2024-12-31-accounts

St Michael & All Angels Houghton-le-spring ANNUAL PAROCHIAL CHURCH MEETING 2025 Sunday 18th May 11.15am

Contents

1.	Introduction	Page 4
2.	Parochial Church Council 2024 – 25	Page 4
3.	Changes in Membership of the Electoral Roll	Page 5
4.	Church Report for 2024, The Year in Review	Page 6
5.	Independent Examiner’s Report	Page 9
6.	Financial statements for Year Ending 31st Dec 2024	Page 11
	6.1 Consolidated Statement of Accounts	Page 11
	6.2 Church Statement and Commentary	Page 27
	6.3 Space4 Project Statement and Commentary	Page 38
7.	Report on Church Buildings & Fabric	Page 42
8.	Report on Proceedings of Deanery Synod	Page 43
9.	Safeguarding Report	Page 45
10. Reports on our Activity in the Year Ending 31stDec 2024		Page 46
	10.1 Reports for Church Groups	Page 46
	10.2 Reports from Church Affiliated Organisations	Page 52
	10.3 Reports from Space4: The Community Project	Page 55
	of St Michael & All Angels

1. Introduction

The Church of England parish church of St Michael and All Angels in the ancient town of Houghton-le-Spring has been at the heart of our community for over a thousand years. Our magnificent church building stands as a visible symbol of Christ’s presence, as do the many ways we reach out to support and serve our local community.

This report celebrates the work of the church in the last year through our church groups, including the activities of our community project ‘Space4’, as well as the activities of organisations with strong affiliations to St Michael’s. A report of our church finances is given, together with a report on the finances of Space4 which are managed separately. A consolidated report of both sets of finances is also provided.

2. Parochial Church Council 2024-25

• The PCC is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes an unincorporated charity.

• Its Registered Charity number is 1135095

• Its principal address is Church Street, Houghton le Spring, DH4 4DN

In accordance with its governing document, ‘The PCC has the responsibility of co-operating with the incumbent in promoting in the ecclesiastical parish the whole mission of the church, pastoral, evangelistic, social and ecumenical, as well as the maintenance and upkeep of the ancient building.

• The PCC meets monthly throughout the year and may hold extraordinary meetings as and when they are required.

• Members of the PCC are either ex-officio or elected at the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) in accordance with the Church Representation Rules.

• The Standing Committee of the PCC is the only committee required by law. It has the power to transact business of the PCC between its meetings, subject to any directions given by the PCC. The Standing Committee consists of the Rector, Church Wardens, Assistant Wardens, Treasurer and Secretary.

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During the past year, the following served as members of the PCC:

----- Start of picture text -----
Incumbent Reverend John Barron
Church Wardens Rita Turnbull, Alastair Bradley
Treasurer, Gift Aid Sue Bradley
Officer
Secretary Angela Slater
Ministry Team Reverend Margaret Lee
Representative
Deanery Synod David Hann, Dian Scott, Susan Elsey (term of office 2023 -2026)
Representatives
Elected members Term of office 2024-2027 Sheila Foster, David Turnbull
Term of office 2023-2026 Malcolm Foster, Brian Scott (Assistant
Church Warden), Clare Taylor, Jade Turnbull-Mason
Term of office 2022-2025 Lynn Scott, Simon Hardy (Assistant
Church Warden)
Term of office 2024-2025 Kathleen Close
Co-opted member George Peebles (Director of Music)
----- End of picture text -----

The following served as Sidespersons:

Joan Beattie Sheila Gamble Evelyn Garbutt Elaine Harkness Jean Henderson Brian Scott Dian Scott Catherine Moore David Turnbull Rita Turnbull John Wilde Susan Wilde Bob Wile.

The Parish Safeguarding Officer is: Ali Young.

The Independent Examiner was:

TTR Barnes Limited Chartered Accountants 3 – 5 Grange Terrace Stockton Road Sunderland SR2 7DG.

3. Changes in membership of the Electoral Roll, 2024

Every six years the Electoral Roll has to be re-done with everyone who attends Church having to reapply and fill in a new Electoral Roll form. This year is six years since it was last done so everyone has had to fill in a new form.

The number on last year’s Roll was 124 and the figure for this year is 77.

We have an additional five members of the church who are clergy, four of whom have ‘Permission to Officiate’ (PTO).

Rita Turnbull is the Electoral Roll Officer.

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4. Church Report for 2024: The Year in Review

St Michael and All Angels Church continued to play a vital role in serving the local community of Houghton-le-Spring throughout the year, facilitating worship, prayer and various community events. Our weekly services included 3-4 Holy Communion services, 1-2 Services of the Word, and up to 4 Baptism services per month. Additionally, we held seasonal, civic, and special services to cater to the diverse needs of our community. Our online presence remained strong, with a weekly Facebook service complementing our in-person worship. Our 'Church at Home' community allowed those unable to attend physically to receive Holy Communion from members of our Ministry Team. Our 'Usual Sunday Attendance' in the church building experienced a slight decrease to 77 (71 adults and 6 children), compared to 82 (79 adults and 3 children) in the previous year. However, our average weekly attendance in October saw an increase to 156 (compared to 105 the previous year) due to several special services held during this period.

We were honoured to host various significant civic services, including the annual 'Feast Service' in October, attended by the Deputy Lord Lieutenant, the Mayor of Sunderland, and other distinguished guests. A memorable lunch at Kepier Hall followed the service, bringing the community together. Our traditional Remembrance Sunday service saw a full church, with numerous attendees participating in the outdoor Act of Remembrance at the Cenotaph. Advent and Christmas were marked by well-attended Carol Services, with 370 people joining us on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day (compared to 395 the previous year). Easter attendance increased slightly to 120 (from 118 last year).

Our monthly 'All Age Communion' service explored a range of engaging themes, such as 'Taking Care of Our World', 'The World as It Is and the World as It Should Be', and 'Being Part of Something Bigger'. While the service is different from our regular Sunday worship, it remains essential in encouraging our children and young people's faith journey. On St Francis Day, we hosted an inclusive 'Pet Service' (or 'All Age and All Species' worship) that welcomed pets and cuddly toys for the first time as part of our main Sunday worship. Local Guides attended three services, and Scouts joined us for Christmas and Remembrance Services. We were delighted that all three local primary schools attended Christmas services and visited the church during the year. Kepier School held Remembrance and Christmas services with us as well. Although the number of children regularly attending worship and participating in our 'worshipping community' has seen a slight increase, it remains a concern that we aim to address more proactively in the future.

Music continued to be an integral part of our church life last year. Our talented Musical Director and Organist George Peebles led our skilled robed choir, accompanied by Nikki Lipinski. They enhanced our worship at six or more services every month, in addition to significant seasonal and special services. The Gilpin Singers, our community choir led by Laura Parkin, held their annual concerts and a successful fundraising event during Houghton Feast, also supporting our Summer Concert. We hosted a variety of music events, including Concerts, Organ Recitals, and Brass Bands. Alongside our traditional worship music, our 'All-age' and 'Engage' services feature more contemporary music, led by Stuart Clappison and Andy Slater. Andy also regularly plays the organ at our services.

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We sustained our collaboration with St Matthew's, Newbottle and St Michael & All Angels, Easington Lane, organizing joint activities such as a Lent course, and holding joint services on Ash Wednesday, Palm Sunday, and Advent Sunday. We await further guidance from the Archdeacon of Durham regarding our progression towards a Group Ministry structure.

Throughout the year, we conducted 41 baptisms, slightly fewer than the 49 of the previous year. We hosted 2 weddings, a decrease from the 7 held the year before. The number of funerals also saw a decline, with 22 funerals last year, compared to 36 in the previous year and typically 40+ in earlier years. This downward trend is consistent with broader community patterns. We have provided care for one another during bereavement and reached out to support those grieving through our funeral ministry, an 'All Souls' service, a Remembering Service at Christmas in collaboration with Derek Moss Funeral Directors, and a monthly bereavement support group in our Space4 Hub on Newbottle Street.

Our ministry team continued to operate a 'Pastoral Care Scheme' to nurture our wider church family, complemented by the exceptional informal care provided among church members. The production and distribution of our parish 'Signpost' magazine remained a vital means of staying connected with individuals who are still an integral part of our church family despite being less able to attend services in person. We are incredibly fortunate to have an active and hardworking chapter of Mothers’ Union at Houghton, which has offered invaluable care to church members and the wider community.

Retired ordained ministers with Permission to Officiate (PTO) – Rev'd Margaret Lee, Rev'd Judith Howes, and Rev'd Claire Cullingworth – along with our devoted team of Readers – Sue Elsey, Ros Pickersgill, and Anne Clappison – have provided indispensable support to our church. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to them, our Standing Committee and to PCC for their tireless efforts behind the scenes, addressing matters related to finances, human resources, administration, and building management. A significant amount of work has been undertaken to maintain the functioning of our church building, with tremendous assistance from our church wardens, verger, technical verger, assistant verger, cleaners, gardeners, stewards, linen and silver washers, brass polishers, tea makers, cake bakers, rota volunteers and others. Our creative flower arrangers and dedicated open-church stewards also deserve our immense gratitude. Additionally, our incredible Parish Administrator has provided indispensable support to our church members, the broader community, and the Rector.

We made remarkable strides in serving our community through the Space4 project. Our primary objective is to foster a 'Space4 everyone to flourish,' concentrating on alleviating food poverty, supporting individuals grappling with isolation and anxiety (especially the elderly and marginalized), and tackling inequalities that affect children and young people. A notable shift in our project focus was transforming our foodbank into a community food store where people can select the food they need and contribute donations if they are capable. Additionally, we collaborate with 'Tyne and Wear Citizens' to venture into Community Organising, enabling us to challenge injustices faced by our local communities.

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Over the year, we experienced several staffing changes, and our new Space4 Manager, Justine Merton-Scott, is now leading the project toward greater success. In the early part of the year, we secured additional funding from external grant providers. Notably, we were fortunate to obtain substantial funding from the Lottery's Reaching Community Fund, allowing the project to carry out this crucial work for the next three years. As an indication of our impact, our Foodstore served a cumulative total of 1891 households in 2024, while our drop-in recorded a total footfall of 6118 individuals over the year. Our weekly children’s group ‘Teatime Treat’ had footfall of 1038 children and toddler group ‘Stay and Play’ footfall of 727 children. We are fortunate to have a solid and committed Project Board comprising PCC members and community representatives to guide our project.

During the first two quarters of the year, we encountered several financial challenges and anticipated a considerable shortfall by the year's end. Major financial pressures included reduced income from regular giving and collections, significantly lower fees from weddings and funerals, and higher running expenses (particularly heating and lighting). To address the projected shortfall, we implemented several measures. In the short term, we paused our parish share payments to manage cash flow. We launched a stewardship campaign, intensified fundraising efforts, and worked diligently to cut costs. Our congregations displayed immense generosity, providing substantial one-off donations and pledging increased giving. Additionally, we organized significant fundraising events during the second half of the year. Collectively, these acts of generosity and tireless work significantly strengthened our financial position by year's end, allowing us to pay our parish share in full.

In the final quarter of the year, we joined the pilot national 'Organising for Growth' programme, focusing on fostering growth within families with young children. This initiative, run by the Centre for Theology and Community, aims to support Anglican parishes across the UK in expanding their congregations. The programme integrates community organising (a familiar concept from our Space4 project work) with prayer and theological reflection. The initial stages of the programme heavily emphasize 'listening' to both our congregations and the wider community. We hope that this approach will prove instrumental in promoting growth in our church's membership, depth and social impact.

