2025-03-31-accounts

NEIGHBOURCARE ST JOHN’S WOOD AND MAIDA VALE

Registered Charity 1087571

Report and financial statements

For the year 2024-25 ending on 31 March 2025

Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report and financial statements

For the year ended 31 March 2025

Contents

Contents
	Pages
References and administrative information	1
Trustees’ annual report	2-9
Including:
Statement of financial activities	5
(incorporating an income and expenditure account)
Balance sheet	5-6
Notes to the financial statements	7-8
Independent examiners' report	11

Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Reference and administrative information

For the year ended 31 March 2025

Trustees:	Mrs Bernadette Ratigan, Chairman
	Mrs Elizabeth Helen Travis, Vice Chairman (until 23rd June 2025)
	Mrs Giovanna Popeck - Secretary
	Mr David Allen Hogarth – Co-ordinator
	Mr Xavier Lecacheur – Treasurer
	Mr Michael Bradley
	Mrs Jane Davis
	Mr Martin Furey
	Mrs Katrina Nash
	Ms Judith Salinson
	Mr Gerardo Urdaneta
Charity number:	1087571
HMRC charities reference:	XR56947
Registered office:	25 St. Edmund’s Terrace - London NW8 7PY
Auditors:	Goldwins Limited
	75 Maygrove Road
	West Hampstead
	London NW6 2EG
	www.goldwins.co.uk
Bankers	Barclays Bank
	Community Accounts
	Business Banking
	Leicester LE87 2BB

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

The trustees present their report and financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2025.

The trustees confirm that the financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum and articles of association and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102.

Objectives and activities

Purposes and aims

Neighbourcare St John’s Wood and Maida Vale combats isolation and distress in St John’s Wood and Maida Vale by providing befrienders and taking people on outings including our 3-4 annual birthday parties.

Public benefit

Neighbourcare St John’s Wood and Maida Vale main activities are one-to-one befriending of isolated people (mostly elderly) and taking these and others on outings in our minibuses

• Befriending in person or by telephone

• Outings: Four times a week we take people on outings in our minibuses

• Birthday parties: Every three to four months we hold a party for isolated people with birthdays around that time.

• Every year we support a Christmas day lunch for up to 100 people.

Our second objective is to enable those we support to help others. We take groups of old people to schools to talk with pupils, and we encourage some people we support to make friendly calls to other older or isolated people.

Social Investment: minibus: We operate one minibus acquired in 2019.

Grant-making: nil

Volunteers:

At the Trustee meeting in April 2025 we counted 47 volunteers and 71 active relationships.

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

Achievements and performance

DEVELOPMENT, ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS DURING THE YEAR

1) Befriending: At the last Trustee meeting in April 2025 we counted 44 volunteers and 75 active relationships.

We started the year with 47 volunteers and who supported 71 relationships.

We have had some resignations, volunteers leaving London and volunteers and friends passing away.

Volunteers are allocated to four sub-groups chaired by our Coordinator or Secretary and meet each month in person or virtually to share their experiences. At the end of last year, the Morning Group had 13 volunteers, the Evening and Weekend Groups 12 each and the Afternoon group had ten. Most of the meetings are once more face to face and we are grateful to members who have hosted them.

At the end of the year we had nineteen people who were said to want a befriender from us and there were six volunteers who currently do not have anyone whom they were supporting.

2) Outings: In the year to March 31[st] we did 197 outings, giving an average of 3.8 per week, to compare with last year’s 183.

This increase in outings was achieved even though our Coordinator was no longer driving the minibus from 01 August 2024.

Since the beginning of September 2024 we have been booking minibuses with drivers from Westway Community Transport for the regular outings and this has worked well; and we have had valuable help with the driving from Peter Kearse.

John Darley, Jane Davis, Michael Mc Kay, John Mason, Aidan Murphy and Costanza Scelfo have been wonderful helps as outing escorts . The Coordinator has also been acting as escort on many outings.

The regular outings continue; we are still doing our regular trips to Francis Holland School for mosaic-making and to the Liberal synagogue for the fortnightly Out and About club and for their monthly film.

There were some interesting one off events:

Among the more unusual outings was a tea party in a café, a visit to a spring health fair, an evening performance of “Don Giovanni” at the Cockpit theatre and last but by no means least the Lord Mayor’s tea party for our volunteers on February 5th

We are grateful to our partners who have supported our activities during the financial year: The Paddington Partnership; St John’s Wood Church, The Church of our Lady, The Liberal Jewish

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

Synagogue, St Paul’s Church in Rossmore Road; Hampstead Court Care Home, The Hub at 60 Penfold Street, The American School, Hammerson’s and The Point at Paddington.

3) Birthday Parties : In the year to March 31[st] we had to postpone the summer birthday party, due to a lack of drivers, but we held birthday parties on 30 May, 29 October 2024 and 31 March 2025.

