Widehorizons staff conference (day 1)

Widehorizons Staff ConferenceJanuary 10th 2013

Welcome!!

One Amazing Year

• The staff conference• The changes that have happened!

– I’m not going to steal the story• Staff changes

– People going– People coming– Me!

Teams and Change!

• A new team is emerging• The tactics are radically different• We need to work together to understand,

adapt and succeed

Teams and Change!

A theme for the two days!

• "Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country"

• "Ask not what Widehorizons can do for you - ask what you can do for Widehorizons"

Annual Review 2012Fundraising, Marketing and Communications

Alex Brooks-JohnsonDirector of Fundraising & Marketing

2012 – Key Achievements

• Income• Brand• Projects• Marketing• Events• PR

2012 Fundraising Income

• Corporate - £63,650• Events - £28,000• Trusts - £85,475

Corporate £63,650

• L&Q (ACE, Brochures, MMH)• Axis (Your Adventure Fund)• MMH Oast project

Events - £27,000

• The Fool’s Errand - £4,000• Catch the Sun - £21,000• WEC Open day and Fright Night - £2,000

Trusts - £85,457Trust Name Amount Project Centre/Area

CEMEX Community Fund £12,600 Barn restoration Margaret McMillan House

Leathersellers’ Company Charitable Trust £25,000 Charity development Not applicable

Awards for All (Big Lottery) £9,857 Duke OF Edinburgh Equipment

Margaret McMillan House and Ty’n y Berth

Co-operative Bank Community Fund £2,000 Climbing equipment Ty’n y Berth

Coutts Charitable Trust £500 Your Adventure Fund London

Hedley Foundation £2,000 Waterproofs Townsend

Sir William Boreman’s Foundation £5,000 Adventure Learning Outreach Lewisham and Greenwich

CHK Charities Ltd £10,000 Adventure Learning Outreach Walsall

Baron Davenport’s Charity £500 Clothing and equipment Bryntysilio

Goldsmiths’ Company £3,000 Your Adventure Fund London

The Gatliff Trust £750 Tools Wellesley

The Equitable Charitable Trust £10,000 Adventure Learning Outreach London

Edward Cadbury Trust £2,500 Your Adventure Fund Walsall

Helianthus Charitable Trust £720 Low ropes course Bryntysilio

The Douglas Turner Trust £1,000 Minibus Bryntysilio

Brand

Brand

Projects funded in 2012

• ACE• Outreach• ALPS• Adventure Learning Course

Marketing

• Primary BrochureGreenwich, Lewisham, Walsall• 44 Enquiries, 10 bookings• 25 Prospects, 4 bookings

• ...next London boroughs• Tower Hamlets, Bromley, Bexley, Croydon,

Southwark, Lambeth.

Primary BrochureSept 3 Sept 10 Sept 17 Sept 24 Oct 1 Oct 8 Oct 15

Mailing PSB

Emails E1 E2 E3

Telephone TF TF

Marketing

• Data management (c.5,000 contacts)• Newsletters• Parents contacts• Business development

PR

• Lauren• Kate• Fright Night• Bryntysilio• ACE• Sainsbury’s Forest Hill• Google

Thank you

Annual Review 2012 Resources

Katy KerrDirector of Resources

Bumper Year

• 2012 saw us complete or 16 month financial year (ending 31st July 2012)

• Our total income was 3.15M (3.08M expenditure)

• 2.36M for April 2011 to March 2012 • 1.86M for previous April to March• Bulk of increase due to deposits and increase in

fundraised income

Are we on track?

• YES – we made an accounting and a cash surplus!

• Thanks to all your efforts, we ended the year with sufficient cash to continue our strategy of investing in fundraising.

• The full benefits of this are long term so expenditure will continue to be tightly managed to ensure financial stability.

How many children had a Widehorizons experience?

