Autism Together 2022/2023 Annual Review

ANNUAL REVIEW

4 WHAT WE DO

5 LETTER FROM THE CHAIR

Right support, Right time, Right location Support Journey

Residential

6 MEET OUR CEO

gets to knowthe personwe are supporting, using a functional and ongoing assessment oftheirneeds. Following the assessment,wewill recommend individuallytailored autism approaches to support the person, along with an appropriate placement, depending on theirneeds, in residential, supported living ordayservices.

Joining Supported Living

from residential to supported living

Autism Together’s supported living service provides individualised support for adults with autism in a community setting. Working with registered social landlords, we offer bespoke homes for autistic adults in a variety of housing models, from single flats to shared accommodation.

10 STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

We celebrate

14 DEVELOPING SKILLS

the peoplewe support andtheircircleofsupport. We encourage people to reach beyond their current achievements and aim for the extraordinary.

Feedback from their parents reveals that accessing Day Services has made a huge difference to this person’s life, offering new skills, friendships and other opportunities...

OUR ADMISSIONS TEAM

What we do

For over 50 years, Autism Together has been providing support to autistic people, offering a wide range of residential services, supported living, day services and community support from our base in Wirral, UK. Research has shown that specialist education and structured support can really make a difference to the life of an autistic person. Every person on the autism spectrum is unique, so we work with each individual to help them overcome any difficulties autism may present them with, enabling them to lead a more fulfilling life.

Our mission

As a specialist autism provider, our organisation recognises that each person has a right to live their life as they choose. We create a shared understanding of each person’s strengths and needs, ensuring their preferred way of communicating these is respected and implemented by all our staff. Our support approaches and strategies are focused on developing lifelong learning, helping to develop people's skills by considering their communication needs, thinking patterns, social understanding and sensory differences.

To help autistic people develop their full potential and achieve their aspirations by delivering high quality, person-centred support.

Our philosophy

We begin with what people can do, not with what they can’t, by listening to each individual and acknowledging that they are the experts in their autism.

Our support begins with the person, along with a shared understanding of what is important to them and what their strengths and needs are.

Our support approaches are individualised so that staff can meet each person’s communication needs. Staff are trained to be consistent in the way they use communication strategies with individuals.

Our values

We promote positive communication

We are person-centred

We promote learning

We are respectful

LETTER FROM OUR CHAIR OF TRUSTEES

IAIN CADMAN

It has been a year of change for us. Sue Stubbs left us at the end of January 2023, having led the organisation during the pandemic, a very difficult time for everyone. This was not an easy task, and our thanks go to her for guiding us through it.

In March 2023, after an intensive interview process, Richard Whitby joined us as CEO. He has brought new ideas and a different perspective on how we can operate both now and in the future. This is great news for me and the other Trustees and ties in well with the review and update of our five-year strategic plan. There will be more

Retirements and appointments within our Executive team

Since our last Annual Report we have seen two senior retirements and three additions to our Executive Team.

Sue Stubbs retired from her position of CEO, in February.

HR Director Jim Strain led the farewell speech, paying tribute to Sue's calm head,

information on this in due course. It almost goes without saying that the care sector is not an easy place in which to operate. Although lockdown and the regulations that accompanied it are behind us, there is always a new set of challenges. As with any organisation, we want to improve whilst ensuring that we maintain the best care for the people we support. We know that we are able to embrace any change we think is appropriate.

The strength of an organisation is based on its people. Thanks to the hard work and support of everyone involved with Autism Together I am

warmth and kind nature, which served our organisation so well during the past three years of her tenure - not least during the difficult days of the pandemic.

Later in the year, our long-serving director of HR, Jim Strain, himself retired. Jim had been with the organisation some 27 years, seeing our charity grow from a modest workforce of less than 100, to more than 800 staff.

We would like to thank both

delighted to say that we remain in a strong position. We have a dedicated staff, the people we support are well cared for and our financial position is healthy.

As I write this, I am approaching twelve months as Chair of Trustees. Alongside a new CEO, we also welcomed four new Trustees to the Board who replaced other Trustees who decided to step down.

Speaking on behalf of all the Trustees the last twelve months have been a great experience and we are all looking forward to supporting and helping the organisation over the coming years.

Sue and Jim for all their hard work on behalf of our charity and wish them both the very best in their retirements.

In terms of incomings, of course we have Richard, our new CEO. We were

also pleased to welcome Helen Bilton, our new Director of People, who takes over Jim Strain's role, alongside Chris Cullen who steps up to become Director of Estates & Facilities. We wish them every success in their new roles.

JIM

HELEN CHRIS

We have a new CEO

In March 2023 we welcomed our new Chief Executive Officer, Richard Whitby, to Autism Together.

Richard joins the organisation after three years as CEO of Nazareth Care Charitable Trust.

Wirral born and bred, Richard brings with him over 15 years of experience in the health, social care and charity sectors.

Along with Nazareth Care, Richard has worked in senior leadership roles for some of the largest care providers in the UK charity sector, including Aspirations and Community Integrated Care.

A former support worker himself, Richard has worked through various levels of social care management to achieve success at CEO level, and so brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the charity.

Richard said: “Under my leadership, Autism Together will continue to be a modern, inclusive charity, working positively for the people we support and our dedicated staff teams."

A MESSAGE FROM OUR CEO RICHARD

WHITBY

Hello to you all and welcome to our Annual Report for 2022/23. Since joining Autism Together earlier this year, I have been blown away by the wonderful work I’ve seen our staff team accomplish each day, providing outstanding levels of support to all the people in our care.

