Trustees Annual Report 2020/2021
This year SAFE has seen a lot of changes, with the departure of our longstanding Managing Director, Hannah Fitt, a stand-in director followed by the arrival of Angela Bettany as Operations Director in November 2021. Our Chair, Mark Dickenson stepped in as MD for three months until Angela joined us on 1st November.
SAFE Started the year with Sian Hapus and Tess Russell running the UK program and in May 2021 Chanty Harris took on the role of GC Trainer and Volunteer Coordinator.These fresh, but familiar faces have been reconnecting with our beneficiary groups and partners after a year of sporadic lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Since starting her role in November Angie has hired an office admin assistant, Rachel, through the kickstart scheme so will be mentoring her through her first office role. Rachel will provide support to our office activities, our membership scheme and also the admin duties at the Ethical Boutique.
The SAFE trustees made the decision that the Tudor lane office was not fit for purpose and so a move has begun to transfer operations to Meanwhile House, a rolling monthly office set up for creatives and small businesses. SAFE will thrive here and although the office itself is smaller than Tudor lane our staff and volunteers will benefit from a shared kitchen, common-room and conference room in the main building. We are currently looking for suitable storage for our festivals kit.
Internationally our partners around the world have had to adapt and change their ways of working also. We have supported our international projects throughout the pandemic thanks to our wonderful funders and supporters and we cannot thank everyone enough for their support, enabling SAFE to make positive changes during challenging times.
We have provided a grant to our project MYWA in India to assist the teachers to work with children at home, visiting villages and teaching outside in small groups.
We have provided emergency relief to our project WCDT in India to cover foodstuffs and PPE equipment to enable our partner charity to continue to work with the beneficiaries. We have also continued to fund the building of the Lucy Memorial Hall, the education and sustainable skills centre for the dalit community. We are on another fundraising push to get the centre completed and our project partners have been doing extremely well to keep work carrying along under pandemic circumstances.
We have supported Sierra Leone with a grant to cover foodstuffs for beneficiaries during the pandemic, as well as funding councillors to visit beneficiaries and providing PPE equipment enabling them to continue working with the beneficiaries safely.
We have supported our Uganda project with P.P.E, books for homeschooling,hand sanitizer, disinfectant, Covid Tests and a Security Guard to ensure social distancing rules are being followed for the library/community hub that SAFE has established there.
We are into our third year of our four year National Lottery Community Fund supported project and have been working with our partners to deliver training to vulnerable young people in the UK. The course has been adapted also to fit a rolling programme as requested by our delivery partners, this will develop into a combined Global Citizenship and volunteering bundle where volunteer activities will be packaged up within the Global Citizenship framework.
COVID-19 has brought many challenges to us all but has brought with it new ways of working. The closure of many youth centres and alternative education centres has made it more difficult to reach the young people who were already struggling to engage regularly. Partners like Grassroots, Cardiff, have seen some of their young people end up in prison after long periods with limited services.
We have made some new partnerships this year and also rekindled some older ones, these partnerships will be our link into the local communities for the delivery of our Global Citizenship programme. Our core trainer Chanty is going from strength to strength building confidence and putting in the groundwork for us to grow our engagemnet with communities in Bridgend, Swansea, Caerphilly, Cardiff and Barry.
Although we have not been able to deliver our planned corporate GC training this year, the move to online meetings and training being a lasting trend means that online delivery of the course is an appealing option to employers. Costing for this form of delivery will need revisiting but the staff team are busy scouting for delivery opportunities in the new year.
The SAFE Ethical Boutique is in its third year and going from strength to strength. Hannah Canning, our shop manager is now full time at the shop which has given us greater flexibility and support for our shop volunteers. Hannah has a loyal group of volunteers who have built a real sense of community on Whitchurch Road with the team taking it in turns to cook for each other at the shop. One volunteer regularly mends clothes that have been donated but with buttons missing etc, this really adds to our green agenda and shows our customers our commitment to sustainability. We have loyal customers who travel to shop from us and local makers have started selling their products at the boutique and sharing their profits as additional income for the charity.
