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2021-03-31-accounts

Charity Registration No. 1081381

Company Registration No. 04024662 (England and Wales)

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

ANNUAL REPORT AND UNAUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

26-32 Oxford Road Bournemouth Dorset United Kingdom BH8 8EZ

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

CONTENTS

Page
Company informaton 1
Trustees' report 2 - 29
Independent examiner's report 30
Statement of fnancial actvites 31
Balance sheet 32 - 33
Statement of cash fows 34
Notes to the fnancial statements 35 - 45

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Trustees Mr P Tarrant Rev P Broad Ms D Clifton Ms H Walker Ms Z Bradley (Appointed 5 August 2020) Ms P Sharp Mr E G Sosseh (Appointed 4 November 2020) Ms L E Jump (Appointed 4 November 2020) Ms S J Dexter (Appointed 9 December 2020) Secretary Mr S J Place Charity number 1081381 Company number 04024662 Principal address Boscombe Link 3-5 Palmerston Road Bournemouth Dorset BH1 4HN Registered office Boscombe Link 3-5 Palmerston Road Bournemouth Dorset BH1 4HN Independent examiner TC Group 26-32 Oxford Road Bournemouth Dorset United Kingdom BH8 8EZ

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

The trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2021.

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the financial statements and comply with the Community Action Network's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016)

The trustees, who are also the directors for the purpose of company law, and who served during the year and up to the date of signature of the financial statements were:

Trustees

Mr P Tarrant Mr P Payne (Resigned 2 July 2020) Rev P Broad Ms D Clifton Ms M Munroe (Resigned 9 October 2020) Prof K Popple (Resigned 4 November 2020) Ms H Walker Ms Z Bradley (Appointed 5 August 2020) Ms P Sharp Ms E Lee (Resigned 16 June 2020) Mr E G Sosseh (Appointed 4 November 2020) Ms L E Jump (Appointed 4 November 2020) Ms S J Dexter (Appointed 9 December 2020)

Staff

Amy Collins Volunteering Development Lead
Liz Cooper Partnerships Development Worker
Kevin Eaton Finance Ofcer
Dani Ford-Horne Youth Development Worker
Robynne Jones Programme Coordinator (A Good Life)
Emma Lee Partnerships Manager
Lea Hampton Partnerships Manager - Resigned
Amy Leyland Volunteering Development Lead
Steve Place Senior Advisor
Karen Lofus Chief Executve
Courtney Moody Business and Administraton Apprentce
Claire Pickard Volunteering Coordinaton (A Good Life)
Steve Place Senior Advisor
Hannah Rees Partnerships Development Worker
Nick Rowe Media and Communitcatons Ofcer - Resigned
Liz Sofe Volunteering Coordinator
Theresia Ullrich Intern - End of contract
Sarah- Jane Woods Project Ofcer - Research & Development (Home First)

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Volunteers to Stop Covid temp team

Louise Harfield Senior Volunteer Coordinator Mia Hargreaves Senior Volunteer Coordinator Laurence Ludlow Recruitment and Deployment Officer Sandra Prudom Senior Volunteer Coordinator Patrick Salmon Senior Volunteer Coordinator

Bankers:

Co-operative Bank Charities Aid Foundation Virgin United Trust Bank Shawbrook

Community Action Network

Is a company limited by guarantee and we are governened by our Articles of Association.

The Trustees present their report, together with the accounts for the year to 31 March 2021 which have been independently examined.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Objectives and activities

1. Structure, Governance and Management

The organisation was set up in 1972 as Bournemouth Helping Services and subsequently registered as a charity. It became a charitable company limited by guarantee on 30th June 2000 and became an accredited Council for Voluntary Service. It changed its name to Bournemouth Council for Voluntary Service (BCVS) in the same year. It adopted a Memorandum of Association which established the objects and powers of the charitable company and is governed under its Articles of Association. In the event of the company winding up, members may be required to contribute an amount not exceeding £10.

In 2019 Poole Council for Voluntary Service merged into Bournemouth CVS. On 29 March 2019 a Deed of Transfer was signed by both organisations to transfer the assets of Poole CVS to Bournemouth CVS and the merger of the two organisations was confirmed. Further it was agreed to trade as Bournemouth and Poole CVS, from 1 April 2019. In August 2019 at a special meeting of members, it was agreed to change the name to Community Action Network.

Community Action Network is a member of the National Association for Voluntary and Community Action (NAVCA) and holds their Quality Standard which is the national quality award for Councils for Voluntary Service.

Membership is now free and open to all local voluntary and community organisations providing a service in the Bournemouth, Christchurch or Poole area. Affiliate membership is open to organisations operating outside of the area, or that are part of the public sector. Full details and membership of CAN are on our website www.can100.org

Our ‘Together We CAN’ strategic plan has been reviewed and updated by Trustees. An annual implementation plan is closely monitored by Trustees. Trustees have referred to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit in drawing up the plan. In particular, the Trustees have considered how activities contribute to our mission and charitable objectives.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

2. Strategy and vision

We have a strong and recognisable vision and mission that informs our work. Our vision is for Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole to be places where strong, healthy, diverse and vibrant communities flourish.

Our mission to achieve this vision is to EMPOWER the voluntary sector - ENABLE volunteering - INVOLVE communities. This is our ultimate purpose. It defines what we aim to achieve every day, through every decision we make.

3. Covid-19

The Coronavirus pandemic, Covid-19, took hold in March 2020, the first lockdown and all the implications started on the 17th March 2020. Although not in full lockdown at the time of writing this report, we are still dealing with a pandemic, considering how we can support our sector and work collaboratively through recovery and reset, deliver our usual services and plan for an uncertain future.

Operational impact

CAN has been at the heart of the community response to Covid-19, working with BCP Council and our VCS colleagues to support the # TogetherWeCan effort to help people needing to shield and other vulnerable people, families and communities. We recruited and supported over 3,000 people to volunteer.

We also acted as an advice and knowledge base on all aspects of volunteering and the voluntary sector for new and existing organisations throughout the pandemic. We offered 1:1 support and developed a Covid19 webpage to provide information about services on offer, funding and celebrating successes of local community and voluntary efforts.

We were able to quickly and efficiently move the staff team to home working, as we already had the tools (laptop and smartphone) in place. We adapted well to new ways of working, utilising Teams extensively and purchasing Zoom capability. At the time of writing the team remain based at home, we will be reviewing our position in line with new government guidance.

Volunteer to stop Covid-19

Supporting the vaccination roll out has had a significant operational impact, requiring us to recruit and redeploy staff. We have ensured funding in place to cover these costs.

Our contract with NHS Dorset HealthCare to support the programme at the BIC from Jan 2021 has been extended to September 2021. We continue to support six community sites funded by Dorset CCG and are proud to be NHS England Standard Operating Procedures compliant.

We have recruited and trained over 2,000 volunteers into the team.

We are the only large scale site in the country to offer volunteering opportunities to 16-18 year olds – currently nearly 100 young people have joined the team.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Police lateral flow testing

We supported, with volunteers Dorset Police to lateral flow test their staff at Bournemouth and Winfrith sites. The scheme was short lived as there was a change of policy with self-testing now available.

4. Activity and impact

EMPOWER the voluntary sector mission

To achieve this we will:

EMPOWER the voluntary sector headlines:

Provided one to one support for 255 organisations - up 74 from last year

97.5% satisfied or very satisfied with our support.

Between April and September (when funding withdrawn) worked with youth organisations to attract £32,250 additional funding

Grew our Trustee network to 137 with the majority telling is our support had increased their knowledge and confidence in the role

Improved quality through training over 200 people – the majority report a positive increase in their skills and knowledge

Reviewed and developed the diversity of perspective on our board to ensure we are representative of the BCP community’

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Impact report Supporting collaboration

We collaborated with, and supported, the National Citizenship Service on their summer programme for local 15 & 16 year old’s by working to identify and develop five young people friendly projects including repainting the rooms at Portfield Community Centre. "Your help with charities has been priceless for us, thanks again!".

