2024-03-31-accounts

NORTH TAUNTON PARTNERSHIP

ANNUAL REPORT

1[st] APRIL 2023

to

31[st] MARCH 2024

Registered Charity no.1078827

CONTENTS

ITEM	PAGE
Mission statement	1
Trustees	2
Staff	3
Volunteers & Partners	4
Our Community	5
Chair’s Report	6 & 7
Manager’s Report	8 & 9
Breakdown of service users	10
Delivery Plan	11-14
Photo’s	15
Funders	16
Treasurer’s Report, Reserves Policy & Trustee Declaration	17
Statement of financial activities	18 & 19
Notes to the Accounts	20
Independent Examiners Report	21 & 22
Future plans and Trustee’s declaration	25

MISSION STATEMENT

The Charity’s objects are to promote charitable purposes for the benefit of the community of North Taunton and in particular the advancement of education, the promotion of health and the relief of poverty, sickness and distress

“If it wasn’t for the community centre we would have nowhere to go” John

APPOINTMENT OF TRUSTEES

The constitution governs the appointment of Trustees who are elected at the Annual General Meeting.

NAME	POSITION	ELECTED	RESIGNED
Paul Tooze	Trustee Chair	April 2011 September 2017
Brenda Weston	Trustee	September 2016	May 2023
Mark Wood	Trustee	February 2019
Andrew Glass	Trustee Treasurer	October 2020 February 2021	May 2023
Melanie Butt	Trustee	June 2021
Gill Harrison	Trustee	September 2021
Verity Underhill	Trustee	July 2022
Jonathan Barter	Trustee	September 2023
Jeanette Keech	Trustee	September 2023

Pau l has lived in Taunton for over 13 years and works at the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office. He represented the area as a district councillor before becoming a trustee.

Mark grew up in Priorswood. He works in software engineering and helps with youth and children's work at Wellsprings Community Church.

Gill worked in Education as a teacher, head teacher and SENCo before joining the WATCH project as a wellbeing course facilitator. She now works for Spark Somerset as part of The Open Mental Health Community Engagement Project and chairs Taunton Food and Support Alliance.

Verity lives locally and trained as a mental health nurse with the NHS, then in the private sector as an area manager with the responsibility for staff appointment and retention for 6 nursing homes. She volunteers in the community centre one morning a week on reception.

Mel has lived in North Taunton for over 25 years and has a background in administration. She volunteered in the community centre before becoming a Trustee.

Jonathan lives in a local village and is head of history at Pyrland Secondary School.

Jeanette lives locally and had a career in marketing and public relations within the aviation and drinks industries, followed by a term as trustee of Age UK Somerset and director of Crimestoppers West of England. Becoming governor of a sixth form college and appointed as Non-Executive Director at Musgrove Park Hospital. Currently chair of the Lyngford Park GP patient group and governor of Somerset NHS Foundation Trust.

STAFF

Lesley Councill – Manager [e-mail] Tracy Wood – Finance Administrator [e-mail] Lisa Herd – Office Administrator & Activities Coordinator [e-mail] Lee-Anne Dew – Cleaner

All staff work part time and equate to 1.9 full time equivalents.

Lesley joined as Manager in 2006, previous roles included PA at an electrical contractors, insurance underwriter and childminder. She has 3 sons and lives locally.

Tracy joined as finance officer in 2012, she took on extra hours in 2018 as the events coordinator, she took early retirement in 2022 but returned in March 2024 as the finance officer. She is married with two sons.

Lisa joined the team in July 2022 having a background in finance and office administration, she is married with 2 sons.

“Keep doing what you are doing” 😊 NHS Somerset Integrated Care Board

VOLUNTEERS

Management costs are kept to a minimum through the use of volunteers for daily operation of the Community Centre. We have 38 regular volunteers and 8 occasional volunteers who gave a total of 4063 hours of time during the year. In addition, 7 Trustees gave 336 hours during the year. This represents £54547.60 of unpaid hours working on the minimum wage .

We had 1 new volunteer, 6 attained their one-year certificate, 1 received their 5 year key ring, 1 a 10 year pen set and 1 volunteer attained their 15-year award receiving an engraved vase. 30 live within the local area, our eldest volunteer is 89.

