y P REPORT REPORT impact
2024 - 2025
The Friendly Transport Service, registered charity number 1131707
CONTENTS
Note from our Chair Introduction Our committee and office team School contracts Journey statistics and places visited About our members Keeping in touch Shifnal Shuttle Our volunteers Keeping our fleet on the road MiDAS training Income, expenditure and accounts summary Social Impact Our ‘Help us buy a bus’ fundraising campaign Key points from 2024-2025 and looking ahead We’ve had a blast! Acknowledgements
Data in this report is for the timeframe 1 March 2024 to 28 February 2025 unless stated otherwise
NOTE FROM OUR CHAIR Alison Richards
When I wrote the ‘Note from our Chair’ for last year’s Impact Report, I was very concerned about whether we could raise enough money to replace our ageing fleet of minibuses. Whilst the Friendly Bus generates enough money to deliver the transport needed by our community day to day and week to week, finding the tens of thousands of pounds needed for new vehicles was an enormous challenge.
We made a heartfelt request. We asked for donations from everyone we could think of - our members, occasional passengers, the relatives of our clients, local residents and community organisations. The question remained however - would it be enough?
In a world where all the headlines seem to be gloomy and downbeat, the Friendly Bus in 2024/25 offers a good news story. The response to our plea was tremendous and support came from many sources. Today we are the proud owners of two new (to us) buses, with a third in the pipeline.
am fond of a quotation but this year, it is the words of a song that seem to sum up what has happened and what the Friendly Bus is all about. The lyrics that I am thinking of are from the 1967 number by the Four Tops, ‘Reach Out and I’ll Be There’.
We reached out and you were there so, in addition to the gratitude I usually offer here to our staff and volunteers, a very, very big ‘Thank You’ to everyone who contributed.
We received countless donations from individuals; from tips on trips to sponsored abseiling to funds raised at birthday parties, funerals and carol singing. We are also incredibly grateful to those organisations whose significant gifts have been a massive boost, particularly The Wenlock Forester Trust,The Lady Forester Trust and the VINCI Foundation.
Your generosity means that the Friendly Bus can continue to reach out to the residents of Broseley and Much Wenlock and be there for those who need community transport, reducing loneliness and isolation and raising thousands of smiles.
What a difference a year makes!
Alison
Introduction
Our aims
We're a registered charity 'The Friendly Transport Service' (1131707), supporting our communities in Broseley, Much Wenlock, Shifnal and surrounding areas.
Our aims are to help:
-
reduce loneliness and isolation in our communities for those that are elderly, vulnerable, isolated or have disabilities by providing community transport; and
-
support our communities by providing 'Good Neighbour help' such as the collection of prescriptions, shopping and library books, a befriending service and help staying safe in the home.
"The 2011 census showed that Shropshire has a higher percentage of over 65 year olds than the national average. Conversely the rate of under 25 year olds is lower than average." (Shropshire Council)
Our services
Regular minibus trips to local retail parks, supermarkets, home stores and markets.
-
Community car journeys that prioritise getting people to their medical appointments.
-
Social trips to tourist attractions, garden centres, seaside towns and places of interest. Transport to local social groups and fitness classes.
-
Shopping, prescription and library book collections.
-
Light bulb and smoke detector battery changes.
-
Light gardening help such as mowing and pruning.
-
Internal window cleaning.
This enables people to retain their independence, autonomy and provides social opportunities and enrichment.
- Regular phone calls or face-to-face visits from a matched volunteer to chat as part of our befriending service.
COMMUNITY TRANSPORT...
...IT'S SO MUCH MORE THAN TAKING PEOPLE FROM A TO B.
ee
OUR COMMITTEE
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CHAIR
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TREASURER
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CEO SECRETARY
Alison Richards
Margaret Dutton
Marie MonkLiz Mars Hawksworth a — Could this be (4 you?
Barry Hansford
Dave Marriot TRUSTEES
Heather Armstrong
OUR OFFICE TEAM
Marie Caroline CEO Transport & Ops Manager Laura Communications & Admin officer
Julie Ops manager
Ian Admin Officer
School contracts Providing school transport helps to support our other operations.
For the academic year September 2024 to July 2025 we are operating four contracts from Shropshire Council's Passenger Transport Group.
