## **Cambridgeshire Older People's Enterprise (COPE) Annual Report 2024-2025**
COPE faced two main difficulties in this financial year. First, the lack of funding, apart from £2,000 from South Cambs and £3,500 from Cambridge City. However, donations from members and adverts in the Newsletter helped prevent the need to use any reserves. The second difficulty was in finding volunteers and above all trustees. We are gradually being able to find volunteers to help man the office with advertisments and help from CCVS.
## **Newsletter**
COPE produced its 20 page bi monthly Newsletter to ensure its members were fully informed as to activities and help available. Plus articles on health nutrition and general fitness. In addition, quizzes to help keep mentally agile were provided and other articles to stimulate readers.The Newsletters were sent by post or email to all members as well as to Council Offices, Libraries, GP Clinics, Care Homes, Community Centres etc.
## **Social Events**
Monthly social events were held at Queen Edith's Chapel, St Ives Corn Exchange and in March at St Peter's Church Hall. The March meetings started in November 2024 and now include Chatteris Community Centre. Attendences were back to pre Covid levels with Queen Edith's having an average of 20attending (8 fron South Cambs) and St Ives averaging 35 members. At all venues talks on a range of subjects were given wirth light refreshments. Christmas Lunches were held at Cambridge Regional College Restaurant and St Ives Corn Exchange. The Cambridge Lunch hosted 103 members of which many members came from St Ives and The St Ives Lunch hosted 52 members.
## **Outings**
These were to Hougton Hall (May). Bletchley Park (June) , Springfields Retail Outlet & Leisure Centre, Spalding(September) Bury St Edmunds Christmas Market (November). Transport was provided from St Luke's Car Park and Milton Park & Ride. St Ives had outings to Southwold and Brick Lane Music Hall (London).
## **Projects**
During the year COPE continued to fight against Loneliness which is still a large problem among older people. Recent surveys have shown that up to 40% of older people are often lonely, while 20% are frequently lonely. Phone calls are made to those who we know are lonely, and they are encouraged to join social groups. Several modern day factors are leading to lonelines, the biggest being digitalisation and the failure of authorities to provide face to face meetings for those needingh help. A large number of older people do not have or find difficulty in using smartphones. COPE therefore encourages the use of land lines which most have. The lack of cash and closure of many banks and post offices also makes it difficult for many people. We are continually contacting MP's Councillors and Companies emphasising the need to retain cash and ATM's especially in rural areas.
## **Talking Together**
Telephone discussion groups have been a great success, especially among disabled and isolated people. There were four sessions during the year, each session having 4 to 6 subjects with up to 8 people discussing topics ranging from gardening, sport, art, literature, health and local history. There were also 3 Zoom sessions on cooking , poetry and art.
## **Administration**
COPE's Office is in St Luke's Church Centre and manned by volunteers every weekday from 9.30 am to 12.30pm. An answering service ensures we can receive messages out of hours. A database of members is continually updated to ensure all receive the Newsletters. The Website
(www.copecambs.org.uk.) is updated monthly. Executive Meetings are held quarterly and Editorial and Research Meetings every month.
## **Membership**
As expected we have a coninual loss of members but fortunately are recruiting more members than we are losing. The members list at the end of March 2025 is:
|Out of Area|14|
|---|---|
|South Cambs|907|
|East Cambs|212|
|Huntindon|365|
|Fenland|84|
|Cambridge City|1355|
|Total|2937|
Overall there was an increase of 61 members during the financial year, the largest increase of members was in Fenland where numbers increased by 30% due to establishing the March Friendship Club.
Thanks are due to our Trustees and volunteers for their help and support during the year enabling COPE to continue to ensure the needs and support for Older People in Cambridgeshire are maintained. It is therefore with sadness, that we learned of the death of Alice Zeitner, MBE, who since its inception was a member. As a committee memmber and trustee she helped steer COPE to e a force for the ineterests of \older people in Cambridgeshire. She is sadly missed.
