People news

As we approach the end of this academic year, there are some important DS Achieve updates that we would like to share with you.

As a charity, DS Achieve has grown considerably in the last two years and so we have needed to review our people structure to ensure we are continuing to meet the needs of the families and professionals we work with and to deliver the wide ranges of services we now offer. 

As a result, you will see the following changes in our DS Achieve team:

- In September, we are introducing a new role - Operations Manager  - which will be Monday to Friday.  As a charity, this means we will be 'open' and can be contacted five days a week, instead of our current three days a week, to better meet the customer service needs of those we work with.  The Operations Manager will be responsible for delivery of DS Achieve services on a day-to-day basis and will be the main contact point consistently across the week.

- The role of Head of Operations will change.  At her request, Michelle Bolton’s hours will reduce substantially from September and she will be more 'behind the scenes', while maintaining overall responsibility for Charity Operations.

- The role of Operations Coordinator (two days per week) will no longer be required and so Bhavika Bhurtun will leave DS Achieve at the end of this term, on Tuesday 18th July.  Bhav has been a fantastic member of our team and a pleasure to work with.  She will certainly be missed but she remains a firm part of the DS Achieve community and we wish her the very best for her future.

We are also sad to say goodbye to Jo Hansler who has been providing maternity leave cover in the role of Young Achievers Group Leader, while Avril has been away. Jo has done a fantastic job in designing the curriculum and delivering the Young Achievers sessions and we wish her the very best for her future.

We look forward to welcoming Avril Prosser back from her maternity leave in September to resume her role as Young Achievers Group Leader - we are certain the children and young people will give her the warmest of welcomes.

If anyone has any questions about these changes, please contact Michelle Bolton, Head of Operations, on info@dsachieve.org.

Our first radio interview!

When Neil at Mix92.6 got in touch to ask if we would be interested in doing a radio interview for their Parents Show, we were a bit nervous to say the least! BUT… we also recognised what a great opportunity it would be to share what we do for families with children or young people with DS and for the professionals working with them, and how people can get in touch. And that’s what it’s all about!

So our Head of Operations, Michelle, met with Neil to pre-record the discussion, which aired on The Parents Show on 22nd June.

Click here if you’d like to listen.

Charlotte Laitner completes the Half Marathon for DS Achieve and SOSA!

A huge WELL DONE to Charlotte, our Young Achievers Support Worker, on completing the St Albans Half Marathon on Sunday!

We are both incredibly impressed by all her hard work in training and on the day, especially in the intense sunshine, and grateful for her fundraising for us and for Sosa St Albans.

Thank you so much, Charlotte!

If you haven't donated and would still like to, the link is:

https://www.justgiving.com/page/charlottehalfmarathon?utm_source=copyLink&utm_medium=one_page&utm_content=page/charlottehalfmarathon&utm_campaign=pfp-share&utm_term=af58d24a6c5443288d8eff57f113511f

Welcome to our new Little Achievers Support Worker - Eve Wainwright

Eve Wainwright has joined DS Achieve this month as our new Little Achievers Support Worker, working alongside the team to deliver our weekly Early Years programme for 0-5 year olds.

Eve is a qualified and experienced teacher (especially with Early Years), who has taken some time out from her teaching career in the last few years to look after her three young children.

She is passionate about working with children and helping them achieve their potential, and is excited about her new role with DS Achieve.

Governance Update

We are already one third of the way through 2023 and we thought it is time for a governance update.

The Trustees have continued to work behind the scenes overseeing service delivery, monitoring compliance with our legal duties, manging risk, reviewing our policies and of course ensuring we have the financial resources needed and are spending them in the best interests of our service users. We have introduced some key performance indicators to help us monitor our impact and have started to collect some additional diversity data to ensure that we are meeting our duties to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion within the charity.

We have six Trustees including our newest appointment, Huw, who is taking over the treasurer role from Rachel. Rachel has supported the Board with robust financial monitoring and reporting over the past 5 years and we are grateful for her ongoing support and excellent handover to Huw.

Following some successful fundraising at the end of 2022 and early 2023 we have set a balanced budget for 2023 which supports the ongoing delivery of our existing services and provides some scope for expansion. At our team Away Day last September we heard the views and ideas of our employee and volunteer team and service users which encouraged us to look for continual improvement in our service offer and incremental additions to it.