Following identified need for additional wellbeing checks and peer support for voluntary youth workers, particularly during Covid, we co-delivered online sessions to support improved mental health and wellbeing of the youth workers. with ‘WIRED’, a local community interest company. Although funding for this specific area of work has been lost we continue to support this work. “This meeting is fantastic! Collaborating is key to empowering and strengthening successful decision making and offering a fuller service. The next meet is already in my diary!”

Covid has had a significant impact on children's education - CAN are supporting. We’ve been working with a local parent and school governor to develop a plan to engage, enthuse and equip the community to put on a Children's Literacy Festival for Key Stage 2 children in local schools. The festival will consist of author visits to schools that sign up, an immersive walk through experience based on the book the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a Grand Book Exchange (where children receive a Festival Voucher which can be exchanged for a good condition second hand children's book at a number of pop up shops), plus other events, activities and competitions. They approached us for advice about setting up a charity to fundraise and run the event. We advised them about the process but strongly advised that looking to work with an existing local charity may be a good way forward. Due to our support and intervention, they are now partnering with Bournemouth YMCA who will bring their expertise, knowledge and reputation to support a funding bid to co-create a Festival in 2022. The organisers will also be reaching out to other local groups we suggested to explore how they can work together. “The advice received enabled me to contact and partner with local literacy charities in planning a Key Stage 2 Literacy Festival for schools in the BCP area.”

Gathering and acting on feedback

Our annual survey showed that 22 groups (71% of those who responded) said CAN helped with increased collaboration with just under half saying this was as a result of our work. Our work as described in the Involve Communities section very much supports these findings.

Health and Wellbeing

We supported 54 groups that have a health and wellbeing focus, 15 being newly formed. For example - STAR Recovery is a new charity building on work carried out by Faithworks Wessex to develop a quality standard, training and support for churches that want to run services for vulnerable people, initially those recovering from addiction. We worked with them to agree a constitution, make the application for charity status (which was successful) and develop a range of policies. “We have now become a registered charity, have a great team of trustees and will be looking to employ people in the near future, with the launch of STAR nationally in January 2022. It has helped to really establish the charity well and with good foundations so will help all involved – you were so unbelievably helpful in every aspect.”

Helping organisations working with young people to adapt and grow – We provided expert advice and guidance to 57 organisations working with young people; 107 requests actioned through face to face meetings, emails and phone calls. This included for example:

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

We completed our evaluation work for Ansbury on their Face Forward programme (ESF and National Lottery Community Fund) working with 15-24 year old NEETs and linked the findings and issues identified at national level: “Many thanks for your commitment to Face Forward and your hard work on this evaluation. It is very much appreciated.”

Improving quality

We helped improve practice through our support and advice to 144 groups (of which 37 were newly forming, 54 with health and wellbeing focus and 9 BAME) across BCP. This was via 608 interactions by phone, e-mail or face to face ranging from 15 mins to a total of 32 hours each over 12 months.

Setting up a new charity can be a minefield – we worked extensively to achieve 5 successful charity applications and 1 CIC. Of the groups we worked with:

66% felt their organisation was more sustainable a great deal or a lot as a result of our input.

“We have had a significant increase in volunteers, our trustee committee has grown by one and paid staff has increased from 3 part-time staff in March 2020 to 8 part-time staff currently. We have also had an 80% increase in referrals into our services from last year.”

“We were able to adjust our business plan accordingly and were made aware of several things we needed to put in place. It helped increase our understanding of employment/volunteer issues and gave us better governance as a result.”

“I have the correct people in place and structure to really help make a difference.”

“Smooth closure process of our CIO”

“We've extended the reach of our charity into Poole and Christchurch, potentially doubling the number of beneficiaries and open spaces we can support.”

Setting up a new charity can be a minefield- we worked extensively to achieve 5 successful charity applications and 1 CIC. We advised a new organisation, Youth Empowerment Platform (YEP) in their application for charity status. This is a BME led group that is working with BME young people and in particular trying to divert them from anti-social behaviour through youth/group work. We advised on a constitution and application to the Charity Commission which was successful. Subsequently ran a session for their trustees on roles and responsibilities and interpretation of their constitution. “I did not know the right wording to use for the application and had taken it for granted. However, when I was recommended to contact you, it changed everything. You supported me with tiding up the constitution, especially with clarifying objects & purpose. You then supported me with the actual application which I found some sections really difficult to put the right information. You were there 100% all the way, even when Charity Commission returned the application. I was nearly giving up but when you looked at the questions you guided me with the right responses leading to the successful registration. To be honest it wouldn't have been a success without your help, so much appreciated.”

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Supporting access to training

Covid-19 lockdown resulted in us looking at new and innovative ways of delivering training.

Webinars: We developed a range of webinars covering, returning to work, redundancy, employment contracts, recruitment and HR policy checklist. These were attended by a total of 60 people from local groups – the majority of which reported an increase in confidence.

Participants were asked what they would do differently following the course: “Review HR and other policies and procedures. A job that has been on the to do list for a long time.” “Have performance management processes in place for a new employee’s probation period.” “Do more research into corporate donors and high net worth individuals by reviewing the rich lists etc.”

Communication and supporting the sector

Our weekly e-mail updates to members are positively received and cover changes to legal and good practice including advice on Covid related matters of opening, HR and service delivery.

Supporting voluntary youth projects

– our work stopped in the main in December 2020 due to loss of funding. But up until then we:

“It's so valuable to keep in the loop about other things going on in our area of work. Sometimes churches can be a bit insular and 'forget' we're part of a big network all aiming to support young people but it's so important we all work together.” and “They provide informative information to funding opportunities, networking and general awareness of youth sector within BCP.”

Gathering insights - 23 local youth groups completed our annual survey, a 53% response rate. 100% of the groups we worked with found our support helpful, 87% stated our face to face support was very useful. Over 75% of the groups that responded rated the overall project as good and 78% felt the work raised their awareness of other services and support, in particular feeling more connected and knowledgeable about what other youth groups and organisations were doing.

“Over the last year we have had support about delivery of youth work through Covid, providing training opportunities and linking us with other organisations.”

“It has really helped to link us to other organisations. For example, I met people from The Colourworks Foundation, who ran virtual sessions for our young people. The feedback from young people was fantastic.”

Getting to grips with Zoom

Session to help 13 local groups better understand how to effectively utilise Zoom to work creatively and interactively with young people.

SEN training for Youth Workers

Young people with SEN worked with us to design and deliver SEN training to 12 youth workers

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Developing high quality leadership and governance

Volunteer trustees are the life blood of the voluntary and community sector – we work to ensure they are supported and trained to provide essential governance by delivering:

When asked what they will do differently after the course:

“Engage more with process of being a trustee, rather than being a volunteer. Question others - can we do this better?”

“Be more aware, ask more questions, review and implement trustee information packs for new trustees” “Feel more confident to speak out when things are not understood or to express views without feeling embarrassed, awkward or challenging”

� Bespoke trustee training provided to 8 trustee boards “Thank you so much for today, was very useful.”

“Many thanks for today I feel a lot more confident about how to move forward”

Supporting growth and sustainability

Resource donation and loan scheme, working well despite Covid restrictions reducing supply and ability to collect itemss- over 100 items re-homed.

Over 60 items of office furniture and equipment - 17 items of assorted stationary and over 30 unusual items including a pool table, a games console and a toolbox to charities and community groups in BCP.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Sharing good practice for youth workers

12 youth workers attended SEN training, designed and delivered by young people with SEN from The Chatterboxes.

Peer support for youth workers – The ‘Lets’ Connect’ meetings for voluntary sector youth workers have been well attended and despite losing funding to support these CAN has decided to continue them: “It was great to have a space to share with other likeminded people locally what's going on for your young people, particularly in the current climate. As someone who is generally a 'lone worker' it's vital to have that space to connect.”

