## **SVWS – Trustees’ Meeting – 24th April 2025– Item XX**
**The Sainsbury Veterans Welfare Scheme (Charity No; 1125046) Annual Trustees’ Report for the year ending 31 December 2024**
## **Introduction**
The Sainsbury Veterans Welfare Scheme (the charity) was afforded charitable status on 17 July 2008. It had become an independent trust on 11 July 2007, and prior to that had been operating within Sainsbury Supermarkets Ltd, as part of the company’s commitment to its veterans.
The charity exists to provide assistance to Sainsbury’s Veterans who are in need of help to enhance the quality of their lives. There are circa 20,000 Sainsbury Veterans. A Sainsbury Veteran is defined as a former employee who has retired from the company having completed a required period of continuous company service. For the purposes of the Welfare Scheme the definition also covers spouses and partners of Sainsbury Veterans and surviving spouses and partners of former Sainsbury Veterans. Whilst priority is given to the above categories, other Sainsbury employees who have retired but have not formally become Veterans, may also benefit.
The charity provides essential items to assist beneficiaries to better maintain independence in their lives in and around their homes. Such essential items might typically, but not exclusively, include bathroom enhancements and aids, walk-in showers, transport and other mobility aids, rise and recline beds and chairs, and household items. Support can also be provided for respite care and convalescence.
## **Structure, Governance and Management**
The charity is constituted as a Trust and its governing document is a Declaration of Trust dated 11 July 2007, amended by 2 Deeds of Variation of Trust dated 25 June 2008 and 20 October 2022.
The Trustees use their best endeavours to ensure that one of their number is an independent person with experience of, or a professional qualification in, a discipline relevant to the objects.
Trustee appointments and re-appointments are for a period of 3 years, up to maximum of three re-appointments. David Dahms retired as a Trustee on 3/12/2024 at the end of his 4th and final term. Richard Lowe was appointed as a Trustee in his place, on 31/10/2024.
The Trustees during 2024 were:
Name Date of Date of Re- Date of Appointment Appointment Resignation David Clapham 19/07/2018 19/07/2024 John Padgett 06/10/2019 06/10/2022 David Dahms 01/01/2013 01/01/2022 31/10/2024 Tim Straker 16/05/2019 16/05/2022 (Independent Trustee) Douglas Parkin 28/10/2019 28/10/2022 John Dick 21/11/2021 21/11/2024 Jayne Graham 21/04/2022 Richard Lowe 31/10/2024
The Trustees are aware that they have a duty to act in the best interests of the charity. Accordingly, Trustees openly declare any personal and professional connections that might bring benefits to the work of the charity but which could also give rise to conflicts of interest.
## **Objectives and Achievements**
The principal objective of the Trustees is to reach as many potential beneficiaries as possible. Significant efforts continue to be made throughout the year to communicate the existence and benefits offered by the charity to Sainsbury Veterans.
Communication was effected through ‘The News’, a magazine for Sainsbury’s Veterans which is published quarterly, and also digitally on the Veterans Website.
Following the special Veterans Welfare Scheme leaflet distributed in April 2023 as a magazine pull out for keeping and easy reference, ‘The News for Veterans’ magazine ran a 2 page article which reproduced several letters and emails written by grateful recipients of grants from the Welfare Scheme. A noticeable uptick in the number of grant applications followed in subsequent months.
The Welfare Scheme is registered with Turn2Us, an online portal where potential applicants can search for relevant charities that may be able to help. The Scheme is also registered with Macmillan Cancer Support.
Additionally, the Welfare Scheme is now mentioned in the annual Pensions increase letter.
The Trustees continue to explore new ways to publicise the Welfare Scheme.
In April 2024 the Trustees reviewed inflation levels over the past 3 years and agreed to increase the maximum grant from £4,000 to £5,000. The savings criteria for determining the level of grant remained unchanged.
In accordance with law and good practice the Trustees reviewed the following written policies on a 2-year rolling basis;
Data Protection and Complaints handling procedures.
## **Financial Review**
## **Income**
Total income for 2024 was £94,869 compared with £40,171 in 2023. The increased income in 2024 was due to a combination of an increase in donations (+£3,167), a grant drawdown of £50,000 from the Linbury Trust and Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and an increase in deposit interest (+£1,531).
