SUF AGM Oct 2014
Suffolk User Forum (SUF)
Annual General Meeting (AGM)
Minutes of the meeting Tuesday 21st October 2014
Date:
Location:
Time:
Attendees:
21st October 2014
The John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, Stowmarket
12 p.m
Jeannie Wright (Trustee / Chairman)
Carole Thain (Trustee / Vice Chairman)
Jeff Stern (Trustee)
David Whitefield (Trustee / Treasurer)
Malcolm Blowers (Trustee)
Chris Bassett – Izod Bassett Accountants
Jayne Davey – SUF Manager
Elizabeth Moad – SUF Communications & Media Lead
13 Members present with voting rights, 2 members present non voting, 17
non members present.
Apologies:
No
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Kathleen Ben Rabha (Trustee)
Brian Parrott - NSFT
Peter Devlin – NSFT
Jacqui Sawkins – NSFT
Peter Alder – Together UK
David Grimmer – Suffolk Libraries
Suzanne Britton – SUF Member
Description
Opening remarks & welcome to the AGM
Jeannie Wright (Chair of Trustees) welcomed those present and opened the 2014
SUF annual general meeting. Jeannie Wright introduced the trustee panel, staff and
project workers.
Chris Bassett, from Izod Bassett Chartered Accountants, was introduced to the
members attending the AGM as the Independent Examiner for the SUF accounts.
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Apologies
Apologies were received from Kathleen Ben Rabha (Trustee); Brian Parrott – NSFT;
Peter Devlin – NSFT; Jacqui Sawkins – NSFT; Peter Alder – Together UK; David
Grimmer – Suffolk Libraries; Suzanne Britton- SUF Member
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Minutes of the previous AGM November 2013
The minutes of the previous AGM held on 6th November 2013 were signed off subject
to the following correction of the name of accounts to “Izod Bassett”
(Proposer: Derek Jones; Seconder: Sue Parker)
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Matters arising from the minutes
At the last AGM the needs of people in Minority Ethnic Communities (MEC's) were
raised by SUF member Ashok Bhatt.
Jayne Davey, SUF Manager reported that since the last AGM in November 2013 SUF
had starting working with Ashok to begin to address the issues he had raised. SUF
has completed research using Suffolk Observatory statistics to gather information
about the dominant MEC languages spoken in Suffolk. The 15 most used languages
in Suffolk have been used to make a multi lingual banner to try to catch the attention
of MEC at SUF events. We are in the process of producing SUF leaflets in these
languages and already have leaflets produced in Hindi, Punjabi and Gujarati for
events this year including the Indian Mela. Derek Jones SUF Member had
represented SUF at a meeting “OpenMind” in September 2014 which explored the
needs of MEC and mental health and wellbeing. Jayne Davey had met with ISCRE
and has been supported by Ashok to have SUF articles published in the MECAN
magazine, a magazine for MEC. SUF had also maintained its connection to the Black
and Ethnic Minorities group supported by Healthwatch Suffolk.
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Presentation of the Annual Report by Jeannie Wright Chair of Trustees
SUF Annual Report and Financial Statements document covering the period of activity
up to 30 June 2014 had been circulated to all members before the meeting and is
available on the SUF website to download.
Jeannie Wright referred to the content of activity covered in the SUF Trustees Annual
Report.
Jeannie Wright presented the annual report to the meeting stating that it had been a
very exciting year for SUF and that the essence of the year had been captured in the
report.
A characteristic of SUF as an organisation is that people join us, gain confidence and
move on. The dilemma for SUF has been how to structure activity and include a new
model of operating to do what we do to accommodate this process.
As the restructure of SUF has been established the word “project” is now removed
from the title of permanent staff and is only used where a defined project is
undertaken. This has enabled more diverse projects and as SUF needed to add value
to what we are doing the project work has attracted external funding. ‘Behind the
Curtains’ DVD is an example of what that external funding had achieved.
SUF looks different this year compared to last year with more activity and expertise.
The additional model of delivery has added differently funded projects with each
Project Lead and assistants employed to work for SUF on the specific projects.
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Jeannie Wright expressed thanks to the SUF team who had contributed to the activity
of the past year and gave an update on key changes:
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Ian Hartley, whose voice was heard on the DVD, is no longer a trustee of SUF
and has moved on to EMAUS.
Sallyanne Webb, is no longer a trustee and has moved on. SUF wants to thank
Sallyanne for her valuable contribution by starting the crisis care debate in
Suffolk.
Punna Athwall, SUF Administrator, has left to move on to travel and other
activity. The current decision is not to replace to the Administrators post until
SUF knows more about its future funding.
The changes in SUF activities and project work has resulted in a SUF decision
to close the Bury office from 31st October 2014 as management remains more
central than in the past, with staff operating from the Ipswich office located at
Kesgrave.
As SUF does not have a role in our service profile with young people it was relevant to
highlight, as seen from the 'Behind the Curtains' DVD shown before the AGM, that
many mental health problems had started whilst at school. SUF had taken the DVD to
the Dept. of Education in Suffolk County Council to see how it might be used to
support teachers and older children. SUF had spoken to the Learning and
Improvement Adviser responsible who, after piloting with some teachers, suggested
that this would be a useful resource for teachers if delivered by a SUF member who
understood the issues around mental health.