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5. ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS HOUGHTON LE SPRING: INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT

1 JANUARY – 31 DECEMBER 2024

REGISTERED CHARITY NO 1135095

External Examiner TTR Barnes Chartered Accountants

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Independent Ex8mlner'$ Report to the Trustees of St Mith8el and All Angels Parish Chur¢h Independent examiner's report to the trustees of St Michael aDd All Angels Parish Church I repon 10 the charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of St Michael and All Ang¢l$ P￿1$h (the Trusi) ftir the year ended 31 December ?024. Responsibilltles and basis of report As the ¢hariry trusiees of Ihe I'rust you are respoDsibl¢ for the prepat>tion of the Accounts in accordance wilh the requirernen￿ of ihe Chariiies Act 2011 Ilhe Act,). I repon in respect of my examinaiion of the Trust'5 accounrs carried out under Se¢iion 145 of the Aet and in caryying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under Section 145(51{b) gf tile ACL Independent eiaminer's st8ttment I hav¢ ¢omplered rny examiD21ion. I collfirm that no material matters have c¢)me io my allention in conn¢ction with the examination 8iving me believe tha( in any material respect.. accounting rtcords were noi kepi in respeci o(th¢ Tnut as required by Se¢tlot) 130 of the Aa.. or the accounts do noi accord with those records.. or ¢he acrount5 do noi comply with the applicable requirernents concernin8 the forni and ¢ontent of accounts s oui in Ihe Charities {A¢¢ounts and Reports) Regulaiions 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give fTye and fair View which ts noi a mailer considered &$ pan of an independent examin¥iion. I have no concerns and have corne aCTOSS no oiher matters in conne￿10n wilh the examinaiion io which attention should be drawn in this Teport in order io ertable a proper understandin8 of the accounts io be reached. David Cook FCCA TTR Barncs Limkied Chartered Accountants 3-5 Grange TetTacc Stockton iioad Sunderland Tync & Wear SR2 7DG Dale.. 17 April 2025 Page 101

6. ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS: FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR YEAR ENDING 31[st] DEC 2024

6.1 ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS HOUGHTON LE SPRING: CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

1 JANUARY – 31 DECEMBER 2024

REGISTERED CHARITY NO 1135095

External Examiner TTR Barnes Chartered Accountants

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THE PAROCHIAL GHURCH COUNCIL OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL PARISH OF ST MICIIAEL & ALL A14GELS HOUGMTON-LE- CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES 1135095 Annual accounts for the eriod CC17 Périod 01101112024 To Period and dale 3111212024 dai Section A Statement of financial activities Restrfcted Incomo funds Rocommènded catsgorle8 by activity Unrèstrictèd fund5 Endowment fund5 Prlor year funds Total fund5 Incoming resources (Note 3) F01 F02 F03 F04 F05 In¢om• and ondowmènts from.. vd￿tsry Intome Incwe Tr*iw a￿j Actimbes I￿￿tr￿￿nt It￿[￿@ 89,558 25,849 86 164,594 11,251 204 254,152 37,100 290 201,142 40,974 12S $02 $03 ott Total R•soure8s 8xp8nd•d (Not8 6} Expendllur8 On.. RaI￿ngfundS Clwritable aclMbe6 SOT 115,493 176.049 291,542 242,241 9,238 62,886 34,275 1,590 107,988 102 9,340 231,353 50.919 1,590 293.203 12,978 206,121 51.580 168,468 16,645 Facllhkes Costs 510 Itbd8p8nd8nt Ex8tnin8r S11 Total 512 185.214 270,679 Nèt Incomell&xpèndlturèl bèforè Investment gainslllosse51 S13 7,505 9,165 1,660 28,438 Ngt g31nsllloswslon Invostmonts 814 Net incomellexpenditurel Extraordinary item5 Transfèrs betwèèn funds other recognised gainslllossesl: S15 7,505 9,165 1,660 28.438 516 S17 3,245 3,245 Gans lows on oftsgd aFFgtsfortr Chantyso￿ use Olhergainslllossesl Net movement In funds S18 S19 S20 10,750 12,410 1.660 28.438 Reconciliation of funds.. Tot¥ fwds bro￿bI fonvard Total funds carried fonyard 70.978 72,295 143.271 141,611 171,709 Page 121

Section B Balance sheet Resiri¢te Sncorn• funds Unr•strfctsd fuftds Endo¥mi•nt Total thls h&nd• yoar Total lè•t y•ar Fixed assets Inlanglbl• assets TangSbl• 88set8 H•rftag0 as8•ts Inv•stm•nt$ F01 F02 F03 F05 (Not? 151 (Not• 141 {Not• 161 (Not¢ 17) rot•l fix•d ass•ts Current assets Sto¢k$ {Not• 181 Debtors and Prepayments (Note 191 Inv•stmont (Not• 17.41 Cash at bank #nd in hand (Not• 241 roial ¢unMt assets B10 478 6.747 7.225 Credltors: mount# flllng du• wbthln on• y••r (Not• 201 1.786 2.601 4.387 4.288 ¢urT•nt •M•ts/(Il•blllU•$) 812 Tot•1 •s$•ts l•¥$ current li4billtle$ 813 Credltors: amounts falllng due fter one year (Note 201 Pr￿I$l0n¥ lor Ilabllllles 014 15 Tot•1 •$$•ts or Il•bllltles Funds of the Charity Endowm•nt fund¥ (Noto 271 R•¥tricted Incom• funds (Now 271 Unreslrlded funds R•v•luatlon r•￿1 816 81,725 59.885 141.610 143.271 817 818 59.885 $9.885 81.726 72.295 70.976 819 81.726 Tot•1 lund Signod by￿ w W) ¥u$•s on t•hallcll Daw of SbWur• Prinl Name Page 131

Section C Notes lo the accounts Note 1 Bas15 of preparatlon Thls s•clion should be complèt￿ by all eh•rttl•s. 1.1 Basls of accountlng Th&se ac(x)unts have been prep8red under the historical (x)st wnvention wth iterns recogni88d al cost or transaction value unless othewse stated in the relevant notelsl to thos• accounts. The accounts have been repared in accordance with.. the Statem8nt of Recomrnended Practice.. AccoLJnting and Reporting by Ch8rbts8S preparing their accounts in accordance Mth the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ir81and IFRS 1021 i5SLJ8d on 16 July 2014 and with. and ￿7th. the Financial Reporting Stsndard applicAb18 in th8 Unit8d Kingdom and Republic of Ireland IFRS 1021 and with the charib.es Act 2011. The charity consthut&s a public bonafit entity as defined by FRS 102." YES -r￿k a8 approwiate 1.2 Golng concern If there are material uncertainlies related to events or conditions that cast significant doubt on the Charity's abiliTty to continue as a going concern. pleaseprovide the following details or state -Not applicable-. if •ppropriate.' An explanation as to ihose factors that support th8 conclusion that th8 charity is 8 g(xng concern., The final stat&m8nls have b6en prepared on Ihe ￿￿9 concem basNs. Al th8 tim8 ofapproving the finanoal stat8m8nts, th8 incumbent have a reasonable expectation that the Cha171y has ad8quat8 r8sourc8s lo contllJU8 Iri op8rational 8XlSt8nC8 forth8 foreseeabl& fulure. Thus, the incumbent continue to adopt the going conc8m b8sis of8ccounbng pr8paring th8 financial slat8m8nts. 1.3 Change of accountlng polScy The accounts pres8nt a tru8 and fair vi8W and the accounting txjlicies adopted are thos8 ouU1r￿ in rK)t8 { 1. Ye5" -Tick as appropriate No. Please disclose.- (i) the naturg of the change in acwunting policy,- cha￿ from cash basis acethnting to actruals basts accounting (li) the reasons why applying the new accountingpolicy provld•s morn reliablg and moro relevant Information,. and Charty total tumover exceed thp legal th￿Shok1 of £250,(M)O. rw4uiring accrua15 basi5 accounting ￿Ing (iii) the amount of the adjustment for each line affected In th• currnntporlod, &•ch prlor perlodpres•nt•dand the aggregate amount of the adjustment relating to pwlods b•lor• thos• prns•nt•d, 3.44 FRS 102 SORP. Prior Fenod presented, 2023, now recognises the fcdlowing adjustsnent5 lo weviously presented balance for this period on lab N2. This adiustrnent ncrtv conslders debtor8, creditors and stock held. Page 141

Section C Notes to the accounts Notè 2 Accountlng pollclès Please complete this note when first reporting under FRS2102. Section 35 ofFRS102. requires 3 ￿cOnCl11ati0ns to be presented, rfall are 8pplicable. 2.1 RECONCILIATION WITH PREVIOUS GENERALLY ACCEPTED ACCOUNTING PRACTICE Please provide a description of tho nature of ea¢h ¢hange In accountlng pollcy Chang9 from cash basi$ x¢ountin9 to a¢¢ruo1$ ba$1$ ￿CoUntIng Rèeonellatlon offfunds pwprnvlous GAAP to funds dèt•rmln•d und•r FRS 102 stsrt of End of p•rlod ptrlod Fund balan¢¢$ a$ pr•viously stated Adlustm•nts." 171694 143740 Debtor5 2388 Stock Creditors 1432 4288 Opening Balance 16 Fund balance as restated 171709 143272 R8concllatlon of nèt Incomè/{ngt 0X￿ndIt￿re) perpr•vlous GAAP to net Incomg1(not gxp•ndlturn) undar FRS 102 End of Nèt IncoM￿laxp•ndlturèl as pr•vlously Stated Adlusimgnts.. -27954 Debtors Stock Credltors Openin_q B8lance Pr8¥lou5 Period n8t Incomell8xpendltur81 a$ restated 2388 1432 4288 .16 -28438 Page 151

Section C Notes to the accounts cont Not8 2 Accountln9 pollcla8 2.2 INCOME This standard list offaccountingpolicies ha5 b66rt 8ppliedby Ihe chanty&xeept lortllose tickgd WD"or W/&". ￿ere 8 diifeienl oradthtlDffpalwlKyhas been adopled Ihpn Ihisis detailedin the below. Recvgnition of income These are Included in the StaleTnenl ol Finaficwl AGtNthe5 ISoFAlknen'. th8 charity b8cDtn8s 8ntitlsd toth8 r8sourc@s". it is rth)re likely than not Iheithe trusteès ￿￿11 ￿(￿1¥￿ the resources". the monetary value can be Theas￿r￿ with sufficient reliability. Ye5 Nla Th8[# has nD aft5@thng of and liabilitiès. Or incomè and èXK￿A￿d. unkn rEguirèd or perffi￿ed by the FRS 102 soRP￿ FRS 102. Y8S Nla Oltsettln9 Yes Nl Gran15 and donations are onlyincluded in the SOFA when the general 1￿C￿ne recogDilv)D £￿te[la are mel15.10 10 5 12 FRS102 SORPI In th9 of perfortnance related graDts. ino)me musl be recogni5ed lo the extènt that thè charity hÈ$ prowded thé swthed good$or Sèfvitss as en￿tlementto the grant OnlY￿Lur5 when Ihe perfr>rmance re￿Ied are mel15.16 FRS 102 Grants •nd don•lirns Yes Nla SORPI. Legacleg Legacies are Included In the SOFA vthen reC￿pt Is probable. that Is. there has b￿n grant of wobate, the exeGutot5 have establishett that Ihere are suffioenl assets I thp 8stst8 and anycondthDns attachéd to th8 lryacy ar& 81th8r￿1thin th8 control of th8 chantyor have been meL Y&s No Nla Yes Nl G¢W4nbmnt grants Th8 charity has ret8￿ad govèmmènt gr￿ts ièptsrting pèttod Grft Aid rgcewable is irKludBd in jncotne there 15 a valvj dedaraliDn from the donor. Any GIftA￿ amount recovered on 8 donation igconsideied to be part of that gift and 15 treated a5 an addrrion to the same as the ￿lI1￿j donation unles£ the donor ortho tetms of the appeal tyav& spednB¢ othervJ5e. Tax rt¢lalmi tsn donations anJ gmts Ye5 No Nla Corbtractuil irbcoTh• Jnd perfonnance re￿ted grdnts es This Is only Induded In the SOFA once the chariiy h35 wovlded the rdated goods or SeM￿S ormet the performance related condilK)ns. Ytrs No Nla Donated good6 Donat￿ goods arè mèasured AifaifvaluE It￿ am￿ntf￿ ￿leh thè Assdt ¢￿Id be exchan9pdl unless imprathal lo do so. Th9 ¢0St of anyslock ofgoods dorFled fordistribulion lo bgngficiari£s 15 dggmed lo be thp f8if vglue of thoye yifts at the limp ol their receipt and they 8fe fecrynised on re￿Ipl In the reporbng period In wttich the 510ck5 are dislnbuled. ihey are recogni5ed s an 8Xp￿s8 atth8 catrying amount of stocks atdislribubon Donated gO￿S for resale are tneasured al lair value on initsal recognitir￿. isthe 8xp8ctsd prOc￿dS frorn sal818ss th8 8Ap8ctsd costs of sal@. snd r8cognisad in 'Income from other irading actIvi￿e5, 4Mih coffespondlng stock recognlsed In the balaTr￿ sheet. Ofi ts Sale the value of St￿ Is charged agaiDsl'lncome from i)Iher trading actsvib85' and th8 pr(￿8￿d3 frorn ai8 &L80 r8cognis8d &s.lnci￿n8 frotn other tsadiro activibes.. Yes Nla Yes Nla Yes Nl Grfts in kind forusg byth8 charity8rg indudpd in thB SOFA as incom8 frarn donations hen re￿Nab￿. Oorbated ser¥lces and Donated serv1￿5 and facilitses are Induded In Ihe SOFA when reC￿Ved al the value ol the grfllo the ch3rty provid9d the value of Ihe grflcaD be measufgd rella￿y. Donated servi￿5 and lacilitiesthal are Gonsumed ImmedkRlety are recognised as incom& 8guival8ntamaunt r8cogni58d a8 8XP8nS8 und8r th8 apprDPriatè eading In the SOFA. Yes No Yes Nl Yes Nl Volunteerhelp The valu9 01 anyvoluDlary help re￿I¥￿j is ml induded in Ihe accouDts tyjl is désttibèd in tru$tèpA' annual wofL 85 Incom• frorn int•r•Jt, royaltles and dlvldends This is includ8d in th8 S(￿D￿nts￿n r8(xipt is p￿babl8 #m￿nt rEc￿¥￿ble can be measured relHbly. Yes Nl Incornefrom membership Membership subscnption5 reGewed in the nabjre of a grft are reu>gnised ITr Donation5 sub¥¢riplion nd Legacies. Memb￿shiP subscripbon5 thich giv85 a rn8tnbprlh8 right tD buy sBtvic8s or Dlh8r bEnefits are rewgnised as inwme èamèd from ts prO￿910n olgoDds and sèrvltss as Income froffl cttar11ab￿ activities. es Page 161

