BOARD OF

DIRECTORS

SUMMER 2015

KATCHAT KENT AUTISTIC TRUST NEWSLETTER

Welcome from our CEO, Christine Edwards-Daem

Hi all,

I can’t believe it is July already! We have had a very busy period reflecting on our

achievements and evaluating the previous strategic Business Plan and laying the

foundations for the next 5 year Business Plan.

We have invested significantly in our services - refurbishing our establishments and

renewing our commitment to our specialist staff through vigorous training opportunities,

further staff benefits and staff engagement activities.

We want to continue to be the preferred provider for the people we support and their

families but we have also set ourselves an additional challenge and that is to become

the preferred employer in Kent and Medway. This makes business sense! Great services

have great staff, and although that is ‘the case in our organisation’, we want staff to see

us as a long term commitment and stay at KAT for a lifelong career! It is ambitious, but we

want to work hard to achieve this goal because we know it will benefit the people we

support and further improve the experience of being supported by our services.

We have had our first 2 inspections from the Care Quality Commission under the new

“fundamental standards” in April and May. This new inspection regime takes a “no

nonsense” approach and parents and friends of the Trust will be pleased to know that no

stone was left unturned during the 10 or 12 hour visit. Both inspections were unannounced

and were conducted by 2 inspectors spending time interviewing staff, reading ALL

paperwork, looking at every room and observing all the people living in the home. We

are awaiting the reports but feel encouraged by the inspector’s feedback which was

very good.

Our Positive Behavioural Support Team, led by Tamsin Conquest is going from strength to

strength with Paul Cairns moving across to join the team in June (Paul managed

Woodville day and respite services in Canterbury) and our Communication specialist

starting in September who will be working with staff and people directly on promoting

multi-channel communication. We are delighted to announce we have acquired the

support of Allan Davis, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who will have regular meetings

in a consultation capacity to further enhance our knowledge and expertise.

Demand for our services is continuing and we are actively looking at developing both in

Medway and Kent. We will have more news and announcements at the AGM on

Wednesday 30th September. (Venue and the time will be confirmed nearer the date)

The Board has co-opted a new Trustee, Nicola August, who is a solicitor specialising in the

Mental Capacity Act. I am delighted she is joining us, strengthening the expertise and

knowledge on the Board.

We are planning to look at how we communicate with parents, staff, and care managers

about news and updates at The Trust and will be announcing further initiatives soon. We

definitely will have a summer KAT Chat and winter KAT Chat so we will bring you more

news by the end of the year.

I hope you enjoy the stories and events in this edition and hope to see you soon at the

AGM.

Christine Edwards-Daem Chief Executive Officer

AGM 2014 /Farewell to Kay Fundraising Artism’s Annual Art Exhibtion Medway and

Ashford News Hellos and Goodbyes Who’s who News inBrief Future events

Chair

Phil White

Andrew Warner

Helen Jones

Victoria

Sampson

Gary Warner

Georges Dussart

Vanessa Kelsey-

Jansen

Laura Smith

Molly Dussart

Meet the Board

on Page 10

The Kent Autistic Trust has chosen mutual

healthcare provider Benenden to provide

health and wellbeing services to 170

members of staff as part of a corporate

health plan.

Signing up to Benenden’s corporate

health plan means that employees will

have access to a wide range of

discretionary healthcare services and will

be able to request expert medical advice,

prompt diagnosis and treatment, as well

as benefiting from 24-hour, UK based GP

and stress counselling helplines.

“The health and wellbeing of our staff is crucial to us as an organisation and so we are delighted

to work with Benenden to offer a corporate health plan to our employees.

Staff will have access to a wide range of discretionary healthcare services under the scheme

which we see as a key benefit. It is an excellent, good value way to provide our employees with

reassurance on healthcare.”

There are 22 Benenden approved hospitals across the UK, one of which is Benenden Hospital in

Cranbrook, Kent. Benenden Hospital is currently undergoing a £45 million redevelopment to

make it a state-of-the-art facility poised to meet future healthcare needs.

Fiona Dun, National Account Manager at Benenden said: “It’s great news to have an organisation

like the Kent Autistic Trust on board as a corporate member.

“We very much champion health and wellbeing in the workplace and understand the impact this

can have on productivity and absence management. We look forward to working with the Kent

Autistic Trust to ensure their staff are healthy and happy in the workplace.”

The Kent Autistic Trust is one of many companies in the South East and indeed across the UK

who have a corporate membership scheme with Benenden for the benefit of their employees,

costing just £8.45 per employee, per month.

Nicola August has been invited

to become a Board member of

the Trustees. She will be formally

elected at the AGM. As a Part-

ner at Furley Page Solicitors, she

heads the Vulnerable Client

Team and is a specialist in elderly

and vulnerable client matters. She has been an

Approved Panel Deputy of the Court of

Protection for some years and was successfully

reappointed to the panel following a rigorous

selection process. She is also the only Panel

Deputy in East Kent and Medway. Having

worked with the Kent Autistic Trust for a number

of years, she is delighted to join the Board and

looks forward to working for and on behalf of

the Trust and its members.

2 NEWS IN BRIEF

The Allotment is a successful and productive

initiative enjoyed by all the resource centres

in Medway. This picture shows Chris Pitcher

enjoying his regular Tuesday trip to the

allotment. Some people like to get stuck in

while others observe, oversee or manage the

works instead!

3

AGM

GOODBYE TO KAY

2014 was a memorable year.

We celebrated 25 years as a

Trust. We were the chosen

charity of the year by mhs

homes and Kay Brunning

retired from her position as

CEO. It was mixed emotions

for everyone. The AGM was

held in Maidstone and was

well attended. Phil White

opened the evening’s events

with his report and Kay and

Terry Dewis received their long

service awards. Our guest

speaker John Williams, was a

comedian whose speciality

was his son’s autism.

