2023-03-31-accounts - Townhill Baptist Church (Swansea)

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

	Trustees' Annual Report	Trustees' Annual Report	Trustees' Annual Report	Trustees' Annual Report	Trustees' Annual Report	Trustees' Annual Report	for the period	for the period	for the period
	From	Period start date				To	Period end date
		Day 1st	Month April		Year 2022		Day 31st	Month March	Year 2023

Section A		Reference and administration details

	Charity name			Townhill Baptist Church (Swansea)

Other names charity is known by

Charity name[Townhill Baptist Church (Swansea) ] Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any)	1148030

	Powys Avenue
	Townhill
	Swansea
	Postcode	SA1 6PH

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

	Trustee name	Office (if any)	Dates acted if not for whole year	Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any)
1	John Idris Baker	Elder		Church Members’ Meeting
2	Andrew Trevor Brown	Deacon and Treasurer		Church Members’ Meeting
3	Allan David Rees	Senior Elder		Church Members’ Meeting
4	Robert Geoffrey Wellington	Elder and Secretary		Church Members’ Meeting
5	Philip Tamlyn	Deacon	25thJanuary 2023	Church Members’ Meeting
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16

17 18 19 20

Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)	Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)	Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name Address
Independent Examiner	Ms Sarah Bunce	1 Dynevor Place, Skewen, Neath SA10 6RG

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Constitution

Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Unincorporated association How the charity is constituted

(eg. trust, association, company)

Appointed by Church Members’ Meeting Trustee selection methods

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
relationship with any related parties;
trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

The existing trustees are responsible for the recruitment of new trustees, but in doing so, the trustees seek the views and recommendations of both elders and deacons.

In selecting new trustees, we seek to identify members of the church who are willing to volunteer their time and effort. Potential trustees are invited to attend trustees’ meetings as observers and are given more details of the charity’s aims and activities. If all agree, they are then proposed as new trustees at the subsequent trustees’ meeting. The process allows due consideration of the person’s eligibility, personal competence and specialist knowledge/skills.

Following appointment, new trustees are introduced to their new role and given copies of the trust deed and a guide to the policies and procedures adopted by our charity. Several publications from the Charity Commission are also provided including the guidance on charities and public benefit and on the advancement of religion for the public benefit. This ensures that

new trustees are aware of their Trustees’ responsibilities under the Charities Act.

The trustees have assessed the risks the charity faces and keep these risks under review. An annual health and safety check is carried out looking at the activities and premises of the church and all employees and members working with children have current Disclosure and Barring Service checks and Child Protection training as part of our Safeguarding Policy.

Section C Objectives and activities

The objects of the Church for the public benefit are to advance the Christian faith in accordance with the Statement of Beliefs appearing in the Schedule hereto in Swansea and in such other parts of the United Summary of the objects of the Kingdom or the world as the Church may from time to time think fit and to charity set out in its fulfil such other purposes which are exclusively charitable according to the governing document law of England and Wales and are connected with the charitable work of the Church. The church is committed to engaging with the community with the message of Jesus Christ. We use our building to provide a wide range of activities to benefit the community. To facilitate our community work, we take care of and maintain our council-owned building. Our activities as a charity take account of the Commission’s guidance on public benefit and the specific guidance on charities for the advancement of religion. We seek to know God more in our lives through prayer, praise, reading and applying God’s Word (the Bible) and to see people come to faith in Jesus Christ and to know Him more in their lives. Summary of the main The church buildings provide many activities of benefit to the public. In activities undertaken for the addition to our regular Sunday services and weekly prayer meeting and public benefit in relation to Bible study, we also have a weekly club for children from Reception to these objects (include within Year 6 and a bi-weekly youth club open to children from Year 6 to Year this section the statutory 13. A toddler group runs once a week and is open to all children and their declaration that trustees have carers from the community. had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public Looking back over the year (April 2022-March 2023) benefit) With the pandemic thankfully over our activities have been able to return to normal. The Friday Fun Club had a great year with a steady increase in our numbers averaging 30 children each week. We’ve not been able to offer pickup this year with our church minibus, but the benefit of this has been increased contact with parents and carers. We initially presented our kids talks using PowerPoint but then switched back to 'live' Bible-based talks presenting the gospel in an easy to understand and child-friendly way. The talks include stories, songs and games. We provide snacks for the children every week and at Easter and Christmas we give gifts to the children.