Parties were hosted by organisations and companies recruited by The Paddington Partnership Groundwork Westminster, though we are still responsible for inviting guests, arranging transport, presents and quizzes; Hammerson’s hosted one party and have promised a second one.

4) Intergenerational activities:

Our weekly visits to Francis Holland School for mosaic making have continued throughout the year.

We are making about 3 visits to the American school per year where we meet both the infants and the middle school students.

5) Christmas Lunch

The Trustees formally approved taking over the activities of the annual Christmas Lunch, previously organised de jure by the St Johns Wood Christmas Committee but de facto seen as a Neighbourcare event by stakeholders.

The Christmas lunch took place at the Marriott Hotel, George Street on December 22nd 2024. Thanks are due to the many Neighbourcare volunteers and others who participated either as table hosts or as drivers and particularly to Robert Rigby, the then Lord Mayor of Westminster, who spent over an hour with us and drew the raffle.

Lessons about timings have been discussed by the Executive Committee and negotiations opened with the Marriott at Swiss Cottage where parking is easier so that we can be more flexible about transport timing.

6) Financial review

The financial year started on 01 April 2024 and terminated on 31 March 2025.

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

Final accounts April 2024 - March 2025

Final accounts April 2024 - March 2025	Final accounts April 2024 - March 2025	Final accounts April 2024 - March 2025	Final accounts April 2024 - March 2025	Final accounts April 2024 - March 2025
Profit and loss account
Income		2024/25				2023/24
Current donations			2,334.22			3,349.13
Interest - net of banking fees			2,447.32			1,076.88
Fund Raising other and Legacies			28,382.75			123,673.04
Total income			33,164.29			128,099.05
Expenses
Minibuses running costs				780.72			1,495.71
Driving Services				4,291.53			18.00
Minibuses-insurance				2,541.12			3,054.41
Minibuses maintenance costs incl MOT				1,203.21			1,818.18
Sub total Minibuses-related				8,816.58			6,386.30
Insurance (liability…)				480.09			599.50
Annual Christmas Lunch (net)*				5,156.95			0.00
Other expenses (DBS checks; misc.admin)				2,466.64			1,054.60
Legal fees				0.00			7,714.51
Depreciation for the Financial Year				3,823.31			2,548.87
Total expenses			20,743.57			18,303.78
Provision: accelerated depreciation of minibus**			4,500.00
Regularisation : bench and May tree						-179.65
Total: Surplus/Deficit if negative			7,920.72			109,615.62
Simplified balance sheet			2024/25			2023/24
Assets
Minibus			38,233.12			38,233.12
minus depreciation			16,567.68			12,744.37
minusspecial provision for depreciation				4,500.00
Minibuses net value			17,165.44			25,488.75
Debtors, cheque in the post
Accrual regularisation from last year						414.61
Investment = savings account		173,620.62				155,873.40
Cash in the current account at the bank		5,204.59				6,242.33
Total assets		195,990.65				188,019.09
Liabilities	2024/25					2023/24
Reserve for minibus renewal account	36,127.02 149,336.66 7,920.72 417.58 2,188.67					27,803.71 48,202.04 109,615.62 2,391.82
Charity's surplus carried forward
Result of the year
Accrual regularisation
Creditors, cheques to be paid in April or May year n+1
Total liabilities	195,990.65					188,013.18

Cashflow Statement

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

	2024/25	2023/24
Bank balance beginning of year	162,119.73	49,949.16
Paid in (Bank statements)	31,504.17	127,022.17
Interest net of banking charges	2,447.32	1,076.88
Paid out (Bank statements)	-16,757.42	-16,108.83
Cash at the Bank (Barclays)	5,204.59	6,246.33
Savings account (Barclays)*	173,620.62	155,873.40
Total Barclays Bank end of financial year***	178,825.21	162,119.73

Notes to the accounts

* Neighbourcare Trustees decided to take on the annual Christmas Lunch: they received 787.20 from the St Johns Wood Christmas Lunch Committee and spent £5,944.15 on the event

• " ** Change of depreciation methodology (see note A page 7):

• the new Minibus acquired on 01 April 2019 was depreciated over 15 years

• depreciation will now be accelerated to 10 years, to better reflect its used value; and

• "

• a special provision of £5,400 will be recorded to adjust its current value

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

Comments on the attached accounts

The Financial Year started on 01 April 2024 and terminated on 31 March 2025.

A. Change in accounting method: accelerated depreciation of the minibus

Our Charity acquired its Minibus, new, for a cost of £38,233 on 1[st] April 2019. It was depreciated over 15 years and its net value was £25,488.75 on 31 March 2024, at the end of the previous financial year.

We informed the previous Annual Geneal Meeting that we would review the situation, learning from the new operational arrangement with Westway Community of which Neighbourcare is a fee-paying member.

Research on used value of similar minibuses, the value for money considerations of its repairs, as well as discussions with the insurance company led the Trustees to propose a new, more cautious, accounting approach:

• The minibus will be insured for a value of £17,000.

