Impact Report 2020 - 2021
The Power of Play!
The Manor House, Little Wittenham, Oxfordshire, OX14 4RA info@clear-sky.org.uk | 01865 362789 | www.clear-sky.org.uk Registered Charity No: 1140441 | Company Registration No: 7273425
A message from our Charity Director
Clear Sky - Championing The Power of Play 2020-2021 has been another incredibly busy year for Clear Sky. Our central team returned from a short period of furlough at the beginning of the financial year and hit the ground running to meet an increased demand for services as schools returned for the Autumn Term. Our therapeutic team continued to work throughout the pandemic and have shown great resilience and determination to deliver therapy services in all manner of methods - remotely, virtually and in person. Despite the ongoing uncertainty of Covid restrictions, our dedicated central team dug deep and ploughed forward, making it possible for us to squeeze in our targeted number of professional training courses, between various lockdowns, but perhaps our proudest achievements of the year have been the creation of our Parents Play Kit, and the development of our first online training course, Baby Bonding; both of which have been extremely well received. The icing on the cake for the team though was receiving our 'Children's Charity of the Year Award 2021-22' from Oxfordshire Prestige! As a small multi-functioning team, we are proud to say that we manage everything in house, whether that be editing films for our Institute for Play and Attachment, creating vibrant communications such as this Impact Report, through to accommodating specific requirements for our course delegates. We are incredibly grateful to our funders and supporters and can therefore assure them that every available penny donated to Clear Sky goes towards supporting children and families! We hope that you enjoy reading this report which highlights some of our achievements this year. Thank you to our team, funders, supporters and friends. Anna Hodgson, Charity Director
Our Team
Who's Who at Clear Sky HQ
Anna Hodgson - Captain of Clear Sky (Charity Director) Becky Hill - Head of Theraputic Thinking / Dramatherapist Jess Haynes - The Play Maker (Services Co-Ordinator) Fiona Weiss - The Juggler (Administrator)
Our Therapeutic Team
Our amazing therapeutic team are all qualified in Play Therapy, Dramatherapy, Art Therapy, Dance & Movement Psychotherapy or Counselling and Child Psychotherapy. Our therapists are highly experienced and work tirelessly to meet the needs of children through the delivery of our therapeutic services.
Our Board of Trustees
Our dedicated Board of Trustees oversee the strategy, governance and implementation of our charitable objectives, supporting the Head Office team to deliver Clear Sky's vision. We welcomed three new trustees this year; Elizabeth Burnell, an HR Specialist, Maurice Dixon, Education Principal and Mental Health champion, and Felicity Decker, Legal Counsel for a UK Children's Charity.
A message from our Board of Trustees Clear Sky's Play & Creative Arts Therapy Services have never been so needed, and it is a testament to the dedication of the hard-working team that we are able to deliver therapy, despite the ever-changing working environment. Covid has had an impact on so many children, and through the continued expansion of Clear Sky's Institute for Play and Attachment, we have been able to provide key resources not only for families, but also for therapeutic professionals, helping them navigate our new, ever-changing, normal. Clear Sky's training is increasingly recognised as 'best in field', and we continue to grow our training nationally and internationally, helping even more children thrive after trauma. The Trustees would like to thank the committed and knowledgeable team at Clear Sky Children's Charity for the charity's stability and focus during a very difficult year.
Don a Now te
Fundraising 2020 - 2021
We exceeded our fundraising target of £36,000. This was achieved by fundraising events, corporate donations, trusts and grants, resourcefulness and pro bono support.
2021 - 2022
Clear Sky will continue to support as many children and families as possible through our Play & Creative Arts Therapy services. Through the Institute for Play and Attachment and our therapeutic services we will support therapists, practitioners, schools and families with training and resources. To achieve this we need to raise £12,000 demonstrating a further significant reduction in our operating shortfall due to an increase in our training income, memberships of the Institute for Play and Attachment and our lean working model as we head even closer to becoming fully self-sustainable.
How your donation helps £40 pays for a Play & Creative Arts Therapy Kit for 1 child £455 pays for 1 parent / child pair to attend a 10 week Heart to Heart Group £495 buys a membership to our Emotionally Healthy Schools programme £700 pays for a 7 week Baby Bonding group £2,360 pays for 2 x children to have 18 each of one-to-one Play & Creative Arts Therapy
£5,000 funds a research project into the efficacy of our support services £11,890 will train 304 professionals in Attachment Play Practitioner Training £12,000 covers our fundraising costs for the year £15,160 pays all the project costs for 7 x Heart to Heart 10 week programmes supporting up to 56 parent / child pairs
Donate through our website Follow us on social media @ClearSkyCharity Fundraise through your work Volunteer your time or expertise Raise sponsorship for Clear Sky Children's Charity
Don a Now te
Events
Developing New Online offers
Community Fundraising and PR Activities
Awards!