During the year we have had 28 different children at Townhill Toddlers , averaging 18 per week along with their parents, grandparents and carers coming through the doors. During the toddler sessions we have play, singing, snack and craft. We had Easter and Christmas parties for the children and parents and gave them gifts. We do not charge anything for our toddler group, but we took a collection for Samaritan’s Purse so that as a toddler group we could buy some chicks and bees for a developing nation. The church has also held a free accredited first Aid Course which some of our toddler parents attended and found invaluable.

The Friday Youth Group had around 15 young people on average attending very consistently throughout the year. There are two distinct groups: one consisting of the young people from the church and the others from the community. At least half a dozen young people come in each time from the community. We have seen several new faces attending and some have invited friends. Some of these have also attended our services Sunday mornings. There are always games and some alternative craft activity for the young people along with refreshments and a gospel message. The behaviour is good, and they listen very attentively to the story and Bible message. Their willingness to listen to these talks is a measure of the progress we have made and the relationships that have been built with the youth. We thank God for His grace in this opportunity to share the good news with all these young people.

We have held Good News group , a monthly inclusive service for adults with additional needs throughout 2022 and 2023. We have seven regular members who attend most sessions. Using simple communication and visual aid, we have explored: ‘Who is Jesus?’, key messages at Easter and Christmas, parables, creation and the fall, and have reminded ourselves how the good news of the gospel applies to our lives. Some of our members would describe themselves as believers, others would not, but it is a safe space to think about important things. We have seen some friendships developing within the group and all the members have felt confident to attend Sunday services at church, knowing their needs will be understood and that they are welcome. We use the church minibus to assist members with transport both to Sunday services and to Good News Group , as we recognised that travel can often be a barrier to inclusion. We are very glad for each person who has benefited from Good News Group and hope to continue to offer specialised meetings and support to be part of the wider church community.

As a church, we seek to be positive about disability inclusion. We are linked to the Roofbreaker project run by the Christian disability charity ‘Through the Roof’ whose main aim is 'transforming lives through Jesus with disabled people'. Kerry and Phil Tamlyn are the church Roofbreaker contacts, seeking to be available to discuss any disability issues and find solutions.

The community outreach work at the church has continued to bear fruit and prove very effective in both being a practical help in the community and reaching people with the gospel. The foodbank has continued over the last year, and we have to date been able to help 50 households and 6 other charities/ groups with supplies of food to people who have faced hard times during the cost-of-living crises post pandemic. We continue to collect surplus food from two Tesco stores, Sainsburys and Greggs. This surplus food is put to good use among families living In Townhill and Mayhill. The church has partly funded the provision food along with grant funding we have secured. We continue to work well with the local authority and on several occasions, we have been asked to provide support to vulnerable

people, augmenting and supporting the statutory input needed in peoples’ lives. The outreach work has seen several families and individuals join the congregation which has allowed us to provide greater pastoral and practical help such as household maintenance decorating repair etc. It has proved very effective in building relationships and people becoming part of a community.

During the past year we have had the privilege of hosting a weekly FAN (Friends And Neighbours) group . The group is aimed at people for whom English is a second language. It is a place where people get an opportunity to meet and make friends with others and to practise conversational English in an informal relaxed environment. The meeting has proved to be a great success with numbers ranging from 3 to 10. Relationships that have been built have proved very important and have allowed us as a church to get to know people and provide further help and support.

We have been blessed to see the fruits of our outreach through the various group activities, our fellowship has grown and our impact on the community has recovered to pre-pandemic levels and perhaps even surpassed what we were doing previously. To God be the glory great things he has done.

Anne Rees reports that two students unfortunately left her English Classes during the year due to personal difficulties, however two joined and one other remains as a long-term student. Following the pandemic Anne is switching back to meeting in person over in the church as this is a far better way to teach the second language beginners. The third longterm student is receiving help to read and is showing much improvement over the past year.

The Ladies’ Bible Study has grown over the year and has another new member; it is very encouraging to explore God’s word together. In addition to the online class, copies of the notes used in these meetings are sent out online for those who were unable to attend, and for others who request them.

The church building

The church continues to carry out maintenance work on the building as part of our stewardship of the building. We hired the building out to Swansea Council for a meeting this year. In the next few years we will carry out further work recommended in a building survey we commissioned. We continue to seek new organisations who are compatible with our aims and who would like to hire our building thus extending our services to the Townhill community.

Missionaries supported

We are very grateful to God that we can share in the work of the missionaries we support by prayer, email communication and finance.

