AnnualReport2014–15

The Reader

About UsThe Reader brings books to life. We create vital connections between people and literature through which everyone can feel more alive.

Our unique Shared Reading model reaches across all ages, demographics and settings because it helps people connect with a better understanding of themselves and others, which enables them to realise the changes they want to make.

Shared Reading takes place in small groups. A great story or poem is read aloud. We stop and talk about what we have read. There is no need for group members to read aloud, speak or even stay awake – the idea is to create a place where people feel at home. Groups are open to all ages, educational backgrounds and abilities, and are free to attend.

We work across what seem to be widely diverse areas of life. How can the same thing help in a mental-health ward and with two-year-olds in a private day nursery? Or in a high-security prison and a dementia care home? What connects these places are the people in them and the human experiences those people share. Reading aloud gives all sorts of people access to literature; literature gives people access to powerful language, to thoughts and feelings about what it is to be human. By experiencing these complex meanings with others, people can start to (re)build a better understanding of themselves and the world.

2 Introduction by Jane Davis4 The Reader in Health9 The Reader with Young People12 Criminal Justice16 Grants17 Calderstones18 Awards19 Publications20 Events 21 Staff22 Funders & Commisioners23 Trustees; Patrons24 Finances

Contents

Inside books there is perfect space and it is that space which allows the reader to deal with the normal problems of gravity

Jeanette Winterson

IntroductionA Vintage YearIn April 2014, The Reader’s National Head Office was still located in The Friary in Bute Street, Everton. A small advance party of core Reader staff was working in Calderstones Mansion House, in Calderstones Park, South Liverpool, prior to our wholesale move there, testing shared reading and other activities, opening the Reader Café, and, aided by our pro-bono legal team at Hogan Lovells, working on the lease negotiations with Liverpool City Council. We knew we were about to move into a new phase of life, though a theoretical imagining of that is a very different thing to living through it. What a year we had!

We signed the 125-year lease on the Mansion on 9 September 2014 and began work on the development programme immediately. In October, we secured investment from Social Investment Business for our first capital project, The Storybarn: the development of the semi-derelict barn as an interactive reading-based imagination space. Work is being completed as I write.

The drilling, hammering and sawing were not limited to Calderstones building works. Two key pieces of Reader organisational development took place during the year: a new strategic plan to help define our ambitions, and a written set of values to help define and secure our unique and precious ethos.

Strategic PlanThe new strategic aim was to make shared reading mainstream in the UK by 2020. To achieve this, we would organise our work into the following streams:

• Consolidate – make sure our foundations are solid, our narratives and values are clear, understand our own ideas of quality practice, and have good governance

• Grow – embed shared reading in the Health and Wellbeing sector through development of staff, volunteer-led and train-the-trainer models

• Create – model a shared reading community at Calderstones Mansion House and continue to develop new models in other sectors such as education and the workplace

• Influence – we want to spread the idea of shared reading as widely and as deeply as possible

• Build – we need a strong flexible organisation and will continue to develop our people, information and business systems

Values We worked hard across the entire organisation to come up with a set of values we felt expressed our ethos. These values have been in use every day, from helping us work out how to run the Reader Café to improving our recruitment processes, and developing our internal understanding of quality. Many thanks to Scott Lynch, who led the Values project as a pro-bono consultant.

Picking highlights is hard in a vintage year like this, because so much has happened both near at hand and around the country but it has been a real pleasure for me to look back at what we have done.

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A lot of wonderful stuff happened in Liverpool City of Readers, the large-scale reading project I was asked to develop by the Liverpool Learning Partnership and City Mayor, Joe Anderson. Our aim? To develop a city-wide culture of reading so that no child should leave primary school unable to read. This gave The Reader an opportunity to work closely with many schools, and we’ve gained from a close partnership with Councillor Lana Orr, and with Judith Edwards, who developed and led the magnificent volunteer evaluation team, which has guided the City of Readers work.

We had major work in North Wales (Big Lottery volunteer project) and South London (Guys and St Thomas and SLAM community reading groups), ongoing work in the South West and North East, as well as a pilot in prisons and other secure settings across the country. You will read about this work elsewhere in this report but I’d like to thank everyone who has helped spread The Reader message. It’s a terrific feeling to go into a care home in Barnet, a prison in Durham, a library in Devon or a community centre in Antwerp and to experience quality shared reading in all of them, and to know that people in locations across the UK (and Europe) are enjoying good company and meaning-making on their own home turf.

Shared reading groups spread the word on the ground, but we also need to influence in other ways. Please look at pages 19 and 20 to see details of our national conference, events and publications. One particular event stands out because it was so different to anything I ever thought I might do. In March, we held the very stylish Meet the Reader Party at the home of one of our longstanding supporters, Lynn Glyn, a glittering occasion at which our patron Howard Jacobson, in a funny and serious conversation, spoke of the power of reading, while party-goers enjoyed the best canapés ever. Many thanks to Lynn and Stuart Glyn for their hospitality and friendship.