Partners	Partners
Age UK Somerset	Somerset Community Credit Union
Avon & Somerset Police	Selworthy School Oakhill and Hazlebrook Campus
Citizens Advice Taunton	Sky College
Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue	Spaeda
Everyone Active	Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership (SASP)
Friendship & Sons	Somerset Council
Get Set Services	Somerset Skills & Learning
Leonard Houlden Court (Housing & Care 21)	St Andrews Church
LiveWest Housing	St Peters Church
Lyngford Park Primary School	St Teresa of Lisieux Church
Lyngford Park Surgery	Taunton North Youth Club
North Taunton One Team	Taunton Area Debt Advice
Oakwood Church	Taunton Street Pastors
Priorswood Library	Taunton Town Council
Priorswood Primary School	Wellsprings Community Church
Pyrland School	Wellsprings Primary School
Read Easy Taunton and Wellington	Zing Somerset
Rowbarton Church	Somerset Community Credit Union

OUR COMMUNITY

North Taunton is an area of multiple deprivation with one area being ranked as 10% most deprived in the country.

The total population of the two wards in North Taunton is just under 22,000 and is made up of mainly white British with 12.2% classed as other ethnicities. Council tenants make up 30% of the population with 1507 Council owned properties.

10.4% of households have no access to a car or van.

2.6% are carers providing 20 hours or more compared to 2.1% across Somerset.

Around 30% of the population have either a long-term health condition or disability.

North Taunton has a great community spirit with the Community Centre being seen as the hub of the community.

We have 4 primary schools; Lyngford Park Primary, Wellsprings Primary, Priorswood Primary and St Andrews Primary School.

A secondary school: Pyrland School

A special educational needs school: Selworthy School with two campuses and Sky Academy for students in years 5 – 11 who have an EHCP.

POLICY REVIEW

The trustees have a robust system in place for reviewing policies and procedures which are reviewed in line with good practice.

The Governance Code, Health & Safety, Safeguarding and Data Protection are reviewed annually along with others that are either reviewed annually or bi-annually at an executive meeting.

“The newsletter is very well presented and has proved a valuable resource for staff, patients and visitors to the hospice”. St Margarets Hospice – Sunflower Centre

Chair’s Report by Paul Tooze

I am pleased to report that the Community Centre has had another successful year and continues to be a vital hub within the North Taunton area. We have continued to explore new activities and classes aimed at a range of age groups. Our aim is always to provide a good mix of enjoyment, education and positive health outcomes. Our seasonal bazaars and Christmas Market have helped to raise much needed funds, and more importantly have offered entertainment for Priorswood residents. Our now Ape ty well established Summer events in the park, again offered free fun for families and young children during the school \y holidays.

It would be amiss not to mention that the identification and securing of adequate funding in order to provide all the activities we would like to of had, has been challenging. The severe financial situation being experienced at the Somerset Unitary Council has also started to have an affect both in terms of funding available and the number of surgeries that take place. A significant number of staff hours needed to be allocated to complete funding bids, and this of course occupies time that could be spent working within the centre and interacting with visitors.

On a more positive note, the new Taunton Town Council was established this year, following elections in May, and their initial impact has been very positive, with grant funding being made available, and officers responding very quickly to our questions and issues. It is worth noting that from next year that it will be the Town Council, not the Somerset Unitary Council who will be responsible for ae on, ~~ Lyngford Park, where we hold our Pride In Priorswood Summer events.

Whereas the Jubilee Park in front of the centre will continue to be leased by us, under the ownership of the Unitary body. We are very fortunate to have Tom Deakin and Lee Baker as local councillors who are both very supportive of the Centre, and North Taunton as a whole.

This year, as always, I have been extremely fortunate to have been supported by a marvellous team of trustees. Across the year they have spent many unpaid hours ensuring that the charity has a robust level of governance and that it continues to be a very well-run Charity. I would like to thank them for their dedication and time, they each bring their own skills and make a unique contribution. We are always seeking to add to our team, so if you are reading this, and believe you can offer value in a trustee role, then please do get in touch.

I am eternally grateful to the Centre’s core team of staff. Lesley, Tracy and Lisa, all provide a high level of commitment, professionalism and hard work throughout the year, managing issues day-to-day, and also ensuring our future events are planned and delivered successfully.