S•ttlern•nt of inxuran claims Insurgnce d8ims Are only included in thè SOFA when the yenerAI In￿Me rectgnition ntena are m9115 10 lo 5.12 FRS102 SORPI are indudgd as an itetTr of othgr Income In ihe SOFA Yes N15 2.3 EXPENDITURE AND LIABILITIES Li￿lIrtY r•cagnitiDn Liabiliti88 ar8 r8cognis8d wh@r8 it is mor8 lik8lythan notlhatth8r@ is a18gal On5tructive obligation cotntnitting the charityto payout resources and the amounl of the obllgalon can be measured v￿rh reasonable eertainiy. supp￿ costs have been allo(zled bel￿e￿ governatKe costs and other sUPPOrt. GovernAnce costs compnse all costs Invdvin9 putrAlc acrthntabillty olthe chariiya its complianc8 ¥￿th r8yulation and good piactic8 sup[￿C0Sts Include central fund￿nS and have been alkKaled loacbvily COSI cats9ori￿ on a ba￿5 Con￿￿t￿t th8 of r8sourc85. 89 allocating wop8rty CDS by floorareas, or per capla. staff c05ts by the time Spenta￿ olh9rgx15 bylh9ir Yes Nla Go¥emance and support es Yes No Nla Grant5 payab1ew1th0￿t performance condltlons Where there are Do ￿Tr)It￿S attachiDg to Ihe granl i￿at￿ableS the donorltsnty to Feallsllcally avthd the cMimI￿ent, a Ilatdliiyfor the lull tundlng otrAi9atiDn musi be r8cognis8d Yes No Nla R•dundJn¢y M•1 The rhwitytnadg no redu[￿￿￿ paymwls ￿ring the repurting wrjod. Yes Nls mater￿1 itemof defgffed IncomB has been irKluded in the a￿)unts. Yes No Nla es ¢r•ditors Tha charityhas crEditor5wFwch ar8 m8asur8d at58tUem8ntamllunts1885 any trthe dEcC￿nts Aliabllity Is measured on recryjniion at lis histoncal cosiand then sub5equeniiy tn@a5ured at th8 b85t BSbtnate Df th& amount rEquired to 5EtUe thE DbliyatiDn aithe reporbng date The charlty aC￿nts for b8&cfinan&al instruments on InitLal recognibm As per para9￿ph 11 7 FRS102 SORP. Subs9quent tll9asvr9m9nt is as p9r waragraphs 11.17 to 11.19, FRS102 SORP. pro￿11￿r￿sfor liBbiliti Yes Nla Basicfinancr41 inFtrumeDts Yes Nl8 Taxation The Charity is exemptfrorn tax OD its thatrtablg acbvthes Yes No Nla General I￿ndS rewesent funds of the PCC thaitte notsutiiect ￿ any restrictlons rggaruing thor and ar& availsblo lor appli¢abDn on the ggngral pvrpDs8s of lh9 PCC. Any lund5 designated for a particular purwse by the PCC are also unreslncied. The atttsunts include all tran￿¢th0n5 forwhith the PCC k4 ￿SpOnsi￿e for in kw T do not indud9 th9 accwnts of church groups that(MF their main 3ffilialion lo anDther body nor those that are Inlomal gatherings of church membeTS. Yes No Nla Fund Accounllng 2.4ASSETS Yes Nla Tangibl• fixed aFFots for These caprtalised 11they￿￿ be used fOrT￿rethan year, ar￿ cost al lea51 use by charfly 1MO Yes No N13 They are valued al u>sL The deryeuauon raies and meihods used are dlsdosed In no￿ 92. i>)odsry $9tvices wovided a$ p3rt of a chatitabb acbvity are measur9d at ￿tr￿all&￿￿e valu based on ihe se￿￿ polentsal w0V￿d by rtems of stock. Yes No Nla Debtor5 Ilncluthng trade debtors and I￿S re￿wa￿e) are rneasured on inltial recogniiion al 50tt1grn￿t amount aft8r anytrade di8count5 Or￿D￿nt adyanced by th8 chsrity. Subsequant￿, they are m9asurg4 atlhe cash orolheT considgrakn expect￿ lo be r8ceived. Yes Nla Debtors POLICIES ADOPTED ADDITIONAL TO OR DIFFERENT FROM THOSE ABOVE 2.4 Tangiblo FLK8d Assots Consecrated I￿￿ beneliced property Is ex￿￿e￿ from Ihe accounts by S.9612Mal ol the Charibe5 Ad 2011. No value Is placed ￿ mtsveable ehureh tumishings held be ¢hurthwarden$on 5PBei81 truslfoi the PCC and which rÈQuI￿ a fatulty for disposal ￿nce ths P¢C considérs this to b8 inalionabl8 wop@ty 8xpsndrtur8 incutrgd during tha on COn￿rat@d or benef￿e buildiws and moveable church lurnishiws. whether fflainienance orirnprovemenl. Isbwtten off a5 InGurred In Ihe SOFA. Page 171

Section C Notes to the accounts cont Noto 3 Analysls of Incom• Re•trlth Unrestrfctod Income Endowment funds funds funds TotsI￿dS Prfory&¥ Anal sis Donatlons and legacles.. Donations and Grft Aid Le aoie5 General grant5 prowded by goverrirnertlother tharitie Metnbership subscriptions a[￿ sponsorships which are in 5ub5tance donations Donated oods facilities and s8rvic88 Other 57,819 30,202 1.187 5,148 360 62,967 30.562 1.187 60,414 24,669 Total 89,208 5.508 94.716 85.083 Charitable activities.. Grants Saltrs Fundraisin Roorn Hire Other 159,086 10.246 159.086 24.880 11,565 1.005 116,059 32,286 8.688 14,633 11.565 1.005 Total 26.198 170,337 Othertradln9 a¢ti¥ltlo9: other Total Incomo from inv•$tmort1•'. Inter8St ineom8 [liv￿end inwtne Rental and leasin Other 86 204 290 125 incotne Total 86 204 290 125 Separate matèrial Itam of inGom•'. Total Other. Conversion of 8ndowm8nt funds into income Gain on disposal of a tangible fixed ass8t h81d Gain on disposal of a prografflme Tetated Royalties frorn the exploitation of intellectual ro hts Other Total TOTAL INCOME 115493 242 241 other Inf0m)*￿th: All Income In thè prior year was IirirestrO¢ted except lor (pleasè provldÈ descrlpiion and amounts) Warm Spaces Grant from Sundedand Council- 5000, SCC Grani 1026. SCC Holiday- 4388. RCF- 92480, Other space 4 testricted donAbans. molch fundin and fundrasisin 31.518 Page 181

Section C Notes to the accounts Note 4 Analysis of receipts of government Thls year Descri tion rovision or oodbank I ommunity Foodslore - restricted to rodud costs. Provision of an IT Hub - restricted to IT & Office equipment, ongoing IT support SCC Products 7,000 Digital Hub 9,261 SCC Grant 24 Provision for Foodbank Icommunity F odstore - reslricled to roducl cost Provide extended drop-in, brunch service and slowcooker courses - restricted to 32,000 Llnks for Llfe SCC Hol. 2 Holiday club provision - restricted lo accommodation. product costs. expenses. 4,917 SCC Grant Provision for Foodbank Icommunity Foodstore - restricted to roducl costs. Provision for Food for Christmas Day Lunch for people who are isolated, lonely and on the margins - restricted to food 4,799 ehristmas luneh 1,149 Other Total 76,535 Last year Descri tlon Accommodation. product costs. expenses Accommodation, product costs, expenses Utilities costs SCC Grant 1,028 4,388 5,000 SCC Holiday Warm Spaees Other Total 10,416 Page 191

Section C Notes to the accounts Icontl Note 6 Analysls of expenditure ThiB ￿ar LaBty•ar Urrf•strkt•d R•ytrld•d Endo￿7￿•Tht lunox fvnd Unr•slrfct•d lund Snco fund¥ EndDwffl•nt lund Artaly$l¥ ndituro on raisin funds.. Incurred seeking aon81ions Inveslmeni administration costs Totalfunds TOts1f￿id 7.960 7.960 11.280 11.280 102 102 94 fundB 102 11.280 Expenditure on charitabl? actlvities.. Staff salar￿S Sessional Workers A¢commthJalion 9.824 102872 112.696 9.091 75.027 18.051 84,118 32.300 5.169 6.867 16.645 38.098 4.538 d8,945 43.267 11.402 31.322 26.502 25.290 4.416 57.824 25.290 11.570 Product Costs Expenses Office Costs & Trgini 7.154 1.670 1.670 2.428 2.428 Equiptn8nt Professional fees 8.582 8.582 1.975 1.975 9.097 9.097 1.278 9.446 9.446 1.605 Cost of sales 1.278 43.000 1.605 47,000 Parlsh Shaf8 43.000 47.(M)O Total expenditure on eharltabl& actlvlllos 98.438 fj85.112 283.550 96.171 163.134 259.305 TOTAL EXPENDITURE 106.398 185 214 291.612 163.228 2TO.679 Othor InforMa￿on. AnAlysls of •xpondltur• on charltabl• oct1v1￿•S Th4 Graftt fund￿9 of 8¢ITvitiÈS Last Grant nd¥w of ear AGtl¥ftle5 undBrta*8n dirE¢II Support Totalthl$ y￿r AGtIvIt￿$ undortak&n dire¢tl Support Co4t Tolal last a¢e4 Chutch Other Totsl 22.229 ?06.51I0 162.883 185.112 106.5(10 46,481 107,470 116,728 163,209 107.470 128.729 162.883 291.612 153,951 116,728 270.679 Page 201

Section C Notes to the accounts Note 9 Support Costs Please comphte thls nots Ilthe chantty has analysedlts expeiis8s uslng actlvlty c&t8gories and has support costs. This ear Support cost examples Staff Salaries Ènses Office Costs Accomodaiion costs ProfÈ88ional Fees Parish Share Total Raising fund Space 4 Churth tI￿ty 3 Grand total Ba515 of allocation (Describe rnethodl Dif¢¢ii 8iinbui¥bltr (y)sis Directl 21tnbutabl& ts)sls 99,332 425 1.051 10.118 1.368 5.141 19.179 9.081 43.000 87,886 109.449 1.793 6,192 19,179 18.178 43.01)0 197,791 Direcii atlnbutable costs Directl atlribulable Costs Directl atlnbutable costs Direct 9.097 attnbulable costs 109,905 La$t ytrar uppo exam Staff Salaries enses Office Costs Accomodaiion costs Professional Fees Parish Share Total Ralsin funds co4 Church Activi Grnnd totsl Basis of allocation Dèscrlbè m•thod Directly allnbulable co815 Directl atlribulable costs 67 041 399 9092 Directly allnbijlable costs Directl atlribulable costs 164 002 Please pmvld8 detslls of thè accountlngpollcy adopied fol tho apportlonmeni off costs beiwoen &ctlvttlos and any ostlmatlon t6chnlquès us•d to calculate th8lrapportlonm8nL No •stlmatlon. All support costs art dlr•etly attributablè to the above actSvltles Page 211

Section C Notes to the accounts Note 10 Details of certain items of expenditure 10.1 Fe88 for examination of the accounts Please provide details of the 4mountpaid forany statutory extemal scrutiny of accounts and other services provided by yourindependent examiner. If nothing was paidpleas8 enter il'in the appropriate boxfesl. Th1$ year Last year Independent examlner's fees 1.590 Section C Notes to the accounts Icontl Noto11 Paid employaes Plèasè ¢ompl•tè thls not• If thè eharlty has any •mployè•$. 11.1 Staff Costs Thls year Last year Salaries and wages Social security costs Panslon Costs Id•fln•d eontrlbutlon sch8m•l Other employee benefits 104,309 1.923 6,464 68,952 10,282 4,885 Total staff costs Thls ear Last èar Please provlde the total amount pald to key management personnel (includes trnstees and senior management) for their services to the charity. For spe¢iflc amounts paid to trustees, sèè Notè 28. 44,291 45,712 11.2 Average head count in the year Th8 parts of th8 charlty In whlch tha employees work Thls y•ar Numbèr Last year Nurnb8r 10 Totsl 10 Page 221

Seetion C Notes to the accounts Icontl Note 12 Defined contrlbutlon penslon schème or definèd bèneflt schame accounted for as a defined contribution scheme. 12.1 Please complete thi5 nole ila defin8d contnbution pension scheme is operat8d. Thi8 ear Last ear Amount of contribution8 recognised in the SOFA a8 an expen88 6,464 4,885 Please explain the ba818 for allocating the liability and oxp8n88 of defined contribution pension scheme b8tsveen activities and betw88n re¥tricted and unrestricted funds. 6464 Contribution 18 made for staff who are conducting charitable activity within the Space 4 proje¢t whiGh 1$ 9rant funded. So thls Is rostrlctsd funds. 4885 Contribution is made for stsff who are conducting charitable activity within the $pa¢e 4 proje¢¢ whirh Is 9rant funded. So thls Is rest￿¢tad funds. Section C Notes to the accounts cont Note 18 Stocks Please complete thls note If the charlty holds any stock Items 18.1 Please state the Carrylng amount of stock and work In progress analysed between actlvltles. Stock Donated goods Work In progress For distribution For resalo For distribution For r8sale Charltable actlvltles: O￿nIng Add8d in p8rlod 1,432 10,585 Expens8d In porlod Impaired Closing 12,017 Other tradlng actlvities: Openlng Added In poriod Exp•ns8dln perlod Impaired Closlng Total this year 12.017 Totsl prevlous year 1,432 Page 231