The continued support of longstanding friends is vital to our plans but it is a special pleasure to start new partnerships. During 2014–2015, we began to develop corporate relationships with Prinovis, Lenovo and Halo. We were delighted to develop new relationships with Discover Story Centre (which will lead to the visit of their

Oliver Jeffers exhibition to the Mansion in January 2016), and with Phoenix Futures, which has led to a new third-sector training and embedding shared reading model. We explored the potential for joint-working with The Reading Agency, as well as working with National Literacy Trust and Save the Children in the Read On Get On coalition. The end of the financial year saw the beginning of new relationships with Hackney Learning Trust and the charity Book Bus.

2014–2015 will remain in our hearts and minds as an outstanding year in which much infrastructure was built, thanks to those who believe in what we are doing and want to do, and a grand new chapter, ‘Calderstones’, was begun. For me, the highlight of the year came when we hosted a two-week reading holiday for children in care of the local authority at the Mansion. Sitting in the park each morning, singing together, having our toast and fruit dressed in gorilla and other costumes, and sharing our love of reading with children for whom that love was a new and somewhat foreign experience was a joy and a privilege. Watching a teenage boy who began his stay by drawing a picture of a gun shooting a book end it by asking to become a reader volunteer was a more than satisfying end to the fortnight. We’re working now to develop a programme for reading and volunteering for UK children who might enjoy it. Watch this space.

I want to end this introduction by thanking colleagues and fellow readers – both in and outside of The Reader – who work so hard and with such lively enthusiasm to make shared reading part of the fabric of national life. Sometimes it is hard to look up and have a sense of what’s been done. Writing this introduction to the Annual Report gives me a chance to do just that, and I look back on the year’s work with some amazement, with a sense of achievement and with gratitude that I have the opportunity to do this great job alongside so many good people.

Thank you, readers.

Jane DavisFounder and Director

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This year, our staff and volunteers have continued to bring the benefits of shared

reading to people experiencing health problems in a variety of service settings

and geographical locations across the country. Our longstanding partnerships with

mental health trusts have gone from strength to strength and 2014 has seen the

start of exciting new projects.

Shared reading is truly beginning to change the face of mental health services.

We have maintained our work with our longest standing mental health partner,

Mersey Care NHS Trust, to deliver a range of shared reading sessions in both

inpatient and community services across Liverpool and Southport, and we have

developed and delivered a range of shared reading inspired courses in the Trust’s

Recovery College. Our ongoing work with Greater Manchester West Mental

Health Trust and 5 Borough Partnership Trust in the North West has seen the

development of ‘shared reading recovery pathways’ in these geographies. Together,

we have set up shared reading provision in the community as well as within inpatient

services so that, upon leaving hospital, people can experience shared reading closer

to home and thus be able to build social networks and keep well. In London, we

read one-to-one and in group settings with the patients of Broadmoor hospital and

within many other secure wards across West London Mental Health Trust’s area.

Informed by our work at Broadmoor, an article published in the Journal of Mental

Health Nursing attested to the confidence and social inclusion benefits for shared

reading participants in a high security setting.

The Reader in Health

“We view the offer of a shared reading group as a key addition to our recovery model”

Andy McDermott, Strategic Lead for Criminal Justice Services,

Greater Manchester West Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

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“The reading group says – ‘Yes, you can come here. You can be part of society’”

This is Anna speaking. She is a woman in her late 50s who has been attending a shared reading group in Birkenhead for nearly ten years. Life has not always been kind to her. She admits that she isolated herself because she was taking care of her uncle and has suffered from depression. Last year her daughter died. She continues to look after her father.

“Depression is a flat feeling, everything is on one level. That flat feeling goes away when I am here and we’re reading poems and stories together. We might be crying or laughing but that flat feeling isn’t there. I used to be a very quiet and reserved person. But the reading group has brought me out of myself. It’s taken ten years for me to do but I can put in an input now. I can give my opinions. When I read out loud someone’s listening to me. By being in the reading group I exist as a person. There has been a different Anna, but now I’ve got opinions and I interrupt.”

Anna is a volunteer at Central Park in Birkenhead and often shares the poems we read with one of her fellow volunteers. She attends two of our reading groups now and is a thoughtful, articulate and caring reader. She is also an enthusiastic advocate for shared reading: “The reading group says – yes, you can come here. You can be part of society.”

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We have a new Reader in Residence working within Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust. Our exciting new project based within Oxford Health Trust has been set up to research the impact shared reading has on suicidality. Preliminary research findings from this project demonstrate impressive results: group members report that taking part in shared reading not only improves their own wellbeing but allows them to contribute positively to the wellbeing of others.

“My engagement with the group has been more

sustained and more beneficial than

any contact with Community Mental

Health Services over the same two

year period.”Martin,

Plymouth Central Library “Feel Better With a Book” group

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I have hardly any experience of working in dementia settings – it’s never been part of my projects. But over the last 2 weeks I’ve visited one of the Barnet project’s dementia care homes, where a group has been running for some time. Last Monday I was a supportive observer (I hope) to Pat, a staff member, and I was fascinated to see how she gently encouraged them to stay awake (!), read aloud, and share their responses. One group member Harry (not his real name), barely spoke – often seeming to be asleep, though he did read one of the poems out. At the end of the group he asked me: ‘What should I do with my life?’ I felt very sad at his sense that there was nothing to do with it, and the repeated asking of that same question suggested that it worried him a lot. Pat told me that Harry used to talk more and made great contributions, but has been getting less well, speaking less, sleeping more.