As a local lad, Wirral born and bred, I have long been an admirer of this superb charity, and so was extremely honoured to be chosen to lead the organisation as CEO by our chair, Iain Cadman, and the board of trustees.

My predecessor Sue Stubbs and our executive team of directors did an amazing job of stabilising the charity throughout the pandemic. This sure-handed approach brought a sense of safety and stability to the people we support, while enabling the charity to

maintain a strong financial position. I would like to thank Sue, sincerely, for all her efforts in this.

The result of this meant that, from the start of my tenure, I have been able to focus on planning for the future of our charity. Working closely with our dedicated board of trustees, we have been able to launch our new Support Journey (see page 8), straightforwardly explaining a person’s journey of support into and between our services, using a streamlined flow chart design. The Support Journey shows how we ensure that autistic people accessing our services will receive the right support, at the right time, in the right location.

In other news, we have recently opened a new supported living service in Rock Ferry, Wirral, and have plans to open another in

January 2024.

In the new year we will also be reopening our respite service, The Maples. As many of you know, we previously had to close our respite provision due to the staffing shortages which have been affecting social care services across the UK.

Staffing remains a priority for us, and we continue to work hard to bring in the best talent

this summer.

Recruiting Helen to the role was one of my first orders of business upon joining the organisation, and I would like to thank Jim for his help in securing her appointment and the wonderful legacy he leaves after 27 years' work.

Helen’s appointment follows a restructure of the Executive Team at Autism

Together, with Jane Carolan becoming the Director of Operations and Chris Cullen stepping up to be the Director of Estates & Facilities.

delivering fantastic services for the people we support, and being an increasingly significant part of the communities we live and work in.

from across the region to join our teams. To help with this we have recruited a new Director of People, Helen Bilton, who takes over from our long-serving HR Director Jim Strain who retired

With the help of our new Executive Team, I feel we are in position to strive towards a bright future for the organisation, strengthening our position as an employer of choice in the care sector,

Our work so far has filled me with optimism and excitement about the future of our charity. I look forward to building on this and working towards our strategic objectives over the coming years, helping bring a renewed sense of success, happiness and achievement to all our staff and the people we support.

Under my leadership, Autism Together will continue to be a modern, inclusive charity, working positively for the people we support and our staff team.

Support Journey

Right support, Right time, Right location

Joining

Our staff are knowledgeable, experienced and ready to support autistic people right through their journey with Autism Together. Our team gets to know the person we are supporting, using a functional and ongoing assessment of their needs. Following the assessment, we will recommend individuallytailored autism approaches to support the person, along with an appropriate placement, depending on their needs, in our Residential, Supported Living or Day Services.

Circle of support

Person we support

Family

 Social Services

 Health

 Friends

Support staff

Day Services

Making the move from Residential to Suppo rte d Living

Our range of Day Services are about offering autistic people meaningful, realistic and achievable training, on the job work experience and valuable life skills. These structured, personcentred programmes offer the necessary communication strategies and support plans, enabling the person to develop independently, safely and confidently. Activities include...

Residential Care

Our Residential service offers registered residential care in a variety of different types of housing across Wirral and Cheshire.

We work with the people we support to help each individual lead as fulfilling and meaningful a life as possible, through a specifically-tailored package of support which involves a full daytime, evening and weekend programme.

Supported Living

Autism Together’s Supported Living service provides individualised support for autistic adults in a community setting. Working with registered social landlords, we offer bespoke homes for autistic adults in a variety of housing models, from single flats to shared accommodation.

Reducing support needed and staffing

People we support can move between Residential care and Supported Living, depending on their needs

Living in own flat in community

We celebrate positive outcomes with the people we support and their circle of support. We encourage people to reach beyond their current achievements and aim for the extraordinary.

Progress against our Strategic Objectives

1Provide personcentred and highquality services for people across the autism spectrum

The development of our quality framework was completed and launched in winter 2022/23.

In addition, after introducing an internal Quality Assurance Manager last year, all regulated services have now been audited internally and action plans to address gaps have

been produced and actioned as appropriate. In March 2023, this was extended further with mock audits in several services delivered by third party experts. Action plans generated were completed in June 2023. We have worked hard on coproduction in the year and the people we support have been regularly involved with staff interviews and people forums. Our Supported Living service has created its own health and safety committee, which has led to people we support carrying out regular checks on their own houses.

2Develop our autism services

We developed and rolled out our “Autism Together Model” which is a training course that all our support staff undertake to enable them to safely and effectively deliver our services to the people we support. This course has been accredited by BILD (British Institute of Learning Disabilities).

We had been unable to open our respite service after Covid due to staffing levels and difficulty in recruitment. We are planning for the reintroduction of this service in January 2024.

3 Invest in our assets and infrastructure

This year:

f We have made good progress against the future for our Raby site. We have been working closely with our neighbours and landlord, Leverhulme Estates, to ensure that their planning application for their land is in keeping with our ultimate aim for the site.

f We have delivered a number of the actions identified in our property strategy. This included completing an options appraisal on The Lodge and the swimming pool. We have been hampered on progressing the options appraisal for Raby Hall due to delays in reopening respite and ongoing issues relating to staffing levels.

f The roll out of digital care planning has

4 Develop and invest in our staff

Recruitment has been very challenging in the social care sector and we have had difficult staffing shortages. However, we have had significant success in getting UK government licences to employ overseas workers. This has had positive impacts both on our support delivery and our finances.