• It has been decided to book a value close to £17,000 in the yearly accounts at 31 March 2025, by:

• Accelerating the depreciation of the vehicle over 10 years rather than 15 years as decided originally, recognising its fall in value;

• Increasing the annual depreciation from £2,548.87 (1/15[th] ) to £3,823.31 (1/10[th] )

• Recording a special exceptional provision of £4,500 to adjust the value of the minibus to £17,165.44, close to its £17,000 target

For information, at the end of the next financial year, on 31/03/2026, the book value of the minibus will decrease to £13,342.13, a value close to the lower band of valuation on specialised used vehicle platforms.

The minibus will be fully depreciated in August 2029 rather than August 2034.

B. Legacy and special donations

Neighbourcare received final payments from the late Mrs Maude Songo Davies’ estate for a total of £28,262.75

Moreover we sent a request to HMRC to have some tax on the Mongo-Davies estate rebated, and that HMRC accepted after the end of the financial year, for an amount of £244.28.

We are grateful for the support we received from their family and friends, and from the executors.

B. Financial reserves

Our Neighbourcare Charity has £178,695.21 available on 31 March 2025, net of accruals (expenses incurred but not yet paid).

Reserve policy

Trustees have pursued a prudent savings policy, setting aside surplus funds from legacies to the separate Barclays “Business Savings Account” opened in 2019. This savings account amount to £173,620.62 on 31 March 2025.

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

During the financial year, Barclays paid £2,447.32 in quarterly interest on the savings account.

During their meetings, the Trustees have looked at options to diversify the Charity savings amongst other banks and regulated financial institutions, driven by caution and safety. We will brief the Annual General Meeting of our success (or lack thereof).

The funds cover about ten years of activities, based on current recourse to driving services.

D. Expenses

We have continued during this financial year to timely record most minibus-related expenses (fuel, repairs-maintenance, insurance and driving services).

The cost of driving services has indeed significantly increased due to our Coordinator no longer being able to drive.

Miscellaneous expenses represent the increased cost of vetting our volunteers and the cost of hosting our website, www.neighbourcaresjwmv.org.uk/, our Zoom software subscription, as well as various small expenses.

As recommended during the latest audit review, the new IT equipment has been fully depreciated during the financial year it had been acquired, in 2022.

Accruals

We have decided to include in the financial year expenses that had been incurred but for which payment £2,188.67 has been made on 10 April 2025, after the end of the financial year.

E. Update since the end of the financial year

For information, interest paid on Barclays savings account amounted to £576.75 on 02/06/25.

There is no other material information to disclose between April and July 2025.

Going concern

It is the Trustees’ policy to maintain reserves at a sufficient level to meet ordinary running costs.

Since befriending activities are almost entirely cost free, our main outgoings are associated with the running and maintenance of the new minibus.

Principal risks and uncertainties

As stated above there is no imminent financial risk.

Our new minibus is compliant with the current Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), London regulation that has stricter standards to reduce air pollution.

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vale

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Report of the trustees for the year ended 31 March 2025

was invited to talk at the October 2024 AGM; and in May 2025 a joint event was organised between Neighbourcare, St Johns Wood Society and Metropolitan Police experts in financial scams. The Treasurer participated in November 2024 in an online training event organised by Barclays.

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Related parties and relationships with other organisations

Our Charity remains member of One Westminster and of its sub-group for organisations providing services to older people.

Statement of responsibilities of the trustees . The trustees are responsible for preparing the trustees’ annual report and the financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice). —

Accounting standards/policies

in preparing financial statements giving a true and fair view, the Trustees follow best practice and:

• (a) select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently; |

• (b) make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent:

• (c) state whether applicable accounting standards and statements of recommended practice have - been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements;

• (d) prepare the financial statermenis on a going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to assume that the Charity will continue in operation.”

The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities. |.

The trustees are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the corporate and. financial information included on the charity's website. .

Approved by the trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Lo av aSy } wo Nat 4Ge , Mrs Bernadette Ratigan (Chair) | Dated: Ye ( 4 | 75

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Neighbourcare St John's Wood and Maida Vaie

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independent Examiners’ Report the year ended 31 March 2025

• | report on the Financial Statements of the Trust for the year ended 31 March 2025.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

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

itis my responsibility to:

• ® examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2017 Act: * to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act; and

• e to state whether particular matters have come to my attention. .

Basis of independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the genera! Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charitable Trust and a comparison of tne accounts presented with those records. [t also includes consideration of any unusua) items or disclosures in the accounts. and seeking explanations from you as trustees conceming any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide ali the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to wheiner the accounts present a “true and fair view” and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

independent examiner’s statement

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

• (1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:

• e to keep accounting records in accordance with section 130 of the 2011 Act; and

• e to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act have not been met; or

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

AnthonyiV tAhvenEpton’BA,EFCA, phenCTA, FCIE Goldwins

Chartered Accountants

75 Maygrove Road West Hampstead London NW6 2EG

Dated: Xa | WS

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