Staff Wellbeing Days Donate through our website Follow us on social media @ClearSkyCharity Fundraise through your work Volunteer your time or expertise Raise sponsorship for Clear Sky Children's Charity
Children's Mental Health The Scale of the Problem 56% of parents say they are worried about their child's mental health (Save the Children 2021) 83% of children and young people with mental health problems have said that the coronavirus pandemic had made their mental health worse. (YoungMinds July 2021) 1 in 4 people in the UK are affected by a mental health condition (The Health Foundation 2021) The suicide rate for females aged under 25 in the UK has increased by 93.8% since 2012 (Samaritans) There has been a 35% increase in referrals to child mental health services in 2019-20 (Children's Commissioner UK) There were 844,954 incidents of Domestic Abuse registered in 2020, a 6% increase on 2019 (ONS 2021)
The Solution
The Covid-19 crisis is likely to have a long-lasting impact on young people’s mental health and the services that support them. The Government must consider this throughout its emergency response and policies to recover from the crisis. (Young Minds.org) Children need food, clothing, and shelter. They need to be protected from danger. It’s up to adults to make sure children and young people have these basics, yet so many go without. That’s neglect. (Action for Children.org) Children returning to school following bereavement, abusive experiences or major disruption to learning and support, are all at risk of having experienced trauma and need schools and teachers that can respond with trauma-informed approaches. This is important not only for children and young people’s mental health, but also for enabling them to learn, and for improving their educational outcomes. (MHF 2021)
Children's Mental Health
How Clear Sky Help
We offer a range of services for children and their families, teachers and other professionals; whilst keeping the child and play at the heart of everything we do We are experts in child-led Play & Creative Arts Therapy and our training is based on the very latest research We offer flexibility and good value to schools We have a significant impact on children’s wellbeing and behaviour We contribute to research as members of the All Party Parliamentary Group for a Fit and Healthy Childhood
100+
32
99%
children and young people were supported by a Clear Sky Therapist this year in one to one and group sessions schools across our region received Play & Creative Arts Therapy interventions from Clear Sky this year
of delegates who attended an Attachment Play Practitioners Course rated it as ''Excellent' or 'Very Good' and would recommend it to others
Play & Creative Arts Therapists work with Clear Sky to deliver a range of interventions to suit each child's needs
18
1704
therapy sessions took place between Sept 2020 - August 2021. An increase in referrals of 50% was made between Autumn 2019 and Summer 2020
26+
Hours of professional development were provided by sector experts to members of our learning Institute
Our Services
Play for Pupils Supporting children with Play & Creative Arts Therapy in Schools
Clear Sky have continued building and maintaining longer term partnerships with schools across Oxfordshire and beyond. More children are being supported with longer, more meaningful interventions than ever before demonstrating a greater understanding of the benefits of Play & Creative Arts Therapy. This trend is set to continue again into the 2021-2022 academic year.
Isaac's ISAAC'sStory STORY Isaac* has a close family member with a life limiting illness. He was expressing challenging behaviours at home and this was experienced by adults as anger. Isaac's behaviour was also creating strain on peer relationships. In Play & Creative Arts Therapy Sessions, Isaac built a trusting relationship with his therapist and was able to express and explore anger safely, whilst also sharing moments of laughter and joy. The regular weekly sessions further allowed Isaac to identify other feelings such as sadness and pain and soon enough, he bravely opened up about his fears and worries. With the therapist, Isaac practiced ways to regulate difficult feelings to help them to feel less overwhelming. Together they worked with other important adults to help them understand Isaac's feelings so that his behaviours could be responded to appropriately. Over time, there was a huge decrease in Isaac's challenging behaviours and his peer relationships improved, alongside his communication. It felt like an appropriate time to end therapy, and the school now receives ongoing support to help them to manage his future progress.
*names and details changed to protect identity
Our Services
Play for Parents Supporting parents to use child-led play to promote emotional wellbeing for their children
Clear Sky continues to grow our support for parents and focused some of our fundraising efforts this year to providing some funded sessions for parents and children. We commence Baby Bonding, Heart to Heart and Parent-Child Attachment Play (PCAP) groups in September 2021 now that group work is once again possible!
28+
Families to benefit from fully funded group attachment work as part of our research
Gifted to new families for our Baby Bonding programmes in 2021
Parents Play Kit
Our Parents Play Kit goes from strength to strength!
Due to huge demand, we produced the kit in print form and have now sold over 70 copies to We will be commencing our research project through our group work in professional 2021/22. This will allow us to evidence the success of our Attachment therapeutic partners Play programmes and encourage others to adopt this appproach!
