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2023-06-30-accounts

Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

(Charity Registration No. 1008157)

Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

Section 1 Reference and Administrative Details of the Charity, its Trustees and Advisors

Section 2 Structure, Governance and Management

Section 3 Objectives and Activities

Section 4 Financial Review
4.1 Overview of Bridgebuilder Trust’s Financial Position at 30thJune 2023
4.2 Funds
4.3 Reserves Policy
4.4 Commentary
Section 5 Plans for the Future

Section 6 Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities Section 7 Independent Examiner

Statement of Financial Activities for the Year Ended 30[th] June 2023

Notes to the Accounts

Independent Examiner’s Report

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

The Trustees are pleased to present their report, with the independently examined financial statements of the charity, for the year ended 30[th] June 2023.

Section 1 Reference and Administrative Details of the Charity, its Trustees and Advisors

1.1 Registered Name

Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust registered as a Charity on 13[th] February 1992. (Charity Registration No 1008157.)

1.2 Registered Office

Bridge House 1 Second Avenue Denbigh West Bletchley Milton Keynes MK1 1ED

1.3 Trustees

Trustees serving during the year and since the year ending 30[th] June 2023 were as follows:

Trevor Crowter Treasurer Rachel Foster until 7[th] June 2023

Andrew Gibbins

Charlotte Hampson

Dale Small Richard Wightman Magdalena Williams

Chair

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

1.4 Relevant Organisations

a: Independent Examiner:

Stephen Dunham 37 Watercress Way Broughton Milton Keynes MK10 7AJ

b: Bankers:

CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue Kings Hill West Malling Kent ME19 4JQ

c: Insurers:

Ecclesiastical Insurance Group plc, Montpellier House, Montpellier, Gloucester, GL1 1LF.

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

Section 2 Structure, Governance and Management

2.1 Governing Document

The Bridgebuilder Trust is governed by its Trust Deed dated 22[nd] August 1991.

2.2 Recruitment and Appointment of Trustees

The Governing Document provides that Trustees may invite new Trustees to fill vacancies. They will be subject to approval by the existing members of the Board of Trustees. There is a minimum of four and a maximum of ten trustees, and none may be remunerated.

2.3 Policies and Procedures for Trustee Induction and Training

New Trustees undergo an induction process and are encouraged to attend appropriate external training courses to facilitate the undertaking of their role. The Trustees normally hold four full meetings a year.

The charity is an associate member of Scripture Union.

Section 3 Objectives and Activities

We are a Christian charity which has been working in the primary and secondary schools of Milton Keynes since 1993. Our vision is: Engaging young people to explore faith and positive life choices.

Our mission is to build bridges between schools and the Christian community to enable young people to explore, be empowered, and engaged on Christian beliefs and values. These are amplified as follows:

Explore

We enable children and young people to explore the Christian faith and values from a personal perspective in accessible and memorable ways.

We communicate in a manner appropriate to pupils of all faiths or no faith, encouraging them to explore their own values and beliefs.

Empower

We help all children and young people to explore and talk about their Personal, Social, Health and Emotional well-being in the context of faith and their belief systems.

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

We empower young Christians to be confident in their faith and to be a positive influence.

Engage

We provide children and young people of all backgrounds with positive role models and support projects in schools by building bridges between schools and the Christian community.

We connect young people with the Christian community and broaden their horizons by developing opportunities to learn outside the classroom and to visit local churches.

Programmes

The programmes that we operate to achieve these aims are as follows:

M.O.U.S.E.

Year 6 road show led by young people to help children transition from primary school to secondary school.

Lifepath

An RE day out for years 4, 5 and 6 learning about a famous local Christian. This year we were the lead party on this project, rather than supporting Scripture Union, as in previous years.

Christmas and Easter Cracked

A Bridgebuilder resource for churches, so they can host Year 5 or 6 pupils in their church to learn about the meaning of Christmas and Easter.

Assemblies

Interactive and memorable presentations dealing with ethical and moral values.

Lessons

Interactive lessons that help children come to grips with the moral, ethical and spiritual issues that they face.

Emerge

An emotional literacy package, based on Christian faith and values, involving interactive sessions addressing issues such as conflict, anger management and self esteem that work well with small groups of students who find school life difficult. This can be used in the PSHE area of the curriculum.

