2023-06-30-accounts - Birmingham Christmas Shelter

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Birmingham Christmas Shelter

Trustees’ Annual Report and Receipts and Payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

Registered Charity number 1002891

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

Index Trustees’ Annual Report 3 Report of the Independent Examiner 8 Receipts and payments accounts 9 Statement of assets and liabilities 10

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

TRUSTEE’S ANNUAL REPORT:

The Trustees of Birmingham Christmas Shelter (“the charity”) have pleasure in presenting their annual report and accounts for the year 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2023.

OBJECTIVES AND ACTIVITIES:

The objects of the charity are to provide relief for the homeless and lonely adults (over 16’s) in the West Midlands, particularly through the provision of food, clothing and shelter over the Christmas period.

The charity achieves its objects by the following activities and in planning such activities, the Trustees have referred to the guidance contained in the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit:

We provide food, warmth, shelter, clothing and friendship to homeless and lonely adults of Birmingham and surrounding districts during the Christmas period, regardless of gender, colour, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation.
The functioning of the Shelter is wholly dependent on the time freely given by all of our very generous volunteers and service providers.
The Trustees are supported by a network of senior volunteers, who act as area team supervisors, and over 300 trained volunteers.
The only people who are paid at the Shelter, are a professionally trained mixed gender security team on duty while guests are present. They are there to support the guests, volunteers and Trustees to maintain safety and wellbeing and ensure that weapons and non-prescribed mind-altering substances are not brought into the Shelter. All security staff are first aid trained.
All Trustees are DBS checked.

A company was previously set up with Companies House, under the name of “Birmingham Homeless Shelter”. This enables a potential retail business to undertake selling of second hand and other donated items to raise funds for the Shelter. No trading has taken place during the financial year.

ACHIEVEMENTS, PERFORMANCE AND FUTURE PLANS:

In 2021 and 2022, the owner of our previous venue continued, for commercial reasons, to make significant alterations to our previous venue at St George’s, Newtown. Following Christmas 2021, the Trustees unanimously agreed that the remaining facilities available to us were no longer adequate for our needs. We were having to incur significant costs in hiring essential amenities such as mobile kitchen and shower blocks but despite this expenditure, the hired facilities were too small to serve the numbers seen. In addition, we no longer had access to hot water or heating, or rooms to store valuables and confidential items

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

securely, provide separate sleeping quarters for men and women or deliver wellbeing services in a private area.

Through our networking, in the post Christmas period, with other organisations who work with homeless people, Father Michael White, Chair of the Caritas Archdiocese of Birmingham, took up our cause and was able to negotiate trial use of a Catholic primary school located very close to Birmingham city centre. The school is St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary School, located on Great Colmore Street, Lee Bank, Birmingham B15 2AY and sandwiched between the IBIS Budget hotel and the O2 Academy just off the A38 Bristol Street.

The Trustees were delighted with our immediate impressions of the school, as it was warm, clean, bright, spacious and welcoming, had most of the facilities we needed and was much easier for our target group of guests to get to. In line with their Catholic duty, the parent governors of the school were keen to offer us the facilities free of charge, except for payment of gas and electricity and the treating of the building with respect. The school has an accessible entrance, a large professional kitchen, a formal meals and drinks serving area, several dining tables, excellent playground space for parking, an enclosed astro turf football pitch and several ground floor accessible classrooms. However, there are no showers.

Setting up was a challenge in the new venue as we were conscious we had to thoroughly note the layout of each of the rooms in order to return them exactly as we found them when we left. We agreed with the school that we would, for safeguarding reasons, ensure that any displays, that could lead to children at the school being identified, be kept covered up and Christmas wrapping paper proved a colourful and attractive solution to the issue.

We opened our doors at 10am on 24[th] December and as in the past, remained open 24 hours a day until 10am on 28[th] December. Father Michael White opened and blessed the Shelter with prayers and Christmas carols. During the week, we welcomed an average of 140 guests per day, peaking with 183 guests on Boxing Day, seeing some regular faces and a lot of new ones. This was a return to the numbers we used to see prior to 2015.

We were notified that the Socks and Chocs charity, who had been a long term supporter and contributor to our work, had decided to close down at the end of 2022. They offered to fund a trial number of ensuite bedrooms in the IBIS budget hotel next door to give us access to adequate shower facilities and a bit of comfort for some of our guests, all for the same cost of hiring a mobile shower block. The hotel was very supportive of our work and offered us a reduced rate to enable us to hire all 53 bedrooms on one floor.

We worked with the Rough Sleeper Outreach Team to develop criteria for an equitable allocation of these bedrooms as we knew they would be popular and to enable us to be mindful of the risks in using the hotel, to ourselves, the hotel and our guests. We hired additional security staff overnight to provide cover for the hotel and our guests reported feeling very safe as a result of our conditions of use such that they were able to get a good night’s sleep.

With generous donations of food from commercial catering companies and a hard working professional chef in charge of a dedicated kitchen team, we were able to serve 1600 hot meals during the week and a constant supply of hot and cold drinks, sandwiches and snacks in between the main mealtimes.

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

The ensuite bedrooms proved very successful with 66% of those wanting to stay overnight with us, able to do so in the hotel.

Our Shelter was also supported by a team of service providers who gave their time and skills for free enabling us to have hairdressers, chefs, an NHS vaccination team, a qualified counsellor, housing agencies, masseuses, a photographer and entertainers. During the week, over 230 showers were taken with new socks and pants provided, 27 people were offered somewhere new to live, 8 people had Covid / Flu vaccinations, 8 received formal counselling, 21 had a simple massage, 60 people had an ID photo taken and over 40 people had new haircuts.