Our partnerships with the university are growing, in November second-year Fashion Design students at University of South Wales partnered with The Ethical Boutique to find a use for jackets that could not be sold in the boutique. They were either very worn, torn, stained or just “not in fashion”. Students looked at the end of a garments life, discovering and learning how it was created and the purpose it fulfilled. This helped the students understand how to design better garments in the future. The unwanted jackets were split and upcycled to show they still have use and purpose. Hannah displayed these for a week before the Christmas changeover.
Despite the difficulties of the pandemic the team have still managed to hold several small events, collabs and fundraisers to engage with our local followers. Our social media and website following have been strong and our monthly newsletter is getting busier month by month!
Currently there are two trustee vacancies open, a special thanks goes out to Amy Cuff who served us for so long as a trustee and secretary but took the decision to step down in August due to other commitments.
As always we want to take this opportunity to thank all of our supporters, members and partners as well as the incredible volunteers we work with - all of which we wouldn’t be able to deliver the support that we can to the brilliant communities that we do.
Financial review
Income increased by £14,194 and expenditure decreased by £29,620 compared with last year. Income exceeded, expenditure by £52,261. This means that the reserves at the year-end have increased from £28,899 at 31 March 2020 to £81,160 at 31 March 2021.
Reserves Policy
The Reserves Policy is to maintain a sufficient level of reserves, excluding any restricted reserves, to enable normal operating activities to continue over a period of 3 months should a shortfall in income occur and to take into account potential risks and contingencies. The trustees have calculated that for 2020/21, this should be around £23,000. The balance on the unrestricted reserves minus funds allocated for project delivery at the yearend currently stands at £50,922.
Despite a challenging year facing the continuation of the covid pandemic, we have been very fortunate to have received support from many different sources, from our funders, individual givers, supporter members to people supporting the ethical boutique with clothing donations and shopping face to face or online. We have managed to end the 2021 financial year with a healthy amount of reserves to see us into the forthcoming financial year with energy, passion and the means to support people around the world and in the UK.
Our funders this year have been BIG Lottery, The Waterloo Foundation, WCVA (Wales 4 Africa), C F in Wales, WCVA (VSRF), Awards 4 All and the Moondance Foundation.
We have also received support from Tesco Groundwork from bag packing activities.
We want to say a big thank you to all our funders and supporters for their continued endorsement of the work we do at SAFE.
Mark Dickenson
Chair of Trustees
Rachel Luxton
Trustee
THE S.A.F.E. FOUNDATION RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS ACCOUNT Year Ended 31 March 2021
| RECEIPTS Grants and donations Short term loans Investment income PAYMENTS Fundraising costs Project costs Staff costs Bank charges Insurance Accountancy Professional fees Office costs Sundry expenses Loan repayments TOTAL PAYMENTS NET RECEIPTS Transfers between funds CASH FUNDS LAST YEAR CASH FUNDS THIS YEAR |
2021 2020 Unrestricted Restricted Total Total £ £ £ £ 69,932 122,382 192,314 172,920 4,800 - 4,800 10,000 3 - 3 3 |
|---|---|
| 74,735 122,382 197,117 182,923 |
|
| 466 466 13,687 14,861 52,913 67,774 85,966 - 58,505 58,505 69,387 327 327 359 577 577 571 750 750 750 1,096 1,096 589 355 355 2,263 206 206 904 14,800 14,800 - |
|
| 33,437 111,419 144,856 174,476 |
|
| 41,298 10,963 52,261 8,446 980 (980) - - 8,644 20,255 28,899 20,453 |
|
| 50,922 30,238 81,160 28,899 |
THE S.A.F.E. FOUNDATION STATEMENT OF ASSETS As at 31 March 2021
| Assets: Bank current account Bank reserve account Representing balances on the following: Unrestricted Funds Note 1 Restricted Funds Note 2 |
2021 2020 £ £ 76,748 24,490 4,412 4,409 |
|---|---|
| 81,160 28,899 |
|
| 50,922 8,644 30,238 20,255 |
|
| 81,160 28,899 |
We confirm that the receipts and payments account and statement of assets are a true reflection of the charity's activities and financial position for the year ended 31 March 2021.