The next week, I was leading the session and began with ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ by Yeats. Some of the group knew it well, and were willing to read it and talk, but just as I felt we were running out of steam and had suggested a final reading, Harry began to speak. He talked about how he had been feeling for some time that his world was small and narrow, but that this poem made him feel that the world was huge, with lots of branches and possibilities to explore. And as he said it he sat up a bit straighter, and moved his arms out along those imagined branches. It felt like a huge privilege to be there, and gave me a small sense of the challenges and rewards of this work.

Dementia reading group cover, Barnet7

“The Reader has developed an incredible project for us that has changed the lives of many people in Wiltshire living with dementia and those who care for them. I have seen for myself how people with little remaining language use facial expressions to engage with the stories. I’ve also heard people who were unable to make simple decisions about refreshments recite word perfectly poems from their childhood and recall lost memories with joy and enthusiasm.” Rebecca Bolton,

Outreach Services Manager, Wiltshire Libraries

Across the UK – in our primary hubs of Liverpool, Wirral, the South West and London, and also in Leicestershire, Sheffield, Halton and Knowsley – we have brought shared reading to hundreds of people living with dementia, and their carers, this year. 2014 also saw the publication of Read to Care – An Investigation into Quality of Life Benefits of Shared Reading Groups for People Living with Dementia, a report completed by our research partner the Centre for Reading, Literature and Society at the University of Liverpool. The investigation found that shared reading ‘significantly improves the quality of life for people living with dementia’.

Evaluation of shared reading groups for people with dementia reveals:

86% show improved mood during the session

76% have improved mood after the session

87% show improved concentration during the session

73% have improved concentration after the session

86% show decreased agitation during the session

84% have decreased agitation after the session

In the year ahead, we will build on these achievements, working with health providers and other partners across the UK to continue to support more people to live well with dementia.

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The Reader with Young People

The Reader’s work with young people has seen significant commissions this year, with new commissions in early years, working with vulnerable 8–16-year-olds and with funding for a prestigious research project in parental engagement as well as our ongoing work in Liverpool primary and secondary schools.

The Sutton Trust Parental Engagement Fund has granted us an award to explore the effectiveness of a term-long intervention aimed at building parental confidence and skills in sharing stories with their own children in order to foster children’s cognitive and language development.

“Most programmes that support parents of pre-school children focus on effective ways to engage children in story reading or in conversations about daily activities such as matching socks or making a shopping list. The Reader adds a new dimension to parental engagement with its focus on the adult’s response to books or poems. It considers parents as educators of their own children BUT ALSO as readers in their own right, with strong thoughts and feelings about texts. It is this two-level approach that makes the parent groups led by The Reader innovative and worthy of further study.”

Professor Kathy Sylva, Oxford University

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The Reader is also continuing to build the evidence base for our work with children. Patrick Fisher, who ran reading groups in three Scottish schools in a highly-deprived area of Glasgow (work funded by the Tudor Trust) until August 2014, used the British Picture Vocabulary Scale to assess changes in children’s receptive vocabulary after attending a weekly reading group for six months. The results are startling and important as vocabulary is key to reading, writing and to basic self-expression.

Liverpool City of Readers has continued to build a culture of reading for pleasure in schools across the city, delivering our innovative Reading Revolutionary Training to an additional fi fteen schools in 2014 reaching 600 children in all. Reading Revolutionaries are older children who read with younger children in their school or in partner schools, inspiring a love of reading in younger pupils and building confi dence and leadership skills in the Revolutionaries. We also worked intensively in sixteen schools who had a reader in residence for a term, one day a week.

This work will build upon the learning from our work in Liverpool’s Private, Voluntary and Independent Nursery sector, where since January 2015 fi ve of our staff have been sharing stories with two-year-olds and their parents in thirty-eight settings across the city. The government funds free nursery places for two-year-olds whose parents are in receipt of benefi ts and it is these children we have been working with. We have also created a new training programme aimed at building the skills of pre-school staff “Sharing Stories in the Early Years”, as research shows that sharing stories interactively, talking about the story together with a focus on fun, is highly effective in promoting early language development.

February 2015 saw Liverpool City Council confi rm a commission benefi ting vulnerable and Looked After Children across the city, which should enable us to work with 500 families over a three-year period. This innovative project will harness the power of volunteers, working closely with our volunteer co-ordination team, reading one-to-one with children from eight to sixteen for six months and then moving on to one of fi ve shared reading groups across the city.

Children in Need awarded us a grant in February to work with Looked After Children on the Wirral; the project will fund a part-time volunteer co-ordinator working with twenty volunteers, and reading with forty children per year for three years from September 2015.

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Alan, along with twenty other year 3 and 4 pupils, attended the fi rst shared reading session which we ran at a local primary school as part of the Reading Revolutionaries Roadshow. As the group were new to the training course and shared reading model, we explained that if students felt too shy or anxious to ask any questions out loud, they could write their questions on a Post It note, which we would address and respond to after the morning break.