“Enable me to connect with other organisations, hear how they are during these challenging times of Covid, ways that they were working online with young people and be inspired.”

Sustaining and developing a strong and proactive CAN Board of Trustees

Our Board of Trustees continues to grow and develop. They provide scrutiny, stretch and support to the Chief Executive. Trustees also undertook a review of the demographics of the board to further develop a diversity of perspective. This resulted in the recruitment of three new members who bring a different and diverse range of experience and talent to CAN. The Board also:

Our Board of Trustees continues to grow and develop. They provide scrutiny, stretch and support to the Chief Executive. They scored themselves with 8 out of 10 for how well they supported and challenged the Chief Executive over the past year and 9.2 out of 10 for their degree of satisfaction with the operational work of CAN.

Covid made it difficult to have physical meetings however the Board made a smooth transition to the use of virtual meetings and the Board have decided that in the future they will continue to have some of their meetings virtually.

Finance – A Finance Committee oversees the accounts and budget. Accounts have been presented to Trustees who are assured we are financially sound and on budget.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

CAN Organisational development – an experienced Trustee undertook a root and branch review of our recruitment and induction policies and processes. This resulted in a series of recommendations that the staff team actioned and took forward to ensure we have a high quality and robust process.

Quality assurance - NAVCA QA achieved, and our submission being used as an example of good practice nationally.

Staff recruitment:

With new projects and a growing portfolio, we recruited new staff this year:

Core Team

We also welcomed two volunteers. One supporting our teams with social media and one supporting the ‘Volunteer to Stop Covid’ programme.

Planned recruitment in quarter one includes:

ENABLE volunteering mission:

To achieve this, we will:

Enable Volunteering headlines:

Promoted 117 volunteering opportunities for local charities and community groups and enabled 848 people to volunteer with these organisations

Recruited 3,325 volunteers to support the Error in formula ->#TogetherWeCan<- initiative

Recruited, trained, deployed and supported 1,805 people to Volunteer to Stop Covid19 at the BIC, pharmacies and GP surgeries giving over 23,600 hours of volunteering to the end of March with hundreds of hours committed going forward.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Provided peer support and expertise to 73 Volunteer Coordinators working in the VCS and Public Sector.

Supported 75 older people to feel less lonely through the A Good Life programme including the use of 23 young volunteers as Pen Pals

Impact report

Promoting the value of volunteering

We use a variety of methods to effectively communicate the value of volunteering. This year through the pandemic the majority of this has been online. People have come forward in their thousands this year to give their gift of time and CAN has been at the forefront in supporting and enabling safe and effective volunteering to make a huge positive impact on the lives of communities across the BCP are and beyond.

We are also working with BCP Council colleagues to develop a Volunteer Strategy to support and encourage volunteering across all communities.

New website – we have reviewed, rewritten and added new content for the volunteering hub section of our website this included a FAQ section for volunteers. Feedback from volunteers has been very positive.

Social media – we use Twitter to promote the value of volunteering and highlight / showcase the amazing work of our local volunteers carrying out a huge variety of tasks to help their community. We have also had a focus on the excellent work being undertaken by the CAN Volunteers at the large scale vaccination site at the BIC, with regular ‘volunteer spotlight’ posts from people of all ages and from different backgrounds explaining why they got involved. These posts are always well received, with numerous likes, retweets and positive comments. Drew Mellor – Leader of BCP Council commented “Great work from the local NHS and partners including the superb army of CAN volunteers.”

Spotlight on volunteers – we are gathering stories and photos about local volunteers talking to us about their motivations, the benefits to them and the community, and what advice they would give to someone looking to volunteer. These stories are being added to our website / social media, used in talks and shared with the press, to highlight and value volunteering and encourage more people to come forward.CAN Volunteering Hub.

We promoted 117 volunteering opportunities for local charities and community groups and enabled 848 people to volunteer with these organisations.

22 new organisations joined our Volunteer Hub.

In total we received 848 enquiries about volunteering, this was through a number of means including registration on our online portal, by telephone, email and social media. Volunteers were signposted to various different projects that needed volunteers including those on Simply Connect, Together We Can (including Adult Social Care), Flu clinics, Covid marshals, Pharmacies to assist with delivery of medication and, even at the height of the first lockdown, to local businesses to assist with the delivery of shopping to vulnerable people.

When setting up the volunteer programme at the BIC, we set the minimum age at 16 to enable young people to get involved. To enable us to do this, we had to ensure we had the relevant safeguarding policies in place and also have signed returned parental consent forms before a young person was approved to volunteer. In total 130 young people aged 16 to 18 signed up to help, with 71 of those actively recording hours ranging from 3.5 hours (per shift) to 130.25 hours. Dorset Healthcare are now looking at ways to promote NHS careers to our young volunteers.

We worked with young people looking to volunteer and dealt with 18 enquiries about youth volunteering (April to September when funding ceased) – 6 from young people, 4 from parents, 4 from BCP Council, 3 from VCS and a business.

Our priority for last year was to really build our volunteering hub and promote the ethos of volunteering widely. Our approach had adapted to work with and around the pandemic. - 13 -

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Many charities, community groups and public sector services had to stop using volunteers, through lockdown. Those that were looking for volunteers for example Age UK and Prama, we were able to support to successfully recruit. This resulted in organisations being able to adapt and, in some cases, significantly increase their volunteering offer to the community.

We proactively supported over 172 organisations including Jobcentre Plus, Job Hubs, mental health support groups, Bournemouth & Poole College and Bournemouth University looking for volunteering placements, by sending details of new volunteering opportunities along with access to our online volunteering platform.

TogetherWeCan

When the first lockdown was announced in March 2020, we were approached by BCP Council to work with them on the # TogetherWeCan initiative to support people who were clinically vulnerable and having to shield.

Within 48 hours we put all the processes in place and put out a call to action to the community. Over the first weekend 1,000 local people had stepped up to help. This was a humbling experience for us all, that so many people were willing to help their friends and neighbours. We were quickly able to share details with the Council who then deployed the volunteers to support the community via their Helpline – great partnership working.

Eventually 3,325 people signed up to help, with around 1,800 being used to carry out tasks within the local community, including shopping, collection of medication, food parcel deliveries, and having ‘doorstep chats.’

As our work progressed it was clear we needed volunteers that could respond at a moment’s notice, so we also recruited 83 people who were willing to be ‘emergency response volunteers.’ – (we toyed with giving them a blue light hat but decided against it!) Our Council colleagues tell us these volunteers have been invaluable to support the most vulnerable residents often in urgent need.

We now have a pool of CAN Volunteers so were able to support a request from Adult Social Care to collect and distribute emergency food parcels, and we were also able to support distribution of PPE to carers.

Pharmacies collection of medication

During the first lockdown we worked with Public Health Dorset, the Local Pharmaceutical Committee and Volunteer Centre Dorset to identify volunteers who could help with the delivery of medication from local pharmacies. We also provided advice and guidance to pharmacies around involving volunteers. We received referrals from 15 pharmacies, and 48 volunteers were signposted to them. Two pharmacies came back to us and requested additional volunteers and we signposted a further five people to them to help.

Flu clinics

In Autumn 2020, GP surgeries approached us for volunteers to help with their flu clinic. We provided draft risk assessments, volunteer handbook, code of conduct, template emails and offered ongoing support. In total 38 volunteers were matched to cover 76 shifts across six GP surgeries. We developed a good working relationship with the surgeries e.g. Talbot Medical Centre and we were able to build on this successwhen offering support with the covid vaccination programme.

A volunteer told us “The role of assisting at the flu clinics went very well. I was able to help on five afternoons and we had no problems whatsoever. Relationship with all the staff was excellent and all those I worked with expressed warm appreciation. Contact with so many members of the local community was a good tonic for me as I live very close to the surgery. Refreshments midway through each session were lovely.”