In Autumn 2022 we launched our staff survey, with the aim of understanding how we can improve staff engagement which would

begun, but due to delays in development with our provider, this has been slower than we would like. We have also begun developing another digital tool in partnership with Wirral Council, which will provide live monitoring of individuals' health and digitisation of the Anticipatory Care Calendar.

f The environmental policy and strategy have been successfully developed and approved. Work to achieve this began in the summer.

f We have also been working with Riverside Housing who have donated to Autism Together land and buildings that we previously rented from them. This was completed after the year end, in early June 2023.

f Our new finance system went live on 1st April 2023 after several months of planning, adapting and implementing. The launch has been very successful and seamless for our operation.

hopefully improve retention. The 3 main areas of concern raised were:

f Pay/Recognition. This was by far the biggest concern raised. The challenge is to get the funding from local and national government that we and the wider adult social care sector needs.

f Staffing levels – this has continued to improve in recent months, with the success in international recruitment, and will hopefully continue to do so as we go forward. We know that there are staffing problems right across the

UK and not least in social care. Nonetheless, we will continue to work hard to recruit staff and retain staff.

f Communications – this was particularly an issue between services. Part of the work now is to better understand what these issues are and how we can improve them.

f We have worked very hard to reduce the level of expired training for our staff and, at the end of the year, we exceeded our target of 5% expired training, reaching 4% excluding long term absence.

5

Be financially sustainable

During 2022/23 we have:

f Exceeded our budget to add to free reserves.

f Improved our cash position.

f Exceeded our fundraising target.

A significant contributor towards these successes involved successful negotiations with our commissioners, in particular in Residential services, where we have a large number of historic care packages from out of area local authorities running at a loss.

6 Raise autism awareness, acceptance and promote autism good practice

Looking back to April 2022, we enjoyed another very positive Autism Acceptance Month. We built links with both the Trafford Centre in Manchester and Woodside Markets in Birkenhead, with the Fundraising Team and volunteers helping man stalls at both locations during the month to help fundraise, spread autism awareness and acceptance, and also tell people about the work of Autism Together. Along with all this, we ran a Get Active For Autism challenge for both

our supporters and schoolchildren to take part in, and we recorded age-appropriate videos for teachers to download, alongside other resources, to teach their students about autism.

Our Admissions Team has attended a number of school fairs and open days across Wirral. These events are a wonderful opportunity to share more information about our services with schools that teach students with special educational needs.

We also continue to develop our approach to social media and grow our follower base.

Social media followers

15,000

2,400

4,600

1,350

3,400

Developing Skills

Bromborough Pool Garden Centre saw a great deal of success this year in helping people we support who access this area of our Day Services to learn a range of new skills.

Our aim is to help them develop social and business skills, including numeracy and communication. They are continually assessed, gaining skills-based learning awards, such as John Muir Discovery and ASDAN Work Skills. Over the past 12 months, each person who accesses the service has received at least one such award, with staff members also taking and completing some relevant John Muir awards!

In order to make it more straightforward for the people who access the service to understand their roles and responsibilities, many adaptations were made. We painted doors on our various polytunnels, garden plots and greenhouses in different colours, so each person knew which colour area they were working in. For individuals doing table service who had difficulties with sight or proxemics, we introduced a serving trolley to use. We also introduced visual ‘Now and Next’ aids for workflow, along with visual recipes to follow for food preparation.

Each person at the Garden Centre does as much as they feel able, in line with their support plans and sensory needs.

Our Community Health & Wellbeing Team saw a number of highlights throughout the year, from Community Groups successfully accessing football activities through Co-Op funding, to others enjoying cycling provisions.

The team has also helped a number of people successfully transition into Supported Living and better access the local community. They also worked with many people we support to help them gain new skills and receive certificates to prove it. Our Awards Coordinator Mike Stormes has seen over 80 awards given to people we support across the organisation.

In Creative Arts, different groups of people we support have been enjoying trying fresh creative approaches, learning new skills and, ultimately, growing their confidence.

One of our groups have been meeting once a week to work in collaboration to produce a weekly podcast, all about football. The men chat about everything from score predictions to transfer news to a look back at their own team’s fortunes. The edited podcasts are then released internally for people within Autism Together to hear. This group has helped nurture some close friendships and is fun for everyone, whether making or listening.

Our Creative Arts and Technology hub is at Gallagher House in Birkenhead. There we have seen some fantastic artwork created through both traditional media, such as painting and sewing, but also through new IT software which utilises touchscreen monitors and Smart TVs to help everyone create art.

The people we support here are learning new skills all the time - using software such as Audacity to edit sounds, Lightworks to edit video, Blender to create 3D models, or touchscreen technology to paint with Krita. Others have learned new life skills like baking and tending to flowers.

Perhaps most importantly, there is an emphasis on helping people make friendships and to support and empathise with others in their groups.

In Supported Living one person has taken on the responsibility of ‘garden inspector’ for his property. An important part of co-production within the service, Neil completes regular feedback forms that are then sent to the Housing Association that manages his property.

The form details what Neil can expect from those who visit to maintain the garden, and he is asked to score them and provide any feedback, which staff support him to do. He then signs the form and it is sent off. This inspection is carried out seriously and thoroughly by Neil, and he takes great pride in its completion.

Another individual in Supported Living, James, has gained more independence along with learning budgeting skills. James has been supported to get a pre-paid finance card. Now James has a weekly allowance to spend how he chooses. Using this prepaid card, along with social stories and easy-read information about its benefits, James has learnt to budget more effectively and has a much better understanding of the value of money.

