CHILDREN & FAMILIES FIRST Annual Review 2008 Annual review 2007-2008 Hello from the bosses Welcome to Norwood’s annual review. This book will tell you how we have done from April 2007 to March 2008. It will also tell you how much money we got and how much we spent.
What important things happened this year?
■ Our main supporter of children is Cherie Blair. She opened the new Wellbeing at Bearsted Centre in Hackney. ■ The Hope Charity became a part of Norwood. ■ We treat everyone who wants to work for us fairly. ■ We became a member of the Fundraising Standards Board. This means that we keep to strict rules to treat people fairly who give us money. ■ The new Norwood Nursery opened in Hendon.
What important things will happen next year? ■ We will open 2 new homes at Ravenswood where 32 people with disabilities will live. ■ We will try to help more adults with learning disabilities to get jobs if they want to work. ■ Her Majesty The Queen will visit Ravenswood.
Ivan Lewis MP visited Norwood when he was the government Minister for Care Services. He said:
“Norwood has excellent services, so adults with learning disabilities can lead full and independent lives. Norwood should be proud because it has brilliant services for children and adults with learning disabilities.”
We want to say thank you to: ■ the people who help us ■ the people who give us money ■ the people who work for us.
2 Richard Desmond Michael Teacher Norma Brier
About Norwood
Norwood is a charity that helps children and adults with learning disabilities or family problems. Our services are mainly for Jewish people but other people can use them too. We believe that everyone is different and we should all choose how we want to live and what we want to do. Last year we did a review and found good examples of people at Norwood who control their own lives. We want to support people so they live the way they really want. We will give them lots of choices, listen carefully to what they say and help them get what they want.
About this book We have made this book easy to understand but it has some hard words. This is what they mean: Befriender – a volunteer who makes friends with people who use Norwood’s services Learning disability – a disability that you have for your whole life. It makes it hard for a person to learn, understand and communicate Ofsted – an office of the government that checks standards in schools and children’s homes Orthodox – people who strictly follow Jewish laws Physical disability – a disability in the body Service user – a person who uses Norwood’s services
If you are not sure what something means in this book you can ask: ■ friends or family ■ a member of staff ■ a supporter, or ■ your nearest People First or Speaking Up group. 3 Annual review 2007-2008 Children and young people Norwood supports babies, children and other young people with learning and physical disabilities and other problems.
Binoh Some children find it hard to do well at school. Teachers at Binoh give children extra help so they can stay at school and be happy.
What did we do last year? ■ We helped children at 20 schools. We had never helped children at schools in Redbridge before, but this year we helped children at 3 schools there. ■ We had more than 200 phone calls from parents asking us for help. ■ We started a new art class for children. In the class they can use art to show how they feel. ■ We got a new teacher to make sure the work that children do at Binoh helps with the work they do at school.
What will we do next year? ■ We will help children in the new Norwood nursery. ■ We will start a new scheme for children age 15. We will help them to: ■ learn, and ■ get ready to do training, and ■ choose what job they want to do when they start work. ■ We will start another new art class because so many children enjoy art.
What did children say about Binoh?
“Binoh makes me feel more confident.” Alan
“My speech is getting better and I know where to put my tongue when I speak.” Stephanie
4 At Binoh, children like Channi are helped to do their best. Talia learns and has fun at Hope.
The Hope Centre Hope teaches in a special way using the ideas of Professor Reuven Feuerstein from Israel. It helps children who find learning hard, to do their very best.
What did we do last year? ■ Hope had a party because it has been in the UK for 10 years. ■ 3 Hope workers went on a 2-week course about new ways to teach children.
What will we do next year? ■ We will train parents and teachers how to help children who use The Hope Centre, when they are at home or at school. ■ Most children come to The Hope Centre for a few hours each week. We will ask them to come for longer so that they can learn more.
What did children say about Hope?
“I think Hope is brilliant – they help me in every way. They have helped me through the hard years I have been there and I would like to say thank you to everyone.” Rebecca
“I like The Hope Centre because I learn. I like reading, going on the computer and cooking. In the summer camp I like to feed the animals. I had my birthday party at Hope and my friends from school came. I love everybody at The Hope Centre.” Talia
What did parents say about Hope?