GP surgery said: “All of the volunteers were brilliant & we really appreciate the support they were able to give us, as without their support would have meant on occasions, we would have been short of helpers. I would also like to thank you as well Amy as you also have been brilliant in this process.”

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Supporting the vaccination roll out - Volunteer to stop Covid-19

In December 2020 we were contracted by NHS Dorset HealthCare (DHC) for 12 weeks initially, to support delivery of the vaccination roll out at the BIC, starting on 18th January 21. The requirement was for approximately 20 volunteer marshals, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. Dorset CCG also underwrote our costs to support pharmacies and Primary Care Networks with volunteers as required.

We set up all the processes, including a comprehensive induction pack - good practice guides, task descriptions, volunteer agreements. We developed the training in partnership with DHC, commissioned an online volunteer shift booking system (Team Kinetic), and recruited Senior Volunteer Coordinators and a Recruitment and Deployment Officer, to operationally support the work, and were ready for the start on the 18th January.

We had an amazing response from the community to our previous call to action – would it be the same this time? Yes it would!

Over 2,500 people came forward and 1,805 went on to complete our mandatory training delivered by our team via Zoom – we provided one to one support to enable everyone to access the training, which was very successful. More volunteers are now being recruited and trained to sustain the effort to September 2021.

We are the only large scale site in the country to offer volunteering opportunities to 16-18 year olds, and have all the required policies and safeguarding in place, to enable over 100 young people to volunteer. Giving them an opportunity to support their community, but also an insight into a potential job as a clinician. Again, this approach is being held up nationally as an example of good practice. We’re now looking with our BCP Council colleagues at how we can offer ‘looked after’ children the opportunity for work experience with our team at the BIC.

DHC are very happy with the service and tell us we are the “heart” of the programme. Our contract has now been extended to September. Working with DHC we have introduced rapid lateral flow testing for all our volunteers to ensure their safety and that of patients, staff and other volunteers.

We are also providing our Volunteer to Stop Covid19 service at seven community sites including Talbot Medical Centre and Wallisdown Pharmacy. We have held numerous remote meetings with each of the sites to establish their volunteer requirements including writing new role descriptions, guiding them through how to use Team Kinetic and working with them to provide trained volunteers to meet their needs.

The project has been a resounding success with 23,604 volunteer hours given between the 18th January and the end of March alone. We estimate by the end of the programme the CAN Volunteers will have given nearly 85,000 hours of their time. We are proud to be compliant with NHS England Standard Operating Procedures, and our training and processes have been held up nationally as an example of good practice.

A CAN volunteer said “I’m not a clinician so I can’t help that way, but I can volunteer with CAN and play a part in history and help people get back to their lives”

Another told us “We’re like a family – I have a reason to get out of bed on the morning – I’m needed, I’m helping save lives and CAN supports me beautifully”

When asked about the volunteering onboarding experience – we were told “Thank you for an excellent induction presentation on Saturday evening. I attend lots of webinars at the moment with my work but this was the best so far! Clear, professional, engaging and friendly - also no errors in the presentation - it really was excellent so please give my thanks to everyone who gave up their Saturday night to spend an hourand a half explaining to us how the volunteering will work.” A member of the public told us "My husband has his vaccine here last Saturday it was pouring with rain yet those volunteers outside were helping people with a smile on their faces and inside he said it was really well organised.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Police lateral flow testing

Dorset Police brought in lateral flow testing for their staff at both the Bournemouth and Winfrith sites for which they needed volunteers to oversee the process. We put a call out for help to all our Covid Marshals and just over 200 people came forward who were willing to help and undertook the necessary online lateral flow testing training. We set Dorset Police up on Team Kinetic and advertised their shifts. Weekly contact was maintained with Dorset Police to discuss the viability of the scheme, which only ran for 4 weeks due to a change of policy with self-testing now available.

As we move (hopefully) towards recovery, we are developing the CAN Community Volunteer offer, to ensure we are ready to support the community as and when needed.

Supporting good practice in recruiting and managing volunteers by providing expert advice and guidance:

Developing quality improvement - Throughout the pandemic we kept in touch with volunteer coordinators, although many were furloughed. Our training and networking went online to ensure good and safe practice in supporting volunteers continued.

Delivering effective projects: A Good Life

We are mid-way through delivering ‘A Good Life' programme. This is an exciting initiative designed to bring community groups, businesses and volunteers together to tackle loneliness in later life.

Funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, the programme brings together public and voluntary sector agencies including ourselves, BCP Council, Public Health Dorset, Bournemouth University, Prama, Poole Housing Partnership and Help and Care.

The programme aims to increase awareness amongst the wider community of the challenges of loneliness and social isolation that older people face, test different tools to address the need and equip community groups and businesses to identify and engage with older people, ultimately developing their own solutions to local need.

Due to the pandemic, we have adapted the programme and sought different and innovative ways to tackle loneliness in later life. this includes the introduction of:

We are currently providing a service to 75 older people across BCP.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Telephone friendship groups - have proved to be a vital service for over 20 older and socially isolated people.

They are a partnership with other local charities and developed from the Volunteer Sub-Group hosted by CAN during the pandemic. PramaLife took out the contract with the phone company following research and collaboration by several charities. A few of these across BCP have been trialling the telephone friendship groups in order to meet the need that community coffee mornings had been fulfilling prior to the lockdown. We are sharing our findings from these groups, which have without exception been very positive, with the hope of offering this as a solution for other charities. It is believed that there is demand for this service ‘postcovid’ as many older people are housebound or attend very few face to face activities even in non-lockdown times. As one of the participants said recently; ‘Normally I sit here talking to myself. It’s nice to have someone else to talk to.’

There are three open groups for people to drop into like a coffee morning, and also three community groups using the telephone groups facility; Maritime Memories (through Poole Museum), Bourne Over 55s and The Stroke Support Group. These are all hosted by CAN.

We also facilitated with Bournemouth University a telephone session to help people engage with nature. 14 participants attended with feedback stating that it was a wonderful experience. We are working to expand the deliver more sessions in 2021/2022.

At Christmas we personally delivered small gifts to older people we have connected with. One person told us 'It was lovely - I stood talking to Robynne for a 5 minute natter. I was thrilled to bits with the parcel. I know how much organisation goes into this. It's very much appreciated.'

We are now training A Good Life CAN Volunteers to help facilitate the telephone friendship groups. We hope in the near future volunteers will also host the calls. We are also planning to train more community groups to run their own telephone friendship groups in the near future.

Yours Sincerely - is a pen pal project that invites young people and older people to write to one another to help reduce loneliness and feelings of isolation. Originally devised by young people to give “sunshine in an envelope” to older people perhaps with no family or friends and send a happy letter, card or picture through the post. CAN provides support and oversight to ensure safety for all involved.

We were able to secure additional funding from Sovereign Hosing to provide youth worker support for the young volunteers involved, this includes weekly online check in sessions with the young volunteers to discuss issues, ideas and their letters. In the sessions they also share what they have learnt about their pen pal and what to write in their letters.

A young volunteer told us - "This project is the highlight of my week. I get to work with new friends who want to make a difference like I do. It feels great to be a part of something like this, I can't wait until it’s safe to meet in person the friends I have made spanning across generations."

To date 51 older people and 23 younger people take part. 125 letters have been exchanged, including a Christmas box, letters, artwork and knitted items! The young people also send handmade cards, poems and magazine articles.

When we check in by phone with the older person, 100% report the letters are making a positive difference to their lives and they all tell us ‘please keep writing’ – A daughter of one older person told us “My dad (86) received his first letter recently and was so animated about it. He is now corresponding with an 18-year-old who has been matched perfectly with his interests. The letter was detailed, engaging, and asked lots of questions - a great project not only to help with isolation and loneliness but also breaking down some stereotypical views between young and old and vice versa.”