Animal Husbandry

Our Animal Husbandry team have really enjoyed this past 12 months as the service began to feel more like in pre-pandemic days.

Generous donors have helped. Some were able to visit Raby Gardens as restrictions were lifted, which helped them better visualise and understand the aims and objectives of services based there.

These donations allowed staff to purchase new equipment and machinery in order to improve the attractive, therapeutic and supportive environment that exists for all who attend.

In the same period, we have welcomed employees from companies based in Merseyside and Cheshire who have generously donated their time to come to Raby Gardens and assist with maintenance tasks. This has included anything from painting and digging to helping us develop our sensory garden.

It is also an opportunity to demonstrate the fantastic work being achieved at Raby and for the volunteers to meet and even work alongside some of the people we support.

Many of the people we support here have developed the confidence and ability to help care for the wide variety of animals which are housed in Raby Gardens. Tasks such as cleaning, grooming, feeding and general

broaden their experience of the world.

A number of individuals who access this service have a variety of complex needs and behaviours, including levels of anxiety which can impact their ability to partake in general activities.

Staff within the team endeavour to keep lines of communication open to parents and families, providing consistent support, and helping to implement behavioural strategies and approaches.

Our activities are aimed at providing an inclusive experience for all and, as such, are tailored to take into account an individual's unique needs and abilities.

Group activities also help to bring together the people we support to work collaboratively and develop new friendships.

care are undertaken by a number of individuals who had previously been fearful or apprehensive of animals.

This is a fantastic achievement and a testament to the effort of staff to provide a safe and comfortable environment for the people we support, helping

Also, our menagerie of farm animals continues to expand, and throughout the last year, we saw the arrival of two new male alpacas or ‘crias’ named Charlie and Buddy, who were born in August and December respectively. In addition, we welcomed 'Edwina' a pygmy goat, born in July 2022.

SOME OF OUR FRIENDLY ALPACAS

Achievements & Highlights

The Admissions Team are often the first point contact for individuals and families getting in touch with Autism Together. The team are adept at offering advice, a listening ear when someone just needs to share their troubles, or guidance and support in accessing services. The team have enjoyed many highlights and successes over the last 12 months, relishing the opportunity to make a huge difference to people’s lives and their loved ones. One individual they have helped was previously only leaving the house with the assistance of an outreach support worker for a couple of hours, threedays-a-week. This was not only impacting the person, but also their family, as apart from these few hours they would not leave the house. But, having tried out and enjoyed attending day services with Autism Together, this individual now accesses our day services five-days-a-week!

Feedback from their parents reveals that accessing day services has made a huge difference to this person’s life, offering new skills, friendships and other opportunities. They have noticed an improvement in mood and temperament, with the individual being really happy at home, which has had a positive impact on the family as a whole. Mum feels like she now has freedom to spend time with her other child during school holidays, something which has never happened before.

Over at Raby Gardens the team have enjoyed support from generous donors who, with the support of the Fundraising Team, have been able to visit the site and visualise and appreciate the service’s aims and objectives. The resultant donations have helped to purchase new equipment and machinery to help staff there continue to

offer a relaxing, therapeutic and supportive environment for all who attend and visit.

Our training team has seen success in their roll-out of training to all Autism Together staff through our new course, the Autism Together Model. In fact, the team have begun refresher training for staff and trainers alike. Meanwhile, in terms of co-production, our Autism Training and Advisory Service (ATAS) have started bringing people we support into our induction training, to talk to new staff members about their experience of autism, the services and staff who support them, and ultimately what Autism Together means to them. Another positive achievement over the past year has been the success of Talking Therapies. Michelle and Yvonne, the two senior members of the training and development team, have become qualified talking therapists. Thanks to the successful allocation of funding to pay for this service, it will be made available to staff and people we support for the next two years which should have a huge and positive impact, going forward.

Through the development and implementation of a Positive Behaviour Support framework within our organisation, the creation of the Autism Together Model has seen the people we support become more involved in the delivery of our training.

After seeing positive outcomes from his PBS referral, James from our Supported Living service agreed to take part in the delivery of the training in the form of a video. This video footage is now shown to every person who

OUR ADMISSIONS TEAM

undertakes this training and is something he is especially proud of contributing to.

James said that he enjoyed recording the videos and his mum stated she was really happy that James was able to paint a picture of himself and that it will raise awareness of his and other people’s needs.

In summer 2022 our Bromborough Pool Garden Centre successfully reopened to the public for the first time after the pandemic.

Starting off with 10 people we support based there, this number grew to 30 once the service was fully up and running, with the people we support being involved in all areas of running the garden centre and café too.

But it wasn’t all work, work, work for the team. The people we support there enjoyed a range of events and celebrations throughout the year including a party for the Queen’s Jubilee, a Halloween fun day, a Chinese New Year celebration, Burns’ Day meal with haggis, neeps and tatties, card making for Valentine’s Day, and the return of our Christmas Grotto.

Staff and people we support across our Residential service enjoyed a number of highlights and achievements this year. One individual, AJ, saw a lifetime dream come true when a car was donated to him by West Wallasey Car & Van Hire.

AJ loves cars and has always wanted to own one of his own. The car may not run anymore, but AJ has loved personalising it, keeping it clean and looking good. It is a safe space to go, whenever he feels anxious or overwhelmed, and having the car to look after has given him a greater sense of responsibility and independence. Another individual was supported to achieve his dream of seeing the TV programme Loose Women being filmed live. He has been a massive fan of Loose Women for many years and enjoyed an overnight stay in London, along with being part of the studio audience, which was a real treat and an experience he’ll never forget.