“The Hope Centre is a really important part of our lives and we feel very lucky to be part of this wonderful place.” Ros
6 Buckets and Spades At Buckets and Spades Lodge, children with disabilities can stay for a few days to give them and their parents a rest.
What did we do last year? ■ We were busier than ever before. 73 children stayed for a total of 1739 nights. ■ We were given a new minibus. This will let more children go on fun outings. ■ We had a traditional Jewish Sabbath weekend. ■ We sent parents a letter asking them what they thought about Buckets and Spades and how to make it better. ■ We got a good report from Ofsted inspectors. They said:
“This is a good service. Buckets and Spades is a well run home. Children are happy, they join in activities and eat healthy food. They also get on well with workers. Workers and parents are happy.”
What will we do next year? ■ Have another traditional Jewish Sabbath weekend and celebrate the Jewish festivals. ■ We will welcome new children and families.
Schools What’s next? JCOSS SCHOOL ■ The Annie Lawson School at Ravenswood will close in 2008. ■ We are working to open a new high school called JCoSS in East Barnet. It will open in 2010. There will be a special Norwood centre at the school for 50 children with autism.
Binoh helps Amber with her schoolwork
7 Children have fun at Norwood’s summer scheme in Hackney. Unity Unity runs after-school clubs and school-holiday schemes for children with disabilities.
What did we do last year? ■ 90 children did lots of activities after school and went on outings in the holidays. ■ 11 children went on holiday together and did lots of activities outside. ■ 12 children won Jack Petchey Awards for behaving well, being a good friend and being on the Young People’s Focus Group. The winners gave their prize money to Norwood.
What’s next? ■ Children and young people with disabilities will put on a show with music, singing, dancing and drama. ■ There will be a new social club for 16-25 year olds where they can meet, do activities and have fun.
What did parents say about Unity?
“Unity was the only Jewish thing in my child’s life outside of home and it helped her to feel more Jewish. This meant a lot to us. I still remember our delight when she joined in singing Passover songs that she had learnt at Unity. What you do is very important.” Joanna
Young People’s Focus Group The Young People’s Focus Group (YPFG) allows young people with disabilities to tell us what they think about Norwood. We listen to what they say. Every year, the YPFG plan a Fun Day and a party where they choose what they want to do with their friends.
What will the YPFG do next year? ■ They will decide what activities they want to do. ■ The group will plan another Fun Day. There will be a balloon magician, a tea-cup fairground ride, a bouncy castle, football and a visit from the firefighters. ■ The group will go on an outing to an adventure park.
9 Annual review 2007-2008 Families
Children and Family Centres Norwood has 3 Children and Family Centres in Hendon, Hackney and Redbridge. What did we do last year at The Somers Centre in Hackney? ■ Our main supporter of Children is Cherie Blair, the wife of Tony Blair. He used to be the Prime Minister. She opened the new Wellbeing at Bearsted health centre for orthodox Jewish mothers and babies. ■ The summer scheme was very busy. 85 children went there every day. ■ We opened on Sundays to let the Step by Step charity run a group for children aged 3-13 with special needs. The children liked it.
What will we do next year? ■ There will be a new after-school Stay and Play club for mothers and their children aged 0-8 years old. ■ There will be 2 new Sunday clubs for orthodox Jewish children aged 9-12 years old. There will be one for girls and one for boys. ■ We will help University College London to study cancer. The work will be about Jewish people who have grandparents from Eastern Europe. People will go to Wellbeing at Bearsted for tests.
Mothers and children go to Norwood’s Children and Family Centres.
10 Children enjoy lots of different activities at the 2gether group in Hendon. What did we do last year at the Kennedy Leigh Centre and Pears Wing for Children in Hendon? ■ We built a new nursery. It opened in September 2008 for children aged 2-5 years old with and without disabilities. We will give them lots of care. What do we think children like about the nursery? ■ The sensory room ■ The soft play area ■ The playground and garden ■ Learning with good teachers ■ Learning about being Jewish.
We held lots of different groups for children and families every week. For example:
■ The Rainbow Group for mothers with children under 5 with special needs. The mothers talk to each other and their children sing, play and do yoga.
■ The Siblings Group is for brothers and sisters of children with a learning disability. They can play, talk and have fun together.