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

HowAreYou - we developed innovative ways to increase engagement with local businesses without proprietors having to donate much time and resource. We developed the # HowAreYou? social media marketing campaign that sought to find businesses that looked after their local community. The aim for the campaign was to engage with and encourage local businesses to increase accessibility to lonely and socially isolated older people by creating their own content around the # HowAreYou? hashtag. This has opened links with the Co-Op, Spar, The Fisherman Café and others in the Poole area. The content created for the campaign has seen an incredible reach across Twitter, having been retweeted and shared by a variety of high profile charities, CEO’s and Councillors. A full branding kit has been developed for # HowAreYou? Along with focus group reports and how businesses can harness renewed community cohesion due to COVID. A dedicated page on the CAN website supports delivery.

Involve Communities mission

To achieve this we will:

Involve Communities – headlines:

Engaged with hundreds of people and local VCS groups – 96% would recommend being members of CAN

Gathered and acted on views of the VCS through a conversational survey with 135 local groups

Supported essential public health messaging

Launched Community Hero in the Spotlight – celebrating the great work of local charities and community groups

Facilitated VCS Leaders exCHANGE - bringing leaders together to work collaboratively

Proactively championed our sector on Boards - supporting and influencing public sector service development

Developed VCS collaborations and networks

Increased our social media followers by 72%

Provided a user friendly website promoting and supporting our sector

Launched ‘Spread the love’ – our pledge to fight racism

Worked with system partners including the NHS, Council and VCS to consider the role of the VCS in safely discharging people from hospital and avoiding being admitted to hospital.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Impact report:

Developing engagement - Throughout 2020-2021 we have continued to increase our engagement with charities and community groups.

We want to ensure that we are representative of the community and organisations living and workingin the conurbation of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. We are actively promoting membership to these groups and have been successful in building excellent links.

Our focus for engagement this year is around groups who maybe not aware of CAN, and what we offer, these include:

In addition to this we have developed a Business Supporter Membership to be launched in the summer of 2021. To enable us to consolidate the work we have been developing a desirable package which engages businesses - enabling us to:

In May 2020 we conducted a conversational ‘State of the Sector’ survey. We spoke to 135 organisations, the average length of each call was 34 minutes - 27% Bournemouth, 23% Christchurch, 30% Poole, 20% Dorset wide.

This reflects the national picture and was especially highlighted by organisations that community fundraise and/or rely on retail income. Some felt funding had been diverted only to Covid19 work

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

The general consensus from those we spoke to was that they were keen for us to continue to champion the work of the VCS (70%) and 75% of them wanted to utilise our online volunteering platform to support their organisation.

For 2021/22 we are partnering with Dorset Community Action (DCA) to carry out a pan-Dorset ‘State of the Sector’ survey. We are looking to assess the impact of the pandemic across Pan-Dorset, as we are aware that many of our members work across all areas.

In January 2021 we conducted our membership survey – seeking the views of our full members on the different elements of the membership – our training offer, networking, championing and celebrating, the volunteering hub and our communications. The responses were overwhelmingly positive.

Highlights include:

Useful suggestions and requests which will be acted upon in the coming months including:

We have continued to develop awareness of the CAN in Christchurch. We have regularly attended the Christchurch Health and Wellbeing Locality Board and we have set up a Southbourne, Pokesdown and Christchurch focussed networking webinar to encourage Christchurch organisations to engage with us.

As we move out of Covid Restrictions the aim of the Involve team is to:

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Promoting and valuing charities and community groups

In February we launched our Community Hero in the Spotlight initiative. Each month we showcase thework of a particular member organisation to share their untold stories and give them the recognition they deserve. We share press releases with our press contacts, have a monthly segment on Hope FM and promote the organisation through our website and social media.

Truth be Told were our first Community Hero in the Spotlight and in March Your Planet Doctors was our second. Both the founders of the organisations joined our Partnerships Manager on Hope FM to be interviewed by Blair Crawford and the press releases we have shared about the organisations have been published by Bournemouth Echo. Feedback from our Community Hero in the Spotlight participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Gemma Gilliard, founder of Truth be Told said “I’m so grateful for your kind words and really so encouraged that CAN selected Truth Be Told. I meant every word about your fab organisation!”

Supporting essential public health messaging

We were commissioned by Public Health Dorset to support the development of Trusted Voices in the community to help better engage with communities. The work has progressed really well with various positive outcomes including:

Due to its initial success, we have been asked to continue with the project for a further 6 months.

Following the success of Trusted Voices, we have been asked to partner with Dorset Community Action (DCA) and Dorset Race Equality Council (DREC) on a six month research project. The Health Equalities Project will support the gathering and analysis of local health inequalities to provide further knowledge and insight into the Dorset Integrated Care System. We want to find out the reasons why in some communities there is a lower uptake in preventative health measures and understand if we are masking any areas of hidden inequality. We start recruitment for the role in April 2021 to enable the project to start early June.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Developing collaborations and networking

The recruitment of a Partnerships Manager has further enabled development of the Involve team and the ability to enhance our networking offer.

Working with local sector leaders we have developed a Leaders exCHANGE group to better collaborate, share good practice and inform our work. The group is made up of VCS leaders from across the VCS. Priorities of the group were co-designed and challenges our members are facing were discussed including the impact of Brexit on some of the most vulnerable in our communities and funding challenges due to Covid-19. Leaders are also working with us to co-design our future forums and collaborations.

We have continued to facilitate networking and new collaborations even though opportunities have been limited due to Covid 19 restrictions. Consequently, we moved our networking online. These have been developed following requests from members. In total we have facilitated 12 networking sessions during 2020/2021 all successful in enabling discussion of potential opportunities, knowledge sharing and peer support with others in the same position / with a similar purpose. These have included:

Supporting women - 2 online networking events for organisations that specifically support women and girls in November 2020 and January 2021. At both events 12 different groups attended including WAND, Water Lily Project, the Wardrobe Foundation, Soroptimists Bournemouth, Safe and Sound, the Women’s Centre Cornwall.

The group decided they wanted to celebrate International Women’s Day in March 2021. Consequently, we facilitated weeklong social media campaign and a celebration event bringing groups and people together. The social media campaign included 2-3 posts each day Monday to Friday and 9 short videos from WAND, the Water Lily Project, Chinese Angels, the Wardrobe Foundation, Soroptimists Bournemouth, Safe and Sound and Unity in Vision all celebrating the power of women and their organisations. 27 people attended the celebration event from 15 different organisations. Dannie, from WISE Ability said “Really enjoyable, engaging sessions, varied content, involved everyone. Had a great time, thank you!”

Pokesdown, Christchurch and Southbourne area – online networking events for organisations specifically working in these areas to share good practice and increase collaborations. Our first session was informal networking to enable organisations to get to know each other and in total 15 different groups engaged.

To our second session we invited Ebi Sosseh from BCP Council to give an update on the ‘Mind the Gap’ project – making train stations more community friendly, as he is particularly keen to work with VCS groups working in the area.

Feedback to us included “Thank you for all you are doing and your encouragement” Jane, BH1 Project, Boscombe Salvation Army.

We organised a session focused on Boscombe - working in partnership with BCP Council to facilitate a networking session for organisations and groups working and supporting the communities of Boscombe. It was received very positively, and 26 people attended a mix of CAN members and others – we gained 2 new members from the session and several attendees requested a follow up session which will be taking place in May.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Supporting the community / supporting young people - We work in partnership with Project Wired to deliver a wellbeing session for youth workers across BCP called Lets Connect. Six session held this year with 10 local organisations accessing the support - 100% of attendees told us they found the session beneficial for their wellbeing, useful for connecting with other local youth workers and find it a effective balance of wellbeing and networking space.

Supporting wellbeing - After a year of unprecedented stresses and strains for many the Involve team felt there was an opportunity to offer a session of festive fun and frolics and provided a short networking webinar for members to let off steam and celebrate the festive season. We had 17 different members attend and although we did not gather formal feedback the general feeling from those who attended was that the session was gratefully received, and fun was had by all.