Refreshments were served and

the evening ended with

dancing the night away to

Substitutes.

A selection of photographs

taken at Kay’s Farewell

Party at Lock Street. Friends

and colleagues, old, and

new came to wish Kay well.

4

People and Places Sensory Collection II The Annual Art Exhibition for 2014 was a huge success. Held at the

Nucleus Arts centre in Chatham, it was opened by Ashley Hook, CEO of

mhs homes and attended by many including local MP Tracey Crouch.

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5

EURODISNEY 2014 Daniel Dawkins from ButlersPark Way celebrated his birthday in style at

Eurodisney, Paris. With a little help, he has designed a page full of lovely

photographs. It is such a good layout we have decided to use it in KATCHAT.

Lock Street Allotment News

They have their fabulous new shed up and

running and work is well under way on this

year’s produce.

Head office have already sampled some

of their delicious strawberries and all

donations will be going towards seeds.

LOCK STREET Open Day will be on Friday 31

July at Thirlmere Close from 1.00pm.

Refreshments, Fruit and Vegetables, Bric-a-

Brac and much more. All are welcome.

6 FUNDRAISING ££££

It has been a very fruitful year for the

Trust. We were the nominated Charity of

the year for 2014 from mhs homes and

over £20,000 was raised. Wow!

We have received some very generous

donations from the public and for 2015

the ball has started rolling with Autistic

Plectrum raising funds for us.

A charity gig was held in February at a

local club. This raised nearly £1,200.

Red Nose day had the Newton Nifties,

21 Forever Young and a group from Lock

Street walking a mile for Comic Relief.

Butlers Park Way in Rochester, celebrated

World Autism Awareness Day on 2 April

by involving everyone in a variety of

sponsored events.

Jodie Edge raised £175 by swimming and

horse training. A big thank you and a

huge well done to Jodie.

7NEWS FROM MEDWAY AND ASHFORD

OUT AND ABOUT

Curlew Crescent have been very active this year with a

series of celebrations and achievements. Darren Warner

won the best dressed Halloween costume at Thursday

Club and the service users made an autumn board, and

a WW1 remembrance themed board. Their Christmas

dinner table looked wonderful too.

Lock Street held their annual Halloween and Christmas

parties, as did Wayfield Road.

Carlton Horn and Kyle Cox received certificates of

achievement in trampolining. Well done.

Carlton has also written an article for the newsletter about

his visit to NAS AutismCon. Thank you Carlton.

Grant and Joan getting ready for Lock Street bash, looking very

scary.

Wonderful table set for Christmas festivities at Curlew.

Scary Convict Darren Warner, a very worthy winner.

Beautiful display boards remembering WW1 poppy display

at the Tower of London and an autumn board.

Carlton and Kyle proudly showing off their certificates.

Article written by Carlton

On Saturday 17 January 2015 me, Iain, Helen, Kat

and Kate went to an NAS AutismCon in London.

There were quite a lot of people there with autism

one of them I spoke to like me he had an interest in

trains he was also good at making maps.

There were also three authors who had autism one

of them went across America to meet Juliet Landau

who is an actress in Buffy the vampire slayer. She

had read one of his books and written to him.

There was also a talk on role-playing games I found out

that a lot of people with autism like to dress up and go to conventions like comic-con.

The woman who told us about role playing games said it’s a good way to make friends.

We got up there by high-speed train to St Pancras then took the underground to Holborn

and then walked to Conway hall.

8 AND THERE’S MORE……..

Welcome Back!

Emilymay returns from Maternity leave

after the birth of baby Harrison.

Janet Clayton returns to work as RHM at The

Close and is now Janet Craske,

Jemma Blair also returns to Head Office as

Service Quality Compliance Manager.

Farewell

Jacqui Ingram is embarking on

a new career after working for

the Trust for over 20 years.

She will be joining her husband

Barry to work at their café ‘The

Lantern’ in Margate.

She will be sorely missed and we wish her

every success for the future. Ashford Resource Centre

will be holding their Summer

Fete on Saturday 1 August Have you seen our new website?

Follow us on facebook and twitter

Emily May Miles with husband Anthony and their

son Harrison

Martin King from Wayfield Road

recently took a day trip to the

London Aquarium which is

situated on the embankment by

the London Eye. Here is one of

the many pictures he took of the

sea life.

ELVIS AT THE 02 Stephen McGinley, a resident at Butlers

Park Way visited the O2 to see the Elvis

Exhibition. Elvis is one of Stephen’s heroes

and he had a great day. This was one of

the largest exhibitions in Europe and has

been so popular that it has been

extended to 2016.

Designed and produced by Chrissy Holdforth Please contact chrissy@kentautistic.com with your

news and photographs

‘In 10-11 years teaching

ASD students, this is the

best ASD CSD day I have

been on’

‘Enjoyed the energy and

humour injected

throughout presentation’

9 AND FINALLY

On the 26th June Kent Autistic Trust organised Peter Vermeulen PhD, who is a world

renowned expert on autism, based at Autisme Centraal in Belgium, to speak at the

Inn on the Lake, about Autism as Context Blindness to 50 of our staff, The Trust also

invited specialist groups, parents, teachers and local authorities to attend. The day

provided everyone with a chance not only to network, but also to build on

knowledge and challenge ourselves with regard to day to day practices.

In 2016 the Trust is planning to invite re invite Dr Gary Mesibov, who is a leading

authority on the TEACCH strategy to speak. Peter Vermeulen PhD has hinted that he

would love to share the day with Gary. We are hoping to bring this extraordinary

combination together for our staff and other professionals. Please keep an eye on

our website for any further announcements.