Our ongoing review and development of our strategy has resulted in us amending our constitution, with Charity Commission approval, to extend the age range of the young people with Down Syndrome we can support, up to age 25. This aligns with our partnership with Hertfordshire Libraries and gives us scope for other future services as our young people get older.

Recent new services have included our EHCP Support service and Resources into Homes and we hope that these will further enable and empower parents to secure and provide the best possible support for their children.

The Trustees continue to look further ahead into 2024 and beyond to ensure we remain financially viable for the years to come and further fundraising and grant applications are an embedded part of our planning. We are also conscious that rising costs affect those using our services and we remain committed to keeping costs low and also ensuring free access to all of our services for those where cost is a barrier to them participating.

As ever we would love to hear from you if you have any questions, comments or feedback on any of our services. Please do message us or email us at info@dsachieve.org

Exciting new job opportunity at DS Achieve!

• Are you passionate about making a positive difference for families with a child or young person with SEND?

• Are you a service and people leader, with a history of high performance and fantastic customer focus…? And you also appreciate the importance of attention to detail and you take personal pride in producing high quality and accurate work?

• Are you looking for a senior role on a part time, term time only basis?

We are looking to appoint a highly effective Operations Manager who will be responsible for implementing the day-to-day management and administration of the organisation to deliver high quality services for our service users, with a start date of September 2023.

If you think this could be you, click below to find out more. The deadline for applications is Monday 22nd May 2023.

New service for Early Years children with Down Syndrome!

Following on from our highly successful Resources into Schools programme for children at schools or nursery, we are excited to announce Resources into Homes, a new bespoke service which provides direct training from a Specialist DS Teacher to parents, on how to use a specialist resource to enable your child to achieve maximum progression with their learning in their Early Years.

For more information and to apply for our Resources into Homes programme, visit our page on services for Early Years children here: For Early Years children (0-5 years) — Empowering Families, Fulfilling Potential. (dsachieve.org)

Generous donation from Hitchin Town Youth FC

At DS Achieve, we would like to say a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone at Hitchin Town Youth FC for their fantastic fundraising for World Down Syndrome Day 2023.

We have received an amazing £250 donation into our account, of which every penny will go towards our work with families and professionals to enable children and young people with Down Syndrome to fulfil their potential.

Special thanks to Stacey Murdoch, who organised the event to raise funds and awareness. We are very grateful!

DS Achieve calls out for votes to get a share of Tesco’s Community Grants fund

DS Achieve are delighted to announce that we have been selected in the customer vote for a Tesco Community Grant Fund!

This scheme gives community projects like us grants of up to £1,500. This means that, commencing the first week of April, you can use your blue tokens to vote for DS Achieve every time you shop at local Tesco stores.

You will be able to vote for us at the following stores:

• Harpenden Tesco Express

• London Colney Tesco Express

• Jersey Farm St Albans Tesco Express

• Harpenden Luton Road Tesco Express

• Wheathampstead Tesco Express

• St Albans Beech Road Tesco Express

• St Albans Market Tesco Metro

• St Alban Hatfield Road Tesco Express

To vote, you will need to make a purchase of any value within a store. You will receive one token per transaction and if you use self-service tills you may help yourself to one token after shopping. On your way out simply drop your token in the DS Achieve slot!

If you (or somebody you know) are local to these areas please take the time to support DS Achieve when you shop.

www.tesco.com/#communitygrantscommunitygrants

On 21st March we will be celebrating World Down Syndrome Day 2023!

Join us to celebrate WDSD 2023!

On 21st March each year, World Down Syndrome Day, we celebrate Down Syndrome (DS) to raise awareness about what it means to have DS and the huge potential that people with DS have.

The 21st day of the third month was chosen to signify the three copies of the 21st chromosome which cause DS and World Down Syndrome Day is a great opportunity to get talking about DS, dispel myths, raise general awareness (and funds!) and celebrate.

This year, we have created a colouring sheet for use at home and in schools, as a simple way to get the conversation started. We are sending it out to schools with further information about WDSD for education staff to use in assemblies or in the classroom.

If you would like to download a copy, you can find the DS Achieve colouring sheet here:

DS ACHIEVE WDSD RESOURCE

For more information about WDSD 2023, here are some useful links:

Down Syndrome International: With Us Not For Us - World Down Syndrome Day

• Schools Guide

• Down Syndrome explained

WDSD 2023 – Down Syndrome UK

World Down Syndrome Day | United Nations