What will we do next year? ■ We have asked Barnet Council if we can be a Community Children’s Centre. We hope they will say yes. ■ We will ask fathers and grandparents of children with disabilities to come to our parenting group. ■ We will start a Streetwise group for children and one for adults. They will learn how to stand up for themselves and be happy about being who they are.
What did we do at the Redbridge Family Centre? ■ We ran lots of services for children and adults including:
■ social work ■ Unity clubs for children with disabilities ■ groups ■ day-centre activities.
What will we do next year? ■ We will offer all of these services to more people.
12 Norwood helps all children to live in happy families.
Fostering and adoption Norwood tries to help families stay together. Sometimes, when this doesn’t work, we find new homes and families for children. Some children need a home for a long time and we find a family to adopt them. Some children need a home for a short time and we find them a foster family. What did we do last year? ■ 7 children from the UK were adopted. ■ We found a family to look after a group of brothers and sisters. ■ 14 children were adopted from other countries. ■ We told 8 families that they can adopt children from other countries in the future. ■ 4 children with learning or physical disabilities had emergency foster care and spent the night or weekend with other families. ■ 4 Jewish children were fostered.
What will we do next year? ■ Tell more families that they can adopt children from other countries. ■ Teach children in schools what being adopted feels like.
13 Tina’s story Tina was married to a man who took drugs and lied to her about lots of things. This made her and her 3 children unhappy so she left him. 2 of her children were behaving badly at school because they were upset at home and the head teacher told them not to come back. Also, Tina did not have enough money. So she asked Norwood social workers for help.
They gave her some money and she bought food, clothes and furniture. They gave her ideas about how to earn money herself. Her children go to Binoh to learn and we hope they will go back to school soon.
Social workers like Lauren help people with problems.
14 Social work Sometimes, children and families need help with their problems. People can talk to Norwood’s social workers if they have a problem.
Social workers help people with lots of problems, like: ■ bullying ■ trying to be a better parent and look after children well ■ disabilities ■ when families argue or break up ■ money problems.
What did we do last year? ■ Growing up can be hard for teenagers with disabilities or problems. We gave someone a job to help these teenagers make choices about things like:
■ going to college ■ where to live ■ what to do in the future ■ money ■ what to do in their spare time. ■ We helped children at 3 schools in Redbridge and lots of schools in Hackney.
What are we going to do next year? ■ We will start new groups. ■ We will help young people to try out a job to see if they like it. ■ We will give a special job to a man who will help orthodox Jewish boys and men with their day-to-day lives. ■ We will start a new group for orthodox Jewish girls at high school in Hackney to help them feel happy and make friends.
Young adults make choices about the future.
15 Annual review 2007-2008 Adults with learning disabilities
Adults with learning disabilities living in London Some adults with learning disabilities want to live in an ordinary house or flat. We have 11 homes for people who need a lot of help. We support 70 adults who live there.
Other people can look after themselves but need a little help. We have 9 homes for people like this, and we support 40 adults who live in them. We want more people to become more independent.
What did we do last year? ■ Lots of people told us that our services are really good. Who told us?
■ Government inspectors told us that out of 11 residential homes, 3 were excellent and 8 were good. They said about one of our care homes: “It makes people feel very welcome. People live in a homely place with nice furniture and decoration.” ■ People who live in our homes and their families. ■ Friends who come to visit our homes. ■ A company called Paradigm. Their report said: “Norwood’s housing service is a good example that everyone can learn from.”
■ Living in a healthy way is important so we gave someone a job to help people with disabilities do exercise and sports. We also gave someone a job to teach people about eating healthy food.
What will we do next year? ■ We will help people who live in Norwood homes to do more things for themselves. ■ We will work with housing groups and people who give us money so that in the future we have more houses for adults. ■ In the future we will open new homes in Barnet and Hertfordshire and make more space in our homes so that more people can live there. ■ We will have a new Move-On-Group for people with disabilities who are moving into their own home. 16 Daniella lives in her own flat in one of Norwood’s homes. She has a job preparing food at the Norwood Deli and serving it. She also works in Norwood’s Head office. She said: “I love my flat, my pets and working at Norwood.”
Daniella’s picture is also on the front cover of this book.