*The Linbury Trust and The Gatsby Charitable Foundation have each agreed to grant the charity £100k i.e. a total of £200k. To date, £70k has been drawn down from the 2 Trusts.
**J Sainsbury plc has renewed its funding agreement to a further £30k per annum grant, ringfenced for 2 years (to 2027). To date £90k has been drawn down.
## **Expenditure**
Total expenditure for the year was £42,563, an increase of £24,493 compared with the previous year
16 grants were processed during the year totaling £42,520, an average of £2,658 per grant. This compares to 8 grants in 2023 totalling £15,727 at an average of £1,966.
Total Scheme assets at year-end were £149,952 compared to £97,646 at year end 2023.
No paid staff were employed. No payments were made to Trustees, who are all volunteers. The Trustees are extremely grateful to Welfare Co-Ordinators Regional Chairs and Trustees who incurred expenses in undertaking voluntary work for the Welfare Scheme but who chose not to claim them. The Trustees also wish to thank Mr. Derek Salt FCA who undertook an independent examination of the Welfare Scheme’s financial records and statement on a pro-bono basis.
At the end of 2024 our longest-serving Trustee, David Dahms, retired after a maximum term of 12 years. We would like to thank and acknowledge David for his committed service as a Trustee and are indebted to David as Chair of the Southern Region of the Sainsbury's Veteran Association for his and his members' tremendous record of raising over £21,000 for the Welfare Scheme during the past 6 years
## **John Padgett**
Scheme Manager & Trustee 06/02/2025
THE SAINSBURY VETERANS' WELFARE SCHEME
Analysis of Income and Expenditure 1 January-31 December 2024
## **Income**
Total income for the year showed an increase of £54,698. The is the result of several factors.
The drawdown of £50,000 from the grant available from the Gatsby and Linbury trusts, full details of which are shown below.
An increase of £3,167 in donations. This is due to an increase in Southern Area donation of £250 combined with a net increase in other donations of £2,917 which includes donations via the Charities Aid Foundation of £3,200 arising from 2 individual donations totalling £3,000.
An increase in CCLA interest payments of £1,531 because of a higher average balance held over the period and a higher average interest rate.
## **Expenditure**
Total expenditure increased by £24,493. This was a result of an increase in grant expenditure of £26,793 less a reduction in Administration costs of £2,300
A total of 16 grants were made during the year at a cost of £42,520, an average of £2,658 per grant. This compares to 8 grants last year at a cost of £15,727, an average of £1,966.
The reduction in administration costs reflects the leaflet initiative during 2023.
## **Total Fund Assets**
Total fund assets at year-end of £149,952 showed an increase of £52,306 compared to the previous year, reflecting the drawdown of £50,000 of the Linbury and Gatsby trust grant.
Since year end an additional £25,000 has been transferred from the Current account to the CCLA account.
||LinburyTrust and Gatsby|Charitable Foundation Grants|Charitable Foundation Grants|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||Linbury Trust|Gatsby Charitable
Foundation|TOTAL|||
||£|£||£||
|Grant Amount|100,000|100,000|||200,000|
|Withdrawals||||||
|Jan-22|20,000||||20,000|
|Dec-24|25,000|25,000|||50,000|
|Residual||||||
|Available|55,000|75,000|||130,000|
## THE SAINSBURY VETERANS' WELFARE SCHEME
|Statement of Actvity and|Statement of Actvity and||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|Funds|||||
|1st January -31 December|||||
|2024|||**2024**|**2023**|
|||£|£|£|
|||||**40,545.6**|
|**Cash Balance 1st January**|**2023**|||**6**|
|**Cash Balance 1st January**|**2024**||**17,646.28**||
|**Income**|||||
|Deposit Interest||4,575.07||3,044.15|
|Donatons|Individual|7,044.20||4,126.88|
||Southern Area|3,250.00||3,000.00|
||Linbury & Gatsby
Grants|50,000.00|||
||J Sainsbury plc|30,000.00||30,000.0
0|
||||**94,869.27**|**40,171.0**