We transport mainstream rurally isolated children to and from Bridgnorth Endowed School, and also a Special Education Needs contract for Severndale Specialist Academy.
We have a wonderful team of drivers and passenger assistants who go above and beyond to support their passengers.
A huge thank you too for their volunteer driving for our core services.
Roger Rural Route
Rob SEN Route
Graham Rural Route
Helen SEN Route
Joan Rural Route
COMMUNITY ' — car journeys
Total
4,638 (up 928 from last year)
At a Glance
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Medical
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3,630
Exercise & Welfare 654
Good Neighbour
222
Other
132
Top three journey types in each category
1,546 Hospital
822 Doctors 228 Dentist
366 Visit friends & family (care home, hospital etc)
200 Exercise 88 Mental wellbeing
122 34 Food Personal business delivery (banking, solicitors etc) 30 78 Prescription Hairdressers collection 52 14 Personal care Funeral
Personal care
Data collected from 1 March 2024 to 29 February 2025
MINIBUS JOURNEYS 1,488
Members that provided us with their feedback, all confirmed they felt safe on our trips and supported getting on/off the minibus.
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401 Shopping trips
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290 Clubs & exercises classes
468
Groups & school trip bookings
Feedback consistently showed the trips most favoured are to outdoor venues, in particular markets, the seaside and garden centres.
Most found the destinations accessible but seating at the venue for a rest remains a priority, which we'll continue to consider when planning future trips.
The feedback suggested some different choices of venues
We have put on different destinations such as stately homes and gardens and castles.
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113 Social trips
Less trips were completed this year due to the 148 vehicles being off the road with breakdowns
Some of the places we visited last year....
We take people to all the main supermarkets as well as Telford Town Centre, Meole Brace Retail Park, Wrekin Retail Park, Forge Retail Park, Broseley and Much Wenlock High Streets and various local markets.
Garden Centres, RAF Cosford Museum, Ludlow, Cuan Wildlife Rescue, Barmouth seaside, Llandudno seaside, Broseley Scarecrow Festival Tour, Attingham Park - Christmas decorated mansion, Broseley Lights Tour, Carboot sales at Priory Hall in Much Wenlock (in aid of Friendly Bus), Attingham Park grounds.
About our members
81%
of service users said Friendly Bus enhances their wellbeing.
Passengers on our system (minibus & community car 1,213 users). This is up 46 from last year
84
New members (have never been a Friendly Bus member before). This is down 5 from last year
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95% told us they wouldn't be able to receive the same level of support without us, or that they would struggle.
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Mobility aids 10
Walking stick 126
Nobody rated our
Walker/rollator
253
services negatively.
98.5% rated our Wheelchair/scooter
services as Good or
Very Good . 1.5% Other (eg blind, 128
needs assistance)
rated them as OK .
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Members that don’t use our services told us...
"We don't currently use you but want to support you because you're a vital service to older people who don't drive."
"We don't need to use your services just yet...we just like to know you're there in case we do."
Keeping in touch...
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10,400
phone calls &
office visitors
does not include emails
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3,590 801 newsletters sent Facebook to members followers
Some of the Groups we supported last year....
Lady Forester Day Centre for outings, lunch clubs and weekly entertainment
Befrienders at Victoria Hall
Military Wives Voice Choir
Befrienders - companionship, support and coffee mornings
SHIFNAL In September 2022 we SHROPSHIRE began managing the Shifnal Shuttle, in partnership with Shifnal Town Council.
In the two and a half years we have been actively running the Shifnal Shuttle, it has been growing steadily. We now have 70 Members, the majority of whom live in Shifnal and only a handful live in remote areas such as Sheriffhales.
We have listed to what our passengers want and have varied destinations for shopping and socially active trips and due to a surge in demand for our Tuesday shopping trip we have introduced a fair booking policy and added more shopping trips.
We had the minibus adapted to include a new fold down side step to make it easier for our passengers to get on an off. The shuttle is available to anyone without
The shuttle is available to anyone without access to transport in Shifnal and surrounding areas. The service is still relatively new but continues to grow by number of members and volunteers.
Every Tuesday the service goes to Telford (retail parks, shopping centre, supermarkets etc). Every other Friday the service goes to Shifnal High Street and on alternating weeks we vary the destination to places such as Newport, Wellington Market, Madeley, garden centres and to the seaside in the summer.