£3K
Our Services
Play for Professionals Training professional practitioners to support children and families’ emotional wellbeing
Attachment Play Practitioner Training
Clear Sky continues to be the umberella organisation looking after the suite of 'big toes little toes' training programmes focusing on strengthening attachment between parents and children aged 3-15+. Between August 2020 and July 2021 Clear Sky trained 123 professionals in the CPD accredited Parent-Child Attachment Play (PCAP), Heart to Heart and Baby Bonding practitioner training. Demand for these courses continues to grow with delegates attending from across the UK and beyond. We have begun to deliver courses at volume in partnership with several organisations across the UK during 2021-22. "The most amazing virtual training ... I cannot wait to be able to support children and their parents with Heart to Heart"
by very knowledgeable "Very detailed and insightful, taught
practitioners" and passionate
Support for School Staff
empowering fun knowledgable informative positive inspiring engaging practical focussed heartfelt well paced supportive enjoyable relaxed enthusiastic gentle fantastic excellent encouraging wonderful motivating interesting exciting insightful worthwhile friendly playful happy energetic helpful nurturing enlightening accessible powerful interactive brilliant fascinating reassuring
In partnership with the National Education Union and local councils, Clear Sky delivered training through e-workshops and presentations to over 300 teaching staff, focussing on empowering school staff with attachment play skills to meet children's emotional needs at school.
Our Professional Learning Institute A Learning Hub for Professionals Providing high quality expert CPD, Self Care, Practical Resources and Research Launched in September 2019 Providing access to high quality CPD online learning for professionals, delivered by Sector experts Global membership network
What our members say "It's a great way to stay connected and stay up to date. It makes a huge difference when working on your own"
"The modules always give me food for thought"
"Thank you for a very real conversation...really valuable and worthwhile"
The Institute for Play and Attachment
'Supporting professionals, supporting families'
Special thanks to all of our members, supporters and expert contributors for your help in developing our thriving Institute
Our Learning Institute for Schools Supporting 'Emotionally Healthy Schools'
Equipping our education professionals
We are on a mission to equip education professionals with skills to support the emotional health of their school!
30 partner schools in Oxfordshire are already using our FRAMEWORK of support including: Online e-learning modules Lesson plans Downloadable video content and resources, WHOLE SCHOOL CPD Assemblies Policies Monitoring tools Support networking Resources, games and tools for parents and carers
The Institute for Play and Attachment
'Supporting professionals, supporting families'
Our Partners & Supporters
Thank you to all our supporters and partners who have donated money, raised sponsorship, volunteered or worked with us to provide services. Our Strategic Partners
BIG TOES LITTLE TOES DORSET BIG TOES LITTLE TOES IRELAND
Our memberships
Pro Bono Support
Martin Miller, SalesForce Support Jules Price, Volunteer Administrator
A special thank you to Sir Martin and Lady Wood for their huge generosity in offering us a practical office space and excellent training facilities within the beautiful grounds of The Manor House. We'd also like to say a big thank you to Jules, who has volunteered her time to help us this year!
Our Partners & Supporters Trusts, Grants and Donors Arnold Clark Community Fund Aviva Community Fund Chandlings School Comic Relief Doris Field Charitable Trust John and Susan Bowers Fund Mr & Mrs J A Pye's Charitable Settlement P F Charitable Trust St James Place Charitable Foundation St Michael's and All Saints Charities The Arts Society (NADFAS) The Arts Society Abingdon The Arts Society Goring
The Barratt Developments Charitable Foundation The Borrows Charitable Trust The Champniss Charitable Trust The Donald Forrester Trust The Douglas Heath Eves Charitable Trust The Grey Court Trust Charlotte Reid House The Makers of PlayingCranford Cards Charity Crosfields The Matthews Wrightson Charity School Trust Didcot Girls School The Pixel Fund The Samuel Storey Family Charitable Dragon SchoolTrust The Stanton Ballard Charitable Trust Emma Hawkins The Vandervell Foundation Garner Household Wallingford and DidcotGiveacar Rotary Charitable Foundation
Individual Donors & Supporters
Thank you to all of the individual donors who have raised money for Clear Sky this year through various challenges, Plus our activities and fundraisers, including Lily who raised money by all those anonymous donor s w completing her DofE expedition, Lu who participated in the our online ho donated thro and ug giving pla PruRide, Les and Emma's birthday fundraisers, Amelie's Captain tfo r m s ! h Tom challenge and Sammy's generous book sale donations!
The Manor House, Little Wittenham, Oxfordshire, OX14 4RA info@clear-sky.org.uk | 01865 362789 | www.clear-sky.org.uk Registered Charity No: 1140441 | Company Registration No: 7273425