OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2022-03-31-accounts

Norris Green Community Alliance

(A COMPANY LIMITED BY GUARANTEE)

REGISTERED COMPANY NUMBER: 06853661 (England and Wales) REGISTERED CHARITY NUMBER: 1136867

REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2022

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) CONTENTS OF THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

1

FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 March 2022

CONTENTS Page
Contents 2
Company & Charity Information 3
Report of the Trustees 4-9
Report of the Independent Examiner 10
Statement of Financial Activities 11
Balance Sheet 12
Notes to the Financial Statements 13-21

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) CHARITY & COMPANY INFORMATION

2

REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATION DETAILS

Charity Name

Norris Green Community Alliance (Limited by Guarantee)

Registered Charity Number

1136867

Registered Company Number

06853661

Registered Office

Norris Green Community Alliance Ellergreen Community Centre Ellergreen Road Liverpool Merseyside L11 2RY

Trustees

J Roberts – Chairperson C Pettitt – Treasurer E Williams – Secretary F Cooke E Whiteside D Roberts

Bankers

Unity Trust Bank Plc Nine Brindleyplace Birmingham B1 2HB

Independent Examiner

Counting for Communities Ltd 16 Holmwood Drive Liverpool, L37 1PQ

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT For the year ended 31 March 2022

3

The trustees, who are also directors of the charity for the purposes of the Companies Act 2006, present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2022.

The accounts have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in note 1 to the accounts and comply with the Charities Act 2011 and the ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019)’.

STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT

Organisational Structure

Norris Green Community Alliance is a registered charity with The Charity Commission, Charity Number 1136867 and a registered Company Limited by Guarantee with Companies House, Company Number 06853661 on 20 March 2009.

The governing instruments under which it operates comprise the Memorandum and Articles of Association dated 20 March 2009 amended by special resolution registered with Companies House on 3 June 2010. In the event of the company being wound up members are required to contribute an amount not exceeding £10 each.

The trustees meet regularly and are responsible for the strategic direction and policy of the charitable company. Managers also attend these meetings but have no voting rights.

Risk Management

The trustees have reviewed the major risks to which the Charity is exposed. It regularly reviews the key financial information and has examined other operational and business risks which the Charity faces. It also confirms that there are established systems in place to mitigate significant risks and where necessary respond to them. Procedures are in place to ensure compliance with health and safety of staff, volunteers, service users and visitors to the premises.

PUBLIC BENEFIT

When planning and programming activities for the local residents of Norris Green, the Trustees of Norris Green Community Alliance are mindful of the Charity Commissions guidelines on Public Benefit.

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT - CONTINUED For the year ended 31 March 2022

4

OBJECTIVES AND AIMS

To empower and support the community of Norris Green in Liverpool in such a way that they are better able to: identify and help meet their needs, encourage the community to work together, putting on activities for those to participate and using activities to bring the community together. The projects include: intergenerational projects, play schemes, dance and drama, community events and training for volunteers.

ACHIEVEMENT AND PERFORMANCE

Coming out of lockdown restrictions post Covid-19, 2021-22 has been a year of great achievements and changes to our charity activities and services. This report gives a brief overview of some of the changes, achievements and overall performance. How we adapted to maintain high quality services, delivery of activities to support our community and beneficiaries to help them embrace moving forward in a positive manner for the benefit of themselves and their communities.

We started the year off by conducting community consultations on our charity’s services and reassessing community needs to ensure we understood how to help tackle local concerns and issues. From consultation and delivery of projects on the ground, our charity made the decision to increase capacity for service delivery to meet increased demand and expanded into early intervention mental health projects to support beneficiaries.

This year has been very demanding for our staff and we have seen a big increase in need and demand of services and activities. Key areas highlighted with most need included mental health, food and financial hardship. We have been very thankful to have staff and committed volunteers in place to continue to deliver community interest activities to develop the ward and individuals.

During this year, from April 2021 to March 2022, we have been fortunate to work with over 7500 residents in Liverpool, with over 76% residing in Norris Green L11 and Sparrowhall L9. Our charity has benefitted from emergency support funding and core funding support from Liverpool City Council, Cobalt Housing, The Henry Smith Charity, LCVS, Community Foundation for Lancashire and Merseyside and PH Holt Foundation. This has enabled us to develop ourselves to work with more people than previous years since the charity became incorporated.

Key achievements we would like to mention include our direct involvement and lead in the community consultation and delivering of emergency hardship support to over 294 households over 6 months across Norris Green from April 2021 to September 2021. We were able to extend our food deliveries and additional specific support to our residents until July 2021 through a Grant via LCVS and Liverpool City Council by targeting people who had become unemployed and suffered health problems due to Covid. We continue to manage the Mayor’s Hardship Fund via our Ward Councillors and Cobalt Housing’s Hardship fund to ensure our residents get the best support and advice that we can give them, signposting them to other agencies and networks and have supported over 200 adults and 341 children this year.

From February 2022 we joined partners in the creation of a multi-agency Debt and Hardship network for residents of Norris Green that was created by local agencies and partners to fill in gaps in core emergency services for financial and debt advice, support, and referral processes.

As part of our development strategies to address community needs, we reached out to Public Health England and LCVS Mental Health Fund and secured over £21,000 in November 2021 for early intervention mental health support. Through this grant we were able to employ a Mental Health Co-ordinator on a 12-month contract. This has been one of the most effective use of resources and we were overwhelmed by how positively this service has affected beneficiaries and community members across all areas of charity services.

5

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT - CONTINUED For the year ended 31 March 2022

From this funding we have run many community sessions to support mental health in our community as well as deliver our listening ear one-to-one service, letters of support for benefit cases, housing issues and a host of other areas we had not previously touch on before. We have offered training on Listening to Mental Health to develop listening skills, coping mechanisms, and emotional resilience as well as a course on Introduction to Counselling to enable others to help and support families and friends. We are looking at facilitating Bereavement training later in the year.

As part of our getting back to ‘normal’ activities our Older Peoples Lunch Clubs and Coffee mornings started back up in April 2021 as people were desperate to get out and meet up with others as many had been living in isolation with lack of contact with friends and family. 3 months after starting we increased this to offer a Lunch Club every week over two separate accessible venues enabling the attendees to access a 2-3 course meal, heavily subsidized with social bingo included. Attendance has increase across these two activities. The Family Bingo again has seen a twofold increase in attendees, along with weekly Family Roller Discos every Friday. This has seen attendance double so we expanded from one session into two sessions to accommodate the increase in demand.

Other noteworthy activities include our annual Winter Intergeneration Project running from October 2021 to January 2022 working with older and younger generations and offering a variety of fun filled weekly sessions to improve relations and break down barriers to community integration and stigmas. The 3-day Santa Sleigh ride through Norris Green which we managed alongside Liverpool City Council and local partners in early December 2021. Santa and helpers delivered over 3000 selection boxes across the streets of Norris Green and Sparrowhall. Nearly 6000 residents flocked to local roads, gardens and doorways and children and adults alike witnessed the spirit of Christmas again.

Our Afterschool provision and out of school holiday clubs continue to flourish now operating from two centres which has max capacity attendance 4 days a week and possible thanks to the HAF Programme we receive enables us to ensure all our children receive free healthy meals, breakfast and snacks throughout those periods, take part in physical and creative activities and signposting the families to other services that they need to access. We were also able to take them to Christmas panto, bowling, residential and many other activities that the families would not be able to afford.

We have continued to support our local TRA (Tenants and Residents Associations) with funding support; Sparrowhall TRA reopened their Playscheme in July 2021 and after school provision in September 2021 with funding they received through the HAF Programme and Cobalt Housing, along with Coffee Mornings, Christmas Dinner for Older People, Trip York. Ellergreen TRA put on Christmas activities and coach trips, SPRING have set a Gardening Club and Bootcamp exercise club, walking club lots of new activities coming out of Covid with funding and Admin support via NGCA. This has enabled a wide range of activities accessible from different parts of the community

During the autumn and winter months we were able to put-on a variety of Halloween activities to keep the community engaged and using community spaces during darker and colder days and evenings.

Throughout October we delivered 82 Halloween activity and food packs for families in need facing isolation, hosted a Halloween themed Roller Disco complete with best dancers and costumes which worked alongside other anti-social behaviour preventative projects during October and November.

6

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT - CONTINUED For the year ended 31 March 2022

The run up to Christmas, December was a very busy period for the charity. We delivered over 100 food hampers to households facing food insecurity, financial hardship and isolation and thanks to donations of toys from Cash4Kids we were able to deliver toys to families with children who could not buy presents. We also provided pyjamas and necessities with food hampers. We also delivered over £1000’s worth of vouchers for food and essentials. This was a fantastic project working alongside Liverpool City Council, St Teresa’s Primary School, and St Philomena’s Primary School. We organised Older Peoples Christmas Lunch, Festive trips out, Christmas Parties, Pantomime in Liverpool One and The Everyman Theatre.

We supported a local Norris Green Choir to start via Zoom during Covid which had flourished with additional funding from 64 Trust to allow face to face sessions for adults who were grateful to perform in the community and at Ellergreen Community Centre. The Men’s Group we started pre Covid now meets weekly on a Monday morning and has increased its membership, has started developing a garden area outside of the community centre and looking at other ideas for its members.

It so good to see so many of the people in our community getting involved and it feels like things will improve on how they were pre Covid. More people value their community and want to get involved and help others, our volunteers have increased through the many who helped up through the pandemic.

SPECIAL THANKS

The Norris Green Community Alliance would like to thank the following funders as well as partners and key community members who have contributed their time, funding, knowledge and skills that have been instrumental in our work this year. Thanks to Norris Green Ward Councillors, LCVS and Merseyside Play Action Council (MPAC) in the delivery of the HAF (Holiday Activities and Food) Programme. The Henry Smith Charity for ongoing funding support for core costs and salaries. PH Holt Foundation, Community Funding for Lancashire and Merseyside, The Julia & Hans Raising Trust for Youth & Play recovery donation. LCVS Recovery grant, Liverpool Get Active Partnership, Your Edge for Play, Norris Green Youth & Play Consortium (LCC) and Cobalt Housing and Torus Foundation for community funding for many of our projects this year. Local Tenant and Resident Associations: Sparrowhall TRA, Ellergreen TRA, SPRING, and local volunteers and staff who worked with us this year and the small donations we received from the local community. Other mentions include Torus Foundation and Mayoral Neighbourhood Fund who funded local community project Men's Group and Gardening and Mental health projects.

It would be fair to say that without these funders supporting us we would not be able to manage our support in the community the way we do so THANK YOU ALL

The Trustees of the NGCA would like to express their deepest and most sincere gratitude to the workers and volunteers of the NGCA coming out of the pandemic. They have worked tirelessly to ensure that our community received as normal a service as they

7

could possibly provide during these uncertain times. They also ensured that those most in need received help in the form of hardship, advise, food etc. along with getting the community back into social activities and other support to help them post Covid. We, as a Board of Trustees, have seen this first hand and have seen the impact on the community.

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT - CONTINUED For the year ended 31 March 2022

CHAIR’S COMMENTS

The past 3 years have been a challenge to say the least. Now we are finally coming to some sort of normality again it is clear to see the impact that the Norris Green Community Alliance has had on our communities.

The work that Denise, Tricia and Miranda have done to provide a seamless service has been second to none. Apart from ensuring families have had food provision, utilities, and support, they have also ensured that we have provided after school provision and school holiday clubs, hardship provision and I.T. help for people accessing housing needs, benefit enquiries, online shopping etc., lunch clubs, family bingo as well as a very successful carnival.

Funding is always a contentious issue, but we have been lucky this year to access funding to employ a Mental Health Co-ordinator, Sandra Scott. During the past few months Sandra has been busy providing training and group /one to one counselling. Her workload is growing daily thus proving the need for this very important service. The NGCA has also taken under its umbrella and secured funding for an established men’s group (JAM-Just average men). This group centres on men’s mental health and wellbeing. The group was struggling for membership but with the support of the NGCA they now have a healthy membership of 13. As Chair of the Board of Trustees I would like to take this opportunity on behalf of myself and the whole Board to thank our office staff, play staff, volunteers and partners for their hard work and dedication.

PLANS FOR THE FUTURE PERIODS

We have great plans for the charity and its services and will be working hard to increase our partners, and referral agencies for the benefit of our community. The recovery out of lockdown taking part has been quite overwhelming, for most people they are keen get to back and get involved in their community, for some others they still feel unsure, lack confidence and confused.

We have tried to reach out to most of the people we have worked with during the pandemic welcoming new users to engage in our activities and supporting those back into our activities. Attendance is very good, a year on from Lockdown people are now having an interest in doing lots of things which is quite remarkable. We are experiencing more users for our services and are applying for funding for a Family Support Worker to complement our Mental Health Worker. We are facing many challenges with hardship and poverty which we are doing our very best to support people, which is very hard. We have seen a rise in housing evictions, anti-social behaviour and unemployment which present several new challenges. But on the positive side we have very close links with the local housing organisation Cobalt who are putting additional funds into the community to tackle some of these.

Plans for additional training for our Volunteers, who we would be lost without, large community projects such as the Norris Green Carnival taking place in August 2022 and the Firework and Bonfire event to bring the community and partners together.

8

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Total income for the year was £191,942 (2021: £191,042) of which £165,830 (2021: £189,116) related to funding for projects upon which restrictions were placed. Total expenditure in the year was £187,590 (2021: £162,190) leaving a surplus for the year of £4,352 (2021: surplus £28,852). At 31 March 2022 the charity’s reserves stood at £60,185 (2021: £55,833) of which £50,011 (2021: £50,011) were restricted funds.

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) TRUSTEES’ ANNUAL REPORT - CONTINUED For the year ended 31 March 2022

RESERVES POLICY

It is the policy to maintain unrestricted funds, which are free reserves, at a level to cover redundancy provisions and allow the charity to continue to run a reduced service of activities for two months should no further funding be received. At 31 March 2022 the unrestricted reserves did meet this target and the trustees are aware that they must keep this in mind to maintain the reserves the charity needs established as free reserves.

STATEMENT OF TRUSTEES RESPONSIBILITIES

Company law requires the Directors to prepare financial statements for each financial period that give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and of its income and expenditure for that period. In preparing those financial statements, the Directors are required to:

The directors are responsible for keeping proper accounting records which disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the company and to enable them to ensure that the financial accounts comply with the Companies Act 2006. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the company and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD:

9

………………………………………... …………………………………….

Eric Williams – Secretary Date

REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT EXAMINER TO THE MEMBERS OF NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE

I report on the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 set out on pages 10 to 20.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity’s trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 144 of the Charities Act 2011 (the Charities Act) and that an independent examination is required. It is my responsibility to:

Basis of the independent examiner’s report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from the trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a ‘true and fair view’ and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

  1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:

a. to keep accounting records in accordance with section 386 and 387 of the Companies Act 2006; and

b. to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, comply with the accounting requirements of section 394 and 395 of the Companies Act 2006 and with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities have not been met; or

  1. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

10

Signed: ………………………………………….

Date: …………………………………………

Name: Stephen Leonard BA, FCCA Counting for Communities Ltd 16 Holmwood Drive Liverpool L37 1PQ

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES (INCORPORATING AN INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT) For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

11

There are no recognised gains or losses other than the net movement in funds for the above two financial years. All incoming resources and resources expended derive from continuing activities.