We continue to support a range of missionaries and their organisations during this year through prayer and financial support. We receive regular newsletters from most of them. We have recently begun a separate prayer meeting where we can pray more specifically for each mission.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

Much of the work in our church is carried out on a voluntary basis. We give thanks to God that he has provided many gifted people to work in the church and we continue in prayer for more workers.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

policy on grantmaking;
policy programme related investment;
contribution made by volunteers.

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

The church currently has 16 members and between 15 and 60 people regularly come to our Sunday Services including children from the community and people from countries who are part of the global majority. A core group of 30 children come to our children’s club each week, 15 teenagers enjoy the youth club and an average of 19 children come to Townhill Toddlers.

During the past year as we along with other organisations looked to recover from the effects of the pandemic, we were able once again to hold the following outreach events. The pandemic still had a bit of a hangover into the beginning of the year and did have an impact on our planning of fundays and special events.

We celebrated Easter together with a service which was well attended and distributed chocolates to families connected with the church.
Our Christmas Carol service was very well attended.
We were able to have a lunch together during the year with some attending from groups connected to the church.
Towards the end of the year we had had a quiz and social evening on St David’s Day.

The Lord has enabled us to maintain a presence in the community during a difficult time, we have been able to respond to the needs of families and individuals, and more importantly been able to share the good news of Jesus Christ.

The church has continued to implement its Safeguarding Policy and all those working with children have up to date DBS checks and will receive training from the ThirtyOneEight (previously Churches’ Child Protection Advisory Service) in Child Protection and safeguarding.

Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

Overall, the church posted a small surplus this year (our receipts exceeded our payments by £4,604).
Our Special Reserve is maintained at half our annual spending. For the new 2023/2024 financial year it will be set at £28,550. This is for real emergencies e.g., significant building repairs, loss of ongoing donations if a number of members were to leave at the same time, or if there was a significant change in financial circumstances of several members. By maintaining this reserve, the church can continue its work for some time whilst dealing with serious financial pressures such as these. When we spend part of the special reserve, we need to set the budget in following years to restore it.
Our General Reserve for the coming year will begin at around £40,000. The General Reserve funds such things as maintaining the manse, the minibus, the church laptop, the dishwasher, church chairs and the church projector.
The reserves of the church mean that the church doesn’t face a crisis if there’s a major expense such as replacing the heating system or the

church roof, and provides funds to take advantage of short-term opportunities.

As in previous years, we will also maintain at least £2000 in our current account to ensure we are always in credit.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Not applicable.

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant about:

the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
This financial year reflects the final effect of regular donors who left the church, which is the main reason for our fall in receipts and in particular, regular donations which were down by 5% or around £2000 per year. Although the collection box has been back in the hall now for a year, cash donations are much reduced from the levels before the pandemic. We continue to be able to claim tax back on GiftAided donations which amounted to £7413.75 in 2022/2023, which was around the same as the previous financial year .
We have received a small amount from a single hire of the church building this year but are not yet renting the manse . The manse could generate £750 per calendar month in rent.
Interest rates have risen rapidly during the 2022/2023 financial year with interest received on bank balances higher than the previous year. Interest rates continue to rise, so we can expect more income from interest in the new financial year.
The church received a £1600 grant this year in support of the Food Bank from Swansea Council . If anyone knows of any potential grants we can apply for, please contact one of the trustees.
Other income is Wi-Fi equipment sold to members at second hand value after our new broadband supplier replaced our Wi-Fi points.
We continue to employ our Community Worker who has used his initiative well to engage with the community as detailed above.

Section F Other optional information

Nothing to report.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

Full name(s)

Position (eg Secretary, Chair,

etc)

Date

Townhill Baptist Church (Swansea)		1148030
Receipts andpayments accounts				CC16a
1st April 2022 For the period from	To	31st March 2023

Section A Receipts and payments	Section A Receipts and payments
A1 Receipts	Unrestricted funds to the nearest £ 51,947 45 - 190 - - 40	Restricted funds to the nearest £ 3,609 - - - - -	Endowment funds to the nearest £ - - - - - -	Total funds to the nearest £ 55,556 - - 45 - - - 190 - - 40 - 55,831 - - - 55,831 1,751 83 242 243 188 918 6,073 1,905 88 - - - - 8,705 8,147 566 - 569 654 - 924 747 3,363 11,469 - 1,048 7 535 74 9 910 1,947 74	Last year to the nearest £
Donations and legacies
Donations andgrants	51,947	3,609	-	55,556	52,957
				-
Other trading activites				-
Buildings Hire	45			45
Buildings Rent Received				-
				-
Other income	-	-	-	-	-
Other income	190	-	-	190	-
	-	-	-	-	-
Investments	-	-	-	-	-
Interest Received	40	-	-	40	9
	-	-	-	-	-
*Sub total*(Gross income for AR)	52,222	3,609	-	55,831	52,966