Linking with local MP’s - In March 2021 we were asked by Conor Burns MP to facilitate an event for VCS organisations based or delivering services within the Bournemouth West constituency. Providing them with the opportunity to share with him the difficulties they have been facing and what they feel should be his and the Governments priorities as we move into recovery – 14 organisations attended, shared their views and provided him with valuable insight.

Developing our online presence and influence

Website and social media - We continue to be active on social media, and both our website and social media have continued to be key to reaching out and championing our sector. Our target was to increase our social media following by 20% across all platforms. We exceeded this significantly with a 72% increase on Twitter and 44% increase on Facebook.

CAN website - we continue to review and update the website to ensure that it is fit for purpose and easy to use –feedback from members is really positive, with the membership zone being the only area for improvement that will be taken forward this year. During 2020/2021 we had 37,319 visitors; the majority (31,021) were ‘new visitors’. Our bounce back percentage (visitors who enter a site and then leave) has stayed consistent throughout the year at approximately 50% which is ‘good/average’. The most visited webpages on www.can100.org over the last quarter have continued to be volunteering opportunities, interested in volunteering, jobs and volunteer to stop covid all with approximately 1000 page visits each. We have seen the number of visitors increase quarter on quarter with Jan – March 2021 seeing the most significant increase in interaction on the website with nearly 20,000 visitors.

Twitter - our Twitter followers have increased by 578 this year to 2,020. We have seen our twitter page go from strength to strength each quarter which culminated in the last quarter being our most successful quarter. We tweeted 279 times and @Can100org was mentioned in 519 tweets over the final 3 months of 2020/2021 (a staggering increase from the previous quarter of 191 mentions). We also saw a significant increase in visits to our CAN twitter page from a total of over 2,045 throughout the whole of quarter three to 7,010 visits in January, 5,567 visits in February and 4,875 profile visits in March.

Facebook - on Facebook our friends have increased by 626 to 1,069 and we also have 832 likes on our page an increase of over 500! We regularly post 2-3 times a day throughout the week.

LinkedIn - In September 2020 we created a LinkedIn page which has continued to grow and we now have 153 followers. We have posted regularly throughout including updates from the organisation, job opportunities and updates from our members. Both the Partnerships Manager and CEO use their personal LinkedIn pages to share and engage with the page to encourage engagement from others.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

We have increased our PR activities to raise the profile of CAN, the membership and champion and celebrate our members – for example, through increased media activity, promotion of events and use of external communication tools. For example:

Prejudice free communities - In 2020 we felt moved by Black Lives Matter and re-focused and doubled down on our commitment to promote equality and diversity. So far we have:

Empowering local communities – focusing on what is strong not what is wrong: Leaders exCHANGE and a focus group of leaders from our sector have been working with us to co-develop new Community Partnership Forums, which will enable us to build better community centred/led empowerment and develop a way of working that better enables effective collaboration, engagement and codesign, which improves outcomes across all our communities. Further discussions have also taken place with the CCG and BCP Council who support this new approach.

In April we will be recruiting a new Involvement Lead, initially on a one year fixed term contract to enable further development of our engagement work at pace.

Networking, championing and representing the VCS

We continue to support both the Council and the NHS to engage with communities through our extensive network – sharing and gathering vital information and data.

During 2020/2021 we have been reviewing our voluntary sector representative initiative. Historically Bournemouth and Poole CVS endeavoured to support VCS representation with some success – we will build on this ethos and take it to the next level.

CAN currently sits on numerous Boards and meetings – representing the sector. ‘Representation’ of the voluntary sector in principle is an excellent approach, however, in practice it has the potential to be problematic for all concerned. Any form of representation needs adequate resourcing or becomes tokenistic. In the past there was the expectation that CAN were ‘representing the sector’, but with limited mechanisms for gathering / cascading information this role can be hampered for both us and for our partners.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

We are going to change this. We have been co-designing with our members a new approach to align our work with communities and both the public and private sectors. This will be a key priority into 2021/2022.

During the pandemic we have sat on local, countywide, regional and national groups, helping to form and influence policy at a considerable pace.

We are seeking a place on the Integrated Care System – Partnership Board to bring the perspective and insights from our sector to this strategic group.

We also continue to attend a diverse range of boards and meetings including:

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Over the past year collaborative and respectful working across all sectors has grown quickly for the benefit of the community. We have been pivotal in partnership working primarily with the Council and the NHS. We’ve supported our sector to flourish and nurtured new community groups and charities.

People and communities have stood up and have shown us all a new, more community and person-centred way of working that we should take into the future.

It’s key that the VCS continue to be key partners and involved in how we create an environment in which our communities feel empowered to make positive changes.

We were commissioned by Dorset CCG to deliver a 9 month project, running until September 2021, to inform how local people can get home from hospital safely and quickly, as well as prevent them being admitted in the first place. Working to develop a system wide understanding of how the voluntary and community sector can contribute to meeting the needs of patients on discharge from hospital and to avoid hospital admission, including building on learning from national Home First initiatives. This is a short project so we are working at pace alongside DCA and CCG colleagues to engage effectively with VCS organisations and a range of NHS services to look at what needs to be introduced to improve services of those leaving hospital not requiring formal help from health or social care.

5. Policy on reserves

In line with Charity Commission advice, CAN has a Reserves Policy to ensure viability beyond the immediate future and to provide continuity of service over the longer term. We are particularly aware of the need to cover contingency liabilities such as gaps in funding streams, cash flow and meeting the cost of redundancy payments to staff in the event that projects come to an end or that the organisation itself should be forced to close.

CAN allocates unspent money to three different types of funds in the accounts at the end of the financial year. These were:

At the end the year the charity had £279,923 in free reserves (that is unrestricted funds less designated), enough to cover just under 7 months of annual expenditure which is within the target of 6-9 months set by the Reserves Policy.

6. Funds held as Custodian Trustee on behalf of others

We hold funds for the following organisations: Bi-Polar Support Group £1,671.50 Hurting to Healing £2,500.00 Sandbanks Neighbourhood Forum £290.00 Total £4,461.50

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

7. Income and spend rationale Core funding:

CAN receive core funding grants from BCP Council and Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group which are monitored via service level agreements. The funding is used to deliver our charitable objects and an annual plan that defines our mission, objectives and measures of success. The majority of the funding is used to employ our staff and pay for small offices in Boscombe and Poole.

Project funding:

CAN also received additional funding from BCP Council to provide support to Voluntary Youth Projects and promote and support young people to volunteer. This funding sadly ended in September 2020, due to funding cuts at the Council and the post has had to be deleted.

A Good Life – CAN delivers a Lottery and Public Health Dorset funded programme to help reduce loneliness for older people in Poole initially. The programme is due to run until February 2023 initially.

Other funding:

CAN has received additional funding from NHS England via Dorset CCG to lead on a scoping project and report on integrated volunteering opportunities. The next steps are on hold because of the pandemic. Dorset CCG also funded a project testing the concept of a Single Point of Contact (SPOC). A report detailed the findings, which we had planned as basis for a Lottery bid, however, the pandemic has put this on a temporary hold.

Organisational development designated funds from our reserves have been utilised to fund a Partnerships Manager role until September 2022 and to support re-branding and establishing a new website to further our mission to empower the voluntary sector, enable volunteering and involve communities.

Due to prudent financial management, CAN have not overspent on any budget this financial year. At the end of last quarter and into 2020/2021 CAN has drawn on its contingency to fund additional work as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic but has sought additional funding to make up 50% of this spend.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

8. Future plans

We are mindful of the changing economic environment. The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) released their economic forecast on the 10th June 2021, which predicts UK GDP growth for 2021 of 6.8%, which if realised would be the strongest outturn since official records began in 1949. The UK economy is then expected to return to its pre-pandemic level in April 2022 with growth of 5.1% projected for next year.

Youth unemployment is expected to lag the wider recovery with the UK’s youth unemployment rate projected to average 10.1 percentage points higher than the overall unemployment rate across the forecast period, a quarter (25%) higher than the pre-covid average.