Lastly a huge thank-you to all of our volunteers who offer up their spare time to ensure that the centre operates smoothly and is a safe and welcoming place to visit. Without them the centre would not be able open its doors!

I am sure that whatever challenges are faced in the future, that we have the right team of staff onboard to see us through.

Paul

Managers’ report by Lesley Councill

This year has been a year of changes, we’ve seen many of our surgeries withdrawn, this has been mainly down to either the reorganisation of Somerset Council or funding cuts, this has left us taking stock and looking at different ways we can serve our community in the future with the resources we have.

We held various additional workshops including budgeting, reminiscence with the Museum of Somerset and health and wellbeing workshops. We started a walking group for those that are less mobile and just wanting to get out and meet likeminded people. We linked with the Recovery College who came and

ran sessions and our history group attended Hestercombe House and Gardens working with their historian to discover local knowledge to add to their archive.

We held our Spring and Autumn bazaars which brought in additional funding and gave local residents the opportunity to purchase clothes and household items at very low costs.

The highlight of the year was the Kings Coronation Event in May where we held a cream tea in the community garden and invited all of our volunteers, group members and regular users of the community centre, the weather just about held and everyone enjoyed the afternoon.

ae SS AN i:NN g I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the Kings E | og Wir Coronation concert in Windsor Castle which was a truly amazing experience and one that I shared with my son. With grant funding from the National Lottery we were able to purchase a trailer which enabled us to safely move equipment from our garage to the park | ie for the summer activity days and our Christmas market, this proved invaluable and made life so much easier.

The summer activity days proved very popular again with many new stalls and activities on offer, children tried out various activities and learnt new skills, parents enjoyed the time in the sun and Grandparents got some well-earned rest from childcare duties in the home.

Our lunch club had a wonderful day out to Minehead and enjoyed a roast lunch in a local garden centre, some walked along the sea front while others, with support from volunteers, enjoyed the shops.

To end 2023 we held our annual Christmas Market which was enjoyed by all, various craft stalls attended selling everything from knitted hats to cakes and jewellery. Father Christmas spent the evening greeting everyone and handing out gifts to the children, such a wonderful event with so many happy smiling faces.

2024 did not have such a good start as we lost one of our longest serving volunteers who passed away unexpectedly after 16 years volunteering in the

community centre and tending the community garden, she will be greatly missed by all of us and a real loss to the community centre.

As we moved into the new year, we welcomed back Tracy as our finance officer who had worked with us previously and returned after a two-year break, this meant we could look to the future with a fantastic band of volunteers and a strong staff team.

Thank you to everyone that has supported us over the year, to our funders, partners and especially our loyal service users.

“Thank you again for your time today. What an incredible place and people you have there, it felt like such a safe and valuable space for people”. Amanda, Watch Project

BREAKDOWN OF SERVICE USERS

	2023/24	2022/23	2021/22
Covid-19 (Ceased April 23)	0	0	155
Zoom Socials (Ceased April 23)	0	0	114
Cafe Customers	5192	4591	3165
Events	3965	2240	859
Bric-a-Brac sales	1934	1828	2006
Scrabble Group	261	262	123
Circuits Exercise class	306	285	300
Lunch Club	299	461	456
General enquiries	528	434	1205
Tai Chi Class	244	247	222
Dominoes & Games Group (Ceased 2022)	0	0	15
Digital support group	117	104	32
Knit, Natter & craft group	101	190	106

Citizens Advice	56	48	10
History Group	135	32	39
Thursday Talks (Ceased April 23)	0	0	36
Somerset Council Benefits advisor	8	53	8
Cooking Group	13	17	23
Job Club (Ceased 2022)	0	6	1
Write2Read	7	48	24
Somerset Council Housing Advisor (ceased 2023)	0	8	0
Health Walks (Started 2023)	23	0	0
Police	14	14	6
Credit Union	6	24	21
Creative Writers Group	41	49	16
Workshops	100	36	0
NHS & Health Related	11	70	128
Bereavement Support (Ceased 2023)	0	2	37
Menopause Support Group (Started January 2023)	46	24	0
TOTAL SERVICE USERS	13142	11073	9107

Data shows a snapshot of users to the Community Centre. There were 3445 unique visits to our website. There were 228.788 hits on our social media sites. 2021/22 numbers decreased due to the Corona Virus Pandemic