Section C Notes to the accounts Icontl Note 19 Debtors and prepayments Plèasg compl8t& thls notè Iltho eharlty has any debtors orprepayments. 19.1 Analysls of d8btors This year Last year Prepayments and ac¢rLted income Oth•r dèbtors 6,808.5 416.7 7.225.1 2,388.2 Total 2.388.2 Section C Notes to the accounts Icontl Note 20 Creditors and accruals Please complete thls note If the charlty has any credltors or ￿¢￿U81S. 20.1 Analysls of credltors Amounts fallln9 due within one ar Thls y•ar Amounts fallln9 due after more than one This yèar Last ￿ar Last ￿ar Accrua15 for grants payable Bank loans and overdrafts Trade credltors Payments received on a¢count for contracts or perfomiancewrelated grants Accrua15 and dèf•rr8d incom• 4,288 Taxation and social s•curlty Othar er•ditors Total Section C Notes lo the accounts cont Note 24 Cash at bank and In hand This year Last year Short term cash investments Ile$s than 3 month$ maturity datel Short term deposits Cash at bank and on hand Other Total 126,755 143,739 Page 241

oction C Notc5 to accounts cont Note 21 Charlt fuDds 27.1 0otall% of n￿t￿rIal funds hild and movèmènts du￿￿9 thè CURRENT r4Wtlng pèrfod 9iv• d•taiJs 0fth•nN>v￿n•ntS th•r•portill9 P￿￿￿t￿thgr￿th￿ Vth•rlunds'. Th• Yotal .. PE- •nont•ndowffl•ntfunds. ÉE. •ndawm•ntfurJds. R. r•JlricledinconJ•J1￿d ofth• chwi Typ PE, EE Fund tsalanc•s brouyht Fund Purpwe and ReslAcllDns Galny sses carried lO￿ard UR. In¢¢tne Expendtture Trènslers Fund names Giani irom CommuAiti&sFoundabon 10 5UPP¢rt Df T￿dI￿r Gro -rèstrJ¢tod to salanos. rani oca provisioll- rosthctad to ￿￿MMada￿o￿. prthuct costs e ses rom oca Wlliam Twst SCC Grant prowsion- restr￿ed lo ￿￿￿￿Dda￿0￿. produLt Costs. e 5e5 ran rom Dca provi￿0￿ Foodbanklcomrnunily Foodstore- reslntied its roduct Wsts rdni rom mmuDI on dutyfor¢niioren and families resn¢￿ * salangs. food afid activiti&so Tr)m orprovision Hub- r8slncLéd io ITa oificé wupm8nL ongoing rtCQsL rom Dca FoodbanklComrnuniLy FOC￿3t0re- resInC￿ to roauct Costs. rom DC provi dropin. oruncn sepdlce S￿￿¢￿ker￿￿Ise$- stnctart lo salanos. *ood aclivi ex mmuni on or FWlSion Foodbanklcomrnunity Fo￿r£- ￿sInCE8d lo Costs ran rom ous r pro￿￿0￿ Foadbanklcomrnunity Foudstore- reslrn￿ to rodurt W5Ls rom SCC 1.939 1,939 SCC pr(￿￿¢ Mack8m 4,675 2.425 2,250 itsl Hub SCC &ani 24 LlnkslorLi 17,410 17,410 P&G 5000 4974 26 KEtbOn +iomes 1,000 1,000 an rus ptDV funding to SupportSpa￿4 PioJeci- restric￿ to care S¥J. 10.0 rom prov￿00 - restDct9#10 w0dv￿￿8ts, SCC Hd. 2 33 Prowd8 trans￿rt￿On￿b1O wpl8to atténd 8Id8ty care rtex en5E5 ran rom mmuni pnjw51D￿- restrrted ID produLt costs. ey rom oca or iy crfprovision Foodbanklcommunily Foods¢ore- resincied io roduct costs ranl or suppo ycarg grcw- ras to food. n585. salan8s. CTD Grant 500 S¢Cl¥anl 4,799 4.T99 cak8and chat 500 500 Page 251

rom Christmas Oay Lunch for pgoplèwho aT8 IS￿atEd. Iwgly maTgins-festyicled tof()d SU chnsTha5 lunch 224 925 Rga¢hing CommuniligslPartftership$for of a Community Hub. Cornmunlty FLKxIsiDre. chI￿￿en$ P￿ect 4VOtk and Communiiy OFganisK Strthd ￿Sa￿lIes. atcomrmlation. produ￿ Costs, nses. ent ionorio supwrt nvjs￿WIlh childrefj ReBth CutntnunitiE5 Fund 29.539 53,420 82.9 rgns Music 2.000 2,000 eoacy fom paris IIG Item lor church- lanned lor chufch iech om supoiwng ￿￿ing roup- f9¥fLCtod tosuppthng Wlringing, musicor 770 770 Donat￿￿ for Bellrin 5.308 5.308 Legwfrom panshion8r- r@8thct8d to Purch8￿￿ Itém lor church- lanned for rr E egacy foni paris ioner-res ew Recws Board orn paris loner- iesthc churchtech ona on churctt reordenn Ing monies 05& egap fundrai￿￿9 restricted tD @na￿1￿9 thurch to ffl8Bt ansh Eharo C￿nm￿M0￿t. i.ooll Donation forthurch t8 625 625 wst. res spe DoDaliofj forcurch buildin 360 102 ￿￿[￿raiSIn torparish Sharo 12,ODO J,60D 8,4 Ch￿rth de ona On5 an Contribu￿0￿ match funding or fundrai Mi oth&rlunrtS ei lunds iorthlthurcn o ects ￿la1￿ to th￿reh ona onsa prtty8 co ion tn un or tundraisry Rosknctad to usg on Spaco 4 22,753 115.493 19.476 106,398 UnreStr￿tedfUTrd5 70,976 3,2 83.318 Nl8 und• Section C Notes to the accounts cont Notq 27 Chari funds 27.2 D8talls of materlal fut)d8 h8ld and movem•nt8 durft)g th8 PREWOUS roportlno perfod PJeasegive detls ollhe ￿￿Vements ofma¢wlallndlvldual fvnds In thereportlngperlod together￿th a ￿lanCIn￿lI￿Vre lor IX¥wlvnd5'. The Tot41 fvnds'figurn b9low5l￿L1I￿r4c0ne•19 to Totsllunds'in thgblanac&slwt. cont 'Key.' PE. pÈrrnrnteFJdtswrhtrnt fvnd'EE-expeyJdible erJdowmentlund$,. R-rnstrithdincome futth, ihdudrnyspe¢MJlnrSt, tsrthe ¢hwhy." •nafU. I￿￿$trICtedft*tt￿s un balances carriBd forW&rd Type PE, EE Ror VR. balanc08 brought ftsmhrd PUVFOW •nd In¢ome Ewdtture T¢anslÈ losges Fund narnes G&ntoolEMpDwerl Warm S C85 Part2 Foodforload bank 2.MO s,000 2,544 5,742 2,449 Utiliti8S Costs Wiliaffl TtU51 S¢C Granl S¢C Salan&s Acc[￿￿￿O¢abon Acc(￿￿ThOdats0n, 4.261 4.855 roduct costs, gx roduct costs, gx 1.02È 4.388 ons8s 1.939 R@ach' CDThwnuniti85 Fund I s ce4 rati￿5 92.480 ,94t 29.539 2.000 770 Fund ¢hildr8ns C￿r Reciors 8oaD# 770 Donabon for Bellrin 5.308 1.000 4.651 12.000 13.229 70.977 tnent Donalion lor church bL￿￿1 R8Drd@nn DI church 4.6S1 12.￿0 foi Pansh Share Resincted"Q05e Ihe or ce4 Pro eci 64.347 82.S36 107.3e7 l other funds UnrE8trdth fiJrKIs 70.517 107.827 Oth•rlunds Nla Totsi Funds 171.709 242.241 270.679 143.270 Page 261

Section C Notes to the accounts Icontl Notè 27 Charity funds Icontl 27.3 Transfer$ between funds This ear Rèason for transfèr and whara andowmènt Is convart•d to Ineoma, le al ower for its conversion Restriction removed by doner and passed lo unreslricied donation at project end Amount Befften unreslricled and restricted funds 3245 Section C Notes to the accounts cont Not8 28 Tran8adons wlth tru8te8s and related partlos If th charityhas any transactions with r•lal•dparti•s (othgrthan th• trustoe •xpBnses ￿plAIn￿l￿ guid3nc• no1051 details of $u¢h trall$a¢tions Should be provydedin this note. Mthertr aro no trnns8¢tions lo report. please trnter"True"irt the box or"Falso" il thern transactions to reporL 28.1 Trustse romunaration and b8nefit8 Thi5 year Mone of the try$teg5 have boon pald any remuneratfion or recelvod any olher benoflts from an employment with Ihèii charity or a rèlated entity ITru8 or F¥l801 FALSE In the perrod Ihe charity has paid Irustees rpmuneration and benefits. Please 9lVe the amountof. and legalauthorityfor. anyr•muneratron orothw benefits paid to a trust80 byth• charityorany institution or company conn•ct•d with IL Amounts pald or beneflt value Legal authorftylog order, governing document) Name of trusteè Remunevatlon Pethslon onlrfbutlon Redundancy TOTAL Jade T klason Governing Docurnent Governing Docufflent GDverning DDcufn8nt Governing Docurnent 11.462 705 625 12,087 705 Margaret Lee G8orgo Pe8bles Da￿d Turnbull 2,240 2,738 2.240 2,73B Please detai15 of whyr8mun8ra¢ion orother •mploym•nt b•n•fits ￿repaId. Last y•ar None of the trustee3 have been paid any remuneration or receivtd any olhor frDrii an mploymont with their charity or a related entity ITrue or Falsel FALSE In the perrod Iho chaiyty haspaid Irust8es remuneration and benefits. Pleasg gwe tho amountol. and1og3lauthorityfor. 8nyremun6ratton orother benefits pald to a lrnstee by the ¢harfty or any Instllutlon or company connected wlth IL Amounts P31d Of bAn8fit valug Logal authoritylog order. governlng document) of truste8 Remunerntlon Penslon Redundancy TOTAL Page 271

Jado T Mason Margarot L8• Gèorge Peeb1•5 Davld Tumbull GDv8miny Document Governing Document Governing Docurnent GDverning DocutnetTrt 18,637 2,042 20.281 2,D 2,745 3,013 2,745 3.013 Plgas• give dolails of whyr•munqration oroth•r employmeni beneffts weropald. trom h￿r0￿•S lftaryw•lL•• MulwÈpaymth7tioroE¢4sknal¥•rvkw ioin•¢h•rttyasa 5•sshnal worknl.¢omp￿1owdk￿U￿¢tlro￿h•r Td•as¢Fus￿•. 04¥ld Turnbull P••bkn NcvAY•paypMntfQio¢¢a￿0na15•rtW tothtr 28.2 Trustee5' expon50S If the charlty has pald tru$r80s expenses lor luffilllng tljelrdullgs, detall$ ol$u¢h tran$acllon$ should b8provlded In thls not& If there &r8no transactions to report. please enter"True"in the box below. If there are tr8nSaCtions to report, please enler"False". No trustee •XPonHs havo boen incurred (Truo or Falsel FALSE Thls year Last Type of •xpenBeB reimbursed Crafts and activity consurnabl•s Subsistence & Travel 638 1.756 1.639 1.508 185 Cawrfng Expenses R•crultrnent 95 Trdining Licensos 32 187 91 Book$ 132 115 Music 89 76 137 Stationary and oifi¢o 8uppIi88 Equlpm8nt Ropairs and MainteThaThce Stock Costs for Food store 139 2.443 63 20 15.729 18.704 9.657 6.661 TOTAL Pl0350 provide the nurn￿r of trustees r4imbur5ed for oxpollses or who had 8xpons05 pold by the charlty Page 281

6.2 ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS HOUGHTON LE SPRING: PAROCHIAL CHURCH COUNCIL ANNUAL STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

1 JANUARY – 31 DECEMBER 2024 REGISTERED CHARITY NO 1135095

PCC Treasurer Mrs Sue Bradley

External Examiner TTR Barnes Chartered Accountants

St Michael & All Angels Church Church Street Houghton le Spring DH4 4DN

P a g e 29 |

St Michael and All Angels, Houghton le Spring Treasurer’s Annual Report for Year 1 January – 31 December 2024

Overall Bank Balance

The end of year Overall PCC and Next 900 Bank Accounts Balance at 31 December 2024 breakdown and comparison to previous years is detailed below:-

December 2022 December 2023 December 2024

PCC - Unrestricted	£31,869.61	£23,995.19	£31,893.70
PCC – Restricted	£21,078.00	£21,078.00	£17,833.00
TOTAL	£52,947.61	£45,073.19	£49,726.70
Next 900 Account	£ 4,324.61	£4,650.61	£4,908.61
Overall Total	£57,272.22	£49,723.80	£54,635,31
CBF Legacies	£ 166.27	£171.60	£180.70

Assets

The PCC hold a log of all material assets and this report covers only the monetary assets.

Creditor and Debitors

Debitors as at 31 December 2024 - £478

Creditors as at 31 December 2024 - £195.75

Receipts and Payments for 2024 in comparison to previous years.