Implementation of our programmes in the year under review

Following the difficulties of access during the Covid 19 lockdowns, we have again enjoyed very wide access to most schools. However, we have been constrained in the number of schools we have been able to visit, due to reduced finances and consequently, staff resources.

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

We developed a substantially enhanced on-line service through our digital platform including the construction of a studio. We are supplementing our in-person services with on-line material. We see our digital services as an important part of our overall offering for the future.

Public benefit

The Trustees have taken account of the Charity Commission’s guidance on Public Benefit. Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust provides a public benefit through supporting the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural development of children and young people in Milton Keynes. We encourage students to think through issues such as fear, honesty, peer pressure, generosity, kindness and self esteem so they are able to build good character, reach their potential and positively impact the world.

Section 4 Financial Review

4.1 Overview of Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust’s Financial Position at 30[th] June 2023

The accounts have been prepared on a receipts and payments basis. The main source of income is from donations from individuals and churches, with 52% of total voluntary income coming from individual donors. Fundraising activities are conducted both by volunteers and by staff.

The main expenditure of the charity relates to the salary costs for the staff, who are involved in the schools ministry and the administration of the charity. Volunteers and the trustees are also involved in these activities.

4.2

Funds.

Money given for specific purposes is allocated to restricted funds.

One restricted fund is for Hope MK, an event held annually for young people from 2013 to 2019. A shorter event was held in October 2022.This restricted fund contained £6,399 on 30[th] June 2023. This will be used for Hope programmes in the future, or for events with similar aims. The charity also has restricted funds for the development of our Emerge programme, which contained £3,510 on 30[th] June 2023, for the Guardians of Ancora (a new interactive program), which contained £468 on 30[th] June 2023 and a ‘Specifics’ fund, for the purchase of a wide variety of specified equipment and which contained £2,223 at 30[th] June 2023. Broughton Ecclesiastical Charity has been exceptionally generous to Bridgebuilder this year, for which we are extremely grateful. It has contributed much of the money in the restricted funds as well as further amounts to the General Fund.

4.3 Reserves Policy

The Trustees aim to maintain free reserves in unrestricted funds of at least £30,000, to ensure that there are always sufficient funds to cover wind up costs.

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

4.5 Commentary

This year the donations from Broughton Ecclesiastical Charity have again been a real bright spot. Otherwise, the charity’s income has generally been on the decline.

Section 5 Plans for the Future

The Trustees intend the Trust to carry on working in local schools among the young people of Milton Keynes, working in close conjunction with local churches. We plan to continue to offer services both in person and online. Going forward we are moving towards an increasing emphasis on depth of engagement, rather than breadth. We are therefore planning to reduce slightly the number of assemblies we offer and spend more time with those schools who really engage with us. We will invest further in building deeper relationships, through workshops like Christmas Cracked and Easter Cracked and our extra-curricular offerings, while encouraging and supporting local churches to join more actively in our mission. Immediately before the year-end we recruited a further employee with a specific brief to work on this. This has been made possible by a large grant for the Broughton Ecclesiastical Charity towards the end of this year together with the very generous award of £12,500 per annum for 3 years, made immediately after the year end by The Joseph Rank Trust.

Due to the recent and current financial pressures and uncertainties faced by many we still have reduced staff levels compare with a few years ago. Thanks to the grants we have received recently, we expect to be able to continue with current staffing level for the forthcoming year, but we will need a further increase in the level of support beyond that. The services we can offer to the schools and young people of Milton Keynes are constrained by the resources we have, rather than the needs and demands for our services.

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

Section 6 Statement of Trustees’ Responsibilities

The Trustees are required to prepare financial statements for each year which give a proper view of the affairs of the Charity as at the end of the financial year and of its results for that period. In preparing those statements the Trustees are required to:

The Trustees are responsible for keeping accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy the financial position of the charity and enable them to ascertain that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the Charity (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 and the provisions of the trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and for financial information included on the charity’s website.

Section 7 Independent Examiner

Stephen Dunham was appointed as the independent examiner for the 2022/23 financial period.

Signed on behalf of the Trustees.