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269
75 9 11 (1,638 218
Members Groups Volunteers passenger trips) followers
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"WITHOUT THEM, WE
WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO
our volunteers DO WHAT WE DO"
"I Just love volunteering.
Our volunteers
It helps to keep me busy, otherwise I start
to get lonely. I love meeting the members Without them, we wouldn't be
able to do what we do.
and chatting to them and I can see what
a difference it makes to have my support
when they're feeling anxious on our way 93 Volunteers in total
to an appointment."
B R O S E L E Y
C O M M U N I T Y C A R
14 D R I V E R S
Community M U C H W E N L O C K
C O M M U N I T Y C A R
car driver 12 * B® D R I V E R S
@& -_ B R O S E L E Y
11 M I N I B U S D R I V E R S
a —~\
17,684 hours
M U C H W E N L O C K
05 M I N I B U S D R I V E R S
given by our
volunteers over
P A S S E N G E R
the year - that’s 07 A S S I S T A N T S
340 hours each
aa ~ G O O D
week! 05 N E I G H B O U R
N E W S L E T T E R
Volunteer activity Hours 9 T E A M
M U C H W E N L O C K
"Gi 16 C O C O &B E F R I E N D E R S
Community car drivers 9660
B R O S E L E Y
Sat 09 B E F R I E N D E R S
Social trips 5952
Some of our volunteers also help at events to
raise awareness of us and fundraise.
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Volunteer activity Hours
Community car drivers 9660
Social trips 5952
Group bookings 2072
Newsletter team 198
Befrienders 1,116
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Some of our volunteers last year....
Thank you for all that you do!
Keeping our fleet on the road
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KDZ 16 Seater Peugeot BCE 15 Seater Mercedes OBC 11 Seater Peugeot
TGK 8 Seater Peugeot WUD [7 Seater Ford Galaxy ] ABN 16 Seater Peugeot
(Shifnal Shuttle)
_—
_a
Pa [—]
10 Weekly Safety Check Lift checks Vehicle maintenance
tC ) tT )
@ Breakdowns/General Maint @ MOT
costs
10000
Totals spent
8000
e £3094: safety checks
e £1275: Lift checks
6000
e £15312: Breakdowns &
4000 general maintenance
e £3150: MOTs
2000
Total cost to keep all
vehicles on the road:
0 £22,462 This isThis is
DOUBLE the average
yearly cost
DG71 TGK WF63 KDZ DK18 ABN HX66 WUD CN11 BCE WJ16 OBC
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Vehicle maintenance costs
-
£3094: safety checks
-
£15312: Breakdowns & general maintenance
Total cost to keep all vehicles on the road: £22,462* This isThis is DOUBLE the average yearly cost
- *Excluding road tax and insurance
MINIBUS DRIVER awareness training
STANDARD
8 Trainees
ACCESSIBLE 8 Trainees
As a registered training agent for the Community Transport Association's (CTA) MiDAS Scheme, we're able to train our volunteers in-house.
This saves us money and also enables us to generate a small amount of income by providing training for other community transport organisations and local taxi companies.
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Income & savings
£675
Savings - driver training
£405
Wheelchair training income
£410
MiDAS standard/refresher
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The new trend which emerged in 2023 has continued, with members requesting donations in lieu of birthday gifts or holding a birthday raffle at their party. This continues to boost our donations pot - thank you to
INCOME & EXPENDITURE
everyone who has chosen to do this for us!
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Members
Donations
Fundraising
Contracts
Shropshire
Council grant
Other
grants
Shifnal
project
Services
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The majority of our income comes from the income home to school contracts we’re awarded from Shropshire Council. However, it's becoming increasingly harder to manage these and the social value of our services is not being taken into consideration by Shropshire Council when assessing the bids.
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Volunteers
Admin / office
Depreciation
Staff costs
Shifnal
project
Vehicles
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As with most organisations, our biggest cost is for
expenditure
staff. However without our dedicated and fully trained team we could not support our users as we do.
A HUGE total of £148,609 this year! Made up of £27,000 for the Shifnal Project, the standard Shropshire Council Grant and other key grants shown below...