David Bailey, Chairman COPE, 28 May 2025
COPE - Cambridgeshire Older People's Enterprise
_Registered Charity No: 1110887_
Receipts and Payments Account for Year 1 April 2024 - to 31 March 2025
|Receipts
Grants - Cambridge City Council - Community
Grants - Cambridge City Council – Community (QE)
Grants - Cambridge City Council - South Area Commitee
Grants - Cambridgeshire County Council
Grants - South Cambs District Council
Grants - Cambridge City Council – Talking Together
Grants – Pye Foundaton – Talking Together
Grants – Leys School – Talking Together
Grants – Allen Foundaton – Talking Together
Grants – Cambs CC Community Fund – Talking Together
Grants - Evelyn Trust
Donatons - Members
Fundraising Income
Actvity – Rafe
Actvity – Sale of Refreshments at AGM/Events
Actvity - Lunch Income
Actvity – QE
Actvity – Victoria
Actvity – St Ives – Admission & Outng Fees
Actvity – St Ives – Christmas lunch
Newsleter Advertsing Income
Weather Lotery Income
Bank Interest
HMRC – Gif Aid
Other Income - Misc
Total Receipts|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|£
£
£
£
£
£
£|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Total
Unrestricted
Funds
Restricted Funds
/ South Cambs
DC 30%
Restricted Funds
/ Cambs County
Council 54%
Restricted Funds
/ Cambridge City
Council 46%
Restricted Funds
/ TALKING
TOGETHER
Project
Unrestricted
Funds / TALKING
TOGETHER
Project
Restricted Funds
/ St Ives
Unrestricted
Funds / St Ives|||||||||
|||||||||||
|||||3,500.05|||||3,500.05|
|||||700.00|||||700.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
|||2,000.00|||||||2,000.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||3,000.00||||3,000.00|
||||||8,500.00||||8,500.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||4,073.00|||||||7.72|4,080.72|
||||||||||0.00|
||58.15|||||||276.50|334.65|
||||||||||0.00|
||4,655.00||||||||4,655.00|
||377.00||||||||377.00|
||||||||||0.00|
|||||||||3,823.00|3,823.00|
|||||||||1,680.00|1,680.00|
||2,070.00||||||||2,070.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||590.58||||||||590.58|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||11,823.73|2,000.00|0.00|4,200.05|11,500.00|0.00|0.00|5,787.22|35,311.00|
Payments
|Payments||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|Actvity - Hall Hire - Queen Edith Group
Actvity - Speaker Fees - Queen Edith Group
Actvity - Other Costs - Queen Edith Group
Actvity – Room Hire – March
Actvity – St Ives Meetngs – Hall hire & Speakers
Actvity – St Ives Outngs – Coach & Entrance fees
Actvity – St Ives – Christmas lunch
Actvity – St Ives – Rafe Prizes
Actvity - Newsleter Printng
Actvity – Talking – Administrator
Actvity – Talking – Phones/Zoom
Actvity – Talking – Events
Actvity - Lunch Costs/Xmas Lunch Deposit
Actvity – Events
Actvity - AGM Costs
Advertsing / Consultants Costs
Rent - St Luke's Community Centre
Insurance
Bank Charges
Postage
Admin & Statonery
Admin Equipment – Computer
Telephone
Ofce Refreshments
Website Costs
Total Costs
Net Income / (Expenditure)
Transfers between funds
Opening Balance brought forward at
01-Apr-24
Closing balance carried forward at
31-Mar-25|542.00||||||||542.00|
||76.35||||||||76.35|
||160.54||||||||160.54|
||66.00||||||||66.00|
||||||||887.40||887.40|
|||||||||2,338.00|2,338.00|
|||||||||1,287.73|1,287.73|
|||||||||85.06|85.06|
||6,542.17|2,000.00||4,200.05||||202.02|12,944.24|
||||||1,692.00||||1,692.00|
||||||2,548.81||||2,548.81|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||3,872.50||||||||3,872.50|
||69.04||||||||69.04|
||||||550.00||||550.00|
||9,452.00||||||||9,452.00|
||238.00||||||||238.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||354.43||||494.11||||848.54|
||169.95||||||||169.95|