One person in Supported Living was supported to join his family on holiday for the first time since the pandemic.

Two dedicated support staff joined Neil on his holiday to ensure he was able to enjoy every second of the trip to Arran in Scotland with his brother and sister. Neil enjoyed activities such as cricket, crazy golf, swimming, kayaking, sight-seeing, paddling, and his most favourite activities –meals out, visiting coffee shops and shopping!

Neil made some fantastic memories on this special holiday. Lots of planning went into this 7-day trip and the family were very thankful to the staff team who helped make it happen, saying:

“As well as their total dedication to Neil throughout the week, they blended seamlessly into our family group and were great company.

"They worked so well together as a team and showed empathy, patience and adaptability (as well as hands-on hard work) ensuring Neil had a memorable and stress-free holiday.”

Supporting autistic people

As a charity, we pride ourselves on engaging with the people we support and their families to ensure we are giving individuals the right support in the areas they feel they really need it. Through talking with Georgie, someone who accesses our Supported Living service, we realised one of his support requirements was to have his own front door, which would involve a move to another premises.

Staff identified a tenancy at another property and supported Georgie in making the move. He is now loving life. His flat is exactly to his tastes, ensuring all his important items – his computer, his belongings, his TV and videos – are all in key parts of his flat.

The dedicated and experienced team that supported him through his transition, the management handover, and the coordination from the multidisciplinary team made this move more successful than anyone imagined. Georgie no longer requires any PRN medication, his activity timetable is a true reflection of what he likes to do, and he exceeds in all his outcomes. His is one of the most successful internal transitions we have seen in Supported Living. Great work from all involved.

(PECS). With encouragement, J began to take part in activities again.

Six months later and J has now lost 1st 7lbs and is partaking in activities such as swimming, trampolining and becoming more involved in household chores. He now cooks his own evening meals, washes the dishes, does his laundry, and has completed a walk to the top of Moel Famau.

Following some difficulties with mobility and over reliance on her car, Laura - another person we supportwas encouraged to walk further. After initial reluctance, she is now excited to go for a walk, especially if it involves visiting a park with dogs and ducks!

She is now happy walking uphill independently and does not hold onto her support staff at all times. When Laura walks up hills she gives herself a clap as she reaches the top. Her support staff are very proud of how she has improved her confidence in walking and increased her activity level too.

Over in our Creative Arts hub has launched a Friendship Circle. It has proven to be successful in introducing new people we support and enhancing their confidence by providing them with opportunities to make friends in a fun and supportive environment.

In the past year, following the pandemic, we were able to reintroduce communal lounge parties in many of our services. People in supported living houses made sure to enjoy as many special occasions as they could, from Christmas and birthdays, to Easter and royal celebrations. This has had a huge impact on their welfare, and managers have noticed the people we support engaging much more with each other and with staff.

At the end of last year, J, a person we support, had lost all interest in community activities and had gained a lot of weight. So, with the support of his team, J put together his own healthy eating plan using a picture exchange communication system

USING KRITA

We pride ourselves on engaging with people we support and their families to ensure we are giving the right support in areas they really need it.

Karl, one of the people we support, has created a series of online videos showing us how to use sign language, which we can use to help other people we support.

He also created a series of short instructional videos to demonstrate how to use the Krita digital painting software, which has proved helpful to people we support and staff.

As we see more new referrals to Day Services, the rooms at Gallagher House are getting busier and so our staff are enjoying helping people get used to new faces, new noises and new experiences, in order to help them settle in and feel comfortable.

Performing Arts saw some big changes this past year as some of its members moved from Price's Social Club in Bromborough Pool to Gallagher House. Community Dance was one group making the move to Birkenhead.

In addition to all the wonderful activities the people we support participate in, the team has also begun running music specific sessions in Raby Gardens once a week. The idea is to offer some music provision to those timetabled to work in the farm, gardens, and woodland – something a little bit different for them - and this has proved hugely successful.

The driving force behind all Performing Arts has done this past year was in maintaining a person-centred approach to achieve maximum participation and a real sense of ownership in activities for those accessing the service. Activities can include practice in the likes of turn taking, or social interaction with peers and staff. A specific example was in successfully introducing two new members to our new-look Beathovens band. They are now both instrumental to the group's sound and we look forward to hearing new music from the band in the coming year.

The Residential team have had success helping people get back to regularly attending Day Services again after the pandemic. One individual was supported to return once a week, with more days slowly introduced to help the person process the change.

As the individual had never been to Gallagher House before, he was supported to have several advance visits in order to get used to the building and its sounds, smells, and people.

Our staff started him off with an hour’s visit, building up to half a day and eventually a full day, which he now does regularly and enjoys. To help him understand what was happening and when it would be happening, staff supported the individual using social stories and countdowns.

Last year, one of our Residential properties received an internal grant to help improve their garden. The garden revamp made their outdoor space much more attractive and fun to use, with the addition of a paddling pool and other water activities.

But, most popular of all was the addition of a swing, which has had a hugely positive impact on the people we support who live there. Everyone just loves taking time to relax and enjoy time on the swing.

THE BEATHOVENS ARE BACK!