We were in a strong position going in to the pandemic with a clear vision and mission. We have been able to flex and adapt to meet the needs of our sector and the wider community as the Covid-19 pandemic continues and eventually ends.

Trustees want to take learning from the pandemic and ensure we maintain the momentum of the new and more collaborative ways of working.

Trustees are staff are committed to our mission to: EMPOWER the voluntary sector ENABLE volunteering INVOLVE communities

Our reputation and presence has increased exponentially this past year, and we are working as a whole team to maintain this momentum.

At our recent trustees and staff away day, we agreed our ‘Together We CAN Make a Difference’ – plan on a page is working really well.

Along with ‘business as usual’ we identified the following key priorities over the next year (not in priority order):

Imminent :

Now and going forward:

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

TRUSTEES' REPORT (INCLUDING DIRECTORS' REPORT) (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Declaration:

The trustees declare that they have approved the truistees annual report above at the 4th August 2021 trustees' meeting.

Signed on behalf of the charity's trustees:

Ms H Walker Chair

Dated: 19 August 2021

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT

TO THE TRUSTEES OF COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of Community Action Network for the year ended 31 March 2021.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the Community Action Network (and also its directors for the purposes of company law) you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 (the 2006 Act).

Having satisfied myself that the financial statements of the Community Action Network are not required to be audited under Part 16 of the 2006 Act and are eligible for independent examination, I report in respect of my examination of the Community Action Network’s financial statements carried out under section 145 of the Charities Act 2011 (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 2011 Act.

Independent examiner's statement

Since the Community Action Network’s gross income exceeded £250,000 your examiner must be a member of a body listed in section 145 of the 2011 Act. I confirm that I am qualified to undertake the examination because I am a member of ICAEW, which is one of the listed bodies.

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

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 financial statements to be reached.

Zoe Mowlem TC Group

26-32 Oxford Road Bournemouth Dorset BH8 8EZ United Kingdom

Dated: 26 August 2021

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES INCLUDING INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

Unrestricted
Restricted
funds
funds
2021
2021
Notes
£
£
Income and endowments from:
Donatons and legacies
3
185
15,084
Charitable actvites
4
389,757
146,806
Other income
5
1,179
-
Total income
391,121
161,890
Expenditure on:
Charitable actvites
6
330,930
162,244
Net income/(expenditure) for the year/
Net movement in funds
60,191
(354)
Fund balances at 1 April 2020
368,482
57,966
Fund balances at 31 March 2021
428,673
57,612		 Total
2021
£
15,269
536,563
1,179
553,011
493,174
59,837
426,448
486,285		 Total
2020
£
149,572
329,462
3,456
482,490
380,584
101,906
324,543
426,449

The statement of financial activities includes all gains and losses recognised in the year.

All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

The statement of financial activities also complies with the requirements for an income and expenditure account under the Companies Act 2006.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

BALANCE SHEET

AS AT 31 MARCH 2021

Notes
Current assets
Debtors
11
Cash at bank and in hand
Creditors: amounts falling due within
one year
12
Net current assets
Income funds
Restricted funds
13
Unrestricted funds
Designated funds
14
General unrestricted funds		 2021
£
57,604
456,206
513,810
(27,525)
148,750
279,923		 £
486,285
57,612
428,673
486,285		 2020
£
11,136
435,724
446,860
(20,411)
163,810
204,673		 £
426,449
57,966
368,483
426,449

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

BALANCE SHEET (CONTINUED)

AS AT 31 MARCH 2021

The company is entitled to the exemption from the audit requirement contained in section 477 of the Companies Act 2006, for the year ended 31 March 2021.

The trustees acknowledge their responsibilities for ensuring that the charity keeps accounting records which comply with section 386 of the Act and for preparing financial statements which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company as at the end of the financial year and of its incoming resources and application of resources, including its income and expenditure, for the financial year in accordance with the requirements of sections 394 and 395 and which otherwise comply with the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 relating to financial statements, so far as applicable to the company.

The members have not required the company to obtain an audit of its financial statements for the year in question in accordance with section 476.

These financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the provisions applicable to companies subject to the small companies regime.

The financial statements were approved by the Trustees on 4 August 2021

Ms H Walker

Trustee

Company Registration No. 04024662

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

2021
Notes
£
Cash fows from operatng actvites
Cash generated from operatons
17
Net cash used in investng actvites
Net cash used in fnancing actvites
Net increase in cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year
Cash and cash equivalents at end of year		 2020
£
£
20,482
-
-
20,482
435,724
456,206		 £
111,659
-
-
111,659
324,065
435,724

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

1 Accounting policies

Charity information

Community Action Network is a private company limited by guarantee incorporated in England and Wales. The registered office is Boscombe Link, 3-5 Palmerston Road, Bournemouth, Dorset, BH1 4HN.

On 4 November 2019 the charity renamed from Bournemouth Council for Voluntary Service to Community Action Network.

1.1 Accounting convention

The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the Community Action Network's governing document, the Companies Act 2006 and “Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102)” (as amended for accounting periods commencing from 1 January 2016). The Community Action Network is a Public Benefit Entity as defined by FRS 102.

The financial statements are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the Community Action Network. Monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest pound.

The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention. The principal accounting policies adopted are set out below.

1.2 Going concern

At the time of approving the financial statements, the trustees have a reasonable expectation that the Community Action Network has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements.

1.3 Charitable funds

Unrestricted funds are available for use at the discretion of the trustees in furtherance of their charitable objectives unless the funds have been designated for other purposes.

Restricted funds are subject to specific conditions by donors as to how they may be used. The purposes and uses of the restricted funds are set out in the notes to the financial statements.

1.4 Incoming resources

Income is recognised when the Community Action Network is legally entitled to it after any performance conditions have been met, the amounts can be measured reliably, and it is probable that income will be received.

Cash donations are recognised on receipt. Other donations are recognised once the Community Action Network has been notified of the donation, unless performance conditions require deferral of the amount. Income tax recoverable in relation to donations received under Gift Aid or deeds of covenant is recognised at the time of the donation.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

1 Accounting policies

(Continued)

Legacies are recognised on receipt or otherwise if the Community Action Network has been notified of an impending distribution, the amount is known, and receipt is expected. If the amount is not known, the legacy is treated as a contingent asset.

1.5 Resources expended

All expenditure is classified under the Charity's principle categories of charitable and other expenditure and all by the type of expenses.

1.6 Cash and cash equivalents

Cash and cash equivalents include cash in hand, deposits held at call with banks, other short-term liquid investments with original maturities of three months or less, and bank overdrafts. Bank overdrafts are shown within borrowings in current liabilities.

1.7 Financial instruments

The Community Action Network has elected to apply the provisions of Section 11 ‘Basic Financial Instruments’ and Section 12 ‘Other Financial Instruments Issues’ of FRS 102 to all of its financial instruments.

1.8 Employee benefits

The cost of any unused holiday entitlement is recognised in the period in which the employee’s services are received.

Termination benefits are recognised immediately as an expense when the Community Action Network is demonstrably committed to terminate the employment of an employee or to provide termination benefits.

1.9 Retirement benefits

Payments to defined contribution retirement benefit schemes are charged as an expense as they fall due.

1.10 Leases

Rentals payable under operating leases, including any lease incentives received, are charged as an expense on a straight line basis over the term of the relevant lease.

2 Critical accounting estimates and judgements

In the application of the Community Action Network’s accounting policies, the trustees are required to make judgements, estimates and assumptions about the carrying amount of assets and liabilities that are not readily apparent from other sources. The estimates and associated assumptions are based on historical experience and other factors that are considered to be relevant. Actual results may differ from these estimates.