	December	2022	December	2023	December	2024
Receipts			£118,057		£97,299		£107,857
Payments			£104,903		£105,173		£103,204

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An overview breakdown of some of the main headings of Receipts and Payments as a comparison to previous two years is detailed below:-

Receipts	December 2022	December 2022	December 2023	December 2024
Planned Giving		£44,719	£43,458	£45,889
Gift Aid Recovered		£11,578	£11,570	£13,089
Collections		£10,228	£9,296	£ 9,644
Donations		£ 9,261	£4,954	£10,031
Other Giving		£ 534	£ 470	£ 2,829
Parish Magazine Sales		£ 1,783	£1,713	£ 1,661
Parish Magazine Adverts		£ 1,013	£ 810	£ 518
PCC Fees		£ 9,569	£7,074	£ 5,405
Fundraising		£ 5,810	£5,535	£10,698
Transfer from Restricted		£ 0	£ 0	£ 5,370

Our Planned Giving income in 2024 increased by £2,431. This is as a result of the successful Stewardship Campaign in September & October 2024:-.

Regular Planned Givers	2022	2023	2024
Parish Giving Scheme	40	37	36
Standing Order	30	27	26
Stewardship Envelope	26	25	25
Total Regular Givers	96	89	87

Collections from our Church Services, Funerals, Weddings, Baptisms and Other Events has remained stable with a small increase of £348 from previous year

Donations – In addition to giving through Church Boxes, one-off donations remembering loved ones and during the Autumn Stewardship campaign, together with donations from The Gilpin Singers contributed to the increase of £7435 from the previous year.

Parish Magazine Sales have been reasonably consistent over the last year, with a small reduction in income of £52. Our pricing structure for 2024 remained at (£6 per annum for an email version and £1 per copy for the printed version or £10 instead of £12 for a full year). Thank you to all involved in the production of the Magazine especially Editor Malcolm Foster, Philippa Elsey and the magazine distributors.

Parish Magazine Advertising, has reduced steadily over the last few years and has again reduced in 2024 by £292. This an area that will require review during 2025.

PCC Fees – 22 Funerals (18 Church, 4 Crematorium/Burial Only) 3 Burial of Ashes, 1 Memorial Service and 1 Wedding took place in 2024. There was a significant decrease in the number of Funerals and Weddings as compared to 2023 - (34 Funerals – 26 Church, 8 Crematorium) and also in Weddings 5 held in 2023.

Fundraising got underway in January with the Parish Party, Coffee Mornings were held in March and June, also in June we enjoyed an Italian themed evening.

P a g e 31 |

Over the Summer there was a concert by the Gilpin Singers in July and the annual Summer Concert in August.

At the beginning of October saw the start of two weeks of Houghton Feast celebrations a Feast Saturday coffee morning and lunches, Feast Sunday Civic Service followed by Community Lunch. Concerts held in church by Houghton Brass Band and Gilpin Singers and a Ceilidh evening ended a very successful Houghton Feast. At the end of November, we held the annual Christmas Fayre.

Thank you to all involved in arranging and making these events happen and to those who contributed and participated. The Bonus Ball raised £1327 during 2024 and continues to run smoothly. Thank you to Brian Scott for organising and to all who take part.

Payments	December 2022	December 2022	December 2023	December 2024
Parish Share		£48,000	£47,000	£43,000
Clergy & Staffing		£ 9,448	£11,637	£12,071
Repairs & Redecoration		£ 1,086	£1,593	£ 2,575
Church Running		£21,866	£27,452	£31,700
Parish Magazine Costs		£ 1,020	£1,020	£ 1,020
Costs of Generating Funds		£18,063	£11,280	£ 7,960
Transfer to Restricted		£ 6,308	£ 0	£ 2,215

We paid £43,000 for our Parish Share in 2024, which met our pledge for the year.

Clergy and Staffing costs are higher this year due to increase in Salary and Retained payments in line with the Real Living wage.

Repairs and Redecoration costs –

Church Running – includes Utilities, Insurance, Maintenance and Servicing, Organ/Choir, Photocopying, Technology, Upkeep of Services and HRDept Services. Utility contracts saw considerable price increases in 2024 together with other annual increases resulted in increased spending of £4,248

Costs of generating Funds – covers Fees paid out for Funerals, Weddings, Burial of Ashes and costs of activities and events in Church.

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Restricted Budget Breakdown

Balance carried forward from	2023
Organ / Music Fund	£ 2,000
Legacy	£ 770
Parish Share Contingency	£ 12,000
Bellringing Donation	£ 5,308
Legacy	£ 1,000
Income Transfer 2024	£ 2,125
Payment Transfer 2024	£ 5,370
Total as at 31 Dec 2024	£ 17,833
Next 900 Account
Balance carried forward from 2023	£4,650.61
Income in 2024	£ 360.00
Charges in 2024	£ -102.00
Total Balance	£4,908.61

(Please see attached detailed Accruals Accounts for Year ended 31 December 2024)

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End of Year Summary

Overall, for the year we ended with an excess of receipts over payments of £4,654 plus £3,245 (transfer to Unrestricted) totalling £7,899. We have been able to achieve reasonable Unrestricted Reserves of £31,894 to start 2025. We will continue to carefully manage budgets and review at monthly PCC meetings.

We had a very successful Stewardship campaign with both regular givers increasing their donation and a number of generous one-off donations. However, we must highlight that overall at the end of 2024 the number of regular givers has decreased.

Our Guided Pledge from the Diocese for 2025 is £45,150. At September 2024 PCC we agreed to pay a Parish Share of £30,000 in 2025. The PCC also agreed to designate £1,000 per month towards meeting the full Parish Share amount. The PCC will review on a quarterly basis to determine if the extra designated amount should be paid.

In 2024, in addition to regular maintenance and servicing, repairs were carried out to the Boiler / Heating controls. The Projector was replaced and the screen mechanism repaired scaffolding was required to undertake this work. Thank you to Tim Cullingworth for carrying out this work.

A survey undertaken in November 2023 identified work required on our Stained Glass Windows. An estimate for the most urgent work (Phase 1) has been received. Work was due to be carried out in the Autumn of 2024, however this has now been rescheduled for March 2025. The Friends of Houghton Church have very kindly agreed to pay for this work. Further work on the Windows (Phase 2) will need to be scheduled over the next few years. Costings for this work will be undertaken when a timetable is agreed. Funding sources for Phase 2 to be investigated.

The Quinquennial survey was undertaken in October / November 2024 by the Church Architect, Michael Atkinson. The report is due to be received in early 2025. One particular problem regarding which we are awaiting advice from the Survey is the plaster flaking from the walls and dampness, particularly in the North Transept.

Thank you to all for your help, support and generosity throughout the year.

Thank you to TTR Barnes Chartered Accountants, for Examining our Accounts for 2024.

Sue Bradley PCC Treasurer

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2024

St Michael & All Angels Houghton-le-Spring Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December Statement of Financial Activities

Note Receipts Voluntary receipts: Planned giving Collections Gift Aid recovered All other giving/voluntary 2 Activities for generating funds 3 Investment income 4 Church activities: Income from trading 5 Asset sales 6 Other receipts 7 Total receipts Payments Church activities: Parish share Clergy and staffing costs 8 Church running expenses 9 Hall running costs 10 Mission giving and donations 11 Costs of trading 12 Repairs and redecorations 13 Asset purchases 14 Cost of generating funds 15 Governance costs 16 Other Outgoing Resources costs 16 Total payments Excess of receipts over payments Transfers between funds Sale/(purchase) of investments Cash at bank and in hand at 1 Jan Cash at bank and in hand at 31 Dec	Unrestricted Fund Unrestricted Designated Restricted Funds Endowment Funds Total Funds 2024 Total Funds 2023 Fund £ £ £ £ £ £ 45,889 - 360 - 46,249 43,886 9,644 - - - 9,644 9,296 13,089 - - - 13,089 11,570 12,860 - - - 12,860 5,425
	81,482 - 360 - 81,842 70,177 11,216 - - - 11,216 6,345 86 - - - 86 125 2,424 - - - 2,424 3,341 - - - - - - 12,649 - - - 12,649 17,739
	15,073 - - - 15,073 21,080 107,857 - 360 - 108,217 97,727 43,000 - - - 43,000 47,000 12,071 - - - 12,071 11,637 31,700 - - - 31,700 27,452 - - - - - - 4,620 - - - 4,620 4,608 1,278 - - - 1,278 1,605 2,575 - - - 2,575 1,593 - - - - - -
	95,243 - - - 95,243 93,895 7,960 - 102 - 8,062 11,382 - - - - - - - - - - - -
	103,204 - 102 - 103,306 105,277 4,654 - 258 - 4,912 (7,550) 3,245 - (1,475) - 1,770
	7,899 - (1,217) - 6,682 (7,550) - - - - - 23,995 - 25,729 - 49,724 57,272
	31,894 - 24,512 - 56,405 49,724

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St Michael & All Angels Houghton-le-Spring Financial Statements for the year e31st December 2024 Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the year

Note Cash funds Bank current account CBF deposit fund Other cash funds Other monetary assets Income tax recoverable Investment assets Investment Fund Shares at market value Assets retained for Church use Liabilities	Unrestricted Funds Unrestricted Designated Fund Restricted Funds Endowment Funds Total Funds 2024 Total Funds 2023 £ £ £ £ £ £ 31,894 - 22,742 - 54,635 43,693 181 181 172 - - - - - - - -
	31,894 22,922 - 54,816 43,865 - - -
	- - - - - - - - - - -
	- - - - - - - - - - - -
	- - - - - - - - - - -
	- - - - - -

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Further Analysis of Income and Expenditure

Note Receipts All other giving/voluntary receipts: 2 Other regular gifts Donations, appeals, etc Legacies Recurring grants Non-recurring one-off grants Other funds generated Activities for generating funds: 3 Bookstall sales - fund raising Magazine income - advertising Fundraising Activities & Events Investment Income: 4 Dividends Trust fund interest Bank and building society interest Rent from lands or buildings Rent from Masts and other property Income from Trading: 5 Bookstall sales - trading Church hall lettings - trading Parish magazine sales Use of photocopier Other income Asset sales: 6 Sales of fixed assets Other receipts: 7 PCC Fees for weddings and funerals Assigned Fees for weddings and funerals Insurance claims Surplus - sales of fixed assets Sundry income for Mission Sundry income	Unrestricted Fund Unrestricted Designated Fund Restricted Funds Endowment Funds Total Funds 2024 Total Funds 2023 £ £ £ £ £ £ 1,641 - - - 1,641 1,038 10,031 - - - 10,031 4,386 1,187 - - - 1,187 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
	12,860 - - - 12,860 5,424
	- - - - - - 518 - - - 518 810 10,698 - - - 10,698 5,535
	11,216 - - - 11,216 6,345
	- - - - - - - - - - - - 86 - - - 86 125 - - - - - - - - - - - -
	86 - - - 86 125
	- - - - - - - - - - - - 1,661 - - - 1,661 1,713 - - - - - - 763 - - - 763 1,627
	2,424 - - - 2,424 3,340
	- - - - - -
	5,405 - - - 5,405 7,074 7,244 - - - 7,244 10,665 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
	12,649 - - - 12,649 17,739

P a g e 37 |

Payments
Church activities:
Missionary giving and donations	11	4,620	-	-	-	4,620	4,608
Clergy and Staffing costs	8	12,071	-	-	-	12,071	11,637
Church running costs	9	18,032	-	-	-	18,032	18,682
Church utility costs	9	13,667	-	-	-	13,667	8,770
Hall running costs	10	-	-	-	-	-	-
Costs of trading	12	1,278	-	-	-	1,278	1,605
		49,668	-	-	-	49,668	45,301
Major repairs and building works:	13
Church major repairs		2,575	-	-	-	2,575	1,593
Hall + major repairs		-	-	-	-	-	-
New building costs		-	-	-	-	-	-
		2,575	-	-	-	2,575	1,593
Asset purchases:	14
Purchase of fixed assets		-	-	-	-	-	-
**Cost of generating voluntary incom **	15
Costs of Church Activities & Events		741	-	-	-	741	499
Fees paid out for weddings and other servic		6,606	-	-	-	6,606	10,120
Investment management costs		613	-	102	-	715	762
Bookstall costs		-	-	-	-	-	-
		7,960	-	102	-	8,062	11,382
Governance costs:	16
Examination/audit fee		-	-	-	-	-	-
		-	-	-	-	-	-
Other Outgoing Resources:
Other Outgoing Resources:		-	-	-	-	-
		-	-	-	-	-	-

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Public benefit

The members have had regard to the Charity Commission's guidance on their legal duty on public benefit and are satisfied that the charitable company delivers public benefit in terms of the services it provides within the community, and due regard is paid to the guidance on public benefit when reviewing the aims and objectives of the Church and Space 4 community project. aims and objectives and when deciding what new projects the charitable company should undertake.

Reserves Policy

To maintain general/unrestricted reserves at a level which will cover 3 months operational costs

.

Risk management

The members have a duty to identify and review the risks to which the Church is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error. The Standing Committee has conducted its own review of the major risks to which the church is exposed and systems have been established to minimise those risks. External risks relate to the generation of future income and funding and some grant funding has been secured with NLCF and Sunderland City Council.

Internal risks are minimised by the implementation of procedures for authorisation of all transactions and events.