We read Oh No George! by Chris Haughton and a lively discussion ensued with lots of the pupils relaying stories about their naughty pets. The group were totally engrossed and all participated in shouting out ‘OH NO GEORGE!’

One group member said: ‘It’s hard when you’re told not to do something though, because it makes you want to do it even more. Like George… I bet he wasn’t even thinking about eating the cake or the playing in the mud, but as soon as he’s told to “be good!” they’re his fi rst thoughts. I’m like that too… like George… as soon as I’m told I “can’t” that’s when I “want”.’

After we fi nished reading, Alan, who had been mostly quiet for the session, approached me and admitted that he had made a mistake with his question on his Post It note and needed to ‘fi x it’. We went through the notes until we found his Post It, which read ‘I don’t read anything’. He took his note and came up to me around ten minutes later with a new submission which read ‘Did George go in the bin or not? Would George be good next time or not?’

In one twenty-minute shared reading session Alan had transformed from a self-defi ned ‘non reader’ to an inquisitive and interested literary thinker.

Criminal Justice

Our flagship CJ project, funded by the PD team, DH/NOMS, provided spectacular evidence of the way in which shared reading can bring about change. This year has been the culmination of our twenty-seven-month project in the Psychologically Informed Planned Environments (PIPEs) and across the whole prison populations of HMP Frankland and HMP Low Newton and in the PIPEs at HMP Hull, HMP Gartree, HMP Send, Kirk Lodge AP and Stafford House AP.

Our evaluation shows the outcomes of this work for offenders, ex-offenders and for the staff who participate and are trained to lead groups themselves.

In our survey:

46% of Shared Reading group members in PIPEs said they enjoyed ‘reading aloud myself ’ or found it helpful. In the follow-up survey, 50% of scores had improved

“When you’re reading slowly, you get into the bigger thing.”

Shared Reading group member, HMP Low Newton

79% of Shared Reading group members in PIPEs said they enjoyed ‘Listening to what other people say about the things we read’ or found it helpful. In the follow-up survey, 27% of scores had improved

80% of Shared Reading group members in PIPEs said they enjoyed ‘Working together in the group to get a better understanding of things we read’ or found it helpful. In the follow-up survey, 30% of scores had improved

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“It is a good group to be a part of because it helps me to get to know people and their views on a story/poem, helps relax me and helps me to re-think how I act and feel.”

Shared Reading Group member, Kirk lodge

When asked to tell us about the changes they had observed, PIPEs staff said:

45% of group members had shown improvement in their access of and progression through services since joining a Shared Reading group

48% of group members had shown improvement in understanding of own behaviour, risk factors and the implementation of effective management strategies since joining a Shared Reading group

48% of group members had shown improvement in their openness to future non-offending and aspiration since joining a Shared Reading group

“Shared Reading is integral to sentence planning. There are other interventions that are more peripheral but Shared Reading addresses risk related behaviours and developments in behaviours will be noted. It’s part of risk reduction.”

Clinical Lead, Westgate, HMP Frankland

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For staff who participate in the groups, apart from the personal self-development in terms of skills and confidence that results, the main advantage comes from interacting with offenders as equal group members not as individuals in rigid hierarchical relationships. New insight into the offenders’ personalities, histories and motivations encourages more understanding of the pathways they need to follow to increase the probability of desisting from crime. This improved understanding combines with a different avenue of communication to enhance relationships between staff and offenders.

“When you’re actually reading aloud in front of them, and they’re seeing you do it, that straightaway drops the barriers down. When I started I wasn’t the strongest of readers; I’ve gained confidence over time and when they see that they think, ‘If he’s quite prepared to take that, I want to have a go, do it as well,’ and it builds their confidence.”

PIPEs Prison Officer, HMP Frankland

Shared reading groups have also continued at HMP Hindley, funded by GMWNHS Trust; HMP Durham, funded by the Learning, Skills & Employment Activity Unit at HMP Durham; and HMP Wormwood Scrubs, funded by CLCH Trust.” Delivery began this year at HMP Brixton as part of our South London project.

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HMP Hull PIPE Group

One Monday at HMP Hull PIPE we held a whole wing tea party to celebrate two years of shared reading here. The promised iced, book-shaped cake did not alas appear (prison bureaucracy of course – but we did get gateaux). However, that disappointment was more than made up for by J’s beautiful reading of a poem (‘Chauvinist’ by Norman MacCaig) and also by a moving speech given by Will (not his real name) who has been part of the group since we began. Two years ago I would not have believed that Will could or would write a speech like this – much less that he would have the confidence to read it out to all his wing peers, staff and visitors. I have to admit to a bit of ‘welling-up’ as I listened. I have reproduced it here verbatim. Something as heartfelt as this needs no ‘smartening up’.

