2023-03-31-accounts - Hinckley And Bosworth Area Community Transport Scheme

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Hinckley & Bosworth Community Transport (Registered Charity Number 1054668)

2022 to 2023

Chairman’s Report 2. Treasurer’s Report 3. Project Report

4. Financial Statements

The year saw a return to some semblance of “normality” with the effects of the pandemic largely behind us however; our ability to return to “normal service” was being hampered by a number of factors. Although we had increased the number of volunteer drivers to 34 the demand for our services had also increased through more people registering with us and hospitals trying to catch up by offering appointments outside of what may be described as normal hours. All of these factors have resulted in the unsatisfactory situation of having to decline journey’s which in turn has had a negative impact on our finances as described in the treasurer’s report. We understand the causes and have strategies in place to address these issues.

From an organisational position I am happy that we are still in a solid position and in line with our planned forecast and strategy which is supported by various grants and funding, the detail of which can be seen in the treasurer’s report. It is disappointing that we are currently unable to meet the demand being placed on us by the elderly and disabled due to the lack of volunteer drivers, so our focus in the future will once again be on volunteer recruitment.

The administration team of Lindsey, Elaine, and Carol ably assisted by Dave our minibus driver who in turn has been assisted by office volunteers Jenny and Janet have once again done an amazing job to manage and maintain the service that has been provided to meet a growing demand with reduced resources. They are an amazing team of truly dedicated people who are the core of this wonderful organisation.

It was a great loss when Janet sadly passed away in December; she was a long serving volunteer and great friend to the organisation and will be sadly missed. I would also like to thank my Management Committee members who have supported me throughout this challenging period. I would particularly like to thank our treasurer Colin Higgins who has once again done a superb job of presenting the financial detail in a clear and concise format to enable me to ensure our planned strategies are achievable.

In spite of these challenges, we have continued to provide a community transport service to those who need it with our volunteer drivers covering more than 60,000 miles which is an amazing achievement. This has been done by a smaller number of volunteers providing a more diverse and flexible service than ever before.

I would like to thank everyone involved in the project for their support and dedication to providing a vital service to the community during these challenging times and look forward to being able to continue doing so in the coming year with fewer challenges.

Steve Applin

The organisation has continued to be supported by Leicestershire County Council for which we are very grateful. This year our support grant was £50,685. This grant was allocated to covering the Management overhead alongside supporting the Dial a Ride car scheme and a small proportion allocated to the shopping scheme with the minibus.

We continued with the same activities as in previous years but in this particular year a deficit of £8,248 was recorded. The reserves stand at £150,645. The full accounts with accompanying details are included at the end of this Annual Report.

Although the volume of activity undertaken in the year was very similar to previous years and the income for these was maintained, there were some notable variances in some of the expenses which explain the losses as follows:

Each year we have been fortunate to be gifted a significant level of donations. This year however these were significantly down.
At the end of the financial year the Minimum Wage regulations changed considerably which affected some of our salary levels, this together with a decision to back-date a salary increase by 3 months increased the staffing costs over the budgeted levels.
We were concerned that we were turning away too many journeys because of insufficient voluntary drivers. To attempt to correct this we engaged in a large advertising campaign.
Fuel and servicing costs for the minibus exceeded our budget assumptions.

Our fares and charges have remained unchanged for 6 years. Clearly with our increased costs this cannot continue and we will be increasing these by around 10% from April 2023.

Colin Higgins

Dial a Ride

This financial year saw the increase in demand again after the devastation caused by the Covid Pandemic the previous financial year. We continued to be careful in the office with Covid screens around our desks in order to keep everyone safe. Volunteer drivers and passengers continued to wear masks up until February 2023 when it was decided to make mask wearing discretionary for everyone.

Dial a Ride has continued to offer community transport in the Hinckley & Bosworth area for the elderly and or disabled, providing the following services:

Health and hospital appointments which included transporting passengers to doctor and dentist appointments.
Covid and Flu vaccines
Essential Shopping – either doing or taking passengers shopping
Some collection of medication (in exceptional circumstances)
Delivery of medication for patients of Castle Mead Medical Centre, Stoke Golding.
Social groups and lunch group transportation to venues such as Age Uk, The Pathways Centre, St Francis Community Centre, St John’s Church etc.

Between April 2022 and March 2023 we had 256 new residents registered to use our Dial a Ride services within this period and 514 regularly using us on our current database.

Training

Staff members attended ‘Managing Volunteers’ training during this financial year and staff and volunteers attended Safe Guarding training also.

Staffing

Our staff team remain the same, Elaine Hickey, Carol Carter and Dave Spencer. What a wonderful team they are and a very big ‘thanks to them all’ for all their support.

Thanks Team

A ‘big thanks’ to our volunteers, Jenny Applin and Janet Houghton for all their valuable help working both from home and the office to assist us with clerical work.