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6.3 ST MICHAEL AND ALL ANGELS HOUGHTON LE SPRING: SPACE4 HOUGHTON LE SPRING - ANNUAL STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS

1 JANUARY – 31 DECEMBER 2024 REGISTERED CHARITY NO 1135095

Accounts Prepared by Social Enterprise Acumen

External Examiner TTR Barnes Chartered Accountants

Space4 Community Project 76 Newbottle Street Houghton le Spring DH4 4GB

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Space4 – Statement of Accounts as at 31 December 2024

	Charity Name	Charity Name	Charity Name	Charity Name	Charity Name	No (if any)	No (if any)
	Space 4
	Statement of Financial Activities
	For the period from		Period start date		To	Period end date
			01/01/2024			31/12/2024

Section A Receipts and payments

	Unrestricted funds		Restricted funds		Endowment funds		Total funds		Last year
	to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £		to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
VoluntaryIncome	8,076		164,234				172,309		132,435
Income from Tradingand Activities			11,251				11,251		11,161
Investment Income			23				23
Other							-
Sub total(Gross income for AR)	8,076		175,508		-		183,584		143,596
A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
Asset Sales	-		-		-		-		-
Sub total	-		-		-		-		-
**Total receipts **	8,076		175,508		-		183,584		143,596
A3 Payments
Cost of Generating Income							-
Charitable activities	5,169		164,935				170,104		142,790
Facilities Costs			18,745				18,745		20,435
Other							-
**Sub total **	5,169		183,680		-		188,849		163,225
A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
Assetpurchases	-		-		-		-
	-		-		-		-
**Sub total **	-		-		-		-		-
**Totalpayments **	5,169		183,680		-		188,849		163,225
Net of receipts/(payments)	2,907		- 8,172		-		- 5,266		- 19,628
A5 Transfers between funds					-		-		-
A6 Cash funds lastyear end	48,234		46,566		-		94,800		114,429
Cash funds thisyear end	51,140		38,394		-		89,535		94,801

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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end ￿ the period U nrestricred funds for3￿5t £ Restricied nds to rea￿st£ E n(bvirEnl funds tone4r5t£ Oetai15 Bl Cash •Jnds 51.139 20A56 f¥￿5 32 roral cash funds 51.139 20,IY9 Uftrestricted funds torar5t £ Restricted Jnds to r3rt5t£ funds ton￿rst£ Oetsils B2 OthernM)netary assets 417 JtOW￿h assèt Oyrertv4b w)na Del￿1 t0￿h￿h a55Ptt%k> Cwrtrtva K>[ OElai13 C05t IEd)noQ B4 Assets relain￿1 forthe chanty's own u Arno￿￿dL Whèn Oetsi18 rekte5 B5 Llabiir(ies 2.601 taw ￿&11 ttk trLSt4 Ict S&IL.J j,. S [e 20 Page 421

Space4: Financial Commentary - 31 December 2024

Our Space 4 project has again had a successful year, providing much needed support to those more vulnerable in our community, but also providing a welcome venue for community gatherings and activities, and encouraging much needed social interaction. Funding has been secured for the Community Foodstore which provides welcome relief to many families. Funding and collaborative support has also been provided to create a Digital Hub at the center, providing internet connectivity to those who may have limited access at home.

In the year we achieved a deficit of £5,266 and at the end of the year restricted reserves were £38,394 and unrestricted reserves were £51,140.

Overall Receipts of £183,584 compared to £143,596 last year.

1. A total of £175,508 of receipts was restricted and £8,076 unrestricted.

2. Grant funding of £171,508 was received which was made up of:

3. a. £53,420 - National Lottery Community Fund: Reaching Communities/Partnerships b. £118,088 - Grants Other

4. Donations of £5997.93 were received with a further £4,200 coming from our PCC main funds, Gift Aid produced income of £1374.

5. Sales of produce generated income of £11783.12, an additional £0 from building lettings and a further £349.08 was raised through fundraising.

Overall Payments of £188,849 compared to £163,225 last year.

1. Staff salaries totaled £94567.82 with sessional worker fees totaling £3721.10.

2. Building rents were £13369.64with £4549.13 costs for utilities and overheads.

3. Product costs for food distributed were £51667.74.

4. A total of £0 was spent on developing our buildings and £8581.56 on equipment.

5. Staff and volunteer expenses were £4535.70 with a further £1670.44 spent on office costs and training.

6. Professional fees of £9097.16 were spent for bookkeeping, accountancy, payroll, HR and marketing.

Our balance at the beginning of the year was £94,801 and at the end of the year £89,535: (£38,394 restricted, £51,140 unrestricted).

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7. Report on Church buildings and fabric

The 2019 Quinquennial Survey revealed some minor works that required action. These were all done during 2020 and 2021. Another requirement was a survey and report upon the Church Windows. We commissioned Iona Glass to carry out a survey and that was done in 2023. The report was received in early 2024. Various matters were highlighted. After receiving approval for funding from the friends of Houghton Church, Iona Glass were instructed to start work upon the urgent issues. During this time they had been on site to carry out minor repairs. Work is scheduled to begin in 2025.

These are the works done in 2024:

In February both the fire alarm and the burglar alarm were serviced; the burglar alarm was serviced by our new contractor as part of the regular maintenance.

After receiving a quotation in May from an approved roofing company, they attended in June to reaffix the substitute lead flashing that had been damaged by thieves. Whilst upon site the gutters were cleared and an inspection of the roofs and guttering was carried out.

In July the Church Clock was serviced, and found to be in good order. This is paid for by Sunderland Council.

During the summer months the Church heating is turned off to save money and in September the boilers were serviced as part of their annual maintenance by the original installers. It was noted that the Church heating was not working. The company arranged to send one of their heating engineers to investigate. It was discovered that the two circuit boards associated with the Heritage Centre and Mezzanine room underfloor heating had burned out. The engineers declared that these boards were now obsolete but they would investigate further and come back to me [they have not done so].

Having heard nothing from them, I contacted the heating engineer who had designed the heating circuits for the reordering. He agreed to come out and examine the problem. Having been shown the burned-out circuit boards, he could offer no solution to the underfloor heating in those areas, but asked to go into the “boiler house” and examine the control panel. Once the panel door had been opened, he found a switch that had tripped. Resetting that switch restored the Church heating. He also replaced some parts of the control panel.

In November Michael Atkinson, our new Church Architect, came to begin the Quinquennial [five yearly] Survey. As part of the survey the tower and all the roofs are examined. Our Church neighbour, Alex Scullion, had bought a new drone and wanted to see how well it worked. He offered to survey the Church roofs and tower stonework. He gave me a computer memory stick with this information on it. We plugged it into a laptop computer and the Architect, David Turnbull and myself watched the drone flight. The Architect took the memory stick away, but I have it saved the information on my computer. The Architect returned later and he and David went up the tower and carried out a physical inspection.

We await the Quinquennial Survey which is expected in January 2025.

Alastair Bradley Church Warden

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8. Report on Proceedings of the Deanery Synod

There have been four Deanery Synod meetings since the last Annual Parochial Church Meeting.

The first was held on the 28th May 2024 at Holy Trinity Church, Usworth and chaired by Rev. John Lintern, Area Dean. The Rev. Paul Childs, Parish Giving Advisor, gave a presentation on behalf of

• 1 Mechanism- making it easy to give by contactless, online and QR code.

• 2 Impact- Tell stories linking our giving to the impact their giving would have.

3 Need- Explain the need not just for the Church but the community

• 4 Trust- Explain how the money will be spent and spent wisely.

Elections to the Diocesan Synod - Four places in the House of Clergy and five in the House of Laity were available. Nominations to be returned to Andrew Cresswell, Deanery Returning Officer, by 4th. June 2024. The Rev. Catherine Walton and Rev. Nick Barr-Hamilton were elected to the House of Clergy. Lucy Barr-Hamilton, Alex Nelson, Simon Wilkinson and Maureen Boettcher were elected to the House of Laity.

It was reported that interviews would be held for the vacant incumbent post at St. John’s Birtley. Meetings were ongoing regarding the future ministry at St. Matthew’s, Newbottle.

Vacancy of See - Following consultations the Crown Nominations Committee (CNC) would formulate a role description in June/July 2024 with an anticipated appointment in January 2025.

The second Deanery Synod meeting was held at St. Andrew’s Church Chiltern Moor on the 17th.July 2024 and Chaired by the Area Dean, Rev. John Lintern.

Beth Miller, Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor spoke about training and the various ways to access it. There are three training levels: Basic (all Volunteers), Foundation (PCC members, children and youth helpers) and Leadership (those with a licence, churchwardens, those ordained and Authorised Pastoral Assistants [APA’s]). Details on the diocesan website. DBS checks - parishes should have access to Access Personal Checking Services (APCS) who do checks for the diocese.

Vacancies - An interview was undertaken for the vacant post for St. John The Evangelist church at Birtley (with Lamesley) but no appointment was made. The Rev. Teresa Walton was appointed to the vacant post at Holy Trinity, Washington.

The third Synod meeting was held at Holy Trinity Church, Pelton on the 6thNovember 2024 and Chaired by the Rev. John Lintern.

All new building work at St. George’s, Fatfield, was reported as complete. The Rev. John welcomed the Rev. Teresa Walton, the new incumbent at Holy Trinity, Washington, and noted the recent licensing of the Rev. Gav. Rushton as vicar at Oxclose church.

Current Vacancies and appointments - There is to be a joint appointment at St. John The Evangelist, Birtley and St. Andrew’s, Lamesely. Their respective PCC’s to complete their profiles.

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St. John The Evangelist to move into the Gateshead West Deanery. The vacancy will be readvertised after Christmas.

At St. Matthew’s, Newbottle, things are moving in terms of new relationships with other churches and services are well covered. Catherine Britcliffe to be licensed as Associate Priest, St. Andrew’s, Chilton Moor on the 11thNovember 2024 and Hilary Avent has been licensed as Associate Priest at St. Michael and All Angels, Easington Lane, St. Nicholas Parish Centre, Hetton-le-Hole and Eppleton.

Parishes were asked to report on parish positives and challenges. Even though challenges seemed overwhelming with smaller congregations since covid, less funerals and weddings all resulting in lower income, there were positives. The Rev. Julie Wing, Rector at Holy Trinity and St. Michael’s, Usworth stated that the congregation had steadily grown and have announced a new project to bring a picture of the Madonna and Child in Howarth to Sulgrave.

Our Rector gave an upbeat report on our Space 4 project and all the community projects emanating from the projects. He stated that there was a 6 week season of invitation from September to October where we invited people from the wider community to come to Church starting with Back to Church Sunday In September going through to Harvest Festival in October.

John Estall reported on Christ Church, Lumley, St. Andrew’s, Chiltern Moor, St. Cuthbert’s East Rainton and St.Mary’s West Rainton. New people are joining all four congregations although not enough to compensate for those leaving. The new Blue Christmas service and Open the Book are going well. A new Youth group has inspired members to ask difficult questions showing conviction that people are hungry to know God.

St. Michael and All Angels, Hetton Lyons - Rev. Sarah Quinn, Curate, gave a report. Services are growing, especially amongst children. A new all age service for Harvest was well attended and incorporated learning into services i.e. Why do we do this the way we do? Collects, intercessions etc..

Holy Trinity Church, Pelton/West Pelton - Rev. John Lintern, reported that they have Open the Book in four schools twice each half term and are doing assemblies, teaching through quizzes and games. Starting up prayer stations in schools.

The fourth Synod meeting took place at St. Michael’s, Sulgrave. The meeting was chaired by the Rev. John Lintern, Area Dean. A talk was given by Claire Estall and colleagues from Communities Together Durham. Members of Synod also took part in a participatory exercise about benefits. John Lintern gave an update of the current situation regarding the appointment of the new Bishop of Durham. The next short listing will take place on the 3rd September with interviews set for the 9th and 10th December.

Deanery Synod representatives

David Hann, Sue Elsey, Dian Scott

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9. Safeguarding Report

We continue to operate to the values and principles set out in the Parish Safeguarding Policy which was readopted by the PCC in February 2025. DBS checks are up to date for salaried staff and church officers, and a programme of renewal is in place for all existing volunteers and staff. The safeguarding training programme for PCC members, community outreach programmes and church activities continues. Training undertaken is recorded and monitored.

Using the online Safeguarding Dashboard, the Parish Safeguarding Officer (PSO) has undertaken a review of safeguarding practices and procedures in line with the parish safeguarding policy, and areas for development are identified in the Dashboard safeguarding action plan.

Several safeguarding issues / incidents have been reported in the last year. In line with the parish safeguarding policy, all issues are recorded by appropriate officers and are reviewed and monitored accordingly by the Church and the Diocese. Where appropriate, actions are put in place and these are reviewed and regularly updated in the monthly safeguarding meetings held between the Rector, PSO and Community Project Manager.

Ali Young, Parish Safeguarding Office

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10. REPORTS ON OUR ACTIVITY IN THE YEAR ENDING 31[st] DEC 2024

10.1 REPORTS FOR CHURCH GROUPS

Churchwardens’ Report

“Churchwardens are the Bishop’s lay officers, responsible directly to him/her for the life and work of the church in the parish. Their office is therefore both a privilege and a responsibility.”

This past year as usual has been a busy year! It felt that no sooner had we enjoyed the Parish Party than Lent was upon us followed by Easter. As usual “we” are a very busy Church with a coffee morning in March, which leads us into Palm Sunday and Holy Week.

After Easter, we have Church open days, and once again a big thank you goes to all our volunteers who help keep the building open and welcome visitors during these times!

As an aside I have looked at what other Churches reported and some were welcoming congregations back after lockdown, showing we were leading the field, and others were reporting storm damage, and thankfully we were unaffected.

As our year rolls on, there was the “Friends” week, where other events were enjoyed in Church, but there will be a full report elsewhere.