Taking a snapshot of 12 months (Nov 11 to Oct 12)

• 30,309 children visited our centres, staying a total of 65,089 days

EC HK BRY MMH TOW TYB Total

Residential (days) 6,015 14,889 16,703 6,984 44,591

No children 1,290 3,950 3,105 1,466 9,811

Day visits 8,187 9,734 157 2,273 147 20,498

Total days 8,187 9,734 6,172 17,162 16,703 7,131 65,089

Total Children 8,187 9,734 1,447 6,223 3,105 1,613 30,309

How did you achieve this?

You provided

• 133,772 fabulous meals

• 5,424 brilliant teaching sessions

How did you achieve this?

To ensure a warm Widehorizons welcome, you prepared and cleaned

• 9,811 beds (409 dorms)• 2,712 classrooms

To keep the centres safe• You looked after numerous buildings and

approx 50 acres of grounds

How did you achieve this?

To keep our schools happy and our teachers in the know you provided admin for

• 2248 groups

And to maintain finances in good order you raised

• 2248 sales invoices

Thank you

Any questions?

Scott CraddockDirector of Services

What have we achieved?

Organisational changes:

• Team structure

• Clarity of reporting lines

• Operational Management Team (OMT)

• Regular communication & teamwork

• Creation of centre workplans for 2013

What have we done?

Introduced some new roles:

• Head of SE Operations

• Head of Adventure Learning

• Adventure Learning & Outreach Teacher

What have we done?

Successful delivery of diverse residential programmes & services:

• CHIVA – 100 children/40 carers• NDCS – 40 children/15 carers• NCS courses at BRY/TYB/MMH• Limmud at MMH• Hostel accommodation at TOW

What have we achieved?

• MTB qualification at BRY – acknowledging staff skills and experience

• Owner of 2 quarries at TYB• Apprentice scheme with Lewisham Council• ARK schools• ALPs – 6 schools, target for 20

What have we achieved?

• Development of NEET courses at TYB (endorsed by the Mayor)

"Wide Horizons have delivered some of the most effective parts of our NEET programme. That's my view but it also remarkable how many of the graduates of the scheme have told me, unprompted, that what they experienced at the centre in Wales had changed the way the thought about the world and their place in it“ – Mayor of Lewisham

• Creativity, flexibility & adaptability

Monitoring & Evaluation• Working with M&E specialist on creating

best framework

• Hard to claim direct impact on attainment

• Focus on wellbeing – improving confidence, peer/teacher relationships, resilience, self-esteem

• Our USP – the journey a child takes – use their feedback – website scrapbook

How we do all this...

Thank you

Business Plan

Mike PennyChief Executive

Alex Brooks-JohnsonDirector of Fundraising & Marketing

Some context....

• Our vision

We believe that every child should have access to adventure as part of their education and throughout their lives.

Some context....

• Business planning continuous cycle• Management and centre team meetings• Reporting processes• Appraisal system• Plan – do – review!• Next revision – now for August

Strengths

• Large number of children accessing services• Range of services for range of age groups• Quality of teaching, skills and experience of teaching staff• Locations of centres• Relationships with schools (number and in some cases quality)• Low attrition rate of schools• Low staff turnover• Child focussed operations• Service delivery (grounds, catering, domestic staff)• Relationships with Local Authorities (Greenwich and Lewisham)• Clear vision – ALPS• Heritage of Widehorizons

Weaknesses• Ageing infrastructure not fit for purpose (Buildings, IT, minibuses etc)• Silo mentality• Organisationally a ‘Local Authority’ mindset and associated lack of innovation• Lack of systems• Development of services• Lack of parity (booking systems, prices, t&c’s, offering)• Outdated and ineffective management structure • Lack of assets• Customer relationship management not joined up• Internal communications• Low brand awareness• Staff training and development

Opportunities• Diversification of services based on existing strengths• CPD• Youth• Academy chains• Charity partners• Fundraising• Patronage• c.60% capacity to fill• Fixed costs met with existing income, increase in business high gearing surplus• Developing new business through ALPS• LA support reduction in other boroughs• LA funding – other pots of funding• Hostel/accommodation only services

Threats• No reserves or financial buffer• Economy, affecting families, funders and LA’s• Competition• Commercial existing and new• Charities (OB etc)• Fundraising not performing in line with expectations• H&S (a major incident affecting reputation)• LA support for School Journey Grants disappearing in Greenwich

Business Plan

Key factors

– Numbers of children– Type of children– Our services– Funding– Staff development

Business PlanObjective Area Sub-Category Objective

1 Beneficiaries a Numbers 65,000 children and young people per year

1 Beneficiaries b Type 75% from Category 1 schools

2 Services a ALPS Partnerships per year, 200

2 Services b Curriculum Adventure Maths, Adventure English and Adventure Science developed for all ages relating to the National Curriculum and attainment points.