Grants
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Contracts
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£50,000 £23,475 £2,000 Wenlock Forester Inclusive Communties Millichope Trust Fund
Millichope - to support the delivery of our service
£700
£700 £15000 Vinci UK Foundation Bus Services (Freyssinet) Improvement Plan via Shropshire Council
Income & Expenditure Accounts
1 March 2024 to 29 February 2025
| Income | 2025 (£) | 2024 (£) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grants | Shropshire Council | 47,932 | 11,931 |
| Other Grants | 97,725 | 4,074 | |
| Other income | 8,551 | 9,059 | |
| Services | Shropshire Community Cars | 9,222 | 5,613 |
| Friendly Bus Fares | 169,333 | 160,556 | |
| Subscriptions | 4,505 | 4,055 | |
| Donations to Service | 17,151 | 8,282 | |
| Other | Fundraising | 3,092 | 2,035 |
| Bank Interest | 1,361 | 1,144 | |
| Total Incoming Resources | 358,872 | 206,749 | |
| Expenditure | 2025 (£) | 2024 (£) | |
| Staff costs | Employment Wages, Tax, NI, payroll | 168,228 | 139,091 |
| Expenses | Shropshire Community Cars | 4,914 | 4,944 |
| Volunteer costs | 309 | 1,408 | |
| Vehicles | Running costs | 55,748 | 59,077 |
| Vehicle Hire for new contract | 7,122 | 11,024 | |
| Shifnal | Car hire | 4,039 | 361 |
| Rent, Rates, utilities, Insurance | 4,667 | 4,786 | |
| Office | Repairs and Maintenance | 799 | 1,663 |
| Fixtures and fittings | 242 250 | ||
| Printing Postage and stationery | 4,421 | 4,121 | |
| Telephone and internet | 1,978 | 4,365 | |
| Catering and room hire | 1,052 | 986 120 | |
| Fees and subscriptions | 720 | 1,035 | |
| Admin | Accountancy fees | 1,208 | 768 |
| Fundraising expenses | 225 | 130 | |
| General expenses | |||
| Other | 2,902 | 112 | |
| Depreciation | 35,447 | 16,810 | |
| Total Outgoing Resources | 293,779 | 251,391 | |
| Difference between income and expenditure | 65,093 | (44,643) | |
| Total funds brought forward | 103,681 | 148,324 | |
| Total funds carried forward | 168,774 | 103,681 | |
| Current assets | 113,041 | 86,300 |
A copy of the financial statements for the year ended 1st March 2025, as prepared by our accountants for Companies House is available upon request. The accounts presented above are a simplified version of these accounts which highlight information likely to be of interest to members.
OUR SOCIAL IMPACT
£1,633,370 is our total social value
| £0 £300,000 £900,000 Total social value "Social Value refers to the wider financial and nonfinancial value created by an organisation through its day to day activities in terms of the wellbeing of individuals and communities, social capital created and the environment." Local Government Association £600,000 £1,200,000 £1,500,000 Environmental Health Social Economic |
£0 £300,000 £900,000 Total social value "Social Value refers to the wider financial and nonfinancial value created by an organisation through its day to day activities in terms of the wellbeing of individuals and communities, social capital created and the environment." Local Government Association £600,000 £1,200,000 £1,500,000 Environmental Health Social Economic |
|---|---|
| Some of our key impacts | Value £ |
| Avoided social care cost from a reduction in loneliness | £29,636 |
| Value of impact on life satisfaction from a reduction in loneliness | £215,593 |
| Increased social interaction | £25,022 |
| Value of the change in cost to passengers of using CT services instead of alternative transport mode |
£525,373 |
| Value of reduction in cost for group travel due to access to lower cost minibus hire services |
£39,015 |
| Economic value of volunteering for your CT organisation | £248,568 |
| Value of wellbeing impact from volunteering for your CT organisation | £79,894 |
HELP US BUY A BUS! HELP US BUY A BUS!
www.justgiving.com/campaign/thefriendlybus
Our fundraising campaign to buy a bus or two, launched in May 2024. Our current fleet of vehicles have driven over 40,000 journeys! Due to their age they often needed repairs. This meant we let our members down when our vehicles broke down and were off the road.
UPDATE
SO FAR, you have helped us replace our two oldest buses!
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NK
A Y
H O
T U
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A HUGE thank you to all donations, large and small. Every single penny has counted and means we can now ae focus on reliably delivering our services.
