2022-03-31-accounts - Association Of Blind Asians (Leeds)

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Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Charity number 1042621

Annual Report and Financial Statements

for the year ended 31 March 2022

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Annual Report and Financial Statements

for the year ended 31 March 2022

Contents	Page
Trustees' report	2 to 5
Examiner's report	6
Receipts and payments account	7
Statement of assets and liabilities	8
Notes to the accounts	9 to 11

Prepared by West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Trustees' report for the year ended 31 March 2022

Reference and administrative details of the charity, its trustees and advisors

The trustees during the financial year and up to and including the date the report was approved were: Name Position Dates Leena Inamdar Chair Charles McNeil Vice Chair Shindi Dahri Treasurer Kuldeep Bajwa Ballu Patel Resigned 31 October 2021 Eileen Taylor Catherine Mahoney Appointed 28 February 2022 Annette Morris Appointed 26 June 2022 Charity number 1042621 Registered in England and Wales Registered and principal address Touchstone Support Centre 53-55 Harehills Avenue Leeds LS8 4EX Bankers Santander UK plc Virgin Money 55 Otley Road 6 Otley Road Headingley, Leeds Headingley, Leeds LS6 3AB LS6 2AA

Registered in England and Wales

Independent examiner Stephen Procter West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW

Structure, governance and management

The charity is governed by a constitution adopted on 13 October 1994 as amended on 26 November 2010.

Method of recruitment and appointment of trustees

The trustees of the charity are appointed by the members at the AGM.

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2022

Objectives and activities

The charity's objects

To promote the welfare of blind and partially sighted people of Asian origin and /or other BME communities resident in the city of Leeds and its neighbourhood.

The charity's main activities

Visit clients at their homes
One to one support and provide advice and information on various issues including benefits
Drop-in sessions for clients to access support closer to their homes
Luncheon club to access freshly cooked food
Provide training for service users
Produce regular newsletter in community languages

Public benefit statement

In setting our objectives and planning our activities our Trustees have given serious consideration to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and in particular the relief of those in need by reason of disability.

Achievements and performance

As we started to recover from the first lockdown, we were hit again with the second lockdown. We, as a team reflected and adapted to different methods to continue the service without much disturbance.

While we reflect on what was a very different year, we are very proud to say we were able to secure funding to support our service users coming out of lockdown. Despite not being successful with some funding, however, we were able to secure funding to support all of our services as well as other services helping them to come out of lockdown.

In this year, we delivered 1-2-1 counselling support and a gardening project to help them overcome loneliness and be more resilient. We also delivered several well-being and exercise sessions either via online or face-toface.

Jimbo’s fund funded 26 Ipads to help and support our service users with digital access. Independent AGE funding for the Gardening project started in partnership with a local school and we delivered sessions to help reduce isolation and increase awareness on sensory plants.

LCC Harm Minimisation funding was secured in March that helped us create a video promoting resilience of our service users during lockdown. Further LCC Harm minimisation funds was secured to continue to support service users and raise awareness on C19 vaccination.

Barchester funding received – to deliver the gardening project (project started)
We secured £250 to organise a picnic
Albert Trust – started delivering counselling to 8 people offering 6 sessions each
Living with sight loss application submitted - £1500 (Visionary)

SAHARA Project

This year, as most health services were accessed online due to emerging Corona variants, ABA maintained the service users referred at the onset of Covid and the existing members on the register. We did this by continuing with the weekly online health and mental well-being classes. ABA carried out online feedback sessions after group activities, and the service users unanimously agreed that they did not feel confident about travelling on public transport. The cold weather was another hurdle for them to come out. It was decided by the team that we would recommence face-to-face activities in the new year. As a result of conditions, ABA had difficulty reaching community centres (they abided by their Covid rules not allowing access to have an information stall). We received self-referrals from people who may have heard of us through family and friends. An example of cases we dealt with: MR NH registered blind and with multiple health conditions, received advocacy support in getting a referral to adult social care and access to benefits accessible for a blind person.