2 Services c Outreach Providing courses and sessions in 200 schools per year

2 Services d Youth development 500 young people per year taking part in a range of courses, programmes and activities

2 Services e Adult training 500 adults per year undertaking training or courses delivered by Widehorizons

3 Organisational development

a Learning and development

An appraisal process in place where all employees have a personal development plan and training programme

3 Organisational development

b Resources To have six months operating costs held in reserve

Benchmarking progressObjective Year

Objective Area Sub-Category 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17

Beneficiaries Numbers 35,000 40,000 47,000 55,000 65,000

BeneficiariesType

(Cat1,2 & 3)75%

Services ALPs 20 50 100 150 200

ServicesOutreach Schools

20 50 100 150 200

ServicesYouth

Development100 200 300 400 500

Services Adult Training 100 200 300 400 500

Organisational Development

Learning and development

(No. of PDP’s)50% 75% 90% 100% 100%

Organisational Development

Financial reserves (Months)

1 2 2 4 6

Adventure Learning Partnerships

Target 2012/13: 20 ALPs Partners

ALPs – Why?

• Price (Costs)• Partnerships with schools• Sustainable• Outcomes• More children• More schools• Community and donor engagement

Adventure! (days, residential, outreach)

Widehorizons’ Fundraising

SchoolsFundraising

ALPs

• Adventure– Planned– Outreach– Access

• Schools Fundraising– Support pack– Events

• Widehorizons Fundraising– Your Adventure Fund (Corporate, trusts, events)– Individual regular giving

Adventure

More schools!

• Marketing– Coordinated activity– Direct marketing– Conferences and events

• Fresh sessions• Curriculum links• ALPs, CPD, Projects (e.g. Transition etc.)

Thank you

The Horizon

Scott JohnsonDeputy Head of Centre

The Horizon ?

• line at which the earth and the sky appear to meet

• limit of mental perception, experience, interest

The Globe

• Who ?

• When ?

• What ?

The Convexivity of the Earth

• 1 mile

• 5 miles

• 10 miles

Thank you

Any questions?

The ‘Story Stick’ tells the tale......

Art and Creativity

Shelter Building/Habitat

Mountain Biking

Canoeing (Year 4)

Outreach Outdoor Education Walsall

• “We believe that every child should have access to adventure as part of their education and throughout their lives.”

• “...the impact of our adventure is memorable, focused on outcomes, safe and fun.”

• “Adventure changes lives, we know that because we see it every day. Increases in confidence, communication skills, teamwork, independence and self-belief all happen through what we do.........”

(The Widehorizons Trust)

The Bryntysilio ‘Mission’

We wanted to establish outreach work in order to:

• Make adventure learning in the outdoors widely and regularly accessible (price /practicality).

• Establish outdoor learning as ‘part of what happens in life’s learning journey’, rather than as an exciting, one-off ‘add on’.

• Open young people’s eyes to the opportunities for adventure where they live.

• Build/ maximise the impact and capacity of Wide Horizons Bryntysilio through our community connections and expertise.

What happened?

• Day trip for staff to assess and prepare venues to be used.• Advertised our expertise/resources and availability(used well

established contacts with headteachers as a ‘way in’).• Negotiated use of canoe centre at Brownhills. • Established the use of Cannock Chase through payment to

Forestry Commission and signed disclaimer.

• Forward planning at Bryntysilio to ensure appropriate equipment is available and resources provided....including, for example 40 extra small sets of waterproofs!

• Finally....we found accommodation for centre staff; on the floor in a near-by youth centre for staff (summer). On a primary school floor in December.....