17 Other services in London for adults with learning disabilities As well as providing housing, we: ■ get people involved in sports and hobbies ■ give advice on healthy eating ■ arrange outings to the cinema, pubs and clubs.
What will we do in the future? ■ We will give more adults the chance to learn new things. ■ We will open a café where adults with learning disabilities will work. Everyone can go there to eat and drink. They can also go to get advice about jobs and learning. ■ We will start a course to teach adults how to do more things for themselves and to learn new skills they can use in the future.
Jobs for adults with learning disabilities We think it is important for people to work if they want to. It is hard for people with learning disabilities to get a job, so we help them.
What did we do last year? ■ In London we helped 28 people who live in Norwood homes to get jobs. ■ We gave 2 new people jobs to help adults with learning disabilities in London to find work. ■ We gave jobs to a lot of people who live at Ravenswood.
What do they do?
■ They answer the phone ■ They work in the gardens ■ They work in the stables where the horses live ■ They deliver milk and post.
What are we going to do in the future? ■ We will help more people to get work if they want to. We will teach them skills and train them how to do their jobs. ■ We will give jobs to 3 more people to help other adults find work.
18 Gregory is from London and has a job Michael and Julian use the new computers at a supermarket. at the Karten Training Centre.
Adults with learning disabilities who live at Ravenswood 150 adults with learning disabilities live in 17 homes at Ravenswood in Berkshire.
What did we do last year? ■ The Karten Training Centre bought new touch-screen computers for everyone to use. ■ We gave adults with learning disabilities training. This helped them to interview staff and choose who would look after them.
What are we going to do next year? ■ We will open 2 new homes where 32 people will live. One home is for people with physical and learning disabilities, and one home is for people with autism.
19 Annual review 2007-2008 Staff and volunteers
Staff 1200 people work at Norwood. They are happy because we teach them how to do their jobs better. They go on learning so they can give more help to people who use our services.
What did we do last year? ■ We helped 36 managers to do their jobs better. ■ We told new workers more about what Norwood does and how we work. ■ We set up a new computer system for staff so they can work better together. ■ We trained Norwood staff how to do their jobs better. Our paid workers are happier. Fewer workers leave. ■ We asked staff what they thought about Norwood. They said it had got better since we last asked them in 2006. We are pleased as we have tried hard to make work better for everyone.
What are we going to do next year? ■ We will help another 36 managers to do their jobs better. ■ We will train new staff at the 2 new homes at Ravenswood to do their jobs well before they start looking after people. ■ We will teach everyone who works at Norwood what it means to have a person-centred approach. (In other words, helping people to decide what is important to them so they can choose the things they want to do to make them happy.) ■ We will encourage staff at Ravenswood to learn new skills and take exams so they can do their jobs better. ■ We will have our third conference for staff and volunteers on 29 June 2009.
What do our workers think about the training?
Terry Collier is the Income and Database Assistant Manager. He said: “I learned some clever tips and the lessons have made me a better manager.”
20 Volunteers People who work for Norwood but are not paid any money are called volunteers. We have 700 volunteers who:
■ help care for people who use Norwood’s services ■ help us in the offices ■ visit people in our homes ■ drive cars and minibuses ■ sell things in Norwood shops to get more money ■ help plan events to raise money for Norwood.
What did we do last year? ■ 326 new volunteers joined us. ■ Our volunteers worked for a total of 2400 hours every month. We don’t pay volunteers. If we did we would have paid them £330,000 last year.
What will we do next year? ■ We will look at how well we are doing and make sure that our volunteers are happy in their jobs helping people. ■ We will teach new volunteers how to do their jobs well. ■ We will ask for the ‘Investment in Volunteers’ symbol. This will show that we are a good charity to volunteer for.
Volunteers help look after children in the school holidays.
21 Annual review 2007-2008 Money Now we will tell you how much money we got and how much we spent from April 2007 to March 2008. Please ask us if you want to find out more about our money. Our phone number is on page 27 of this book.
Money we got This year we got nearly 39.1 million pounds (£39,090,000).
This is where it came from: £23,510,000 government and councils – they pay so that people can use our services
£10,452,000 fundraising – money people gave when we asked them to support us
£2,554,000 money people gave us for new services
£553,000 money we earned from the bank
£2,029,000 money from selling things we didn’t need any more
Money we spent We spent more than 35 million pounds (£35,015,000).