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2022

Achievements and performance (continued)

SAHARA Project (continued)

Funding for this project from BID, 10% cuts confirmed from October 2021.

A Snapshot of support provided:

No people attended/were supported through group drop-ins and online activities - 1071 Number of people signposted - 15

No advocacy cases - 30 New referrals -17

Roshni Project

Working from home as a result of COVID-19 affected how we worked with the community and service users. This was difficult at first because people were very isolated, scared, and in many cases unsure of what to do, which made our work even more important. We made wellbeing phone calls to ensure we reached out to all our service users, and through those we were able to establish where additional support was needed. . Most of the support was then offered through phone calls and zoom due to Covid restrictions.

ABA delivered 42 online sessions in this period with an average attendance of 9 per session, including group discussion and information sharing, baking, health & well-being , exercise, and budgeting in partnership with Leeds Learning Partnerships. Face-to-face group sessions restarted in September 2021 at Muir Court and 18 sessions were provided in this period, with an average attendance of 12 per session. The face-to-face sessions were welcomed by and well attended and everyone abided by Covid rules by wearing masks, sitting a little apart and using hand sanitizer.

Various exercise and information sessions were delivered by facilitators. Mary Sunley planned to restart in April/May 2022 due to room booking and a change of management at the Centre. Monday’s online sessions continued. Online sessions organised included a myth busting play regarding the vaccine in native languages which 15 attended online. A budgeting course was arranged and attended by 18 people via zoom, a Diabetes workshop attended by 21 via zoom, cancer awareness attended by 25, safer Leeds attended by 18 an eye health session and a session from Yorkshire Water (advice on money-saving schemes) attended by 30 via zoom in total. Signposting and referring was done when needed to ASC,15 signposted to mental health services, Safer Leeds, Diabetes UK, Dementia Services and CAB.

As well as continuing outreach via emails and phone calls due to restrictions we did a face to face session in Asha awareness on eye health and budgeting - increase in energy bills, cost of living and eating health to maintain health especially for diabetics/blood pressure eye session/budgeting. At many outreach events we get many referrals but when they are contacted some do not seem to be interested.

New referrals have been very low in this period due to many restrictions but through our phone calls and media channels we have been able to outreach to some but not many and referrals were at 10 people. Advocacies were at 411 entries and some may have been missed due to new staff not always entering theirs on the system. examples of the advocacies are help with benefits applying and chasing up, blue badge, bus pass and hospital appointments rearranging etc. Regular outcome stars have been updated and any change in need has been recorded and acted upon.

Number of people signposted -15 signposted to mental health services, Safer Leeds, Diabetes UK, Dementia Services and CAB.

Number advocacy case - 411

New referrals – There was no outreach during lockdowns which impacted on new referrals. However, via online classes, we had 10 new referrals via word of mouth by existing service users.

Staff attended Conference / Events /Meetings

Staff attended and represented ABA at a wide range of forums and meetings ranging from local LCPs, PSI network, Social forum, Digital Inclusion, Dementia Forum, Diabetes Stakeholder meetings and many more.

ABA took part in Leeds first AGE Proud event and delivered two workshops and took part in creating flowers for West Yorkshire playhouse. Our members created 200+ flowers to be displayed.

ABA was invited to jointly do a presentation with Glaucoma UK to raise awareness on Glaucoma.

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Trustees' report (continued) for the year ended 31 March 2022

Achievements and performance (continued)

Staff attended Conference / Events /Meetings (continued)

Our service users took part in ‘What it is like for me?’ and ‘The Big Chat’ projects by Health Watch – ABA service users to talk about the language barrier.

Attended Leeds Museum accessibility group to carry out an accessibility audit for one of their areas

Outreach/Training

ABA had been busy delivering various sessions and being out and about promoting National Eye Health Week. Some of the topics were covered: Eye Health Cancer awareness, The importance of regular eye check-ups, Dementia, Diabetes and Sight loss etc.

