2023-03-31-accounts

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BEAM

(A company limited by guarantee)

Report and financial statements for the year ended 31[st] March 2023.

Charity number: 1097322 Company Number: 4495170

Page 3. Reference and administrative information

Page 4. Objects

Page 7. This year’s activity and events.

Page 12. Statement of financial activities and notes

The Management Committee presents its directors’ rep0rt and audited financial statements for the year ended 31[st] march 2022.

Reference and administrative information

Charity Name Beam Staffs Charity registration number 1097322 Company registration number 4495170 Registered office and operational address Unit No 1 The Mills Mill Street Stafford ST16 2QZ

Management Committee

Chair Left

Mr Ian Mason November 2022 Mr David Moreton Honorary Secretary Mr David Bailey Mr Stephen Fletcher Mrs Hayley Fletcher Mr Simon Mountford Mr Roy Parker

Chair from November 22

Secretary Mr Mike Howell

Staff Team

Mr Mike Howell Chief Officer

Benefits Support Service

Ms Nadina Binns Senior Welfare Benefits Advice Officer Ms Julieanne Roberts Welfare benefits Advisor

Building Better Opportunities

Mrs Karin Hall Employability Officer

Mrs Janine Davies Mental Health and Wellbeing Officer and Independent Living Service Officer. Mr Desmond Brumley Mental Health and Wellbeing Officer

Financial Inspector

Mr Malcolm Kidd

Bankers

Unity Trust Bank Nine Brindleyplace Birmingham B1 2HB

Mrs Nadia Coupland

Accountant

OBJECTS

The objects of the Society as set out in the memorandum of association are: -

The relief of people with a learning disability, in particular by the provision of help and support for them and for their families, dependants and carers, for the public benefit.
To provide or assist in the provision of facilities for the recreation or other leisure time occupation for people who have need thereof by reason of learning disability with the object of improving their condition of life.

“Learning disability” means any developmental disability of the mind and any associated condition howsoever caused and whether mild, moderate or severe.

In order to attain its objects but not for any other purpose the society may (but need not):

Increase public awareness and understanding of the abilities of people with a learning disability, their problems and needs and those of their families, dependents and carers in order to assist their integration into society.
Encourage mutual help and co-operation between families, dependants and carers of people with learning disabilities (particularly within the geographical vicinity of the society) and also between them and other agencies and individual who work for them.
Co-operate with other charities, voluntary bodies and statutory authorities operating in furtherance of the objects of the Society or of similar charitable objects and exchange information and advice with them.
Raise funds and ask for and receive contributions (including subscriptions, legacies, grants and other gifts) provided that in raising funds the Society shall not undertake and permanent activities of a trading nature except those allowed by charity law.
Invest the money of the Society not immediately required for its purposes in or upon such investments, securities or properties as may be thought fit.

Employ such staff as are necessary for the proper pursuit of the objects upon such terms as to remuneration and otherwise as the Executive Committee shall decide provided that no paid member of staff shall be a member of the Executive Committee.
Appoint and constitute an advisory committee of people with a learning disability and such other advisory committees as the Executive Committee shall think fit.
Borrow or raise money in such manner and upon such terms as the Society shall think fit and may, for the purposes of securing any debt or other obligation of the Society, mortgage or charge all or part of the property of the Society.
Buy, take on lease or in exchange any building and/or land and maintain and equip such buildings and/or land for use and sell, lease or otherwise dispose of them subject to complying with such conditions and obtaining such consents as may be required by charity law
Undertake or accept any trusts or obligations.
Do all such other lawful things as shall further the attainment of the objects of the Society

Objectives

The objectives of the charity are to make sure that people with a learning disability living in Stafford and South Staffordshire have the same opportunity as everyone else to be a fully inclusive member of their community as they possibly can.

We aim to reduce a person’s potential for being marginalised and discriminated against because they have a disability.
We aim to see our clients are fairly and equitably represented in areas of life and living that the non-disabled community will have a better chance of achieving in. For example, this could be employment, housing, personal health, benefits entitlement, social life and education.

Ensuring our work delivers its aims

We will consult with our users about the things we plan to do and the projects we plan to deliver. They will tell us what they think we need to do. Each project will have its own set of outcomes, outputs or results that are usually required for funding purposes. These activities are regularly reviewed by the Management Committee to ensure that our funded activities are consistent with our aims. Also, Trustees will consider our forward plans to ensure that the same tie up is present going forward as it

does for past achievements, therefore ensuring that planned activities contribute to the agreed aims and objectives.

The focus of our work

The main objectives for the year continued to be those mentioned above. The strategies that we have used to achieve these objectives were: -

In response to the Social Welfare legislation to ensure that our clients get the support they need in being able to respond to the changes to their benefits regime.
For many complex reasons our clients are seriously underrepresented in being able to find employment. We have helped many people with learning disabilities get closer to the job market.
Beam has, with the employability program, introduced a specific service for people who have a mental health issue they need support with.
All beam staff have attended training courses on many different aspects of good practice in service delivery and how the job changes with the introduction of new legislation.
We have, as much as possible, worked in partnership with likeminded organisations as a means of accessing the widest range of services that can be linked to the needs of our clients.