The estimates and underlying assumptions are reviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions to accounting estimates are recognised in the period in which the estimate is revised where the revision affects only that period, or in the period of the revision and future periods where the revision affects both current and future periods.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

3 Donations and legacies

Unrestricted Restricted Total Total
funds funds
2021 2021 2021 2020
£ £ £ £
Donatons 185 15,084 15,269 149,572

4 Charitable activities

Charitable Charitable Charitable Actvites
Actvites
2021 2020
£ £
Income from charitable actvites 536,563 329,462
Analysis by fund
Unrestricted funds 389,757 247,485
Restricted funds 146,806 81,977
536,563 329,462
Included within charitable actvites is a BCP grant for £175,360 and NHS grant for £69,250.
Investment income
Unrestricted Total
funds
2021 2020
£ £
Bank interest 1,179 3,456

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

6 Charitable activities

Staf costs (see note 10)
Volunteer expenses
Post, statonery and photocopying
Subscriptons and publicatons
Telephone
Insurance
Advertsing
Travel and subsistence
Rent
Conference costs
Refreshments
Premises expenses
IT support & fnancial management
Miscellaneous
Volunteer uniform
Grant funding of actvites (see note 7)
Share of support costs (see note 8)
Professional fees
Analysis by fund
Unrestricted funds
Restricted funds		 2021
£
375,310
-
7,446
1,789
5,184
5,463
500
3,229
15,686
-
377
3,034
17,263
-
6,344
441,625
41,760
5,496
4,293
493,174
330,930
162,244
493,174		 2020
£
272,716
103
10,454
978
7,353
1,075
3,640
4,642
15,373
1,315
425
-
16,495
47
-
334,616
30,500
7,795
7,673
380,584
262,537
118,047
380,584

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

7 Grants Paid

Grants paid
8
Support costs
Accountancy fees
Trustee expenses
Trustee training/meetngs
Payroll
AGM costs		 Grants Paid
2021
£
41,760
41,760
2021
2020
£
£
3,089
2,240
215
1,362
-
350
2,192
1,983
-
1,860
5,496
7,795		 Grants Paid
2021
£
41,760
41,760
2021
2020
£
£
3,089
2,240
215
1,362
-
350
2,192
1,983
-
1,860
5,496
7,795
41,760
2020
£
2,240
1,362
350
1,983
1,860
7,795

9 Trustees

None of the trustees (or any persons connected with them) received any remuneration or benefits from the Community Action Network during the year.

During the year £215 (2020 - £1,362) of expenses were reimbursed to nine Trustees.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

10 Employees

Number of employees

The average monthly number of employees during the year was:

Employment costs
Salaries, NIC and pensions
Staf & trustee training & recruitment		 2021
Number
13
2021
£
372,242
3,068
375,310		 2020
Number
10
2020
£
269,124
3,592
272,716

Included in the above are social security costs of £25,802 (2020 - £16,617).

No employees received remuneration of greater than £60,000 in the current or previous year.

The full time equivalent of staff as at March 2021 was 17.

11 Debtors

Amounts falling due within one year:
Trade debtors
Other debtors
Prepayments and outstanding project income		 2021
£
50,371
141
7,092
57,604		 2020
£
2,950
609
7,577
11,136

Trade debtors have increased from the previous year primarily due to delayed payments in relation to the NHS DHC Vaccination programme.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

12 Creditors: amounts falling due within one year

Creditors: amounts falling due within one year
Trade creditors
Other creditors
Accruals and deferred income		 2021
£
687
7,374
19,464
27,525		 2020
£
1,462
2,175
16,774
20,411

Included within accruals and deferred income is £4,462 (2020 - £10,762) of funds held on behalf of other organisations.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

13 Restricted funds

The income funds of the charity include restricted funds comprising the following unexpended balances of donations and grants held on trust for specific purposes:

1
Voluntary Youth Project
Voluntary Sector Reps
Donaton to local community groups
A Good Life
Ansbury
Poole Voluntary Service Fund
Bournemouth Young Volunteers
Asdan
Awards for All
Home First
Trusted Voices
Voluntary Youth Work
Yours Sincerely		 Balance at
April 2020
£
4,433
7,536
-
30,057
1,853
9,216
4,871
-
-
-
-
-
-
57,966		 Movement in funds
Incoming
resources
Resources
expended
£
£
181
-
-
-
15,084
(13,083)
51,793
(65,772)
1,478
(3,331)
-
-
-
-
2,500
(2,460)
5,000
(4,555)
50,000
(28,515)
10,000
(10,000)
20,772
(29,989)
5,082
(4,539)
161,890
(162,244)		 Transfers
Balance at
31 March 2021
£
£
(4,432)
182
-
7,536
(1,000)
1,001
-
16,078
-
-
-
9,216
(4,871)
-
-
40
-
445
-
21,485
-
-
10,303
1,086
-
543
-
57,612		 Transfers
Balance at
31 March 2021
£
£
(4,432)
182
-
7,536
(1,000)
1,001
-
16,078
-
-
-
9,216
(4,871)
-
-
40
-
445
-
21,485
-
-
10,303
1,086
-
543
-
57,612
57,612

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

13 Restricted funds

(Continued)

Voluntary Youth Project

Grant funding to build the capacity of voluntary sector youth work organisations.

Voluntary Sector Reps

Grant funding to support advocacy and representations on a wide range of partnerships.

Donation to local community groups

This was funds received into CAN to be distributed to small charities/ community groups as specified by the owner.

A Good Life

A programme to help end loneliness in later life.

Bournemouth Young Volunteer Awards Scheme

To recognise and celebrate the voluntary work of young people through an awards scheme.

Ansbury

Project to facilitate the evaluation of work to support young people into employment or further education.

Poole Voluntary Service Funds

Funding for supporting specific Poole based projects.

Bournemouth Young Volunteers

Funding from BCP Council to support young people into volunteering.

Awards for All

Grant funding to support volunteers helping vulnerable people.

Home First

Grant funding to fund a project looking at the role of the community and voluntary sector in safe discharge from hospital and admission avoidance.

Trusted Voices

Grant funding to support Public Health messaging to the community and voluntary sector.

Voluntary Sector Reps

Grant funding to support advocacy and representations on a wide range of partnerships.

Yours Sincerely

A Project supporting young pen pals corresponding with socially isolated and lonely older people.

Voluntary Youth Work

Funding to develop the capacity of voluntary sector youth work organisations and young volunteers across BCP.

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

14 Designated funds

The income funds of the charity include the following designated funds which have been set aside out of unrestricted funds by the trustees for specific purposes:

1
Org development
Project development
PWBC
Volunteer coordinator		 Balance at
April 2020
£
98,963
64,838
9
-
163,810		 Resources
expended
£
(48,407)
(503)
(9)
-
(48,919)		 Transfers
Balance at
31 March 2021
£
£
13,334
63,890
(10,916)
53,419
-
-
31,441
31,441
33,859
148,750		 Transfers
Balance at
31 March 2021
£
£
13,334
63,890
(10,916)
53,419
-
-
31,441
31,441
33,859
148,750
148,750

Organisational Development

Project Development

Following the merger of Poole CVS and Bournemouth CVS, and expansion of the area we provide a service to, the Trustees have decided to allocate these funds to build capacity and contribute to improved productivity and sustainability of the organisation over the next two years.

PWBC

Hours allocated to wind up Poole Well Being Collaborative Company.

Volunteer coordinator

The volunteer coordinator project is initially planned to last 23 months.

15 Analysis of net assets between funds

Unrestricted
Restricted
£
£
Fund balances at 31 March 2021 are
represented by:
Current assets/(liabilites)
428,671
57,614
428,671
57,614		 Total
2021
£
486,285
486,285		 Total
2020
£
426,449
426,449

COMMUNITY ACTION NETWORK

NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS (CONTINUED)

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2021

16
Related party transactons
There were no related party transactons during the year.
17
Cash generated from operatons
Surplus for the year
Movements in working capital:
(Increase) in debtors
Increase in creditors
Cash generated from operatons		 2020
£
101,906
(831)
10,584
111,659
2021
£
59,837
(46,469)
7,114
20,482