28
Annual Review 2008 CHILDREN & FAMILIES FIRST
Annual Review 2008
C H I L D R E N & FA M I L I E S F I R S T
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.
Annual review 2007-2008
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
3
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.
Richard Desmond Michael Teacher Norma Brier
4
Children and young people
Norwood supports babies, children and other young people
with learning and physical disabilities and other problems.
Annual review 2007-2008
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
At Binoh, children like Channi are
helped to do their best.
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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
Talia learns and
has fun at Hope.
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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?
■ 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.
JCOSS SCHOOL
Binoh helps Amber
with her schoolwork
Children have fun at Norwood’s
summer scheme in Hackney.
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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.
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Families
Annual review 2007-2008
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.
Children enjoy lots of different activities
at the 2gether group in Hendon.
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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.
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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.
Norwood helps all children
to live in happy families.
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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.
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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.
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Adults with learning disabilities
Annual review 2007-2008
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
Gregory is from London and has a job
at a supermarket.
Michael and Julian use the new computers
at the Karten Training Centre.
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Staff and volunteers
Annual review 2007-2008
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.”
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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.
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.
Annual review 2007-2008
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)
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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.
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What’s on?
Annual review 2007-2008
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
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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
Children and their families
cycled for 10 miles in the
Junior Bike Ride in June.
Cherie Blair is Norwood's Patron ofChildren's services. She cut theribbon to open the Wellbeing atBearsted Centre in January 2008.
Flora Frank and other London
Marathon runners raised money
for Norwood in April 2007.
Katie Hopkins, Simon Ambrose, Tre Azamand Kristina Grimes from The ApprenticeTV show took part in an event to raisemoney for Norwood in July 2007.
David Cameron, the Leader ofthe Conservative party, spoke atNorwood’s Annual Dinner inNovember 2007.
Norwood thanked their volunteers for the
good work they do at a tea party in 2007.
Stephen Triesman lives at
Ravenswood. He rode on a
tandem bike with Clive Sladen in
Norwood's Capital to Coast Cycle
Challenge in July 2007.
People played backgammon to
raise money for Norwood in
December 2007.
Bernie Ecclestone, Stirling Moss
and Richard Desmond went to
Norwood's Business Breakfast in
February 2008.
Katie and Peter Andre gave a golddisc to Jon Sacker and Carla Harrisafter Norwood got money from the sale of their album.
Photographs of Norwood events
Annual review 2007-2008
27
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.