Unfortunately Janet Houghton died on the 22[nd] December 2022. Janet was an amazing human being who gave so much to her community and supported Dial a Ride for many years both as a volunteer driver and more recently as an office volunteer. She was a dear friend to us all and she will be missed very much.

Detailed below are the types and amounts of journeys we have provided for passengers during this period.

----- Start of picture text -----
Journey Type No of Passenger Journeys
2638
Hospital Appointments, Hospital
visiting, Doctors, Dentists and Opticians
Covid Vaccines 71
94
Visiting Nursing Homes
1238
Shopping
2560
Social and lunch groups
205
Hairdressers
Misc Journeys such as vets, Education & personal 222
business
Total Journeys 7028
Developments
----- End of picture text -----

Hinckley & Bosworth (VCS) Voluntary and Community Sector Partnership – this year we have taken part in the process of assessing funding bids from groups within the voluntary sector.

Promotional Campaign & Events – This year we have carried out some promotional work to advertise for volunteer drivers and the minibus services through the following ways:

Promotional material to Borough and Parish Councillors.
Advertising through the Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Councils, Borough Bulletin and through the Roundabout Hinckley and Roundabout the villages and Leicestershire Aspect, The Groby Spotlight and the Local Rock, Voluntary Action Website and also HBBC VCS Website.

Volunteers

During this period we had 34 volunteer drivers providing transport for residents of Hinckley & Bosworth ensuring they had access to services and provisions, covering 66,453 miles.

We held a Volunteers ‘Thank You’ lunch on the 28[th] January 2023 at Barwell Bowling Club as a way of thanking them for all their work to support their community.

Minibus

Dave Spencer has continued to provide an excellent service both looking after the minibus passengers and helping in the office between his journeys. Dave has also continued to deliver medication for passengers of Castle Mead Stoke Golding and has provided the following services with the minibus as detailed below:

Journey Type	Number of Passenger Journeys	Number of Miles Covered
Shopping Trips	1804	5063
Hire of Vehicle	792	1637
Lunch & Day Trips	544	1351
Dial a Ride Trips	376	620
Totals	3516	8671

Thanks to Dave for his help and support.

‘Thank you’

Partnership Work

We have worked in partnership this year with the following organisations: Leicestershire County Council; Hinckley & Bosworth Borough Council; Rural Community Council; The VCS (Voluntary & Community Sector); Leicestershire Community Transport Federation; Leicestershire Primary Care Trust, (NHS); Voluntary Action Leicestershire; CTA (Community Transport Association); St Francis Community Centre; Salvation Army, Pathways Centre; Age Uk Earl Shilton; The Barn Owls; Barwell Disabliity Group; ReEngage, Hinckley; Canalside WI; Let’s Walk Hinckley; Churchmead Court; Ashby Court; Churchmead Court; HBBC Sheltered accomodation; St John’s Church; Hinckley Past & Present; U3A; St Peters Church, Hinckley; Barwell & Hollycroft Befrienders; Local Area Co-ordinators; local GP surgeries and Social Prescribers.

Fundraising Events

We attended the Alternativity fundraising event at Mary Forryan on the 12[th] November 2022 and raised £355. Thanks to Steve Applin for his help on the day.

We also held a skittles event in March 2023 this was in memory of Janet Houghton who normally organised and ran the event each year. £591.88 was made on the night.

Funders

We would like to say a big ‘THANK YOU’ to all those who over the last 12 months have contributed to our Charity and to Leicester County Council for our continued funding.

We have received funds from the following places:

£3,300 from a Mr Turton, £300 from ‘Hinckley Past & Present’ and £968.41 from HMRC from gift aided donations.

Future Plans

The next financial year we will continue to support the needs of our passengers by developing and implementing a volunteer driver recruitment plan to meet the demand required.

Also we will need to recruit a Vice-Chairman and Secretary to sit on our Management Committee.

Updating our systems to ensure they are more efficient and recruiting new member to our current management committee team.

to all the Management Committee for their support during the last 12 months.

Lindsey Short Manager

HINCKLEY & BOSWORTH COMMUNITY TRANSPORT NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2023 12. Deposits and Cash 2023 2022 Corporate Oiamond Reserve Account Business Reserve Account 12,268 12.214 129.866 134,288 8,503 10,875 150,637 157,377 Current Account 13. Independent Examination The cost of the Independent Examination for the 202112022 accounts was £150. 14. Trustees Remuneration Trustees are not remunerated. During the year no fees were reimbursed to trustees for mtravel expenses incurred. 15. Glossary of Temis Restricted Funds These are funds given to the chariiy subject to specific restr¢ctions set by the donor but still within the general objectives of the charity. There were no restricted funds in the period 202212023. Creditors These are amounts owed by the charity, but not paid during the accounting period. Debtors These are amounts owed to the charity, but not received in the accounting period. 12-