Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) Trustees, Report and Financial Statements for the period st st 1 January to 31 December 2024
Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) Charity name: Remembering The Past, Resourcing the Future CIO Charity Number: 1155014 Charity's Principal address: Room R11 b, The Linskill Cenlre, Linskill Terrace, North Shields, Tyne & Wear, NE30 2AY Trustees: Trustees who served during the year and up to the date of this report were as follows: David Hodgson - Treasurer, Ron Hillaby Kath Smith Chris Wray Guy Moody (from 23105124) All trustees give their time voluntarily and received no remuneration. Name of chlef executive or names of senior staff members Alexandra Watson, Charity Manager Bankers: HSBC Bank Plc, 110 Grey Street, Newcastle, Tyne & Wear, NE16JG Independent Examiners: North Tyneside VODA , Spirit or North Tyneside Wing , Wallsend Customer First Centre, Wallsend, NE28 8JR.
Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) TRUSTEES, REPORT The Trustees present their annual report and financial statements for the year ended 31 st December 2024. Included within the Trustees, report is the directors, report as required by company law. Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements, the memorandum and articles of association and the Statement of Recommended Practice - Accounting and Reporting by Charities: SORP applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with FRS 102. Objectives and Activities Charitable Objectives Advance the education of the public in Tyne and Wear in particular but not exclusively by: Educating school children through the collection and dissemination of memories, experiences and thoughts of older people and establishing and maintaining a community archive recording social history through the medium of oral history and reminiscence. Promote social inclusion for the public benefit by preventing people from becoming socially excluded, relieving the needs of those people and assisting them to integrate into society. Achieving Public Benefit Trustees have complied with the duty in Section 4 of the 2006 Charities Act to have due regard to guidance on public benefit. The focus of our activities continues to be the alleviation of loneliness, social and digital isolation faced by older people in North Tyneside. The method used to achieve this is the collection by volunteers of older people's memories relating to the cultural, working and social life of the area and the dissemination of this content to the wider community. Public Benefit in Action Our collection is a record of the social history of the North East, covering the stories of ordinary people. It includes the voices of people involved in many of the area's lost industries and trades, as well as vivid descriptions of cultural traditions. The quality and context these often-missing voices add to an understanding of history is highly valued by our local, national and international audiences. We help our communities to understand more about the heritage of the places in which they live and the lives of their own relatives,
Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) Our method of engagement is based on gaining and retaining the confidence of contributors, raising their self-esteem as the team makes them aware of the importance of the stories they are sharing. By listening to their stories, and bearing witness to their unique experience of life, skilled volunteer interviewers empower and engage people from all walks of life. Our digital team prepare and disseminate these memories and oral histories, returning copies to contributors and adding them to our web-based Gommunity history archive, www.rememberin the ast.GO.uk. We develop our work in partnership with communities, academics, volunteers, artists and organisations and our approach is one of co-curation, led by our contributors and interviewees. Achievements of the Charity during 2024 2024 was a year of development and transition for the organisation, as it refocussed following the retirement of Kath Smith in late August 2023. As the founder and manager of the organisation for 25 years, Kath developed RTP from a small voluntary group to a highly regarded charity that has won national awards and, since her retirement, she has been deeply missed by volunteers, staff and trustees alike. The necessary refocussing following Kath's departure has been facilitated through our 'Remembering The Past, Shaping The Future.. Heritage Resilience Project, funded by National Lottery Heritage fund. This began in September 2023 and will run until Autumn 2025. It aims to secure the future of the charity, through developing stronger internal structures, building capacity and undertaking strategic planning. This year we have undertaken development and planning work on all seven strands of the project including Govemance, Volunteers, Business Planning, Evaluation, Collections Development, Audience Development and Marketing. Our project work with partners continued: Herring Girls Begun in 2023 in partnership with the North Shields Fishermen's Heritage Project (NSFHP) this project sought to recognise the role and contribution that women have played over the years in the local fishing industry. NSFHP commissioned Remembering the Past to collect a set of oral history interviews with people with memories of the herring girls. Collecting, sharing and archiving these stories has helped to increase local knowledge about the work the Herring Girls did and celebrates their character and resilience. We undertook 8 interviews against an initial target of 7 and trialled a 'listening event, to showcase the stories for an audience of the participants, their families and invited guests. This was a great way to share our work and we will be repeating this fomat in the future. