_Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23 This report covers the financial year beginning 1[st] July 2022 and ending 30[th] June 2023. ## Contents |1|Registration and trustees................................................................................................................. 2|Registration and trustees................................................................................................................. 2| |---|---|---| |2|Structure and management ............................................................................................................. 3|| ||2.1|Governing document.............................................................................................................. 3| ||2.2|How the charity is constituted ............................................................................................... 3| ||2.3|National governing body ........................................................................................................ 3| ||2.4|Trustee selection methods ..................................................................................................... 3| ||2.5|Charitable objective ............................................................................................................... 3| |3|Activities, achievements and performance ..................................................................................... 4|| ||3.1|Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 4| ||3.2|Callouts ................................................................................................................................... 4| ||3.3|Finance ................................................................................................................................... 4| ||3.4|Fundraising ............................................................................................................................. 5| ||3.5|Recruitment and Membership ............................................................................................... 5| ||3.6|Training ................................................................................................................................... 5| ||3.7|Updates on the Workgroups .................................................................................................. 6| ||3.8|Other Activities in the Year .................................................................................................... 7| ||3.9|Outlook ................................................................................................................................... 7| ||3.10|Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 7| |4|Financial review ............................................................................................................................... 8|| ||4.1|Reserves policy ....................................................................................................................... 8| ||4.2|Independently examined accounts ........................................................................................ 8| |5|Declaration ....................................................................................................................................... 8|| |Appendix||A
Summary of accounts ....................................................................................................... 9| |Appendix||B
Independent Examiner’s report .....................................................................................11| |Appendix||C
Reserves policy ...............................................................................................................12| Page 1 of 12 _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## 1 Registration and trustees |1 Registration and trustees|1 Registration and trustees|1 Registration and trustees|1 Registration and trustees| |---|---|---|---| |**Charity name:**
Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue|||| |**Other names known by: **
CamSAR|||| |**Registered charity number:**
1118622|||| |**Principal address:**|Unit 1
Mount Pleasant Industrial Estate
Pymoor, Ely
CB6 2DY||| |**Trustees:**
**_Name_**|**_Office_**
**_(if any)_**|**_Dates acted if_**
**_not wholeyear_**|**_Person/body entitled_**
**_to appoint trustee_**| |BarryCarter|Chair||AGM(terms 2019-21,2021-23)| |Paul Barry|Vice Chair|To 05 Feb 2022|Trustees(28/5/20);AGM(term 2020-22)| |Louise Wyatt|Secretary|To 23 Feb 2023|Trustees(21/9/20);AGM(term 2021-23)| |Sebastian Palmer|Acting
Treasurer|To 20 Oct 2022|AGM (terms 2017-19, 2019-21, 2021-23)| |Ian Woods|Treasurer
(from 20
October
2022)||AGM (term 2021-23)| |Stephen Hobbs|||AGM(term 2019-21,2021-23)| |Heather Franks||From 21 Dec 2022|Trustees(21/12/2022)| |GillyBamber||To 23 Feb 2023|AGM(term 2020-22)| |Simon Jones|||AGM(term 2021-23)| |Ciara Witty|Secretary|From 16 Mar 2023|Trustees(16/03/2023)| |Lee Rockall||From 16 Mar 2023|Trustees(16/03/2023)| Annual General Meeting was held on Wednesday 20[th] October 2023. Trustees at end of the reporting period are shown in red. Page 2 of 12 _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## 2 Structure and management ## 2.1 Governing document CamSAR is governed by a constitution, adopted 1[st] August 2006 and subsequently amended on 6[th] January 2013, 30[th] October 2014, 29[th] November 2018 and 24[th] September 2019. ## 2.2 How the charity is constituted CamSAR is a registered charity constituted as an unincorporated association. ## 2.3 National governing body CamSAR is a member unit of Lowland Rescue, registered charity number 1150317. ## 2.4 Trustee selection methods The Trustees are the members of the Executive Committee as described in the constitution, which consists of between 3 and 8 members, including the Chair, Secretary and Treasurer (the officers) and a Vice Chair. Trustees are elected at General Meeting for a term length of 2 years. The trustees may also appoint new trustees and officers subject to conditions set in the constitution. One such appointment did occur in this reporting period, with a term until the next AGM. ## 2.5 Charitable objective CamSAR’s objective, as stated in the constitution, is: _The provision of search and rescue assistance, both independently and in association with the full-time emergency services and other voluntary aid societies, and to assist in the relief of suffering amongst persons endangered by accident or natural hazard and the preservation of life, principally in Cambridgeshire but without geographical limitation._ Consequently, CamSAR’s primary role is as a specialist search and rescue team, called by Cambridgeshire Constabulary to plan, manage and undertake searches for high-risk vulnerable missing people. CamSAR trains its members to national (Lowland Rescue) standards as Search Managers, Search Operations Managers, Search Planners, Team Leaders and Search Technicians, and maintains equipment and several vehicles necessary to perform this role. Page 3 of 12 _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## 3 Activities, achievements and performance ## **Chairperson’s report to AGM, 20 October 2023** ## 3.1 Introduction First, let me start by saying that I am most grateful for the contribution and support from the other Trustees for their help in managing the charity side of the team, its finances, its resourcing, its planning and reporting to the Charity Commission. This could only happen with the trust and faith in those running the operational side of the team and those workgroup champions looking after each of their areas of specialty. The following will summarise team developments over the year. ## 3.2 Callouts Our team members gave a total 1,916 hours responding to 44 calls for search assistance in the year (including 5 mutual assists[1] to neighbouring teams) and averaged 15 members per call (up slightly from 12 in the previous year). Despite some quick stand-downs, the average duration of our searches was just over 4 hours. A summary breakdown is (note that some MISPERS can be classified as more than one category) - 28 male (64%) and 15 female. - 26 suicidal (59%) - 16+1 dementia - 10 despondent - 6 children/youth (under 15) - 3 mental illness - 1 autistic - 1 not specified. - Uninjured: ⑳, medical emergency ⑧, injured: ② and deceased: ①. Others: Unknown. ## 3.3 Finance ## 3.3.1 Treasurer Sebastian Palmer step down as Treasurer at the end of AGM on 20 October 2023. Ian Woods took over this role from the date of the AGM with the support of the finance committee and with the introduction of a book keeper (EBJ Accountancy). ## 3.3.2 Annual Return The Trustees’ Annual Report for 2021-22 was successfully submitted in November 2023. ## 3.3.3 Finance Team During the financial year we continued the good work of the finance committee in delivering on the following: - Quicker turnround on member expense claims. - A reserves policy. - Insurance cover reflected the value of our assets should they need to be replaced. - Moved to using Enthuse as an online fundraising platform, meaning gift aid could be automatically claimed. ## 3.3.4 Budgeting We continue to try and embed a policy for planning and carefully budgeting ourselves. This discipline has started to help get the team to think about what it wants to in the future and to better manage Page 4 of 12 _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ the resources to achieve them. The reserves policy that gives us some comfort that we maintain the funds to keep the charity buoyant for the coming period but also to forecast what extra we need to find through fundraising to satisfy the plans. The operational side of the team sets out what it would like to achieve, and the charity’s trustees (Executive) look to ensure that and look to help plan what can be done to realise them. ## 3.3.5 Asset Tracking John Stockwell has continued to add our equipment to a central register and putting asset labels to everything to help us keep track of everything. ## 3.4 Fundraising Our Fundraising Team met throughout the year and continued to make a series of successful grant applications and organised attendance to a series of events to raise vital funds and raising of awareness that has helped the team to grow. Some notable events were: - Silverstone – medical support (July 2022) - Isele Fest (Jul 2022) - Land Rover Owners Show (Sep 2022) - Santa Parades to Soham, Milton, Little Downham and Pymoor - Thriplow Daffodil Weekend (Mar 2023) - Leeds Day (Apr 2023) - Ely Tigers Fun Day (May 2023) - Strawberry Fair (Jun 2023) - Garden Party by Sue and Bob (Jun 2023) In addition, there were 24 awareness and fundraising talks given by Wayne Bent or Barry Carter to various groups and organisation all over the county. ## 3.5 Recruitment and Membership ## 3.5.1 Recruitment – Candidate Days Candidate Days for applicants were held in September 2022 and March 2023. ## 3.5.2 Current Status of the Membership The current position with our members is that we have: - Operational 54 (was 47 last year) consisting of 35 operational 19 non-operational. - The non-operational membership consists of 4 in support, 2 dedicated fundraisers, 4 awaiting re-qualification, 4 in support, 8 trainees and 1 on sabbatical. - There was a total of 28 retirements (was 24 last year) of which 6 were trainees. Despite our best efforts, many still seem to underestimate the level of commitment required to complete the training as well as be a useful member of the team. - The most common reason for retiring remains as “changes in personal circumstances” (27.2%). ## 3.6 Training As a team we undertook 105 separate training events in the year (like the previous year) and equates to over 3,652 hours. As always, these sessions can only be achieved with the help and willingness of those stepping up to plan and deliver them. Online training has continued to play a part in maintaining training and whilst we no doubt continue to use this as a useful media it is recognised that it does not replace face to face practical training sessions expected from team members. There were **seven (7) practical Sunday team workshop/ resilience sessions** during the year and **nine (9) online sessions** in the evenings. Page 5 of 12 _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## 3.6.1 Pymoor HQ The work to replace the internal roof to the upstairs office was completed as was a secure kit store. We now have broadband and WIFI to the building and so hopefully we will be using the space more for online training and search planning. Meanwhile the plan to build a drying room for all our wet kit is being advanced and finalised. Finally, we have seen that the site itself has been undergoing several improvements by the owner that can only benefit us more. Our landlord continues to be in the background supporting the team for which we are extremely thankful. ## 3.6.2 Swift Water and Flood Technicians The team sent its first 4 team members for recognised training in North Wales in June (and another 5 are going in October). ## 3.7 Updates on the Workgroups ## 3.7.1 Bank Our policy of training all operational team members for bank search provides many benefits and flexibility to the team. Of course, with this comes the need to train and keep familiar with the PPE and we have seen many sessions provided for team members to develop those skills. ## 3.7.2 Bike Unfortunately, our bike team have under-trained and so been under-utilised this year. However, when used we have seen some great benefits and actions have been taken to get the bike team back on track. We will be running an inhouse course at the beginning of November 2023. ## 3.7.3 Drone Training of drone pilots is self-supporting in that pilots must maintain a minimum of 2 hours in any 90-day period to keep in licence. Nevertheless, they have been readily used during team training sessions and increasingly for live searches – subject to the weather ## 3.7.4 Fleet In June we received the fantastic news that Debbie Jones obtained a Postcode Lottery grant of £25,000 to be used towards a 4x4 vehicle. Much work has been done already to identify an appropriate vehicle and work to complete being undertaken during 2023/24. ## 3.7.5 Foot Our foot teams are benefitting from some more Team Leaders coming through having benefitted from the close tutelage of our Training Officer, Ken Dench. ## 3.7.6 IT We have seen some big improvements in our IT this last year. Gilly Bamber and Steve Rowsell have been instrumental in getting laptops and SARMAN working better and getting WIFI working more reliably in the ICU. MX Mobile has been rolled out making it far easier to dynamically share mapping with teams out on the ground as well as capturing gpx tracks saving the need to upload them. Work continues to iron out the wrinkles but pleasing that reliability and coverage is being improved. ## 3.7.7 Medical We are now blessed in having a strong medical team led by Joss Minterne and have continued to support the training of first responders to the FREC3 standards. As a result of this the quality of the training that they in turn are providing to the rest of the team is quite exceptional and it has been good to see the depth of knowledge and confidence being given across the team to improve the pre-hospital care to casualties. ## 3.7.8 K9 Our two (2) K9 handlers trained 12 times during the year and attended a K9 First Aid Course, and we remain optimistic of their assessment (and Pip and to the NSARDA Trailing Dog criteria early in 2024. Page 6 of 12 _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ This training in turn does rely on the support of the “dogs’ body” and it is appreciated that they receive the support of other team members going out in all weathers to achieve this. ## 3.7.9 Kayak Members of the Kayak Team attended a Training Symposium near Reading along with several other teams in September 2022 – from which three (3) team members achieved the first Paddlesport ST Certifications. ## 3.7.10 Water – other After some phenomenal fundraising dedicated to this project it was great to see the RIB (RigidInflatable-Boat) out on the water from April this year. This is a new resource for the team that a lot of work has gone into achieving. Our prime goal has always been to provide additional support for missing person search, but interest in increasing for our deployment to aid flood rescue in support of county resilience and the fire and rescue service. Team members completed a RYA Powerboat Level 2 Course and we have