DELIVERY PLAN: Business Plan 2023/2024	DELIVERY PLAN: Business Plan 2023/2024	DELIVERY PLAN: Business Plan 2023/2024	DELIVERY PLAN: Business Plan 2023/2024	DELIVERY PLAN: Business Plan 2023/2024
	Objectives	Desired Outcomes	Measures and Timescale	Actual Outcome
1	Recruit and train volunteers and trustees. Offer training opportunities. Produce updates through meetings, newsletters and a volunteers	Open to all. Maintain volunteers. Reflect our community. Build self-confidence; use existing knowledge & skills, learn new skills, role satisfaction, seek employment, recognition through awards.	Increased numbers. Numbers gaining paid employment.	38 volunteers. 7 trustees. 1 volunteer gained their 15 year award and received an engraved vase.

	manual.	Recruit professionally qualified volunteers for specific jobs.
2	Operate the Community Centre.	Gain funding to meet core costs. Maximum potential	Community Centre Usage	Footfall 13142
3	Host advice surgeries	Citizens Advice SW&T Benefits Police Access to advice and support	All surgeries to be held.	Footfall 78
4	Maintain Hallmark 1 accreditation.	Maintain Hallmark 1 accreditation.	Ongoing.	Hallmark 1 maintained.
5	To offer a collection facility for Credit Union	Offering people the opportunity to save	Ongoing	£1,146.90 saved
6	Organise weekly social groups. Scrabble Knit & natter	Offer a warm, friendly environment to socialise and enjoy activities facilitated by volunteers.	To be attended by a minimum of 5 people. To be self- funding	Footfall 362
7	Provide transport and a hot meal via a Lunch Club	Provide a hot meal. Sufficient volunteers. Transport. Outing once a year. Collect and bank the money. Move towards sustainable self- funding. Residents benefit from: Regular nutritious, affordable hot meal in a friendly environment Opportunities for social interaction	To be attended by a minimum of 10 people. One outing a year Timescale ongoing	Footfall of 299 Outing to Minehead in July
8	Provide fitness	Provide a venue and	To be attended	Footfall of 573

	classes. Circuits Tai chi Walking Group	tutor. Collect and bank money. Move towards sustainable self- funding. Participants benefit from:  improved health and mobility  the opportunity for social interactions	by a minimum of 6 people each week.
9	Organise food, nutrition and cookery classes.	Teach basic skills. Provide education about diet and health. Participants experience improved health through: Increased understanding about healthy eating Gain confidence and develop new skills Participating in group learning sessions	A minimum of 6 people attending.	Footfall 13
10	Offer support with health & wellbeing. Menopause Group NHS sessions	Offer support Signposting Social, health and fitness groups	Ongoing support	Footfall 57
11	Deliver open access community events aimed at young people. Raise funds to hold the events.	Access to experiences and activities that entertain, educate and provide diversionary activities aimed at reducing anti-social behaviour. Parents, grandparents and carers have opportunities to share	1 day events attended by a minimum of 30 young people. School holidays.	Footfall 3000

		experiences with their children, meet others and talk to a range of public service providers.
12	Work with schools and colleges to offer work experience.	Participate in a working environment, develop skills to add to their CVs.	Offer as many opportunities as possible.	1 College student 2 weeks work experience
13	Organise educational groups; Digital support History Creative Writers	Gain knowledge and learn new skills, facilitated by volunteers and tutors.	To be attended by a minimum of 5 people. To be self- funding	Footfall 300
14	Organise bazaars in Spring and Autumn Christmas Market World Book Day event One off events	Raise awareness of the Community Centre. Recruit volunteers. Raise funds. Residents are able to:  learn about services on offer  find volunteering opportunities  buy items at low cost.	To raise:  £750 from bazaars  £1000 from the Christmas Market.	Bazaars raised £1012.19 Christmas Market raised £1808.70 24 Stallholders. World Book Day raised £48.92 sold 245 books Footfall 1065
15	Host Somerset Council community computer.	On-line access. Volunteer-assisted. Develop IT skills.	Recruit and train volunteers Timescale – ongoing.
16	To be the voice of the community whilst staying politically neutral.	Enable those adversely affected by and concerned about current issues or changes to have their say and forward concerns to the	Ongoing.	Concerns re-laid to those agencies concerned