TAKING TIME TO CLIMB

Raby Day Services

Day Services at Raby are about more than just looking after our collection of farm animals. This year, people we support have restarted work on their personal beds – where they can grow a range of plants and crops. Staff have been encouraging people to become more involved in maintaining these themselves, with individuals getting the opportunity to pick a variety of colours to paint the wooden borders of their beds to really personalise them.

We hope more of the people

would like to grow.

During the past year we have welcomed a number of new people to the service, all of whom have hit the ground running, helping with a large variety of tasks and projects.

Henry has become very involved in building and maintenance jobs, such as helping to set up the new fruit tunnel, digging out the stream, organising wood for log selling, and mowing too. Lyndsay just loves getting involved in animal husbandry, while Sarah loves getting stuck into any task, particularly building things – such as bird boxes for our Woodland area. Sarah also started attending our swimming sessions and has really enjoyed this new activity. The staff team has incorporated more visual structure across the site. All people we support have small lockers to put their belongings in, and these each have a visual on them with the person’s photo and name on. Visual aids have been added to each animal’s feed boxes, while the Horticultural

Team have added miniature visuals to the fruit growing in the fruit tunnel. Also each person who started a personal bed has a new visual of themselves to pin to their bed.

Post-pandemic, the service has been able to increase the amount of communitybased activities offered. A lot of planning goes into these, through finding suitable walks in quieter areas, planning alternative walks during times when children are on school holidays, or finding places where there are less dogs being walked. Some of the activities people have been enjoying include woodland walks, swimming, cycling, trips to the beach, Chester Zoo, and going shopping. Much work has been done on our Adventure Garden recently, with an extension to the stream added most recently, doubling the size of the original stream, with plans for more interactive features such as water play and a tunnel.

Supporting staff and families

Supporting Families…

Along with providing first rate support to autistic people, Autism Together also offers help and support to families whose loved ones are accessing our services. One individual we began supporting this year was referred to us via adult social care, being in children’s respite at the time but needing a move to adult residential services. The Admissions Team closely with the Registered Manager involved in the assessment process for the suitability and compatibility of the person’s placement in Residential Care. Staff spent time getting to know him, and the transition was carefully planned between Autism Together, his prior service provider, and the family. While the family understandably found it upsetting that their son required a residential placement, the team were approachable and sympathetic, and put their minds at ease. This was a tough transition for the family, but it has been made easier by the fact they are now able to spend quality time with their son, while he experiences and enjoys new activities. His mum feels being supported full-time by Autism Together will give her son confidence and independence, plus an opportunity to socialise more with his peers. His mum also felt that the Admissions and Registered Managers had been “amazing” through the entire process. Holding regular meetings and checking in via email and telephone has made her feel fully involved in her son’s care. She feels lucky that her son is now living with us and feels the placement is “perfect”.

Our Children & Family Service has celebrated a successful bid to secure funding for the development of a new activity group for young people aged 14 to 18. The group provides opportunities for teenagers to take part in a range of gaming activities. This includes the likes of Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) table-top role playing, interactive board games, and even LARPing (live-action role playing) which is similar to D&D, but involves wearing costumes and physically acting as your character.

These activities encourage collaboration, joint working and sharing, and promote selfconfidence, creative skills and building of friendships. Our Short Break Activity Clubs had a revamp this year too. Held every Saturday for children and young people aged 6 to 18, they offer a range of activities including gaming, art and crafts, cookery, music and dance, along with our extremely popular animal husbandry sessions held at Raby Gardens over the summer.

The team also directly supported a small number of young people to successfully access community activities. Along with this, our Connected group is going strong. The group arranges social gatherings for autistic adults, and is split between the 18-34 age group and a separate group for those aged 35 and over.

Another notable highlight for the Children & Family team was the success of their second Family Fun Day at Raby Gardens. This time, the summer event saw excellent weather, making it perfect for outdoor activities and encounters with our menagerie of farm animals. The event also saw increased attendance numbers with families giving excellent feedback about the event.

Supporting Staff…

The Human Resources team has had a busy but successful year, continuing to recruit staff to a range of positions across the organisation and increasing staffing levels which had dropped during the pandemic.

In order to improve levels of support staff, we worked hard with our stakeholders to improve salaries, with a commitment to pay the Real Living Wage.

At the beginning of 2023 we confirmed a third pay increase in two years for support staff. Correspondingly, in January 2023 we saw an increase of 5% in overall recruitment, and staff turnover reduced by 6%.

In total we had 223 new staff join our induction training from April 2022 to March 2023, taking our overall workforce to above 800 staff.

Whilst staffing challenges continue to affect organisations across the country, particularly in the health and social care sector, the HR Department is always looking at new recruitment options and avenues.

During the past year we were successful in our application to the Home Office to recruit staff from overseas, under a licence. This enables the organisation to apply and issue a Certificate of Sponsorship (COS) to each overseas worker we recruit.

There are strict protocols with which to adhere, and the HR team have worked with the Home Office and these new staff members to ensure we meet this criteria.

The team is evolving with new members joining, with Emily joining after having worked in support at Nelson’s Croft, while David came into the department having completed his degree at Bangor University.

The team has particularly enjoyed working with the people we support on a variety of job interviews in the past 12 months. This has been a great success, and of real benefit to both the job candidate and the person we support. The HR Department look forward to continuing to undertake this coproduction in future interviews.

Ceri Peacock, HR manager said: “A significant amount of HR work tends to be in the background: obtaining references and verifying these; obtaining DBS checks; issuing contracts and making contractual changes; checking and managing sickness and staff absences. These are just a few of the tasks that the HR team undertake.