However, a more difficult issue to address is that schools have no obligation to run
personal, social and health education (PSHE) and there is no set curriculum “module”
that could be linked to the DVD programme as it stands. The Dept. for Education in
June 2014 released their “Mental Health & Behaviour in Schools Report” which again
wants schools to take more responsibility on student well-being. SUF is left with the
idea for a future project to extract stories from the DVD to produce material to take to
schools particularly around abuse, including substance abuse.
SUF now has a robust trustee framework and operating model, and are waiting to
hear what funding will be proposed after March 2015. SUF funding was until Sept
2014 but has been extended to March 2015. Trustees believe we are in a strong
position to carry on, and SUF are prepared to work on all the issues of equality and
parity with physical health in the future.
Questions
 Malcolm Blowers asked the age remit of SUF, and Jeannie Wright clarified it
was 18 years and over.
 Sue Parker commented on the benefits of partnership working with other
groups such as Suffolk Family Carers, Autism Suffolk regarding the issue of
reaching younger audiences.
 Bonnie Collins, of Suffolk Coalition of Disabled People (SCODP), spoke of the
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“common ambitions” project that will cover this going into schools and is part of
the SCODP steering group work which has already commenced.
Adoption of the SUF Annual Report
The SUF Annual Report was adopted subject to a change on page 7 as requested by
the Suffolk Coalition of Disabled People: “To continue the process of developing a
service level agreement ........” page 7 point 3.2
Proposer Nigel Moyes - Seconded by Derek Jones and carried.
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Presentation of the Accounts
Chris Bassett presented the accounts, which were included in pages 23
to 34 of the SUF Annual Report and Financial Statement, covering the period of
activity up to 30 June 2014.
Chris Bassett had reviewed the accounts in his capacity as Independent Examiner as
required by law for organisations with an annual income of between £25,000 and
£250,000. The report complies with Company regulations and Charity law
requirement.
Chris referred to the summary of income and expenditure on page 25 that showed an
income increase to £81K compared to £58K the previous year. The increase was due
to additional funding from sources mentioned in the report. Page 26 is a snapshot of
the SUF assets and liabilities which Chris then described.
Questions
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A question from Tim Hunter arose as to whether SUF would be there for him
beyond March 2015.
Derek Jones asked if SUF was waiting to hear about funding now or on a
funding bid. Jason Joseph, SCC Commissioning Manager, Vulnerable Adults
Commissioning Team /Adults and Community Services, responded to the two
above questions that the contracts in Mental Health has all been aligned to end
at the same time. The information papers had gone to the CCG and work is ongoing with an expected recommendation by Mid November 2014.
Nigel Moyes asked about the date when the Bury Office would be closing and
Jayne Davey confirmed this would be on the 31st October 2014.
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Adoption of Accounts
It was proposed that the accounts be adopted subject to a change on page 29 from
2014 to 2013.
Proposer Sue Parker, Seconded Malcolm Blowers and carried (10 votes and carried)
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Election of Trustees
Jeannie Wright informed the meeting that trustees are to be elected every 3 years.
 Kathleen Ben Rabha – Proposed by Jeff Stern, Seconded by Jeannie Wright
(10 votes and carried)
 Carole Thain – Proposed by Jeannie Wright, Seconded by Jeff Stern (9 votes
and carried)
 Malcolm Blowers – Proposed by Jeannie Wright, Seconded by Carol Thain (9
votes and carried)
Jeannie Wright had served a 3 year term and had been asked to stay on by trustees.
 Proposed by Sue Parker, Seconded by Denise Irvine (11 votes and carried)
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Election of Trustee Board Officers
Chair: Jeannie Wright was proposed by Nigel Moyes and seconded by Malcolm
Blowers. (9 votes) The motion was carried.
Vice Chair: Carole Thain was proposed by Jeff Stern and seconded by Denise Irvine.
(9 votes) The motion was carried.
Secretary: Elizabeth Moad was proposed by Sue Parker and seconded by Malcolm
Blowers (11 votes) The motion was carried.
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Treasurer: David Whitefield was proposed by Derek Jones and seconded by Nigel
Moyes (10 votes) The motion was carried.
Any other competent business
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Nigel Moyes commented that the Jimmy’s Farm event “Sowing the Seeds for
Wellbeing” was a great event with amazing numbers of attendees and a great
example of partnerships between organisations.
Jeannie Wright thanked Nigel agreed and commented that the event though
had taken a lot of resource from SUF.
 Malcolm Blowers raised the issue of safety strategies for Ebola infection.
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Closing Remarks
Jeannie Wright wanted to thank everyone for coming and contributed to a successful
event. The Chairman and Trustee Board wanted to reassure the meeting that SUF is
in the best place to move forward next year and they have every confidence that SUF
will do that.
Meeting closed 12.55pm
Agreed as a correct account of the Meeting
Signed...........................................................Date……………………
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