This is how we spent it: £31,688,000 on running our services
£2,585,000 on fundraising (This is £8 in every £100 of all the money we spent.)
£742,000 on management (running Norwood)
22 We spent over 31 million pounds (£31,688,000) on Norwood services.
This is how we spent it: £15,107,000 on Adult Services at Ravenswood Village in Berkshire £7,814,000 on Learning Disability Services in London £6,011,000 on Special Education Services £2,286,000 on Children and Family Services £470,000 on Fostering and Adoption Services
2008 savings This shows how much money we have put aside for the future. Our money grew by nearly 4 million pounds (£3,781,000). This is what we are going to do with the extra money: £1,181,000 savings and investments £2,600,000 on new buildings People are finding money matters hard because our economy is getting smaller instead of growing. This means that businesses and shops are not doing very well and people are losing their jobs. It will be harder to make money next year so people will have less money to give to charities like Norwood.
Our heroes Norwood gets some money from the government. We still need more money to run our services. Lots of people help us every year by giving us money. Some people leave us money after they die, by making a will. We want to thank them all.
23 Annual review 2007-2008 What’s on?
Charity events
Supper Quiz 18 January 2009 St Michael’s Banqueting Suite, Golders Green, NW11
Backgammon Grand Final Monday 26 January 2009 Sketch, London, W1
YN Finance Reception 12 February 2009 Coutts, London, WC2
Business Breakfast 13 February 2009 Chancery Court Renaissance, London, WC1
YN Property Reception March 2009
Alternative Investment Dinner 3 March 2009 Claridge’s, London, W1
YN Today Reception April 2009 Property Lunch 12 June 2009 Intercontinental Hotel, London, W1
Art Dinner 24 June 2009 RIBA, London, W1
Annual Dinner Monday 16 November 2009 Grosvenor House, London, W1
To find out more call 020 8420 6823 email [email protected] or go to www.norwood.org.uk
24 Children and their families cycled for 10 miles in the Junior Bike Ride in June.
Charity sports events
High School Swimathon 19 February 2009 North London Collegiate School, Edgware
London Marathon 26 April 2009
Waterside Walk 10 May 2009 Virginia Water, Ascot
Junior Bike Ride 21 June 2009 Elstree, Hertfordshire
Capital to Coast Cycle Challenge for Charity 28 June 2009 London to Hove or in a circle starting and finishing in Hove
Provence Trek, France 6-11 September 2009
Israel Bike Ride 17-25 October 2009
Rajasthan Bike Ride, India 29 October-8 November 2009
To find out more call 020 8420 6834 email [email protected] or go to www.norwood.org.uk/challenges
25 Annual review 2007-2008 Photographs of Norwood events
Katie Hopkins, Simon Ambrose, Tre Azam and Kristina Grimes from The Apprentice Cherie Blair is Norwood's Patron of TV show took part in an event to raise Children's services. She cut the Flora Frank and other London money for Norwood in July 2007. ribbon to open the Wellbeing at Marathon runners raised money Bearsted Centre in January 2008. for Norwood in April 2007.
Norwood thanked their volunteers for the good work they do at a tea party in 2007. David Cameron, the Leader of the Conservative party, spoke at Norwood’s Annual Dinner in Stephen Triesman lives at November 2007. Ravenswood. He rode on a tandem bike with Clive Sladen in Norwood's Capital to Coast Cycle Challenge in July 2007.
Bernie Ecclestone, Stirling Moss and Richard Desmond went to Katie and Peter Andre gave a gold Norwood's Business Breakfast in disc to Jon Sacker and Carla Harris February 2008. after Norwood got money from the sale of their album. People played backgammon to raise money for Norwood in December 2007. If you want to know ■ more about Norwood ■ more about Norwood’s money ■ who our supporters are please contact:
Vivienne Brown
020 8954 4555
www.norwood.org.uk
or write to:
Norwood Broadway House 80-82 The Broadway Stanmore Middlesex HA7 4HB
Some of the pictures of people in the book are models. Others are Norwood people. They or their parents have agreed we can show their photos. We have changed some of the names or stories to keep people’s lives private.
Norwood’s main supporter is Her Majesty The Queen. Norwood’s registered charity number is 1059050. 27