We gave our guests a full programme of entertainment including bingo, arts and crafts, singers, TV and films. All our guests received a Christmas present and a free goodie bag of donated goods when they left on the last day which contained items of clothing / footwear, gloves, hat & scarf, toiletries, chocolates and other small essential items. We were also able to offer emergency clothing and sleeping bags where necessary. No donations were wasted and leftover items were either passed on to other local charities or kept for fundraising activities.

The guests and volunteers co-operated with us, in taking care of both the school and the hotel and on a positive note, we have been welcomed back by both venues. The Shelter was well received by all those that attended, both guests and volunteers.

We found that only 75% of the way we used to run things worked well in the new venue and detailed planning is underway to modify our ways of working for Christmas 2023. The school kitchen was seriously underpowered for our needs, the furniture was too small for adult men and, as the hotel does not provide any free refreshments, we need to provide refreshments at the school throughout the night for those staying at the hotel as well as late night arrivals.

FINANCIAL REVIEW:

Birmingham Christmas Shelter is entirely dependent on donations from local companies, individuals, local churches and other supporting organisations and receives no central government or local authority funding.

All expenditure relates to the primary purpose of providing the shelter and associated activities at Christmas.

Our new budget arrangements enabled us to better manage our costs and we were able to stay within budget.

RESERVES POLICY:

The Charity’s policy on reserves is to hold at least two year’s revenue funding in the bank. Each year’s Shelter Week is funded from the money raised in the previous financial year, to mitigate against any catastrophic loss of donations. Any surplus is then retained for capital expenditure including replacement of key items.

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT:

Birmingham Christmas Shelter is a registered charity governed by a Declaration of Trust dated 31.3.1990 and amended 31.3.2009 and 11.11.2014.

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:

TRUSTEES:

Martin Moseley – Treasurer - resigned on 30th June 2023 and was replaced by Kevin Jarvis as Treasurer immediately.

Shirley Mallon – Secretary Kerrie Lo David Jack Hanson Zak Ullah Tej Jhite Kevin Jarvis

It is the policy of the Charity to rotate the chair on a monthly basis between the Executive (voting) Trustees.

CHARITY NUMBER: 1002891

REGISTERED OFFICE:

Birmingham Christmas Shelter PO Box 17677 Moseley Birmingham B13 3PS

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER:

Karen Hanlan ACA Karen Hanlan Independent Examiner Ltd Registered Company in the UK: 07778482 1 Saracen Close Ettington Warwickshire, CV37 7SZ

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

BANKERS:

HSBC CAF Bank 25 Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JU

Approved by the Board and signed on its behalf by Kevin Jarvis

Kevin Jarvis (Treasurer and Executive Trustee) Date: 23/11/2023

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Birmingham Christmas Shelter on the receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023.

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the Birmingham Christmas Shelter (‘the charity’) for the year ended 30 June 2023 which are set out on pages 9 and 10..

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the Charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act.

Independent examiner’s statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

1) accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the 2011 Act; or

2) the accounts do not accord with those records.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed:

Date: 23 Nov. 23

Karen Hanlan, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales Karen Hanlan Independent Examiner Limited 1 Saracen Close Ettington CV37 7SZ

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

Receipts and Payments RECEIPTS Donations Other Income (Fundraising Events) Gift Aid Bank Interest Total Receipts PAYMENTS Storage Security Accommodation and Showers Gas and Electricity Other Materials and Equipment Hire Insurance Telephone/postage/printing Website Costs Fundraising Costs Food Training Volunteer Uniform Independent Examiners Fee Bank Charges and Interest Sundry Total Payments NET RECEIPTS OF PAYMENTS Cash Funds Last Year End Cash Funds This Year	Un- restricted Funds 2023 Restricted Funds 2023 Total Funds 2023 Total Funds 2022 £18,635 £6,989 £25,624 £24,302 £15,016 - £15,016 £7,433 £2,441 - £2,441 - £926 - £926 £57
	£37,018 £6,989 £44,007 £31,792 £6,582 - £6,582 £5,755 £7,308 - £7,308 £6,975 £3,249 £4,986 £8,235 £5,516 £3,990 - £3,990 - £645 - £645 £3,901 £875 - £875 £1,349 £302 - £302 £464 £661 - £661 £45 £442 - £442 - £1,524 - £1,524 - £203 - £203 - £0 £2,003 £2,003 - £825 - £825 £350 £70 - £70 £398 £1,462 - £1,462 £1,998
	£28,138 £6,989 £35,127 £26,751
	£8,880 - £8,880 £5,041 £105,721 - £105,721 £100,680
	£114,601 - £114,601 £105,721

Birmingham Christmas Shelter Receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023

Statement of Assets and Liabilities

1) Cash Funds CAF Current Account CAF Gold Deposit Account PayPal Account Outstanding Creditors as at June 30 Cash at Bank and in Hand 2) Assets retained by the Charity's own use Mattresses (purchased 2016) HP 250 Notebook (Purchased 2021) Cannon MG5750 printer (Purchased 2021)	2023 2022 £21,882 £12,942 £90,950 £90,053 £2,826 £2,726 (£1,057) -
	£114,601 £105,721
	£5,070 £685 £99 £5,854