2021/22 BuDS Annual Report

The BuDS Annual Report covering the period of April 2021 – March 2022 was published on 31 January 2023. The Chair of Trustees’ Introduction is below, and you can read the full report and all its annexes using the buttons below.

Chair’s Introduction

Buckinghamshire Disability Service (BuDS) is the county’s leading disability charity and its only independent pan-disability organisation. Our visionary aim is to abolish disability by building a world which is Fair4All, free of the barriers which disable people. We are led by disabled people and committed to the social model of disability.

Uniquely, BuDS is a working community of over 180 volunteers, mostly local disabled people, who work together, supported by staff, to achieve our goals. Our 16 projects, many of which are unique to the county, empower thousands of disabled adults, young people and children across Buckinghamshire and permanently remove the barriers facing disabled people so that they can live and work independently.

BuDS is a highly diverse and inclusive charity both in terms of disability and intersectionality, and diversity and inclusion is a core value. BuDS is also one of the largest youth charities in Buckinghamshire, with 74 disabled young people (18-25) as staff or volunteers in 2021-22 and a strong project focus on children and young people.

We tackle the issues which most affect disabled people in Buckinghamshire by whatever means necessary. Our Disability Services help disabled people directly, while our Fair4All projects bring about permanent change to the built environment, structures, systems and infrastructure so that disabled people do not face barriers to living independently. Our Reach4Work projects help disabled jobseekers into work and education. All our work is evidence-based, project-led and responds to the real needs of disabled people. The expertise of our professional volunteers mean we can often punch above our weight.

The Covid-19 pandemic spurred BuDS in 2020-21 into rapid growth to meet the surging needs of disabled people. While BuDS will continue to be there for disabled people as long as the Covid pandemic lasts, we have successfully revived and grown our non-Covid activity in 2021-22 and now have a balanced portfolio of projects addressing all the key issues for disabled people in Bucks.

2021-22 was a financially challenging year for BuDS. We successfully transited from easily-available emergency pandemic funding to more traditional sources such as restricted-use grants, but experienced a 38% drop in income over the year. This led to some reductions in paid staff, but unlike many other charities, our projects have always have the option of moving to a slower-paced, volunteer-only, basis; and so none of our other work had to be stopped. We are proud of the resilience, flexibility and good management which enabled us to keep our project output and volunteer numbers high in such a financially challenging year.

Huge thanks are due to our Trustees, staff and volunteers who have given so much of their time and talents, and to our funders who have shown such confidence in our work.