“Its two years since the readers group first STARTED HERE at Hull. And because I’m the longest attender I was asked to do a little talk. I remember being asked by a lad who went to the readers group. Would I go with him. Has at this stage there was only him there (THOSE days it was during Assoistion Friday afternoons when it took place). Anyway I went, Before long we were reading a short story together. And was asked would we like to read out loud. I’m glad there was only three of us Because this sort of thing was a big thing to me I remember reading, But having No Idea what I had just read. I expierance every known Panic fear you Could Imagine. Then we all had a bit of a talk about what we had all just read. Cheryl would asked Questions And I was InTrEd by this. My whole life was about Avoiding things, hiding, I’ll sort it out. Who do you think they are. I know best. Fuss of anykind was the last thing I wanted. The more I went on these groups the more hooked I became. Over a period of time I began to get a better understanding of myself. I would always reflect on these short storys and out talks “Where am I right now” I would ask myself. I began to believe in myself and carry a conversation with others I began to realize I was now on a level peg-ging and I felt comfortable within myself which in itself gave me confi-dence. Now I was enjoying myself. The group is well attended these days. We talk many many topics Familys, Prison, Suffering and many more. But to me its being a part of these groups. Hearing others Peoples views and opinions which makes it all the more Interesting and Worth While. To me For me personally I’m thankfull I’m on this unit and I’m able to challenge myself in areas I’ve just spoken to you all about. The sort of life I was living outside. There was no way I would be given a opportunity Like this. And even a my age I’ve took full advantage of it. If anyone is feeling “its not for me this” take another Look, give yourself another chance. You may surprise yourself.”

“Where am I right now?”

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Calderstones

In September, we signed the lease for Calderstones Mansion and officially moved our head office to the Grade II listed building which needs a lot of love and restoration. Being The Reader we didn’t wait until it was restored to start using it to reach more and more people.

We run nine reading groups with over 100 readers in our community. Group members may be local to the park but several make long journeys to get to us, the furthest coming from Manchester. Group members range from babes in arms to those over eighty.

We have brought people here as part of our work in the North West, most notably a summer school as part of City of Readers. The children were from amongst those who had been expected to struggle with the transition from primary to secondary school for one reason or another. The Mansion hardly seemed big enough over those two weeks. Thankfully the weather was good and we could make use of the park. One especially pleasing result is that while children’s reading scores normally fall back over the summer holidays, this was not the case for the scores of children who came to our summer school.

Our businesses at Calderstones are starting to thrive, providing The Reader with an additional income stream as well as providing local businesses with office space, dog walkers with hot coffee on winter mornings, and children with ice creams.

We are providing more volunteering opportunities at the Mansion with a team of volunteer receptionists setting a model for how our community will work. Some are young people looking to get into work, some are older people looking to get back into work and some are those who want to give something back to the community. They are all now the welcoming face of the Mansion and the friendly voice if you call our head office phone number. We look forward to having more volunteers with us as we continue to widen our scope.

We are currently in the development phase of our HLF funding which hopefully one day will lead to the restoration of the Mansion. This phase included a programme of history-based events, talks and workshops in order to help us secure the funding needed from the Heritage Lottery Fund to repair and renovate the building. The events have worked across generations of park users with many people having fond memories of parties, receptions and theatre shows at the Mansion. The level of local community support has been overwhelming with the feeling that people are pleased to see their Mansion being brought back to life. This programme has also offered a great opportunity to increase public knowledge and awareness of the Calderstones – a Scheduled Ancient Monument and the earliest evidence of humans making meaning in the area that we now call Liverpool.

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GrantsSocial Investment Business is one of the UK’s largest social investors and has made over 1300 investments in civil society organisations ranging from under £5,000 to almost £7 million since 2002. The Reader’s relationship with SIB began in 2013, when SIB supported the early development of The Reader at Calderstones with a £61,200 Feasibility Grant. This support paid for some of the early development work, such as Business Planning and Architect’s work, which was instrumental to The Reader signing the 125-year lease on The Mansion House and estate in September 2014.

Following The Reader signing the lease, and preparing to move the home of the organisation to Calderstones, we became increasingly aware of the need for a specific provision for young people at Calderstones, aimed at children under 11 and their families and complementary to our activity at The Mansion House. This thinking led to The Storybarn, an innovative children’s story centre, based in the disused barn and stable block at Calderstones, and using stories to help young people to explore, share and discover the pleasure and imagination that comes from books. After a successful application, in October 2014 SIB awarded The Reader £382,500 to cover the main capital costs of The Storybarn, converting the Grade II Listed outbuildings into a community resource that will engage with 20,000 visitors a year, from across the North West.

As work on The Storybarn developed, it became apparent that if we were to successfully create a project of the highest quality, which would be accessible to all, we would need further investment. This coincided with SIB launching the Liverpool City Region Impact Fund (LCRIF), an innovative model of targeted regional social investment, with Liverpool as the pilot region. Working closely with SIB we were able to develop a proposal to complete The Storybarn works, adding crucial accessibility elements such as a lift, and attractive external landscaping that will really help bring our stories to life and to bring together The Storybarn and the outdoor world of the park. This led to a £70,000 social loan by SIB, investing into the project, which will be paid back by The Reader over the coming years.

The grants and investment from SIB have been crucial in making The Storybarn happen and helping The Reader develop a high quality offer for children and families, unique in the North West. The Storybarn is due to open in late 2015.

