minority ethnic communities. This work is undertaken by the Community Development Service;
  • Neighbourhood support – provided by the Sikh Elders’ Neighbourhood Service to improve the health and wellbeing of older people in Leeds’ Sikh communities;
  • Limited small grants to individuals through the Leeds FlexiFund – applicants must be resident within the Leeds city boundary and their application must be supported by a sponsor from a recognised agency.

Public Benefit

The trustees recognise their duties under the Charities Act 2006, and have referred to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit when reviewing Touchstone’s activitiesand compiling this report.

The activities described above, and explained in more detail in the following sections, are consistent withTouchstone’s values and aims which, in turn, derive from its charitable objects. They seek to deliver public benefit by improving the physical and, especially, mental health of the community either directly or through improving people’s experience of other services and their acceptance within the community. All new and potential developments are assessed for consistency with the strategic business plan and, therefore, for their contribution to public benefit.

Access to Touchstone services is generally through referral processes determined by objective criteria based on need and, to the extent that most services are funded by statutory Leeds bodies, residence within the Metropolitan District boundaries.

Volunteers

Volunteers have always played an important, if relatively small, part in the provision of Touchstone services. Sound systems for recruiting, selecting and supporting volunteers have, therefore, been established. The development of the Sikh Elders’ Neighbourhood Service has significantly increased the role of volunteers and this will grow more with the new Community Volunteer Project in 2009/10.

ACHIEVEMENTS AND PERFORMANCE

Accommodation and Housing Support

The Housing Service and Sholebroke

Plans to merge the Housing and Sholebroke teams progressed during the year and the teams came together under a single manager in April 2009. It is thought that this configuration will enable the services to be delivered more flexibly, efficiently and consistently and with more choice for service users.

The Housing Team operates city-wide from its base at Touchstone House and is contracted to provide housing support to 84 people. Within this, specific provision is made for young people, Black or Asian men or women and single parents with children. As part of the re-configuration the proportion of service users receiving ‘floating support’ as opposed to housing support with managed accommodation will increase. At the end of March 38 people were in receipt of ‘floating support’ whereby they are direct tenants of the housing provider and receive only support from Touchstone whilst 54 people were in receipt of support with accommodation of which 25 were on a ‘visiting support’ basis meaning that when support is no longer required the tenancy can be transferred to the housing provider. Touchstone does not own any of the properties but operates as a managing agency in partnership with a number of housing associations and Leeds City Council. The number of units in Touchstone’s management had reduced by 16 over the year and will reduce further in 2009/10 with the transition to more ‘floating support’.

The Sholebroke team provides a specialist supported housing project for vulnerable young single people. Sholebroke Avenueis run in partnership with Leeds Federated Housing Association, is staffed on a 24-hour basis and houses 11 tenants. There are, additionally, 8 units of ‘visiting support’ to provide a move-on route. Alternative ways of providing this level of service outside a hostel setting are being investigated.

Housing support is mainly funded through Supporting People grant paid under a service level agreement with Leeds City Council. Rent is charged for properties managed by Touchstone though as this is eligible for housing benefit no potential service users are excluded. In addition, a 4-bed group home is run for vulnerable young people in an arrangement with Pathway Planning.

A key performance measure is lost rent. During 2008/09 losses due to voids (properties that could be let but are empty) have been 6.37% of gross rent receivable and 1.53% of gross rent due to written off arrears.

204 individuals or single parent families were supported by the accommodation services for some or all of the year. Of the 105 who left the service 82% moved-on in a planned and positive way.

Daytime Activities and Support

The Support Centre

This is a service for people with mental health difficulties from black and minority ethnic (BME) communities in Leeds. It is run from premises owned by Social Services and leased at a peppercorn rent. It offers a drop-in service, structured groups, and case management and outreach work. In addition, a special project addresses the needs of the Chinese communities.

During the year to March, 165 individuals benefited from the service. 75 people were referred of whom 59 met the referral criteria and were assessed as suitable to benefit from the services offered.

The Carer’s Team is part of the Support Centre and works specifically with BME carers offering support through a Carers Outreach Service and a Carers Group. During the year, 39 carers were supported and 9 referrals were received all of which were assessed as suitable.

‘Realise’ Project

This is a partnership between Leeds Adult Social Care, the Community Alternatives (CAT) Team, Making Space and Touchstone that is seeking through an agreed change process to pilot a new model for city-wide mental health day services in east/northeast Leeds. Over time it is anticipated that existing services will be replaced by the new-look model that will be more flexible and responsive to service user need and more integrated with non-specialist services, thus being more socially inclusive and aligned to the national ‘personalisation’ agenda. It is based at the Support Centre and the Support Centre Manager has been appointed, by the project board, to manage the pilot.