31/01/2022 These accounts were approved by the trustees on ….......................................... and signed on their behalf by:
…........................................... Sign
Mark Dickenson …........................................... Print Trustee
THE S.A.F.E. FOUNDATION NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS Year Ended 31 March 2021
Note 1. Unrestricted Funds
| Balance at | Incoming | Outgoing | Fund | Balance at | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 April 2020 | Resources | Resources | Transfers | 31 Mar 2021 | |
| £ | £ | £ | £ | £ | |
| General Funds | 8,644 | 74,735 | (33,437) | 980 | 50,922 |
Note 2. Restricted Funds
| Note 2. Restricted Funds | |
|---|---|
| Big Lottery Grants: Awards for All (England) Awards for All (Wales) Big Lottery COVID Relief People and Places Community Foundation Wales Moondance Track 2000 VSRF (WCVA) (Note 3) Waterloo Foundation WCVA Wales4Africa |
Balance at Incoming Outgoing Fund Balance at 1 April 2020 Resources Resources Transfers 31 Mar 2021 £ £ £ £ £ 980 - - (980) - - 9,770 - - 9,770 - 28,500 (20,023) - 8,477 15,077 48,764 (62,067) - 1,774 - 2,000 (2,000) - - - 10,000 (5,000) - 5,000 4,198 - (3,215) - 984 - 16,448 (13,100) - 3,348 - 1,000 (1,000) - - - 5,900 (5,014) - 886 |
| 20,255 122,382 (111,419) (980) 30,238 |
The Awards for All Wales grant was received for delivering peer to peer global citizenship training with elements built in to deal with the rise in poor mental health in young people as a result of covid-19.
The People and Places grant was for £290,644 in instalments over 4 years towards a project entitled "Global Education with a digital twist". This is a global citizenship programme that will build the skills and increase engagement of young people in their communities. The project is benefitting around 600 young people aged 16 to 25 and uses new technologies to develop and provide opportunities for progression into further training and work experience.
The National Lottery Covid Relief grant was received to support our core work and to sustain engagement with volunteers during the covid-19 pandemic.
The Community Foundation in Wales Grant was provided to increase salary support for our volunteer coordinator.
The Moondance Foundation provided a grant to support our international work in India, Uganda and Sierra Leone during the covid-19 pandemic.
The Waterloo Foundation provided a grant of £1,000 to fund our core work during the covid-19 pandemic.
The WCVA Wales 4 Africa grant was received to support our beneficiaries in Sierra Leone with emergency rations of food and water, as well as PPE equipment, and counsellors to the most vulnerable families in our beneficiary group during the covid-19 pandemic.
The WCVA VSRF (Voluntary Services Recovery Fund) grant was received for delivering peer to peer global citizenship training with elements built in to deal with the rise in poor mental health in young people as a result of covid-19.
Note 3. Expenditure Against VRSF Grant
In March 2021 an amount of £11,520 was paid to a training provider which was funded by the VRSF Grant from the WCVA. Unfortunately the provider in question was unable to deliver the course within the stipulated timescale, and in August 2021 £10,560 was returned to the charity, representing the full amount less certain agreed costs. The grant provider has confirmed that this amount can be re-used against eligible expenditure.
INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF THE S.A.F.E. FOUNDATION
I report to the trustees on my examination of the financial statements of The S.A.F.E. Foundation ('the charity') for the year ended 31 March 2021.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the financial statements in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 ('the Act’).
I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s financial statements as carried out under section 145 of the Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed the Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe:
-
accounting records were not kept in respect of the company as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
the financial statements do not accord with those records; or
-
the financial statements do not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair' view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.
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 accounts to be reached.
Ralph Bettany FCA of Ralph Bettany Associates Ltd 1 Clare Street Manselton Swansea SA5 9PG
Date: 31[st] January 2022