We attended various events – Armley Festival, Beeston Festival, Indian Food Festival and LCP learning forum.

Coming out of lockdown – a video has been produced to showcase the resilience of our service users on how they are overcoming loneliness and difficulties they faced during C19 lockdown.

We delivered 4 weeks’ Diabetes and Food workshops – which were very well attended.

We were one of 30 chats that were organised by Leeds Healthwatch and our service users shared their stories to LCC health and social care staff and decision makers and carried out a consultation to find out how much our service users are aware of direct payments.

Website / IT

The website was fully redesigned and improvements made to make it more accessible to VI people. We have incorporated individual Giving and Fundraising activities during Ramadan adding Zakat calendar and promoting via different avenues to raise funds, however the response is low. All our computers and software are getting upgraded this year.

Staff training

Staff attended various training ie Strategic Leadership workshops over 4 weeks with VAL, Benefits, Social media, applying for small funds etc.

Staffing and Trustees

There was a change in staffing. Two have resigned due to personal reasons, however, we are currently recruiting for these positions and other new positions that became available. Two new trustees were recruited in the year.

Financial review

The net receipts for the year were £16,603, including net receipts of £7,340 on unrestricted funds and net receipts of £9,263 on restricted funds, after transfers.

Reserves policy

The charity's free reserves, excluding fixed assets, at the year end were £79,028.

The reserves policy is to aim to hold reserves equivalent to 6 months' payroll costs. This would equate to approximately £42,000.

It is recognised that the reserves are well in excess of the current policy figure and this will be addressed in the coming year. At the same time the policy itself will be reviewed.

Approved by the board of trustees on 20/01/2023

Kuldeep Bajwa (Trustee)

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Independent examiner's report to the trustees of Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

I report to the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2022, which are set out on pages 7 to 11.

Responsibilities and basis of report

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

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

Stephen Procter

23/01/2023

West Yorkshire Community Accountancy Service CIO

Stringer House 34 Lupton Street Leeds LS10 2QW

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Receipts and payments account for the year ended 31 March 2022

Notes 2022 Unrestricted funds £ Receipts Grants, commissioning and donations (2) 50,335 Sales, fees and contributions 426 Total receipts 50,761 Payments Salaries and on costs 37,005 Freelance work 595 Travel and transport 149 Catering costs 603 Events and activities 934 Rent and room hire 1,000 Insurance 355 Office and administration 1,163 Equipment and resources 1,836 Accounting and independent examination 362 Training 398 Memberships 125 Advertising, events and publications - Consultancy 3,600 Recruitment 60 Website 693 Other expense 13 Total payments 48,891 Net income / (expenditure) 1,870 Transfers between funds 5,470 Net movement in funds 7,340 Fund balances brought forward 71,688 Fund balances carried forward (3) 79,028	2022 Restricted funds £ 99,802 - 99,802 48,131 1,070 542 1,178 4,463 1,790 610 3,244 13,678 426 478 332 4,038 3,600 649 668 172 85,069 14,733 (5,470) 9,263 44,191 53,454	2022 Total funds £ 150,137 426 150,563 85,136 1,665 691 1,781 5,397 2,790 965 4,407 15,514 788 876 457 4,038 7,200 709 1,361 185 133,960 16,603 - 16,603 115,879 132,482	2021 Total funds £ 101,072 - 101,072 61,374 517 628 1,005 2,669 3,229 923 3,430 1,034 698 1,253 213 1,670 4,874 230 44 444 84,235 16,837 - 16,837 99,042 115,879

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Statement of assets and liabilities

as at 31 March 2022 2022 Unrestricted £ Cash funds Cash at bank 78,880 Cash in hand 148 Total cash funds 79,028	2022 Restricted £ 53,454 - 53,454	2022 Total £ 132,334 148 132,482	2021 Total £ 115,379 500 115,879

Assets retained for the charity's own use 11 desktop computers 3 printers 2 laptops 3 second hand laptops for service users 1 netbook 3 tablets General office furniture Camera Video camera Projector 26 I pads 3 i phones Liabilities Independent examination The financial statements were approved by the board of trustees on 20/01/2023	£ 600 600

Kuldeep Bajwa (Trustee)

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Notes to the accounts

for the year ended 31 March 2022

1 Accounting policies

Basis of accounting

The trustees have taken advantage of section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 and have prepared the accounts on a receipts and payments basis.