T E Crowter

Trevor Crowter

Treasurer

Date: 31[st] October 2023

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

Statement of Financial Activities for the Year Ended 30th June 2023

Unrestricted Unrestricted Restricted Total 2023 Total 2022
Incoming Resources
 Funds Funds £ £
£ £
Incoming Resources from Generated Funds:
Church Gifts 29,154 400 29,554 30,228
Individual Gifts 40,607 0 40,607 42,809
Schools Donations 3,686 0 3,686 3,111
Other Gifts 0 0 0 0
Income Tax Recovered 7,162 0 7,162 7,600
Furlough claims 0 0 0 0
Activities for Generating Funds:
Office Income 4 0 4 68
Other Fundraising Activities 5,768 0 5,768 2,190
Investment Income:
Interest 1,096 0 1,097 76
Incoming Resources from Charitable Activities:
Schools and Youth Activities 4,083 866 4,948 0
Grants 1 14,340 870 15,210 22,585
Total Incoming Resources 105,900 2,136 108,036 108,667
Resources Expended
Costs of Generating Funds:
Fundraising costs 5,320 0 5,320 6,759
Total Costs of Activities 5,320 0 5,320 6,759
Charitable Activities
Schools Ministry Outreach 2 90,588 6,153 96,741 99,223
Governance Costs 1,018 0 1,018 992
Total Resources Expended 96,926 6,153 103,079 106,974
Net Incoming/(Outgoing) Resources 8,974 (4,016) 4,958 1,693
Balance Brought Forward 52,730 16,616 69,346 67,653
Balance Carried Forward 61,704 12,600 74,304 69,346

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

Balance Sheet as at 30th June 2023

Fixed Assets
Office Equipment
3
Total Fixed Assets
Current Assets
Current Accounts
Business Reserve Account
Cash
Total Current Assets
Total Liabilities
Net Assets		 Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted
Funds
Total 2023
Total 2022
£
£
£
£
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
21,437 12,600
34,037
29,235
40,000
0
40,000
40,000
267
0
267
111
61,704
12,600
74,304
69,346
0
0
0
0
61,704
12,600
74,304
69,346

Approved by Trustees on: 30[th] August 2023

Signed: T E Crowter

Trevor Crowter, Treasurer

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

Notes to the Accounts

Accounting policies

In preparing the accounts the following accounting policies have been complied with:

1. Grants

2023 2022
£ £
Grants from Charities 15,210 22,585

2. Schools Ministry Outreach

Employee Costs -Note 4
Staff Travel
Conferences & Training
Ministry Resources
Volunteer Expenses
Youth Events
Rent, Insurance & Office Costs
Subscriptions and Donations
Digital Platform		 2023
£
63,001
2,177
0
5,650
0
5,902
18,777
1,148
86
96,741		 2022
£
72,934
993
354
5,139
0
0
15,440
1,123
3,240
99,223

3. Office Equipment

Recently the office equipment purchased has been for modest amounts and has been charged at cost in the year of purchase. There are no longer any assets shown on the balance sheet for these items. The charity has no other fixed assets.

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

4. Analysis of employee costs:

Gross Salaries
National Insurance – Employers
Pensions		 2023
£
56,024
0
6,977
63,001		 2022
£
64,517
814
7,603
72,934

No employee earned more than £60,000 and the average number of employees during the year 2023 was 2.3 (2022, 2.7).

A number of volunteers have supported the charity through the year in respect of schools ministry, fundraising and administration and no financial value has been included in these Accounts for their work. Without their

Trustee Expenses

During this year the charity did not pay any mileage expenses to the Trustees, nor any other expenses, except for reimbursements of the costs of certain small purchases on behalf of the trust.

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Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust Report of the Trustees and Financial Statements for the year ended 30[th] June 2023

Independent examiner’s report to the trustees of Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust

I report on the accounts of the Milton Keynes Bridgebuilder Trust (charity number 1008157) for the year ended 30[th] June 2023, which are set out on pages 1 to 13.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity’s trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for the year under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.

It is my responsibility to :

Basis of independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner’s statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

have not been met; or

(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Signed Stephen Dunham Date 31[st] October 2023

Name: Stephen Dunham Relevant professional qualification or body: CIMA Address: 37 Watercress Way, Broughton, Milton Keynes MK10 7AJ

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