Awards & NominationsWinner of Wiltshire Public Health Award for improving mental health and wellbeingThis award is to recognise the outstanding contribution that one individual, group or organisation has made to improving health and wellbeing across Wiltshire.

Shortlisted for the RBS SE100 Resilience AwardEach year, The NatWest SE100 Index recognises social enterprises on the Index who have demonstrated some of the best business practice within the sector. The Reader was shortlisted for the Resilience Award upon their first entry. The Resilience Award is one for those social ventures that continually deliver positive social or environmental change and repeatedly achieve impact goals, keeping focussed on delivering their mission ‘whatever the weather’.

Shortlisted for SEUK Women’s ChampionThe Social Enterprise Awards recognise organisations for their business excellence and contribution to society, as well as the achievements of people working at the heart of the social enterprise sector. In 2014, a new category was announced and The Reader Founder and Director Dr Jane Davis was among the first to be shortlisted as the SEUK Women’s Champion.

Shortlisted for Arts and Cultural Champion, Powerful Together AwardsThis award recognises the achievements of the creative sector in Merseyside supporting communities to thrive through a range of creative mediums.

Dr Jane Davis shortlisted for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Northern heats)

Runner up in Tackling the Social Determinants of Health, Public Health in the East Midlands: Celebration and Recognition Event Awards

“Mentally ill people need hard work – it makes you concentrate on other people and on the work instead of yourself.”

Siobhan Jones

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To commemorate the centenary of the start of World War One, The Reader published an anthology of poems showcasing the extraordinary experiences of ordinary people during the course of war. On Active Service: 1914–1918 features a selection of poems that emerged from World War I, chosen and edited by Brian Nellist, co-editor of The Reader magazine. As well as including familiar names such as Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon and Rupert Brooke, the anthology features poems by less well-known poets – some selections so rare in fact that they required a considerable effort to be tracked down. Including the work of these poets, the anthology helps to ensure that the experiences of generations now passed will survive for years to come, in their own words.

The Reader Magazine continues to be a widely popular publication both in the UK and internationally offering the whole literary mix: new fiction and poetry, classic and neglected works, interviews with leading figures in the world of the arts, thought-pieces, advice for reading groups, research into reading and news from the world of books.

Our other internationally acclaimed anthologies, A Little Aloud, A Little Aloud for Children, Minted and Poems to Take Home, also continue to grow in popularity reaching more readers than ever before.

In 2014, our research partner from the University of Liverpool’s Centre for Research into Reading, Literature and Society produced three new publications on key areas of our work.

An Evaluation of a Literature-Based Intervention for People with Chronic Pain (Billington, J., Humphreys, A-L., McDonnell, K., Jones, A., 2014)

Cultural Value: Assessing the intrinsic value of The Reader Organisation’s Shared Reading Scheme (Davis, P., Billington, J., Corcoran, R., Gonzalez-Diaz, V., Lampropoulou, S., Farrington, G., Magee, F., Walsh, E., 2014)

Read to Care: An Investigation into Quality of Life Benefits of Shared Reading Groups for People Living with Dementia (2014)

Publications

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Read to CareAn Investigation into Quality of Life Benefits of Shared Reading Groups for People Living with Dementia

Better with a Book: Exploring the Relationship between Literature and Mental Health: The Reader’s National Conference 2014The conference was held at the British Library for a third time and was well-attended, building on the success of our previous conferences. Our fifth annual national conference explored how the unique shared reading model pioneered by The Reader uses literature to improve mental health, reduce social isolation and enhance quality of life.

Guest speakers included Lord Melvyn Bragg, who spoke about his novel Grace and Mary based on his mother’s experience with dementia and his life as a reader, Baroness Estelle Morris and Dr Alice Sullivan from the Institute of Education, who discussed the role of reading in schools, and Nick Benefield, Lord Alan Howarth and Lord David Ramsbotham, examining the effect of shared reading in secure mental health settings.

We also heard first-hand the personal, inspiring and moving stories from some of our Readers who shared the effects reading has had on their lives.

The Penny Readings: LondonAs part of London Literature Festival 2014, The Penny Readings came to Southbank Centre in London on Sunday 12th October 2014.

Guest readers included our London group members, writer and The Reader’s patron Erwin James and Greenpeace activist Frank Hewetson, who read some of the greatest literature on the topic of freedom and the struggles of human life.

The Secret Garden of Stories: The Reader’s Children’s Literature Festival 2014 saw our very first Children’s Literature Festival transform the garden of the Mansion House at Calderstones into The Secret Garden of Stories. From Thursday 28th to Saturday 30th August, hundreds of people joined us for a host of great literature for children and fun activities for the whole family including Roald Dahl storytelling sessions, craft workshops, games, competitions and appearances from very special guest authors Cathy Cassidy, Lydia Monks, Jon Mayhew and the award-winning Andy Mulligan.

Latitude FestivalNow one of the UK’s biggest music and arts festivals, Latitude 2014 marked the 9th Edition of Latitude festival and was yet again an incredible weekend encompassing a huge selection of carefully chosen musicians and an extremely varied arts programme. The Reader hosted a number of Shared Reading sessions throughout the weekend on the year’s theme: Secrets and Lies.

