Age Concern throughout Herefordshire and Worcestershire

This is the text of our Annual Report for 2007/2008.  Our reporting year runs from July to June.

Chairman’s Remarks 

2007–2008, the 7^th year of operation for Age Concern Ross-on-Wye and District, saw great and exciting changes.  We were able to move to self-contained premises in Broad Street,  giving us four offices plus a kitchen and toilet facilities. This move has allowed us to carry out our various projects under one roof, with volunteers and staff having easy access to one another and to the office systems.   This has resulted in better time management and closer working relationships.  Also, being in a central position, clients have found it easy to find. 

Another exciting addition was the implementation of StepAcross, funded by the Big Lottery.  Two fieldworkers and one project administrator have been employed on the project which has been funded for five years.  This has already proved to be very successful and the Chief Officer’s Remarks will expand on this. 

A grant has also been received from Age Concern England to carry out a rural outreach project named REAP over a period of three years. This will enable us to employ an extra field worker and we expect this new project to be highly valued by those people living in isolated areas of our very broad area of benefit..  Again the Chief Officer will give more details in her remarks. 

We continue to offer a wide range of services of a high standard for older people.  These are well used and greatly appreciated by our clients. due to funding from various organisations and Trust Funds, including the Eveson Charitable Trust, Sports Relief, the Herefordshire Partnership, and the Freemasons, we are able to offer these services for the foreseeable future.  

My thanks go to our Chief Officer, Janet Macdonald, who has been the prime mover in securing so much funding.  It is her enthusiasm and expertise which has so emphatically enabled us to widen our field of activities. 

We have seen the number of volunteers increase and many of them multi-task which gives them a good insight into the wide needs of our clients.  Without the volunteers’ dedication and loyalty and commitment to teamwork we would be unable to operate satisfactorily and successfully.  Our thanks go unreservedly to this committed band of individuals. 

The Board of Trustees has continued to provide good governance.  Our wide management skills have been used to their best advantage.  The Policies and Procedures within which we and our volunteers work on a day-to-day basis have been updated on a regular basis as have the Risk Assessments which necessarily guide us in our daily and longer-term strategies.  Long term planning is essential for Age Concern Ross to remain the vibrant and viable group it has become and the trustees are diligent in looking at the best way forward so that we continue to be known as a professional and valuable resource for the people in our area of benefit. 

To carry on offering the various services, it is necessary to continually seek funding, particularly for core costs, and also to look at other ways of providing income such as social enterprise and more local fund raising.  With the commitment of staff, volunteers and trustees, we will endeavour to ensure that Age Concern Ross-on-Wye and District maintains its high standards for which it is known and carries on its work for many years to come. 

Chief Officer’s Report

 I am delighted to report at the end of such a successful and dynamic year for Age Concern Ross on Wye & District. 

We started our new five year, Big Lottery funded project STEP ACRoss. (Support To Enable People Age Concern Ross ) when new staff members started work in August 2007.  Clients for this service are referred to us by their relatives or other service providers such as GP’s, hospitals, social services etc.  One of our field workers will visit the client and firstly discuss what immediate needs they have regarding their health, safety and security.  The field worker will deal with these urgent issues immediately and ensure that all the necessary support services are put in place.  Contact with the client will continue with visits or telephone calls or both and we will then facilitate the client to attend any activities they enjoy such as groups, clubs, walks, indeed any social activities to help build up community links to help their confidence and general well-being. 

Within the STEP ACRoss project we also help and encourage people to start up their own interest groups. These have included gentle exercise and Tai Chi and we are looking into setting up some reminiscence sessions. 

We were recently visited by the Grants Officer from the Big Lottery, Reaching Communities Fund and have produced our first year report.  We had very good feedback from this and are now into our second year. The staff and support ing volunteers have worked  with  great commitment to make this an inspirational project. 

We had been searching for new premises for quite some time and had talked with other third sector organizations about possibly sharing a building to keep costs down and work together.  We were not able to find a suitable premises for sharing.  Our group ( Age Concern Ross on Wye & District ) had been growing as new projects began and our office at the Ryefield Centre had five people at times trying to share one phone line and a computer.  We had a separate room which we were renting in Gloucester Road this was the Information & Advice Centre.  At the end of 2007 our chair found the offices which we moved  to in March 2008. The offices had not been used for three years but after an intensive makeover by our trustees, volunteers and staff (lead by our chair) we transformed them ready for our official opening on 3^rd March. All our services are now available in one building, a lovely working atmosphere has developed with everyone supporting each other and working together. 

At the heart of our business as always is our Information and Advice service.  We were delighted to have callers to our new centre from day one.  The trend has continued.  It is via the I & A service that we identify some of the service needs.  This is clearly reflected in the statistics from 2005/6 when we noticed a huge number of health and social care issues which were actually being dealt with by myself with assistance from volunteers.  A lot of this work was advocacy being done by myself and of course being counted within the I&A statistics.  After successfully putting together the bid to the Big Lottery and being able to start the Step Across project you will see a dip in the I&A statistics which is replaced and exceeded by a huge amount of work within the Step Across project. 

We have a strong handyperson volunteer team and even though we had a quiet spell whilst recruiting was a little bit slow, we are still seeing an increase in the number of jobs done.  The requests vary considerably from fitting security items like keysafes and doorchains through to safety and  repair or maintenance tasks. 

Our Footcare service has continued to grow with two large regular clinics being held at the Ryefield Centre at six-weekly intervals.  We have made these clinics into social meetings where people have the added benefit of having a cup of tea and a chat together.  We are considering the possibility of offering an additional service on a smaller scale in our new premises.  Our volunteers receive continuous training from a qualified podiatrist. This service has also grown a great deal.  We have continued to receive funding from the Primary Care Trust which was procured by Age Concern Herefordshire and Worcestershhire for the five Herefordshire Age Concerns.  

We have a very strong team of volunteer visitors who visit a total of 29 people in the local and rural communities.  Along with the visiting, they support people by taking them shopping and to GP and hospital appointments and also to leisure or learning groups. 

Our Carecall service sits nicely alongside the visiting service: the Carecall volunteers telephone clients regularly to ask how they are and talk with them.  These services are valuable in supporting clients.  We can respond immediately to any needs that arise. Volunteers have, for example, telephoned just when people have been unwell, have needed help with a job at home or in the garden or have been having difficulties coping.  After a conversation we have been able to refer them to another service or to another of our own services such as outings, handyperson, footcare etc. 

We have continued taking people on weekend outings.  These have been greatly enjoyed and are perfect for people who do not want to go out in a large group or travel on coaches.  Two or three volunteers use their own vehicles to take three people each.  The outings have included a pub lunch followed by listening to the band by the river at Ross, a cream tea combined with a visit to a dairy unit to see cows being milked, garden centre visits and Nature in Art, Gloucestershire with afternoon tea. 

We continue to have clients attending our computer taster sessions.  Unfortunately, we had a couple of months without our broadband connection when we moved due to problems with our supplier and were unable to have the sessions during that time.  However, we have now gradually picked up again. 

On 15^th September we started a new project having successfully applied for a grant from Age Concern England.  This is the Rural Enabling and Accessing Programme (REAP).  We have a new staff member (Rural Outreach Project Development Officer) who will develop services throughout our 22 parishes of rural South Herefordshire. 

I am glad to have the opportunity to thank all the staff, volunteers and volunteer trustees for the support they have unfailingly given to me personally and to our Age Concern group.