“I’d like to thank the team for all the hard work they have undertaken throughout the year as they continue to provide an excellent HR service to Autism Together.”

Meeting our values

Each person we support is unique and we ensure that the service we are offering will fit around that person, not that they fit around our services.

So, we make reasonable adjustments where required. This includes applying person-centred communication strategies such as using visual structure and the KISS (keep it short and simple) approach, to ensure the individual has an opportunity to have their voice heard and also understand what has been communicated to them, helping them to make choices.

Take our Day Services provision at Gallagher House, for example. Within our Creative Arts & Technology hub we have established a series of timetables that reflect each individual’s preferences.

We appreciate that some people we support do not want to be in the same room or activity all day, so many will move from an art room in the morning into an IT/media room in the afternoon.

We also set up a series of sessions where the people we support in the IT room could discuss what activities are on offer, what they would like to do and their own ideas of activities. This has helped them to plan their own activity timetable and projects.

The main way we promote learning is through working towards gaining certificates and awards. As a result of this, some of the people we support created their own 'Certificate of Thanks', which they were happy to award to staff they felt had particularly helped them over the year. These handmade certificates had pictures of the staff member's favourite things on. Of course, staff were delighted to receive these.

EACH MONTH A SPECIAL GUEST ATTENDS

Meeting Together Forum

In the past year, our discussion forum for the people we support celebrated its decaversary!

Known as the Meeting Together Forum, this group has come together roughly once a month since 2011 to discuss a wide range of ideas and items relating to our organisation, in order to give the people we support an outlet and opportunity to ask questions and give opinions on their care and on how the charity is run.

While the forum had to take a break during the pandemic, it returned in 2022, allowing the group to belatedly celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Meeting Together Forum, one-year late!

A range of different individuals, management and staff have been part of the forum since it started. Any people we support are welcome to join the forum, and can choose to come regularly or just now and again.

Chaired by Autism Together’s Quality

and Assurance Manager, Julie Logan, the meeting agenda typically involves planning for the monthly disco, a read through of an easy-read version of the Policy Of The Month – always a document that relates to the care of the individuals in some way – before a chance for those attending to share their good news with the group.

Also, at each meeting, a special guest from among our staff is invited to come and speak about what they do and answer any questions. Often, the forum members request a certain person that they want to hear from or speak to.

Recently they looked at CQC’s report about Reduction In Restraint. During the group discussion, everyone felt that they were supported very well by their staff at Autism Together.

Ken said, if he is feeling down or not in a

good mood, he knows that he can talk to his staff team who will support him. Mike said he finds it comforting to know he can talk to his staff team and they will help him if he needs it.

Many members of the Forum have used the confidence and understanding of our organisation, gained from attending each month, to assist our HR team in interviewing for new support workers.

Julie, who chairs the Meeting Together Forum, said:

“The Forum has become an integral part of our charity’s co-production plan, giving the people we support the chance to grill senior managers and directors on aspects of their own care, gain a genuine understanding of the policies that are the backbone to their support, and it gives people a chance to use their voice, knowing it will be heard and listened to."

...it gives people a chance to use their voice, knowing it will be heard and listened to.

Community Engagement

The Admissions Team have attended a range of community events this year, most recently Autistic Minds - a co-production event held in Llandudno, with each discussion led by an autistic person. This event was also an opportunity to net work and share what Autism Together does but also learn about other organisations. Admissions also attended a number of school fairs and open days across Wirral, including at West Kirby Residential School, Foxfield, and Clare Mount.

Such events offer a wonderful opportunity to share more information about our services with students attending schools for those with special educational needs. Along with being a good way to spread awareness of autism and Autism

Together, the schools may also followup by inviting our Admissions staff into a student’s review, to discuss possible future support placements within our organisation.

Our Port Sunlight River Park team have had many positive community engagements this year.

They have enjoyed working alongside the ranger and volunteers at the River Park to help build an oasis area. They also met with local police to showed them some of the work and projects they have been doing at the park.

Our role at the River Park changed in 2022 when a new managing agent, The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) took over the site’s day-to-day running. Autism Together’s team of staff and people we support continue to work within the park, in partnership with TCV.

Our team is based on site within the Heritage Centre, where we run the popular café and kiosk provision. It is a fantastic hub from which the people we support there can operate, and develop skills in customer care, service, food hygiene and more. Some customers like to come by each day to say hello and engage with the our River Park team, which is fantastic to see.

Having been winners in the national Learning Disability and Autism Leaders List for 2021, the River Park Group were invited to become judges for the 2022 Leaders List Awards. This involved looking through 10 shortlisted nominees before giving comments and scores to decide which of the entries they thought was the most deserving of the prize. The group found it an involving and worthwhile project and were also invited to join the online awards ceremony in December 2022 to see the winners crowned.

Members of the same group – Steven, Jake, Liam and Mr C – plus Activity Manager Mike Stormes, also took part in an interview with the BBC’s Phil Cooper. It was all part of a 1-hour special on Radio Merseyside last December all about autism. Everyone did a brilliant job and the edited interview sounded fantastic. Along with this, the group have helped the Fundraising team on multiple occasions, including a bag-packing event at Tesco Heswall around Christmas time.

Our Garden Centre & Café is perhaps the most obviously community-facing part of our organisation. Last summer we were able to reopen this popular hub to the public after a prolonged closure due to the pandemic. The Garden Centre is in the heart of historic Bromborough Pool village, and offers a chance for many people we support to gain workplace and social skills, serving customers and working behind the scenes. This has helped the people who attend the service to see a reduction in social anxiety and an increase in confidence.