The notes form part of these financial statements

12

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) BALANCE SHEET At 31 March 2022 Registration Number: 06853661

For the year ending 31 March 2022 the company was entitled to exemption from audit under section 477 of the Companies Act 2006 relating to small companies.

Directors’ responsibilities

The financial statements were approved by the Board of Trustees and signed on its behalf by:

………………………………………… …………………………..………… Eric Williams – Secretary Date

13

The notes form part of these financial statements

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Accounting convention

The financial statements of the charity, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have been prepared under the historical cost convention, the Charities Act 2011 and ‘Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice for Charities’ applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2019). The charity has taken advantage of the disclosure exemption in preparing these financial statements, as permitted by FRS 102, the requirements of Section 7 Statement of Cash Flows.

The accounts are prepared in sterling, which is the functional currency of the charity and monetary amounts in these financial statements are rounded to the nearest £.

Going Concern

At the time of approving the accounts, the trustees have reasonable expectation that the charity has adequate resources to continue in operational existence for the foreseeable future. Thus the trustees continue to adopt the going concern basis of accounting in preparing the accounts.

Income

Incoming recognition

All incoming resources are included on the Statement of Financial Activities (SoFA) when the charity is legally entitled to the income and the amount can be quantified with reasonable accuracy

Incoming Resources with Related Expenditure

Where incoming resources have related expenditure (as with fundraising or contract income) the incoming resources and related expenditure are reported gross in the SoFA

Grants and Donations

Grants and donations are only included in the SoFA when the Charity has unconditional entitlement to the resource.

Contractual Income and Performance Related Grants

This is only included in the SoFA once the related goods or services have been delivered.

Volunteer Help

The value of any voluntary help received is not included in the accounts.

Investment Income

This is included in the accounts when receivable.

Expenditure and Liabilities Liability Recognition

14

Liabilities are recognised as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure.

Governance Costs

These include costs of the preparation and examination of statutory accounts, the costs of trustee meetings and cost of any legal advice to trustees on governance or constitutional matters.

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

Grants and Performance Conditions

Where the charity gives a grant with conditions for its payment being a specific level of service output to be provided, such grants are only recognised in the SoFA once the recipient of the grant has provided the specific service or output.

Grants payable without Performance Conditions

These are only recognised in the accounts when a commitment has been made and there are no conditions to be met relating to the grant which remain in the control of the charity

Fixed assets and depreciation

Depreciation is provided at the following annual rates in order to write off each asset over its estimated useful life. The following rates and methods are used:

Equipment - 15% reducing balance

All equipment, fixtures and fittings with an original cost of less than £600, are written off in the year in which the expenditure was incurred on the basis that due to the nature of the company’s activities, there is no expectation that the cost of the assets will be recovered in the way of future revenues.

Financial instruments

The charity only has financial assets and financial liabilities of a kind that qualify as basic financial instruments. Basic financial instruments are initially recognised at transaction value and subsequently measured at their settlement value with the exception of bank loans which are subsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest method .

Taxation

The charity is exempt from corporation tax on its charitable activities and is not registered for VAT. As a registered charity the company benefits from rates relief.

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds - can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the trustees.

Restricted funds - can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes.

15

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

16

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

17

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

18

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

19

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

20

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

21

NORRIS GREEN COMMUNITY ALLIANCE (Limited by Guarantee) NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS - CONTINUED For the Year Ended 31 March 2022

22

T1￿1￿ wetE r¥J Instees, r￿rr)￿ration 0rottErbe[￿ torttE ￿arer￿led 31 Marth 2022 )rfortrE ￿are[￿led 31 Ma￿h 2021 15 TNsteas' Exp￿￿￿$ T￿e￿ V￿re m 1j￿tees, e>perses paid for seareTrJed 31 Ma￿h 2022 ti)rfor ￿ y2ar eTrYed 31 March2021 16 Capital con￿MIn TFE corrpary Fk3d rx) capital cormitnErts at 31 March 202212021: No￿) eittEr cottsacted fur ora￿1)n5ed byttE directs)￿ mtcorkncted fur. 23