Other notable events include:• Mental Health in Context with Jeanette Winterson• The Calderstones Summer Fair• Shakespeare’s Globe Much Ado About Nothing• City of Readers Give us 5 launch• The Reader Café and Gallery Launch• The Penny Readings Festival 2014• ‘O the mind, mind has mountains’: Ad Hoc Creative EXPO

Events

20

Caroline AdamsMeera Bala-LaneGillian BandyMichelle BarrettNicola BennisonCraig BentleyEamee BodenAmanda BostonAmanda BrownNina Del CarpioSteffi CammChris CatterallSophie ChilversKatie ClarkAnthony ClarkeSophie ClarkeVictoria ClarkeMichael ClohertySusan ColbournRachel ColemanSarah ColeyNicola CopelandJosephine CorcoranEmma CragoEmily CrawfordSarah DangarCharles Darby- VillisBen DavisJane DavisCarl DennisFrances DrydenCasi DylanLeah EdgeClare EllisLynn ElsdonRosie Ernst TrustramGrace FarringtonEmma GibbonsLaragh GillenZoe GillingKaren GrahamColette GreggsJulie HalfordVal HannanGeorge HawkinsMegg HewlettPaul HigginsVanessa HogbinAnthony HortonNatalie Hughes-CreanKate Hughes-JenkinsCheryl HunterJennifer JarmanZoe JermyAlexander JoynesJoanna JungiusLee KeatingJennifer KellyBeverley La RocShaun Lawrence

Laura LewisEmily LezzeriChristopher LynnRichard MacdonaldNeil MahoneyPenny FostenKatie McAllisterAnthony McCallEleanor McCannMaggie McCarneyAnna McCrackenJennifer McDerraKate McDonnellMichael McGrathAlexis McNaySelina McNaySiobhan MealeyEmma MellingGillian MooreMarian MurrayValerie NobbsSahera ParveenLuke Pilkington JonesGeorge PinningtonBethanie PochinLaura SaksenaRuth Scott-WilliamsLisa SpurginMadeline StanfordKatherine StevensonSally SweenyGeraldine TomlinsonIan WalkerEmma WalshLois WaltersKate WestonMary WestonHelen WilsonJeanette WoodenClaire YatesThomas Young

Susannah BellisAnthony BoardmanMin CaoZachary ColeTina DavisMike DohertyMeryn FellKaley FisherSarah GannonKayleigh HeapLisa KronenburgSophie LewisHannah McGowanJennifer PeersCharlotte RobinsonFiona ShoneCheryl TantonChristine Toh

Staff

21

Core & Charitable Funders

Commissioners

22

Our revolutionary Get Into Reading projects across Great Britain as detailed in the Trustees’ report are funded and/or commissioned by the following:

• Big Lottery England• Big Lottery Wales• Liverpool Hope University• Halton Borough Council• Knowsley CCG• Liverpool City Council • Liverpool CCG• Broadgreen International School• Connexions• Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen • University• Hospitals NHS Trust• Limbourne Trust• Merseyside Probation Trust• 5 Boroughs Partnership NHS

Foundation Trust• Greater Manchester Probation• Greatere Manchester West Mental

Health NHS Foundation Trust• JP Getty Junior Charitable Trust• Alzheimer’s Society• Mersey Care NHS Trust• The Trusthouse Charitable Trust• Egremont Primary School, Wirral• Woodchurch High School, Wirral• Wirral Alternative Schools

Programme• Wirral MBC• Forum Housing• Birkenhead Foundation Years Trust

Development Fund• Inner North West London

Primary Care Trust• Maudsley Charity• The Guys and St. Thomas Charity• Jewish Care• KC Shasha (Jewish Care)• London Borough of Barnet• Central London Community • Healthcare NHS Trust• West London Mental Health NHS

Trust• Tri-Borough Library Service• The Tudor Trust• Belfast Health and Social Care

Trust• NHS Gloucestershire CCG• Devon Library Service• Leicestershire County Council• Plymouth City Council• Somerset County Council• Wiltshire County Council• Berkshire Healthcare NHS• Sheffield Health and Social Care

Trust• Swaleside Pathways Service • CNWL Recovery College• Foundation Trust

• Phoenix Futures• NHS England• The Tudor Trust• A B Charitable Trust• The Pilgrims Trust• HMP Durham• HMP Frankland• HMP Hindley• HMP Low Newton• HMP Manchester• HMP Wormwood Scrubs• National Personality Disorder Team

at the Department of Health/Home Office

• Ashoka • The Architectural Heritage Fund • Barbour Foundation• Big Venture Challenge• Clore Duffield• Esmee Fairbairn• Garfield Weston Foundation• Grosvenor Estate• HLF• The Headley Trust• Henry Smith Foundation• Liverpool Learning Partnership• Parkhaven Trust• The SIB Group• Social Business Trust• Unwin Trust