		appropriate agency.
17	Work in partnership with the North Taunton One Team and North Taunton Development Group.	To work with the coordinator to exchange information. Residents benefit from the ‘joined-up’, inter-agency approach.	Timescale ongoing.	Attended North Taunton Development Group Meetings
18	To be dementia friendly.	Visitors greeted in a friendly and welcoming manner.	On-going
19	1. Produce a community newsletter. 2. To hold information leaflets. 3. Signposting facility.	Residents are well informed of events, services and opportunities. Offer a signposting facility.	Spring, Summer and Winter	3000 hardcopies produced and distributed. Electronic copies emailed

Lunch Club Outing

Summerfield Builders grant presentation

Brad comes in daily for a coffee and chat

“I have only met you all twice but I felt so at home today. Thank you for creating such a lovely welcoming group” Menopause Group

We would like to thank our funders, without their support the Community Centre would not be able to function.

McCarthy Stone, Life, well lived

Magdalene Hospital Trust

The National Lottery

Somerset Council

We would like to thank all those organisations and individuals who have generously supported the charity. North Taunton Partnership has continued to support many local residents who have benefitted from our services. Details of restricted grants are shown in the accounts.

RESERVES POLICY

The Trustees are aware of their obligations under charity law and therefore set out the policy for the use of reserve funds. The intention in establishing this reserves policy is to ensure the continuation of the charity’s normal activities through any medium-term shortfall in funding.

For the financial year to 31 March 2024, the trustees’ policy is to maintain free reserves (defined as unrestricted reserves not invested in fixed assets) equivalent to 4 months’ budgeted expenditure, approximately £25,000. The trustees feel it is also prudent to have a reserve of £2,500 for any substantial unexpected and urgent need for which funding cannot be obtained in the necessary timeframe. Free reserves at 31 March 2024 were £44,682 (2023 £56.316).

FUTURE PLANS

A Business and Development Plan has been produced by the Trustees setting out the objectives for the Partnership and Community Centre for the twelve months April 2024 to March 2025.

The Trustees declare that they have approved the report as above and that they have paid due regard to the Charity Commissions guidance on public benefit.

Signed on behalf of the North Taunton Partnership’s trustees

Paul Tooze Chairman Date: 14[th] August 2024

I￿N TAupifc•i PP￿RsHIp T¢1¥ 61•5 Star¢5 41A22 174 4K• 174 S21 1.621 Fwth15 HMlthirWall S.2Yi L119 12?2 156 2Jll 156 J.s Sull L035 579 &559 L53B F¢ .232 1&02 IvrnTrwl 145 s(c*p 5(F Cpstgl LAiryOiN 13•2

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS

Accounting Policies

Section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 permits a charity to prepare a receipts and payments account and a statement of assets and liabilities where gross income in the financial year does not exceed £250,000, therefore receipts and payments accounts and a statement of assets and liabilities has been prepared and presented for the year ended March 31st 2024; this is consistent with previous years.

All Income, including grants, is recorded when received. All Expenditure is recorded when paid.

----- Start of picture text -----
-
----- End of picture text -----

Outing to art workshop

“Thanks for sending your excellent Report, which I will circulate to all our trustees. The whole programme looked very worthwhile and impressive that you were able to lay on so many activity days. You were clearly meeting a real need”. Magdalen Hospital Trust

RTH TA NT PARTNER OEPENDENT EXAMNEA RE THE r4go$ 2 b) 3 reqwed tr ths seckn 144(2101 >)11 2011 thai Exath fvx(tyJr4s mJ8r 14S c4tl 2011 ￿J￿ 149SXbl ol th 2011 8ASIS OF INDEPENDENT WII11￿.0 REPORT INOEPEMDENT STATEMENT To k••p •¢r4JLrthw •xikn 1>) ￿#4 2011 *tyXkn4411M•l oftr• mothy r￿a•n FCMA TA18 7BY Dat•.. 3)24

Priorswood Community Centre 13-14 Priorswood Place Eastwick Road Taunton TA2 7JW 01823 353643

Email: [e-mail] Facebook: www.Facebook.com/PriorswoodCommunityCentre

www.priorswoodcommunitycentre.co.uk