Upon reopening in 2022, we started with 10 people we support working onsite at the Garden Centre. As individuals began to settle and feel more comfortable with their roles and responsibilities, we expanded this number.

A year after the service reopened its doors, 30 people we support are working in either the garden centre, cafe or in garden services, each week.

MEMBERS OF OUR GARDEN CENTRE TEAM

Fundraising

Our Fundraising Team have had another excellent year. Having seen their annual targets increase once more, the team rose to the challenge and beat these by around 50%. Other successes saw them hold a campaign to offer staff and supporters a will for free, which saw 42 new wills created, which should equate to around £65k in future legacy income.

The team also secured funding to enhance the sensory area at Raby Kitchen Gardens and reintroduced our in-person autism-friendly Christmas Grotto at Bromborough Pool Garden Centre – an event which completely sold out! There was also success in securing donations and funds to purchase equipment not usually available through statutory funding. Our Amazon Wishlist is a good example of this. Here, staff identify items that will benefit people we support in their services, and these are added to the wishlist for supporters to buy online. These items are diverse and include power tools, arts and crafts, jigsaws, games, garden furniture and tools. A grant of almost £24,000 was used to refurbish a sensory area at Raby, providing nest swings, seating, a covered pergola, plants and a sensory stream. A grant of £5,000 from Screwfix Foundation helped improve the kitchen area used by our Ceramics and Woodwork departments. Our Children & Family Service’s Activity Clubs benefited from a grant from M&S for £1,000 to purchase equipment, while our involvement

with Tesco Bags For Help saw £1,000 donated to our Raby Day Services to provide yoga mats and other exercise equipment. The aforementioned return of our Christmas Grotto saw the team organise a highly successful return for this popular autismfriendly event, including offering families the chance to book slots via our website, to save queueing and reducing stress for their loved ones.

Alongside this, the team continued to offer the option of a virtual recorded greeting from Santa or his elf helper, and managed sales of our charity Christmas cards, which were extremely popular this year.

Another highlight was our charity abseil, 110ft off the side of Leasowe Lighthouse in Wirral, to raise money for Autism

Together and help support The Friends of Leasowe Lighthouse who maintain the historic landmark. This event saw many of our supporters overcome their fears and complete a tough challenge. It was also a great way for us to engage with and build stronger ties with the local community.

Looking right back to April 2022, we enjoyed another very positive Autism Acceptance Month. We built links with both the Trafford Centre in Manchester and Woodside Markets in Birkenhead, with the Fundraising Team and volunteers helping man stalls at both locations during the month.

Lastly, the lifting of Covid restrictions allowed the team to increase the number of tours it could take potential fundraisers and corporate donors on. This resulted in an increase in large corporate donations and a significant individual donation from a regular benefactor to help us purchase a tractor trailer for use on our Raby site.

Financial review

A net deficit for the year of £245k has been recorded (2022: net income of £701k) after actuarial assessed additional costs relating to the defined benefit pension scheme of £653k (2022: £691k).

INCOME

Income increased 2.3% compared to last year from £24,518k to £25,090k.

Income in all major service areas has improved more than is demonstrated in the figures above. That is because there was £560k of Covid support in 2021/22 against £77k in 2022/23.

EXPENDITURE

Expenditure has increased by 6.4% from £23,817k to £25,334k in the year.

This largely reflects the increased income before Covid support and also a significant investment in maintenance and decoration of properties that had not been able to be completed during Covid, together with increased gas and electricity costs aligned to the market.

Payroll costs still represent over 80% of our income and have increased 3.5% against last year.

CAPITAL EXPENDITURE

This year we spent £202k (2022: £188k) on property improvements and equipment.

The main expenditure largely aligns with the programme to improve our properties mentioned above and is for replacement of kitchens and bathrooms.

CASH FLOW

An overview of the cash movements during the year are given in the statement on page 30. After adjusting for non-cash items, such as movements on the pension deficit and depreciation, operations during the year generated positive cash flow of £557k (2022: £2,142k).

The other contributors to cash outflow in the year have been investment in property and facilities of £202k (2022: £188k) and net cash used in financing activities of £17k (2022: net cash used of £830k).

FUTURE ISSUES

With the support from several local authorities, led by Wirral, we have been able to continue to pay our support staff the real living wage as a minimum.

In order to continue to support this, in addition to the significant increase in inflation, we need our local authority and health commissioners to reflect this in their fee uplifts in the future, and we will negotiate hard to achieve this.

FINANCIAL FIGURES FOR 2022/2023

CASH FLOWS

Income

Residential Supported Living Other Income CVS Grants and Donationsns Respite

Children & Family

2022

2023

EXECUTIVE TEAM

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Richard Whitby

DIRECTOR OF OPERATIONS

Jane Carolan

DIRECTOR OF PEOPLE

Helen Bilton

DIRECTOR OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Angie Kemp

DIRECTOR OF FINANCE & COMPANY SECRETARY

Louise Parnell

DIRECTOR OF ESTATES & FACILITIES

Chris Cullen

TRUSTEES

CHAIR Iain Cadman

VICE CHAIR Edward Behan

Carole Battersby

John Callcott

Nuala Kennedy

Christopher Smart

Carys Ward

Sue Leech

Steve Brealey

Charlotte Sansome

PATRONS

Mrs Trish Chapman

Dr John Kennedy

CBE, KSG, KMCO, DL