TrusteesSimon Barber, Chief Executive, 5 BoroughsGiles Brand (joined board October 2014)Professor Philip Davis, Director, CRILSLindsay DyerJohn FlamsonStephen Hawkins (stepped down October 2014)Rosemary Hawley, MBELawrence HoldenDr Shyamal Mukherjee, MBE, Medical Director, NHS WirralRoger Philips, Broadcaster, BBC Radio MerseysideJacqueline Anne Tammenoms BakkerZoe Gilling (Secretary, stepped down October 2014)Ruth Scott-Williams (Secretary, joined October 2014)Kathy Doran (Vice Chair)Susan Rutherford (Chair)

PatronsErwin JamesFrank Cottrell BoyceBlake MorrisonDavid AlmondA S ByattDavid ConstantineHoward JacobsonBrian KeenanAnna Lawrence PietroniSir Andrew MotionLemn Sissay MBEJeanette Winterson

23

Finances

‘Volunteering with The Reader was an enormous help getting back into work. Before volunteering I’d given up. I’m just enjoying myself here – it’s become part of my life. I’ve noticed weeks I don’t come, I really miss it. It leaves a hole in my life if I don’t come. I always really enjoy the discussion about the poem at the end; it’s relaxing and it’s something else to talk about. Everyone brings something different, perspectives and memories, to the group. Then you have something to think about for the rest of the day – it takes your mind off the mundane things. My life is an empty shell without coming.’

Mike

INDEPENDENT AUDITOR’S STATEMENT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE READER ORGANISATION

We have examined the summarised fi nancial statements for the year ended 31 March 2015 set out on page 25.

Respective responsibilities of the trustees and the auditorThe trustees are responsible for preparing the summarised fi nancial statements in accordance with applicable United Kingdom law and the recommendations of the Charities SORP.

Our responsibility is to report to you our opinion on the consistency of the summarised fi nancial statements with the full annual fi nancial statements and the Trustees’ Annual Report.

We also read other information contained in the summarised annual report and consider the implications for our report if we become aware of any apparent misstatements or material inconsistencies with the summarised fi nancial statements.

We conducted our work in accordance with Bulletin 2008/3 issued by the Auditing Practices Board.

OpinionIn our opinion the summarised fi nancial statements are consistent with the full annual fi nancial statements and the Trustees’ Annual Report of The Reader Organisation for the year ended 31 March 2015.

Peter Taaffe FCA CTA DChA (Senior Statutory Auditor)For and on behalf of BWMacfarlane

Chartered AccountantsStatutory AuditorCastle Chambers43 Castle StreetLiverpoolL2 9SH

The accounts were approved by the Board on 19 October 2015

Kathy DoranTrustee

Company Registration No. 06607389

2425

£

162,804—

8,048

170,8521,896,390

—

2,067,242

—

2,067,242

1,511,630239,77776,674

164,785

1,992,866

5,826

1,998,692

68,550

398,907

467,457

£

83,787288,45529,827

402,0692,394,381

17,404

2,813,854

141,679

2,672,175

2,071,040137,65647,255

322,153

2,578,104

9,416

2,729,199

84,655

467,457

552,112

INCOMING RESOURCES: incoming resources from generated funds Donations and legaciesActivities for generating fundsInvestment income

Incoming resources from charitable activitiesOther incoming resources

Total incoming resources

RESOURCES EXPENDEDCosts of generating fundsFundraising trading: costs of goods sold

Net incoming resources available

Charitable activites:Get Into ReadingLiterary LearningEvents and PublicationsCommunication and Development

Total charitable expenditure

Governance costs

Total resources expended

Net income for the year / Net movement in funds

Fund balances at 1 April 2014

Fund balances at 31 March 2015

£

43,875——

43,8752,248,751

—

2,292,626

—

2,292,626

2,057,4208,7502,500

223,956

2,292,626

—

2,292,626

—

—

—

£

39,912288,45529,827

358,194145,63017,404

521,228

141,679

379,549

13,620128,90644,75598,197

285,478

9,416

436,573

84,655

467,457

552,112

unrestric

ted

funds 2015

totalrestric

ted

funds 2014

total

£

5,182

462,275

467,457

—

467,457

467,457

467,457

£

318,983890,424

1,209,407

(747,132)

£

68,101

528,053

596,154

(44,042)

552,112

552,112

552,112

£

453,8511,126,351

1,580,202

(1,052,149)

Fixed assets Tangible assets

Current assetsDebtorsCash at bank and in hand

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Net current assets

Total assets less current liabilities

Creditors: amounts falling due aftermore than one year

Net assets

Income funds

Unrestricted funds

2015 2014

The statement of fi nancial activities also complies with the requirements for an income and expendi-ture account under the Companies Act 2006.

These accounts have been prepared in accordance with the special provisions relat-ing to small companies within Part 15 of the Companies Act 2006 and ith the Financial Reporting Standard for Smaller Entities (effec-tive April 2008).

TheReaderwrite to us at: Calderstones MansionCalderstones ParkLiverpoolL18 3JB

call us on:0151 729 2200

email us at:info@thereader.org.uk

find us online:www.thereader.org.uk

follow us on Twitter:@thereaderorg

Company Registration Number: 06607389

charity number: 1126806 (Scotland 043054)