In June the roofers carried out minor repairs (one where our substitute lead flashing had been ripped off), re-attached other flashing and cleared some gutters, coming back the next day with longer ladders to finish the job! Thankfully this work did NOT require a Faculty from the Diocesan Secretary!

We marked the King’s Birthday, and then held a coffee morning on the 22nd June. Later that month we held an “Italian” evening, with entertainment provided by C-Saw group lead by Stuart Clappison, with food produced by the culinary skills of Messrs. Hardy and Turnbull and a pleasant evening was enjoyed by all.

July and August are traditionally quiet times socially in our Church when we enjoy holidays.

We resumed activities in September, when Heritage open day occurs. Sadly over the many years this has run, its appeal has declined, although there were more visitors than usual.

Then in October we enjoy the whirlwind of Houghton Feast! We had a coffee morning with stalls on Saturday, the first full day, and on Sunday we hosted the Civic Service followed by the Civic Lunch and Community Hymns in the evening. During the week there was a concert by Houghton Brass on Thursday, a Ceilidh with licensed bar on Friday, and a concert by the Gilpin Singers on Saturday. On Sunday, we resumed our usual pattern of worship.

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During the summer the heating in Church was not working. At first it was thought that mice had gnawed through a cable, but after consulting heating engineers who discovered burned out circuit boards, it was established that the fault was a micro switch which had tripped in the main panel in the “Boiler Room”. This was discovered and rectified by the heating engineer who had originally designed the system. So heat was gradually reintroduced into Church.

In November, as usual, we held our Fireworks display, with Space4 catering in the Kepier Hall. The whole event went with a “BANG” and was financially successful. Then bringing us down to earth we held our Remembrance Day service in Church assisted by Houghton Brass. The weather stayed dry and a large crowd marked the occasion in The Broadway.

Next came our very successful Christmas Fayre, with coffee and cakes, stalls and a visit from Santa!! When everything was tidied away our Christmas tree was put up, welcoming visitors during Advent. There were many Carol services with local schools and uniformed organisations held during this time.

Leading up to Christmas we had our Children’s Nativity, then our Carol Concert, followed by Midnight Mass, and Eucharist the next day at 10 o’clock!

Thank You’s

To the dedicated people who act as sides people throughout the year, turning up on time and welcoming worshippers with a smile and helping the smooth running of our services. We always need more people to act in this important role. If you feel you can help, please let any of the wardens know and we’ll tell you what the job entails and fit you in with an experienced sides person.

We all owe a great deal of appreciation to everyone who has contributed to the events of the past year and our report wouldn’t be complete without a list of thanks: George Peebles our Director of Music, Andy Slater, our quiet and much appreciated deputy organist, and Stuart Clappison who provides music on the guitar. To Angela Slater our PCC Secretary, much of whose excellent work goes unseen, as does that of our Treasurer, Sue Bradley. To Philippa Elsey, who runs our Church Office and performs many other tasks to keep things running smoothly. To David Turnbull and Paul Armour, our Verger and Assistant Verger. To the excellent teams of willing helpers who keep the church clean, arrange the flowers and provide music for our services, the Next 900 team, those providing coffee and refreshments week by week, the team working with the Creche and Young Church, the Welcomers, Lay Readers, Pastoral Assistants, the stalwarts of our Church Choir...the list goes on. Apologies if we’ve missed some...but to all, many thanks.

Sincerely we could not have managed without you. Thank you.

Rita, Alastair, Simon and Brian

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Light

The bereavement group ‘Light’ continues to meet on the 1st Tuesday of every month at 1.15 in Space4. Our numbers have held well with some long-term clients and some newly bereaved clients. We typically have 6-8 members, sometimes more sometimes less, often limited by childminding duties.

The session may be guided by story or may just be free discussion, depending on recent events eg Christmas, summer holidays, first anniversaries. Those who have attended for years pass on their wisdom and experience whilst the newly bereaved find reassurance that while their grief will always be, they will learn to live life anew. Life does go on even though it can never be the same. While we meet because of great sadness, our sessions always find laughter with newcomers commenting how their mood feels lighter for having attended.

I am grateful for the support from Judith Howes and Anne Clappison - there are always two of us at each session.

Margaret Lee

Liturgical Choir Report

The choir has had a good year supporting regular and special services throughout the year, including the Houghton Feast Civic Service. Our special Lenten service on Passion Sunday was well supported by our congregation and also by St Matthew’s, Newbottle and St Michael & All Angels, Easington Lane. Our Advent and Christmas Carol Services were both very special.

Our Late Summer Concert which featured the liturgical choir, the Gilpin Singers and other soloists was excellent again this year. We are grateful for the support of Graham Brown, a gifted musician who accompanied the choirs and soloists. We had wonderfully talented singers and musicians taking part.

Our choir numbers are steady. I would like to thank the choir for their continued commitment and support. We are one of the few churches maintaining a choir. We are always looking and hoping for new members.

I would like to say a thank you to Rector John for his support and encouragement to maintain our great music tradition at St Michael’s.

Finally, I would like to thank our other musicians here at St Michael’s who help with the music: Andy and Stuart. Also, many thanks to Nikki for her support and help with rehearsing and conducting the choir.

George Peebles, Director of Music

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Young Church

We are continuing to run sessions alongside the main eucharist at 10am in the meeting room which allows us to share our activities with the congregation at the end of the service. We still have a regular group of 4 or 5 children taking part each Sunday.

Currently, we follow the Gospel stories in church planning from Sermons 4 kids and other useful resources that support the children’s faith journey each week. Alongside this, each week worksheets, word searches and colouring materials are available for any children who may want to take part. These activities follow the Gospel story theme in church.

As well as completing tasks/activities each session the children have also taken a role in the ‘all age’ worship in church each month where the children help with the sermon, take part in the offertory procession, choose the music and the older children support in giving communion. This continues to be an inclusive service and has proved very successful with children of all ages through to the adult congregation!

Philippa, Janine and Jade are continuing to run and support sessions, and sessions are covered on the monthly rota.

We are very excited this year to have 2 children receiving their Holy Communion before confirmation. This has involved them following a set weekly scheme which prepares them for this special event. The children have really enjoyed the programme and have enjoyed sharing the sessions with the congregation at the end of the service. It has involved parents making a commitment to ensure the children are in church regularly and support them in completing little activity tasks at home. As part of the course the children were given their own activity book and were presented with a bible to further support their understanding of the activities and tasks in the sessions. The children are due to receive their first Holy Communion on Easter Sunday.

If anyone knows of any primary aged school children who would enjoy hearing a bible story and then making a craft, please feel free to invite them along.

Clare Taylor, Young Church Leader

St Michaels ‘Stay & Play’ (previously ‘Toddlers’)

We were very fortunate to have Susan Watson lead us over the last years. Following her retirement I took the lead of the toddler group in October 2024 after returning from maternity leave. This was at first daunting as I knew how long the toddler group had run for and wanted to do this justice (I even attended myself!) The transition of taking on the group was made so easy by the guidance and dedication of the volunteers. They welcomed me with open arms and really showed me the ropes. Their help was absolutely invaluable in making sure I could open the group to the best of my ability.

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There was much discussion when i returned of how we could make small changes to the group to attract new children and families, this is when the Stay & Play name came in, this was to make it seen that the group wasn’t just for ‘toddlers’ but for children from birth right up to those ready to start school. We also introduced a song time at the end of the session and a tidy up time. All of this was done initially as a trial to see how this would work with the groups.

Once I settled into the group we looked into the current toys, the volunteers commented that some of the toys were donated when their grandchildren were attending (over a decade ago) - I put a call out amongst my friends and family for some donations and over time we have managed to change out some toys and update some. One volunteer advised me that she knew parents who did feel some of the toys were outdated, especially some of the character toys. This was rectified with the new toy donations, especially our Paw Patrol Toys! We still have a range of toys available, from the home corner which includes a kitchen, toy babies and prams and a market stall (complete with a shopping trolley!) construction toys, toys that use imagination skills and very noisy instruments! The much loved slide is still centre stage, as well as the rocky horse and the rocking boat. We upgraded some of the outdated ride along toys and added some new bikes and scooters.

After some feedback from parents/carers and a change in ages the ‘baby corner’ has continued to grow. There is a section for smaller babies and also a section that is for older babies, that aren’t quite toddling, but then again aren’t quite staying still. Juice and biscuits are still a much loved and integral part of the group, alongside tables boasting toys that work on fine motor skills, plenty of jigsaws and an art and crafts table. Parents still have their table to enjoy hot drinks, safely away from little people but still within eye/ear shot, and this gives a great opportunity for parents/carers to chat.

At the end of the session we have a songtime, we use a speaker and have a song and dance together. Some favourites are ‘Sleeping Bunnies’ - ‘ Wind the bobbin up’ - ‘Head Shoulders Knees and Toes’ and ‘Twinkle Twinkle’ - this does usually go down well, mainly with the older children but adults do sit with the younger ones and hopefully with the repetition of the songs the younger ones will begin to learn actions and recognise sounds and words. We then play the tidy up song and get all our bits back into the boxes, again this is received differently depending on ages.

We were fortunate at Christmas to have our Christmas Parties which were well attended, each child got a book from Space4 and a selection box kindly donated by the Mothers Union.

A big thankyou to our volunteer helpers who are invaluable to the group and without whom it all couldn’t happen. A special mention to Edith who will be retiring after Easter 2025 who has given 17 years of volunteering service to the group and the children of Houghton – our huge thanks – we will miss you greatly Edith

Jade Turbull-Mason, Children & Community Coordinator

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Flower Guild

We have been able to continue with our work throughout the year. We receive many positive compliments about the flowers which is made possible by the many kind and gratefully received donations.

If you would like to sponsor a pedestal arrangement at any time during the year (apart from Lent or Easter) there is a sign up list on the notice board at the back of Church.

Carole Cunningham

Hand-Bells

The group met after Houghton Feast on Monday evenings at 5pm to practise for the Advent Carol Service and Christmas Eve Service. We play the bells to a number system, so if you would like to join the group and can be available for the services mentioned please get in touch! New members are always welcome!

Carole Cunningham

The Gilpin Singers

This year has seen our usual summer and winter concerts, with the Church filled to full capacity. We have also participated in the Church’s Summer concert and the choir also staged a concert for the Houghton Feast celebrations. We were invited to sing at Lambton Castle in December. The guests were very complimentary!

All of this is made possible by our enthusiastic and dedicated conductor Laura Parkin: we are very thankful for her input. Our thanks also to Graham Brown for accompanying the choir at our concerts and to all who work hard and contribute to the choir’s success.

Carole Cunningham

Signpost

Our magazine, Signpost, continues to be notice board, advertiser and commenter on local, national and worldwide issues that affect us all at St. Michaels. We try to reflect opinions and current values in what we do and think of the world we are in. Our news is current and reflects where we are this month, but , I think, even more importantly we have an opportunity to comment on the place and time we are in. Most pleasing to me is the copy I receive from members of our congregation that express views on current events and experiences. This “home produced” copy is the difference that makes the magazine “ours”. Please keep it coming. Thanks as always to the whole team and distributors for making it happen.

Malcolm Foster

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10.2 REPORTS FROM CHURCH AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONS

Kepier Trust and Management Committee

It is my pleasure to report on the amazing work that has been achieved over the last year at the Kepier Hall. The Trust has been very fortunate in successfully bidding for funding from many sources that has enabled major work to the building being carried out. This, of course, is ongoing – as one major job gets done, another one is in the pipeline. We are always on the lookout for other funding opportunities and there are many! The application process takes a lot of time and energy as you can imagine.

The regular users of the Kepier are very complimentary of the newly refurbished interior and a real plus is the much-improved heating system which keeps everyone happy.

We are fortunate to have a new tenant in the newly refurbished Gilpin flat.

I would like to thank the Caretaker/Coordinator, Mr. Darren Snaith, and fellow Trustee, Ali Young, as well as Management Team for their support over this last year when so much has been achieved. Keep watching this space for other improvements!

Jean Henderson

The Friends of Houghton Hillside Cemetery

The committee resumed our meetings earlier in the year and started to organise litter picks and tidy-ups. Our website is being updated and is not available at present. The weather this year has been against us at every opportunity, and our planned clean-ups have had to be cancelled. Once again, we are grateful to members of our local community who have kept the place tidy.

We planned a big clean-up during the late summer, before Remembrance Day, but this had to be cancelled because the wet weather had given the brambles a super boost and made the paths to the War Graves impenetrable. A landscape gardening company were willing to clear the paths at a reasonable cost. Their results were impressive and more than we could achieve.

Our AGM was held in Church on 24[th] October, and this year we decided to pare back our meeting and not have a guest speaker.

For Remembrance Day, we laid a wreath at the Cenotaph at Church and one against the monument in the Cemetery. The War Graves commission had cleaned the headstones in the cemetery prior to this and people have laid poppies and crosses on the graves.

We are looking forward to getting back into full swing in 2025!

Alastair Bradley, Chair.

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The Friends of Houghton Parish Church Trust

Now in our 31[st] year, we can look back over the years and see how important the Trust has been in providing the funds for essential work and maintenance to our beloved ancient Church of St. Michael and All Angels. This important work continues as we speak!

Looking back to last year’s report, we were then thinking of ideas on how to boost the membership numbers. A leaflet drop has been considered but we would need to have a team of helpers to do this. If anyone has any other ideas on how to do this, please get in touch.