Cheque presentation from Much Wenlock Foresters Trust to buy our new to us Treka bus
Our new to us 16 seater minibus with a ramp. Paid for by your generous donations and help from the Vinci Foundation (pictured presenting the cheque to us)
Thank you to everyone who has donated and supported us - together we’ll get there!
HELP US BUY A BUS! HELP US BUY A BUS!
www.justgiving.com/campaign/thefriendlybus
So many of you have been incredibly generous
Shirley braved a sponsored Abseil for us!
Many of you have donated from personal occasions and also in memory of loved ones
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Ar
the friendly| bus
KK Wp NR
NK
A Y
H O
T U
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Some of you have organised fundraising events
Thank you to everyone who has donated and supported us - together we’ll get there!
HELP US BUY A BUS! HELP US BUY A BUS!
www.justgiving.com/campaign/thefriendlybus
Wellington (telford) brass band concert Music from the movies
Friday 27 June (7:30pm), £10 ticket All Saints’ Church, Broseley TF12 5DA
You can still help with donations, sponsored or fundraising events and come along to our Concert!
Tickets can be purchased from The Friendly Bus office, Evermore, Broseley Social Club, Wenlock Smoothie or online Eventbrite - see our website for more details www.friendlybus.co.uk
...to everyone who has donated and supported us - together we’ll get there!
Key points from 2024-2025 and looking ahead to 2026...
Writing this report has made me so proud of what we do. The huge support we have received for our fundraising campaign has been humbling.
This year has seen demand for our services continue to grow. In order to help meet this growing demand of lonely and isolated people we have been able to increase our number of community car journeys.
Friendly Bus has continued our track record of addressing both the causes and consequences of loneliness and isolation playing a leading role in tackling the social and economic costs.
Our Social Value has been calculated using the new toolkit produced by ECT charity in partnershhip with the Community Transport Association (CTA). This year it is calculated at £1.6million.
We have continued to work closely with the CTA, assisting in data collections and workshops to develop the above mentioned social value toolkit.
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Marie Monk-
Hawksworth, CEO
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In addition to this, I have been asked on a number of occasions to present at online events and also meet with other organisations to provide insight and advice on Consortium working.
We need to continuously maintain and develop good working relationships with other voluntary and community sector organisations, both locally and nationally. This helps us share best practice. It is also vital to connect with Shropshire Council as our main funder through a small grant and the home to school contracts we provide to support our core services.
As the Chief Executive Officer, I sit on the Board of Shropshire’s Voluntary and Community Sector Assembly and I'm the current Chair of the Shropshire Community Transport Consortium.
Friendly Bus will also continue to work with other voluntary and community sector organisations in the county to develop strong relationships and joined up working with each other and statutory services.
Looking ahead to 2024-2025........
Our ‘HELP US BUY A BUS’ campaign!
In order to safely and effectively deliver our services we highlighted in last year’s report, the need to replace at least 2 of our ageing minibuses.
Our main focus for 2025-26 will remain on helping as many people as possible access the essential services they need, as well as helping them live happy, healthy independent lives filled with fun and laughter.
An important element to achieve this is recruiting new volunteers to meet the increased demand for our services.
This report highlights the increasing demand for our services but also the increasing costs needed to keep the vehicles on the road. The maintenance remained at double the annual average this year too. Even more worring is that this report shows a reduction in the number of minibus journeys due to the time some of them were off the road with breakdowns and other maintenance issues.
We are in need of more mini-bus drivers and will be launching a recruitment campaign soon.
Marie
BUT through the generosity of our Members and supporters, we have been able to replace 2 minibuses and are well on the way to replace our third ageing vehicle.
We have already seen an increase in journeys, reduction in staff time to manage the maintenance issues, increased morale in our volunteer drivers and some very happy passengers!
We've had a blasl! .4*+ 11
The Friendly Transport Service (Shropshire) is a Company limited by guarantee, registered in England & Wales No. 4770291. Reg. Charity No. 1131707 57 High Street, Broseley, Shropshire, TF12 5EY · Tel. 01952 881145 info@friendlybus.co.uk · www.friendlybus.co.uk · facebook.com/thefriendlybus www.justgiving.com/campaign/thefriendlybus