**3**|
|**Grants**|||||
|**Made**|||||
|Respite Care||1,541.25||712.00|
|Furniture||13,608.60||5,963.25|
|Mobility
Aids||8,801.00||310.80|
|Bathroom
s||17,012.00||8,740.56|
|Kitchen Equipment||1,557.00|||
||||**42,519.85**|**15,726.6**
**1**|
|**Administratve Costs**|||||
||Bank Costs|8.40||7.20|
||Administrato|35.00|||
||n||||
||Leafet Costs|||2,336.60|
||||**43.40**|**2,343.80**|
|**Total Expenditure**|||**42,563.25**|**18,070.4**
**1**|
|**CCLA Transfers**|TO CCLA|50,000.00||55,000.0|
|||||0|
|---|---|---|---|---|
||From CCLA|25,000.00||10,000.0
0|
||**Net Transfer to CCLA**||**25,000.00**|**45,000.0**
**0**|
|**Cash Balance**|**31st December 2024**||||
||Current Account|44,952.30||17,646.2
8|
|||105,000.0||80,000.0|
||CCLA Deposit|0||0|
||||**149,952.3**|**97,646.2**|
||||**0**|**8**|
## THE SAINSBURY VETERANS WELFARE SCHEME
Statements of Receipts and Payments 1st January -31December 2024
||£|£|**£**|
|---|---|---|---|
|**Account Balances1st January 2024**||||
||17,646.2|||
|Bank|8|||
||80,000.0|||
|CCLA|0|||
||**97,646.2**|||
|**TOTAL**|**8**|||
|**Income**||||
|CCLA deposit interest received||4,575.07||
|||10,294.2||
|Donatons||0||
|||50,000.0||
|Linbury &Gatsby Grants||0||
|||30,000.0||
|J. Sainsbury plc Grant||0||
||||**94,869.27**|
|**Expenditure**||||
|||42,519.8||
|**Grants Made**||5||
|**Administraton Expenses**||43.40||
|**Total Expenditure**|**42,563.25**|
|---|---|
|Net Income/Expenditure 1 Jan-31 March 2024|**52,306.02**|
|Opening Funds at 1st January 2024|**97,646.28**|
|Closing Funds at 31st December||
|2024|**149,952.30**|
THE SAINSBURY VETERANS' WELFARE SCHEME
**GRANT POSITION 1 JANUARY 2008 TO 31 DECEMBER 2024**
||||AVERAG|
|---|---|---|---|
||GRANTS|£|E GRANT|
||MADE|VALUE|£|
|2008|21|28,572|1,361|
|2009|15|15,599|1,040|
|2010|18|31,877|1,771|
|2011|33|59,008|1,788|
|2012|30|41,973|1,399|
|2013|49|84,467|1,724|
|2014|44|73,272|1,665|
|---|---|---|---|
|2015|35|55,910|1,597|
|2016|33|62,805|1,903|
|2017|28|51,800|1,850|
|2018|10|28,077|2,808|
|2019|16|26,182|1,636|
|2020|7|18,896|2,699|
|2021|4|9,322|2,330|
|2022|5|14,332|2,866|
|2023|8|15,727|1,966|
|2024|16|42,520|2,658|
|**TOTAL**|**372**|**660,338**|**1,775**|
CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examiner's report on the
accounts
Section A
Independent Examiner's Report
Report to the trustees
//v£
On accounts for the year
ended
8 Is tr)s&-eu Vr> 2 02+
Charity no
(If any)
Set out on pages
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above
charity ('the Trust"} for the year ended
Responslbllttles and
basls of report
As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the
accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011
(llhe Acr).
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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission
under section 145{5)(b) of the Act.
Independent trhe charity's gross income exceeded £250,000 and l am
examlnerfs statement undertake the examination by bei
er of [insert name of
applicabl
] rf not applKable.
I have completed my examination. I confinn that no material matters have
come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that
disclosed below ') which gives me cause to believe that in, any material
respect:
the accounting records were not kept in accordance wtth section 130
of the Charrties Act; or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
the accounts did 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 'tru8 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 exami
n to which attention should be drawn in this report in
order to ena
roper understarKJing of the accounts to be reached.
' Please deidte th6/words in the brackets rf they do not apply.
Date:
Signed:
Name:
Relevant professional
qualification{s) or body
(if any):
IER
Oct 2018
Address:
Section B
Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs lo highlight material matters of concern
(see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and
guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of
any items that the
examiner wishes to
disclose.
IER
Oct 2018