We spent a lot of time this year deciding whether to put the annual subscriptions up but in the end we decided to leave it up to each individual member as quite a few have already voluntarily done this.

The Friends are committed to opening the Church throughout the summer months for a short period of time during each week. Come along and have a chat and a coffee with our stewards – it may be something you would like to do.

Jean Henderson, Trustee

Houghton Mothers’ Union

We have 44 members. 33 attend regular meetings and 11 are indoor members.

Olive Gibson, who transferred from Newbottle when the branch closed, sadly passed away.

We have welcomed 4 new members and 1 lady has rejoined. 2 of the members have been admitted; the other 3 members will be admitted in our Thursday Morning Service as soon as possible.

Mothers’ Union community projects

The branch was able to buy St Michael’s toddler group a selection box for each child at Christmas. The refuge in Houghton received bags with a knitted snowman and a selection of sweeties inside.

We continue to support the church with baptisms, sending annual baptism anniversary cards for 5 years after baptism. Each child who is baptised also gets a knitted Teddy.

Mothers’ Union UK

We sent a £171 contribution to head office for ‘Make a Mother’s day’: thank you for your generosity.

£114 was sent for the ‘Summer of Hope’ project.

The ‘Summer of Hope’ project is a fantastic opportunity to build on years of wonderful work that’s transforming the lives of women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa.

Literacy and numeracy are vital life skills for all of us. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), our faithful support is already empowering women to release themselves from the cycle of poverty.

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Branch programme 2024

January was our AGM

February Meal at the mill March Easter readings in church April Rev Norma Clee, Durham Diocese MU Chaplain

May Rev John Barron June Summer trip to Trenchers, Whitley Bay.

We had a grant from the coalfields for the bus.

• July Deanery branches joined us for the ‘Summer of Hope’ tea.

August We don’t meet.

September Harvest lunch October Sue Elsey November Margaret Lee

• December Advent service in church.

We also had Christmas lunch one day at the Bistro in Cherry Trees.

Joan Beattie, Branch Leader.

2nd Houghton Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers

All four units are running at maximum capacity at the moment with waiting lists. We have had a very busy year with many events.

Rainbows had a sleepover in September which also included a visit to the Blue Reef Aquarium. Rainbows have a sleepover coming up on 5th April with 11 girls attending.

Guides/Rangers had a sleepover on 8th February which included a visit to the Escape Room in the Metro centre and then the girls were given time to go shopping. We then returned to the Kepier Hall for pizza and sleep!

Brownies had a weekend at PGL in Newby Wiske in May 2024 and we are going again this year in May with 31 Brownies and Guides.

The units took part in the Houghton Feast parade as well as running a stall at the church coffee morning. We appreciate the support that we are given from church to help us to fundraise for the units.

The girls were involved in the Remembrance Sunday parade.

We attended the Uniformed carol service in church. Many parents came along to watch the service.

Sheila Wynn

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10.3 REPORTS FROM SPACE4: THE COMMUNITY

PROJECT OF ST MICHAEL & ALL ANGELS’

Summary

The past year has been exceptionally busy for Space4. We have developed our partnership working with other organisations which has enabled us to offer a wide range of opportunities for our service users, including arts & crafts workshops, digital skills, beauty courses and advice sessions with a number of different organisations, alongside our regular activities and services.

a) Creatively addressing food poverty

Our foodbank/community food store has been at the forefront of our work to address food poverty. We have seen an increase in the numbers requiring foodbank support reflecting the ongoing cost of living crisis. We have been fortunate to receive significantly more grant funding for the foodbank from both Sunderland City Council and grant funders which has enabled us to distribute large amounts of stock over the past 6 months. We have also received several donations from local schools, organisations and individuals in the community, including some large donations from Harvest Festival and at Christmas time, for which we are incredibly grateful.

We have spent much of the past year reviewing and refining our processes and procedures, including moving to online ordering of deliveries which has massively improved efficiency. We have also improved our processes around foodbank membership cards with our food coordinator now meeting with people when they first present for foodbank to find out how best to support them and signposting to relevant organisations. A review meeting is then held after 4 weeks to check whether support is still needed and to follow up on whether they have accessed the support. This process is working well although we continue to monitor and review procedures on an ongoing basis. In addition, we have introduced a much more robust stock management process with weekly summary sheets showing the value of food distributed and amount of wastage alongside regular stock takes, including recording donated food. This has enabled us to have a much clearer picture of the amount of food distributed and the current mix of our food sources.

Our Foodstore served a cumulative total of 1891 households in 2024.

As well as our food store, our food offer in the Hub has grown over the past year with hot food offered 3 days per week. Meals typically cost around £3.50 but can be offered on a PAYF/free basis for those in need.

In June we ran our first slow cooker course which was very well received and delivered another couple of courses later in the year. The courses ran for 4 weeks with participants given the ingredients for that week’s recipe to try at home. With the help of match funding from the local authority, we were also able to give participants their own slow cooker to take home, along with a set of knives and kitchen utensils. Feedback from the courses was extremely positive.

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b) Responding to isolation

We had a new Hub Coordinator, Natalie, start in post in February and she made a huge impact, particularly in developing relationships with other organisations and providers. It was an exceptionally busy year in our Hub; alongside our daily drop ins, we have offered a wide variety of courses and workshops, thereby creating more opportunities for our service users to learn new skills and improve their confidence and mental wellbeing. These have also resulted in new people coming into Space4 for the first time, many of whom have then returned to access other activities.

Another exciting development was the long-awaited installation of our Tech Hub area at the end of May – although the take up for this hasn’t been great, we hope to develop this further in the coming year.

In June we celebrated our amazing volunteers with an awards ceremony and buffet lunch. It was fantastic to have our volunteers and staff from across all Space4’s different projects come together and to have the opportunity to say thank you for all they do.

Our children’s work has also gone from strength to strength over this year. Our children’s coordinator went on maternity leave at the start of the year but Kim did a great job in her absence running our weekly Tuesday Treat afterschool club and various activities during school holidays. The summer months were busy with children’s holiday activities taking place twice a week. In In total 42 unique children accessed at least one of our summer activities, 24 of whom were new to Space4.

We were able to offer a wide range of activities in partnership with other organisations including Durham Wildlife Trust, Active Sunderland and Sunderland Culture such as drama, dance, healthy eating, graffiti art and bug hunting. A local pub, The White Lion, very generously provided lunch for free for the children throughout the summer holidays and also provided free packed lunches for our Space4 trip to Beamish Museum in August. We filled a double decker bus for this trip and feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

In September, we were delighted to welcome Jade back from maternity leave. As part of her role as children’s coordinator, Jade took over the running of the Toddlers group which was rebranded as Stay and Play. As part of the rebrand, we made some changes to the sessions including introducing a song and rhyme section at the end. Although it took a little while for the children (& parents!) to get used to this change, it has given the sessions more structure and helped children understand when the session is coming to an end. Sleeping Bunnies is particularly popular with the children!! Throughout all these changes, our amazing volunteers have, again, provided much needed consistency and continuity for parents and children.

Our adult service users as well as the children have also benefited from activities with partner organisations; Cultural Spring ran 4 art workshops over July-September, focusing on using natural materials including making natural inks whilst WEA ran a number of courses for us including a beginners’ digital skills course, jewellery making course and a nail art course which took place on an evening. The latter was so popular with the 8 people who attended that we had to put on a follow up nails, lashes and brows course. All of these courses have helped people connect and open up and it has been lovely to see people’s confidence grow.

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Our craft group were also fortunate to have a ceramicist come in to work with them over a few weeks as part of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust’s 80 Candles for 80 years project. This project saw 80 community organisations across the UK design and create a bespoke candle holder to highlight the life of an individual or a community persecuted by the Nazis to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 2025. The candle holder Space4 designed formed part of a digital exhibition for Holocaust Memorial Day and went on display at Houghton Library.

We were also able to start offering transport to those attending our Cake & Chat group for elderly members of the community in September following a successful grant application to pay for transport for 12 months. This has enabled us to reach more socially isolated people who were previously unable to access the group.

October was very busy with both half-term and Houghton Feast taking place this month. As well as having 55 people take part in the parade at the start of Houghton Feast, we held activities throughout the week, including a rag wreath workshop and a pie and peas afternoon with dominoes and a beetle drive.

The last couple of months of the year didn’t see us slowing down! We launched our digital skills sessions and a games afternoon and hosted our first Young Carers’ Drop in with Sunderland Carers Centre which now takes place monthly.

We ended the year on a high with lots of different Christmas craft activities taking place throughout December, our annual children’s Christmas party which was attended by 66 children and a Space4 nativity service with staff, volunteers and service users taking part. And, of course, we hosted our Christmas Day lunch which saw 39 adults and 11 children share a 3 course meal and join in with carol singing, a Christmas quiz and bingo.

Our drop in has seen a total footfall of 6118 people over the year, 220 of whom were new to Space4. Tuesday Treat has had a footfall of 1038 children whilst Stay & Play has had 727 children.

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c) Challenging inequalities

Due to low numbers, we decided to stop our monthly clothing events and instead concentrate on school uniform events at key times of the year, including Easter and May half-term. We held several pre-loved uniform events in August in readiness for the new school term. Through these events we supported a total of 62 households comprising 138 children. An exciting new development was the launch of our online uniform request form in September which allows us to respond to requests as and when needed.

We have also had several partner organisations attend our drop-in sessions over the past year to provide advice and support. These include SHARP (local information, advice and guidance service), Sunderland Carers Centre, Healthwatch, Gentoo Money Matters team and Vodaphone who ran a couple of Tech Tea Parties to help people with IT and digital issues.

We were incredibly fortunate to be chosen by Houghton Rugby Club as their charity of the year and they ran a Christmas gift campaign on our behalf. With their generous donations alongside donations from Dunelm and Lidl, we were able to give Christmas gifts to 60 children whose families are in financial hardship.

Much of our work in this area has been focused on developing a culture of community organising, giving people a voice and encouraging and supporting them to participate in democracy. In the past year we had local, regional and national elections and we worked closely with Tyne and Wear Citizens to put our key ‘asks’ around cost of living and housing to candidates. We also signed up to become a voter registration hub, ensuring people knew how to register to vote either in person or via postal vote, and having conversations with them about why voting matters.

Prior to the mayoral elections in May, we attended the Tyne and Wear Citizen’s Mayoral Assembly on 22nd April. We had a great turnout from Space4 and the church, filling approximately two thirds of a double decker bus, plus others who made their own way there.

Some of our staff and volunteers were involved in the housing and cost of living teams. They were very involved with the process from beginning to end, from feeding in issues that have come out of our listening, providing case studies/testimonies that were used on the night, honing the ‘asks’ presented to the candidates, planning the presentation of the asks, and we even had 3 people speaking on stage in front of an audience of approximately 800!

Denise spoke very eloquently on the impact of the cost of living crisis on quality of life, Becca gave a very emotional testimony about carer pay (which got the biggest response of the night from the audience), and Beth read out the testimony from a Space4 member about battling with landlords and the difficulty of getting appropriate social housing. The testimonies clearly made a significant impact on the candidates and audience alike.

As a direct result of Denise’s moving speech at the assembly, she was invited to go to Darlington to speak with Kier Starmer and Rachel Reeves about the cost of living crisis! Despite being incredibly nervous, she put her case passionately, and was listened to reflectively and thoughtfully by both politicians.

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This work continued with the surprise announcement of the general election and preparation for a national assembly in London with representatives from the three main parties. It was a real inspiration to be a part of it and to see people taking on roles way beyond their comfort zone, and absolutely smashing it!

We’ve not only been involved in influencing regional and national politicians however; Space4 was also visited by representatives of Durham Diocese and the King’s Office who are tasked with choosing the next Bishop of Durham. Staff, volunteers and service users all had the opportunity to speak to them about what they wanted from the next incumbent with one of our regulars suggesting that Rev’d John Barron be given the role!

Following the riots in Sunderland in the summer, one of our staff helped facilitate a Weaving Trust session at the Unity in the Community event held at Sunderland Minster on 19th October. Weaving Trust events are a tool for bringing communities together, building bridges, creating awareness and weaving trust through contact and conversation. Using a speed meeting format, 1:1 conversations lasting 6-8 minutes, are facilitated with the use of guided questions (e.g. why do you love your area, what would you change about it) with a wrap up session at the end. The feedback from this session was very positive and a further session was held at the VONNE conference which was equally well received.

In November we had a double decker join us as part of a listening campaign across the northern region to find out what issues people face when using public transport. We listened on the bus and also took to Newbottle Street to listen to those using the buses. Collectively we listened to 37 people and fed this back to Tyne & Wear Citizens. The issues raised ranged from accessibility to reliability and the lack of variety of public transport available to the local community. These issues were shared in a meeting Tyne & Wear Citizens held with Martin Tugwell, CEO for Transport for the North, on 2nd December. One of our staff co-chaired this meeting thereby ensuring that the voice of our community was heard.

For a small grassroots community organisation we have really punched above our weight over the past year and this has been recognised by others, with the deputy director of Citizen’s UK approaching one of our staff and congratulating her on our involvement. Our work as a voter registration hub has also been held up by Citizens UK as an example of good practice.

Justine Merton-Scott, Space4 Manager

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St Michael & All Angels, The Church of England in Houghton-le-Spring

Find us at

Facebook.com/stmichaelshls www.stmichaelshls.org.uk www.achurchnearyou.com/church/13689/ [e-mail] https://bit.ly/supportStM

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