||804.16||||||||804.16|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||||||||||0.00|
||22,347.14|2,000.00|0.00|4,200.05|5,284.92|0.00|887.40|3,912.81|38,632.32|
||
-10,523.41|0.00|0.00|0.00|6,215.08|0.00|-887.40|1,874.41|-3,321.32|
||
0.00|0.00|0.00|0.00|0.00|0.00|0.00|0.00|0.00|
||32,707.45|0.00|0.00|0.00|9,806.64|2,581.66|1,060.10|1,530.99|47,686.84|
||22,184.04|0.00|0.00|0.00|16,021.72|2,581.66|172.70|3,405.40|44,365.52|
## **RESTRICTED INCOME FUNDS**
||**Year Ending 31 March 2025 Accounts**|**Year Ending 31 March 2025 Accounts**|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||||Fund Balances|
||Fund Balances|||||c/fwd|
||b/fwd|Incoming|Outgoing|||at 31 March|
||at 01 April 2024|Resources|Resources|Transfers||2025|
|Fund Name|£|£|£|£||£|
|Cambridge City Council - Community|-|4,200.05|4,200.05||-|-|
|Cambridge City Council - South AC|-|-|-||-|-|
|Cambridgeshire County Council|-|-|-||-|-|
|South Cambs District Council|-|2,000.00|2,000.00||-|-|
|Evelyn Trust|2,405.80|-|-||-|2,405.80|
|Cambridge City Council – Talking Together|940.00|8,500.00|2,074.08||-|7,365.92|
|Pye Foundaton – Talking Together|770.84|-|770.84||-|-|
|Leys School – Talking Together|570.00|-|570.00||-|-|
|Childwick Trust – Talking Together|1,870.00|-|1,870.00||-|-|
|Cambs CC Community Fund – Talking Together|3,250.00|-|-||-|3,250.00|
|Allen Foundaton – Talking Together|-|3,000.00|-||-|3,000.00|
|Huntngdon District Council|693.40|-|520.70||-|172.70|
|St Ives Parish Council|366.70|-|366.70||-|-|
|Total Funds|10,866.74|17,700.05|12,372.37||-|16,194.42|
## **Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at: 31 March 2025**
|Bank – Lloyds (28621960)
Bank – Lloyds (32561368) TT
Bank – Lloyds (45107268) St Ives
Building Society - Cambridge
Pety Cash|455.08|
|---|---|
||18,603.38|
||3,578.10|
||21,701.40|
||27.56|
||44,365.52|
CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examiner's
report on the accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Roport to the trustoosl
member• of
Cambridgeshire Older People's Enterprise
On accounts for the year
•ndod
31° March 2025
Charlty no
(If any)
1110887
Sat out on pages
l rnport to the tru8t888 on my examination of the a(unt8 of the above
charlty (Ihe Trust.) for the year ended 3110312025
R•8pon81bllltlo8 and A8 the charity tru8te88 of the Tru8t, you are re8pon8ible for the preparation
basls of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act
2011 ('the Ad.).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out
under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I
have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission
under section 145{5)(b) of the Act.
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have
come to my attention (other than that disdosed below ') in connection with
the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
respect..
accounting record8 were not kept in accordance with section 130 of
Ihe Act or
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
Independent
examinefs ststement
I have no concems and have come across no other matters in connection
with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enab18 8
proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
' Please delete the words in the brackets rf they do not apply.
Signed:
0710712025
Name:
Christopher Hugh Barton
Relevant professlonal
qualification(s) or body
(if any):
NIA
Addrnss:
1 a Richmond Road
Cambridge
CB4 3PP
IER
October 2018
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concem (see
CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts.. directions and guidance
for examiners).
Give here brief detsils
of any Items that the
examiner wishes to
disclose.
None
IER
October 2018