At Waddington Street Centre we pride ourselves on the openness and transparency of all our business operations and we think this is an essential aspect of what makes our organisation tick. If you can't find the information you’re looking for below, please email us and we’ll try to help however we can. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with Centre Manager Ali Lee.

Objectives

Establishing and promoting any charitable purpose in order to support people with mental health needs.
This will be undertaken primarily through the provision and management of a resource centre.
The charity’s beneficiaries are principally people living in Durham.

To read or download our full Memorandum & Articles of Association, please click here.

Core Values

A person-centred approach – Everyone is important to us; those who work for us and use our services, people in the local community, supporters and carers.
Respecting individuality and diversity – We value difference and want everyone to be treated with personal dignity and respect, free from discrimination or harassment. We believe everyone has a positive contribution to make to wider society.
Quality driven, openess, honesty and transparency – We aim for high standards in everything we do. This means that our business will be conducted with openness, honesty and accountability. We aim to be efficient and effective.
Positive about partnerships – We invest in genuine partnerships working, striving to create alliances and new opportunities to help us achieve our aims.

To read or download our Business Development Plan 2023-2026, please click here.

Company Membership

We want to invite anyone who supports the work of the Centre to become a member of the company – whether you are a service user, carer, local resident or professional - in order to give the company the broadest base possible. Joining Waddington Street Centre as a company member will allow you to show your support and play a role in the Centre’s future. As a member of the company you will:

Be invited to the Annual General Meeting
Be able to stand for election to the Board of Directors
Be able to vote for other company members to be elected to the Board of Directors

When you have been accepted as a member we will let you know. Each year we will ask you if you want to remain a member and invite you to the Annual General Meeting. In the unlikely event that the company is wound up, the liability of company members is limited to only £1. If you are interested in joining Waddington Street Centre Limited as a company member, please click here for an application form.

For more information on becoming a company member, you can contact Centre Manager Ali Lee on 0191 386 0702 or email her on alee@waddingtoncentre.co.uk

Organisation

The Centre’s activities are directed by a Board of Directors who meet every 6 weeks and receive reports from the Centre Management, the Treasurer and service users, known as Waddy Members. The Board also has three sub-committees (Personnel, Health and Safety and Finance) which meet when required and report to the Board. Waddington Street Centre seeks to have a Board which combines complementary skills, recognises and includes the Centre’s key partners, and which has a service user representation. Consequently, individuals may be asked to consider serving as Directors or Trustees because they offer particular skills or experience, or come from partner organisations, or are able to offer the perspective of service users.

As an organisation we encourage and support Waddy Members to become formally involved in helping to run the Centre via the Waddy Helper programme. The Centre has a strong and demonstrable commitment to active user involvement. Several Waddy Members have registered as company members. The Waddington Street Centre strongly supports and encourages the service user ‘movement’ through its internal Valued Views Group connections with the Countywide Forum.

Conversation with Centre Chair, Professor Fred Robinson on the governance of charity over the years.

Trustee Board meetings

Waddington Street Centre Limited Trustee Board meetings take place approximately every 6 weeks and are open for anyone who has an interest in the centre and its strategic workings to attend.

The remaining trustee board meeting dates – all meetings are held at 4.00pm at Waddington Street Centre - for 2023 are;
25th September
Friday 24th November AGM - 3pm
27th November

Clink on the links below for the minutes of the board meetings over the past 12 months.
Minutes of the Meeting held on 28th November 2022
Minutes of the Meeting held on 16th January 2023
Minutes of the Meeting held on 6th March 2023
Minutes of the Meeting held on 24th April 2023
Minutes of the Meeting held on 12th June 2023
Minutes of the Meeting held on 14th August 2023
Minutes of the Meeting held on 2nd October 2023

Finance

The Trustees are responsible for preparing the Report of the Trustees and the financial statement in accordance with applicable law and UK accounting standards. Company law requires the Trustees to prepare financial statements for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the charitable company and of the incoming resources and application of resources.

To read or download Waddington Street Centre's most up-to-date accounts, you can click here to visit the Charity Commission website where all the relevant information is publicly available. If you’d like to read last years’ Financial Extracts document, please click here.

Policies and Procedures

As a charity employing staff and benefitting from the time and effort offered by volunteers, we work hard to ensure that everything that we do runs as smoothly as possible, is well organised and administered. To make sure that this happens we operate under a significant number of policies and procedures the main ones being available to view here.

If you are not able to find a policy please get in touch with either Manager Ali Lee alee@waddingtoncentre.co.uk or Assistant Manager Steve Wakefield swakefield@waddingtoncentre.co.uk

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