• Such is our commitment.....!• We delivered activities ..... 8 schools used the service (2x

secondary and 6 primary) Cost £20pp per day/£12 pp per half day

• The feed-back was universally positive.

Our challenges....what is the way forward for us?

• Sustainability...• Do we need/can we provide a base to work from(phone-line,

office, drying room)?• Can we extend provision of outdoor equipment and clothing

to be dedicated to the outreach work in Walsall?• How can we provide accommodation for staff when in

Walsall/should we consider staff based there permanently?• How do we market our outreach work effectively so that we

impact on as many children as possible -get schools on board?

What’s next?

• Developing flexible ideas for working- within school grounds for example.

• Developing programmes that build skills and knowledge alongside our residential work(for example overnight bivi).

• Mesh our work with the school curriculum for example through provision of elements of the GCSE programme.

• Engaging fully with head teachers to tailor provision to the needs of the school.

• Are we able to make our outreach provision sustainable in the long term? (Funding/Resources/Marketing.)

Final ThoughtsFive ways to Wellbeing:

• Connect....With people around you

• Be Active.....Go for a walk or a run

• Take notice....Be curious. Catch sight of the beautiful

• Keep Learning....

Try something new

• Give.....Do something for a friend or a stranger

(New Economics Foundation)

The Serotonin Factor......

• Engaging in exercise and participating in activities outdoors are proven to boost serotonin levels, leading to enhanced wellbeing. It puts people in a better mood- able to respond more to learning and deal with challenge.

• A lack of serotonin can lead to depression and fatigue.....

• Lets get those young people outside and connecting with ‘their’ natural environment.

WidehorizonsEnvironment Centre

The vision for redevelopment

Scott CraddockDirector of Services

Hamish CherrettHead of Operations (South East)

History

• Early 1900s Nature Study becomes popular – desire to bring nature to urban areas/children

• LCC coordinates adhoc development of getting nature into schools – also using the parks service

• Avery Hill site becomes big supplier to schools e.g. Botany Boxes

• Mid 1950s LCC buys 9 acre Eltham site establishing ‘Nature Study Scheme’

• 1964 ILEA takes over – invests in scheme, staff, animals, outreach to Kent seaside

History

• By 1990 ILEA abolished, 12 staff providing rodents, botany boxes, seaweed to London schools, free

• Greenwich takes over scheme – hoping that other London boroughs will help with costs – they don’t!

• 1991 – site earmarked for closure• Site saved by a plan to use it as a resource for visiting schools,

as it remains to this day

Aim One

• To increase number of children attending term time – doing more of what we do

– 3 classrooms plus Growing Schools classroom and Forest School areas. Current average 6.6 groups/week

– Marketing (Greenwich/Lewisham) plus new schools in Bexley & Bromley

Logistics & Grounds Requirements

– More teachers– More toilets– Another lunch area– Additional pathways– Developed learning zones

Aim Two

• To develop non-term time use of the centre to provide opportunities for adventure for children

– Play schemes– After school clubs– Adventure themed structure for play (also used for

education/activities term time)– Team building/physical/confidence challenges– Low ropes course/zip wire

Logistics & Grounds Requirements

– More staff– Office space– More car parking space– Two way traffic and/or another road access– Enhanced facilities – café, reception, toilets– Develop animal areas & greenhouses– Sustainable pathway design– Learning zones linked with paths & activities

Aim Three

• To develop our community engagement and outreach

– Outreach work– Partnerships with community groups – Develop a range of seasonal events– Introduce a ‘friends of’ membership scheme

No additional logistics required

What we have done so far

• Engaged a consultancy firm to look at development options

• They bring experience of: • Ecology• Hydrology• Landscape architecture• Visitor engagement• Education• Design/construction of wild trails• Fitness & wellbeing

What we have done so far

• Alternative services/use of space:

Animal Days Out/after school activities

Fit for Sport – day summer camps

Birthday parties!

Next steps

• Development options offered by Johns Associates by 21 January

• To be discussed at the AGM 24 January

• Your feedback on options/ideas is welcome

Thank you