started to see its benefits in being able to take medics out to casualties, carry kit and even tow the kayakers if necessary. ## 3.8 Other Activities in the Year Queens Platinum Jubilee Medal – July 2022 Queens Baton Relay – July 2022 ## 3.9 Outlook We remain in a financially sound position, and whilst things can change very quickly, we should be reasonably confident that we have better controls in place to manage and monitor as we go. Writing reports such as this helps me to remember all the good things that the team has achieved – and my apologies if anything has missed any along the way. ## 3.10 Conclusion In conclusion, the team continues to move forward, yet still believe that the team is still building and strengthening. It is constrained only by the membership to make good things happen. There is a lot of knowledge and skills in the team, and this must not be squandered – not just by us as the charity – but by the community and its vulnerable persons. Crucial though is the engagement and commitment of all team members. We must attract the right people into the team that will help us achieve the successes that we surely desire – and deserve – as a team whilst also ensuring that we maintain the culture and family atmosphere that we have. We cannot sit back and hope that things will happen by themselves otherwise we will stagnate. Our planning and efforts have been fruitful – not just in funding but also in team recognition. We certainly cannot be complacent, not just in maintaining what we have, but in continuing to build for the future. I will of course once again take this opportunity to record the personal thanks to my fellow Trustees for their continued counsel, support, and diligence in managing the charity. Finally, I thank of course thank you all our team members – operational and non-operational – and especially their families – for the continued support in helping get the team where it is. Its members have given 8,581 hours in 2022/23 (7,403 hours last year) and I know that many, many more hours were also given that have not been recorded anywhere and the charity thanks all of you for your time. _Barry Carter, Chair, 20 October 2023_ Page 7 of 12 _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## 4 Financial review ## 4.1 Reserves policy CamSAR has a reserves policy which is annexed to this report – see Appendix C. ## 4.2 Independently examined accounts CamSAR’s income during this period was **£88,572** , including **£25,000** grant from Postcode Lottery. Expenditure during this period was **£45,596** . _A remaining sum of £1820,09 was identified that had not been passed over to Ukraine_ _Lifeline. The fate of this will be decided during 2023/24._ Accounts have been prepared on the receipts-and-payments basis, and independently examined. These are annexed to this report, as is the Independent Examiner’s report – see Appendices A and B. ## 5 Declaration The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. _Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:_ |**Signature(s)**||| |---|---|---| |**Full name(s)**|Barry Carter|Ian Woods| |**Position(s)**|Chairperson|Treasurer| |**Date**|21 June 2024|21 June 2024| Page 8 of 12 _Trustees' Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## Appendix A Summary of accounts Page 9 of 12 Cambridgeshire Search ond Rescue Trustees'Annual Report 2022-23 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowment funds tot*aYést£ B1 Cash fund5 &724 Id ITh sÈ¢ondÉty atteouTht in 70,222 Totslcash fund$ 78,946 26,578 Unrgstrict9d funds to n￿r•s1 £ Rostiictqd fund Endowmqnt funds Det¥1 B2 Other monetsry assets d towhlch ass•t C(•t IoMicThll CLrr•rt valu• B3 Investment asset5 ne Fwd towhlGh cÈ&tltytI(￿1} Cwrgrt vplyp B4 Assets Tetalnedforthe ¢harlly'S OWII Use iknréslntl KÈyAks. rÈSttuÈ ÈlÈd. ￿tÉr PPE iknr£slntlÉ 5.Q74 K?y¥k5. slE¢. walgr PPE 8.297 ènd night visipn B9vip￿Ent Lknresln¢lFd 1aSJ2 4nd night VlSlDn ￿Ulp￿Ent P*¥tllGted 4.949 M￿J￿iCatIonS equipTEnl Ihre31noled othet EqUIp￿￿t lthreslficled 7.702 to whirh D8tsi (￿l￿nall B5 LlabfjlKfj88 np Signed by one ortwo tW5tees on s￿nature Print Name Date of apwoval lan Woods 07 June 2024 CCXX R2 actounis ISSI 0710612024 Page 10 of 12 _**Trustees' Annual Report 2022-23**_ _**Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue**_ ## Appendix B Independent Examiner's report **Page 11 of 1 2** _Trustees’ Annual Report 2022-23_ _Cambridgeshire Search and Rescue_ ## Appendix C Reserves policy ## Purpose The reserves that we have set aside provide financial stability and the means for the development of our principal activity. ## Policy We intend to maintain our reserves at a level which is at least equivalent to the average over 4 years of our annual running operating expenditure (Opex) and the average over 4 years expenditure on capital items (Capex) (replacement of vehicles, drones and other large capital items). For simplicity in these calculations we round results to the nearest £10. ## Summary at end of financial year 2022-23 |Summary at end of financial year 2022-23|| |---|---| |**Element**|**GBP**| |Operating reserve (average spend over last 4 years)|27,740.00| |Capital reserve (average spend over last 4 years)|14,370.00| |Additional reserve elements:|| |•
None currently|0.00| |**Subtotal reserves**|**42,110.00**| |Restricted funds|26,578.00| |**Total**|**68,690.00**| ## Review points The Trustees review reserves required to ensure that they are adequate to fulfil our continuing obligations annually. Page 12 of 12