A2 Asset and investment sales, (see table).
	-
	-				-
*Sub total*	-				-
*Total receipts* A3 Payments
					52,966

Expenditure on charitable activities

Activities(Sundays & Midweek)	1,751			1,751	1,616
Activities(Good News Group)	83			83	-
Activities(Kids Club)	242			242	98
Activities(Townhill Toddlers)	243			243	479
Activities(Youth)	188			188	47
Activities(Special events)	918			918	775
Activities(Mission)	5,583			6,073	5,000
Activities(Food Bank)	8			1,905	1,703
Activities(Food)	88			88	8
Activities(Licencing)				-	168
Activities(Misc)				-	-
Activities(Accommodation)				-	-
Financial HardshipAssistance				-	523
Salaries(CommunityWorker)	8,705			8,705	14,008
Salaries(Pastor)	8,147			8,147	3,219
Training	566			566	-
				-
Other Payments
Administration Fees	569			569	567
Advertisingandpublicity	654			654	914
Buildings Fixtures and Fittings				-	-
Church Insurance	924			924	883
Manse Insurance	747			747	321
Church Maintenance	3,363			3,363	2,063
Manse Maintenance	11,469			11,469	4,815
Bank charges				-	-
Church cleaning	1,048			1,048	1,120
Cleaningsupplies	7			7	70
Electricity (Church)	535			535	282
Electricity (Manse)	74			74	193
Equipment Maintenance(General)	9			9	-
Equipment(General)	910			910	8,499
Gas(Church)	1,947			1,947	2,159
Gas(Manse) CCXX R1 accounts(SS)	74			74	137 08/09/2023

ICT Hardware	147	-	- - - - - - - - - - - - - -	147	20
ICT Software	7	-		7	169
Internet - Connection	407	-		407	431
Internet - Hosting	107	-		107	96
Legal costs	470	-		470	278
Publications	-	-		-	-
Stationeryand Supplies	165	-		165	32
Minibus Fuel	300	-		300	15
Minibus Insurance	1,022	-		1,022	1,001
Minibus Maintenance	1,540	1,519		3,059	1,793
Minibus Tax	165	-		165	165
Council Tax(Manse)	3,136	-		3,136	3,086
Water(Church)	78	-		78	147
Water(Manse)	134	-		134	136
**Sub total **	56,529	3,907	- - - - - - - - -	60,435	57,036

A4 Asset and investment purchases, (see table)
	-
	-
**Sub total **	-				-
*Total payments* *Net of receipts/(payments)* A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last year end *Cash funds this year end*
					57,036

	- 4,307			- 4,604	- 4,070
	-			-	-
	72,916			73,213	-
	68,609			68,609	- 4,070

CCXX R2 accounts (SS)

08/09/2023

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Details	Unrestricted funds to nearest £	Restricted funds to nearest £	Endowment funds to nearest £
Cash	149	-	-
Current	38,173	-	-
Deposit	30,287	-	-
Details Toys Laptop Football equipment Church library Audio/Visual equipment *Total cash funds* (agree balances with receipts and payments account(s)) Gift Aid Details Details Details Freehold property Minibus	68,609	-	-
			OK
			Endowment funds to nearest £
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			-
			-
			-
			-
			Current value (optional)
			-
			2,433
			150
			480
			50
			50
			3,450
			-
			-
			When due (optional)

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

Signature	Print Name	Date of approval

CCXX R3 accounts (SS)

08/09/2023

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A

Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees

Charity Name Townhill Baptist Church

	Charity Name Townhill Baptist Church

On accounts for the year ended Set out on pages	March 2023	Charity no (if any)	1148030

	(remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended DD / MM / YYYY .

Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent [The charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to examiner's statement undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed body]]. Delete [ ] if not applicable.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or
the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or
the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Signed: Name: Sarah Bunce

Date: 28[th] September 2023

Oct 2018

IER

Relevant professional qualification(s) or body (if any):

Address:

1 Dynevor Place Skewen SA10 6RG

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

Oct 2018

IER