There has been no change to the accounting policies since last year.

No changes have been made to the accounts for previous years.

Taxation

As a charity the organisation benefits from rates relief and is generally exempt from income tax and capital gains tax but not from VAT. Irrecoverable VAT is included in the cost of those items to which it relates.

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the charity.

Restricted funds are subjected to restrictions on their expenditure imposed by the donor or through the terms of an appeal.

Further explanation of the nature and purpose of each fund is included in the notes to the accounts.

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Notes to the accounts continued

for the year ended 31 March 2022

2 Grants and donations Albert Hunt Trust Barchester Fund Henry Smith Charity Independent Age Jimbos Fund Leeds City Council (LCC) Covid-19 Leeds City Council (LCC) Social Services Wesleyan Leeds Community Fund (LCF) Resilience Sir George Martin Thomas Pocklington Trust Other donations 3 Restricted funds Balance b/f £ Albert Hunt Trust - Awards for All 9,985 Barchester Fund - Henry Smith Charity 24,446 Independent Age - Jimbos Fund - LCC Covid-19 - LCC Luncheon Club 1,120 LCF Resilience 489 Sir George Martin 353 Thomas Pocklington Trust 7,798 Wesleyan - 44,191	2022 Unrestricted funds £ - - - - - - 50,251 - - - - 84 50,335 Receipts £ 2,000 - 1,000 57,500 14,789 12,999 9,750 - - - - 1,764 99,802	2022 Restricted funds £ 2,000 1,000 57,500 14,789 12,999 9,750 - 1,764 - - - - 99,802 Payments £ 775 - 850 58,688 8,895 11,101 4,760 - - - - - 85,069	2022 Total funds £ 2,000 1,000 57,500 14,789 12,999 9,750 50,251 1,764 - - - 84 150,137 Transfers £ (200) - (150) - (700) (1,180) (2,751) - (489) - - - (5,470)	2021 Total funds £ - - 30,000 - - - 51,683 - 8,290 1,000 10,000 99 101,072 Balance c/f £ 1,025 9,985 - 23,258 5,194 718 2,239 1,120 - 353 7,798 1,764 53,454

Fund name

Albert Hunt Trust

Awards for All Barchester Fund Henry Smith Charity

Independent Age

Jimbos Fund

LCC Covid-19 LCC Luncheon Club LCF Resilience Sir George Martin Thomas Pocklington Trust Wesleyan

Purpose of restriction

To provide 1-2-1 counselling sessions for service users who need urgent or specific wellbeing support.

Towards the 'Fair Ride' transport project.

To deliver outdoor group based activities including a gardening group. Towards the running costs of a 1-2-1 support, advocacy and advice service for vulnerable BAME individuals with visual impairment in Leeds. To enable elderly BAME individuals with visual impairment to engage in community support and provision.

To provide digital equipment and know how to elderly members of the community support and improve confidence and independence. Covid-19 harm minimisation funding.

To provide freshly cooked food to blind and partially sighted people. To support the organisation during Covid-19. To support the organisation during Covid-19. To support the organisation during Covid-19. To support service provision.

Association of Blind Asians (Leeds)

Notes to the accounts continued

for the year ended 31 March 2022

3 Restricted funds (continued)

Transfers are all in respect of agreed central management costs and closure of funds at the end of the agreed work.

4 Related party transactions

Trustee expenses

No trustee received any expenses during this year or the previous year.

Trustee remuneration and benefits

No trustee received any remuneration or benefit during this or the previous year.