How our activities deliver public benefit

Our main activities and who we support are described below. All our charitable activities focus on the needs of people with learning disabilities and are undertaken to further our charitable purposes for the public benefit.

Our services, who used them and how did they benefit?

The number of people with a learning disability in the area beam works in is far in excess of the number of people we support. There are no accurate statistics that show how many people live in Stafford and South Staffordshire who have a learning disability; the best we have is an estimate that 2.1% of the population fall into this category. This means that in Stafford Borough alone 2,803 individuals are potential clients, a number far beyond the total amount of people we could support during a year.

This year’s activity and events

We looked forward to the year knowing that change was inevitable because funding for two of our primary activities were coming to end. Plans were therefore set to search for funding that would continue to meet the ongoing needs of those we seek to help.

Beam Activities

In May 2022 we had what we thought was an update for a funding bid we had made to Charities Together, University Hospital North Midlands. They had arranged to come and visit us to have a look at our centre. Unbeknown to us our application to Charities Together had been successful and they were coming to tell us, and we were pleasantly surprised, when this turned out to a cheque presentation event. Beam had applied to deliver a series of events and activities that were designed to bring people together who were otherwise experiencing the unwanted effects of loneliness and isolation. People with learning disabilities are known to be isolated in their communities and we wanted to do something about this. So, we embarked on the following: -

Date	Event	People attending
16thAugust 2022	The Initial Group Meeting	13
6th September	Picnicin the park	13
4thOctober	Trentham Gardens and The Monkey Forest	7
8thNovember	Tenpin Bowling	18
6thDecember	Tenpin Bowling andlunch	13
10thJanuary 2023	Games and a Quiz in the ofce	16
14thFebruary	Arts and craftsin the ofce	11
14thMarch	Figure paintingin the ofce	8
22ndMarch	Collegetasterevent.	10

Here we see our group; we met on the first day to talk about the things they would like to do and where they would like to go.

This program will last for two years and complete in July 2024.

Give me some credit – a lottery funded project.

This is our benefits advice service. Funded for a five-year period we knew the program was due to come to an end in July 2023, meaning this was the last full year. Therefore, Beam began the work of developing a Reaching Communities funding bid that would extend the program beyond the finish date. We could see that the funding priorities for Reaching Communities were changing; we wanted to assess if the needs and wishes of our clients matched these. We were pleased when we discovered they did and so began to collate the following information: -

Clients were coming to us with requests outside of, but associated with the current program’s remit. We recorded what these were.
We looked at how welfare benefits regulations were changing. This had affected transferring away from the old-style legacy benefits and onto Universal Credits meaning less people had made this change. The role out of Universal Credits was taking much longer than planned.
How Personal Independence Payment awards were becoming much harder to get.

Through running the prevention of loneliness and isolation program Beam had learnt much about how people relate to their community, the things they do in it and who they do it with. We knew this information would be important and we submitted our first stage proposal in October 2022. In February of 2023, Beam was invited to submit a full funding proposal.

Building Better Opportunities (BBO)

Similarly, the Building Better Opportunities partnership program came to an end in March 2022. Beam had been heavily involved in this work to the effect that: -

We hosted a weekly job club.
We provided a mental health support program which included a weekly walking group.
The program delivered support services such as benefit and debt advice and peer support services from our office.

When the program ended the partnership was looking for funding to continue.

Employment Support Service

The ESF funded and Staffordshire Community Foundation employment support service completed in April 2022. This was a one-off six-month program designed to support people with learning disabilities who were ineligible for the Building Better Program.

The Independent Living Service

In October of 2022 Beam embarked on a new venture, we began to provide an independent living service. This was prompted by a combination of events: -

Redeployment of staff arising from the described closure of work programs.
The need to start generating our own income
How people with direct payments told us that the were having difficulty finding the services they needed.
One of our staff had previously run an independent living service and had the skills and knowledge to continue doing so.

Trustees took the decision to introduce this new service and asked for regular financial reports and client number information to be provided as a method of monitoring progress.

Premises and lease

In February 23 our three-year lease came to an end. Beam is extremely happy and content with our location; both staff and clients think it’s an excellent place to work from. After a very short and positive period of negotiation we agreed a further three-year lease at a reduced rent.

Investment Policy

The significant reduction in interest rates has meant that no interest was being paid on our instant access deposit account. After some searching for a suitable provider Beam’s trustees decided that £200,000 of the reserves would be transferred to The Community Foundation of Staffordshire under a Held Fund Agreement to be invested on Beam’s behalf.

After the completion of a due diligence exercise Beam’s trustees felt that this was the best way of ensuring that interest received is maximised. The transfer of funds was completed in March 2022. Beam considers this a

long-term investment and would only draw on these funds in a financial crisis.

After several experiences where funding applications were not successful because we held to much in reserve Beam is aware that, in the event of this fund growing, we must have a plan to allocate some of these funds in the future. A plan to do this has been developed in conjunction with the previously described bid to Reaching Communities.

Principle Funding Sources

Through the year Beam’s principal funding sources continued to be from Reaching Communities for the welfare benefits advice service and Building Better Opportunities employability program.

Reserves Policy

Beams trustees have reviewed their reserves policy during the year and made the following allocations to designated funds.

The Trustees have allocated a restricted reserve fund of £228,194.

£62,513 to cover winding up costs in the event of an unplanned and unexpected shutdown.
£165,681 to cover twelve months running costs to be used in the event of further funding not being available.

Future Plans

After review trustees have decided the future plans remain the same as for previous years. These are: -

Longer term financial stability to include a reduction in grant dependency and a development of self-generated income
Ensuring the services provided are those that our clients require.
Looking at the viability of new services and enterprises.
Developing staff skills.
Considering our status as a charity
Attracting more trustees.

Cranfield Trust

The Cranfield Trust provides pro-bono support and free service for charity leaders to achieve their vision and ambition. Beam have been introduced to them by The Lloyds Foundation. The Cranfield Trust has very kindly agreed to support beam as we move from a position of assured funding to one where 12 months into the future the stability of income is reduced.

A plan has been agreed that will address three areas of development.

How to develop the skills to bid for Local Authority Contracts.
How to generate our own income to provide unrestricted funds
Does the governance model of a changing organisation need to be updated?

Beam continues to work with The Cranfield Trust.

Training

During the year Beam arranged training for staff on the following subjects:

Safeguarding
Prevent
Gender Equality.

Governing document

Beam’s governing documents comprise of memorandum of Association and Articles of Association.

Recruitment and appointment of the directors

The business plan has a section on how and when the trustees will review its membership, carryout a skills analysis and recruit members who have the skills to support the service.

Organisational Structure

Beam is a Registered Charity and a Company Limited by Guarantee. Our internal structure can be shown by the following diagram: -

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Board of Trustees
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Chief Officer
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Benefits Independent Employment Buildi ng
Advice Service SeniorLiving Service ILS Officer Support Bett er Employability
Welfare WelfareO t itiMent O afficerl Health
Support Worker
Benefits Benefits
Support
Shared
Responsibility
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Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 March 2023 Section A Income and expenditure

	N o t e	Unrestric ted Funds £	Restricte d Income Funds £	Endowme nt Funds £	Total Funds £	Prior year funds £
Income
Donations and legacies		195			195	410
Charitable activities	1		182,207		182,207	149,636
Membership and subscriptions		262			262	490
Trading Activities	2	11,189			11,189	8,293
Covid job retentionscheme						447
Covid and Day Care support funding						11,000
Other		1,046			1,046	4,385
Total		12,692	182,207		194,899	174,661

Expenditure
Raising funds		-	-	-	-	-
Charitable funds					205,934	186,682
Separate material expense item
Other
Total					195,934	186,682

Net income for reporting period					194,899	174,662
Tax Payable
Net Income after tax					194,899	174,662
Net gains on investments
Net Income					194,899	174,662
Extraordinar y Items

Transfer between funds


Net Movement in Funds	3	(11,035)	(12,021)
Reconciliati on of funds
Total funds brought forward
Total funds carried forward		254,529	265,564

Statement of Financial Activities for the year ended 31 March 2023 Section B Balance Sheet

	Total Funds £	Prior year funds £
Fixed Assets
Intangible assets
Tangible assets
Heritage assets
Investments
Total Fixed Assets	254,529	265,564

Current Assets
Creditors
Debtors
Investments	200,000	200,000
Cash at bank & in hand	54,529	65,564
Total Current Assets	254,529	265,564

Notes to the accounts

Income

The £182,207 is represented by £83,000 received from Building Better Opportunities, £65,773 received from Reaching Communities, £24,429

from University Hospital West Midlands and a further £6,000 in restricted grants.

The income of £11,189 recorded as trading activities represents events and activities Beam has provided for partner organisations. This sum also includes income received from the Independent Living Scheme

Expenditure

The annual expenses of £205,934 are represented as follows: -
Salaries £169,872
Travelling Expenses £3,389
Communications £2,094
Depreciation £207
Office costs £8,438
Rent and service charge £19,731
Accounts and payroll £1,353
Items for clients £850

Value added Tax

During the year Beam continued to submit VAT returns.

Financial Summary

Beam is reporting an annual deficit of £11,035. The loss is mostly represented by a negative balance on the Independent Living Service. Trustees made the decision to introduce this service with the knowledge that a loss would be incurred over the first year.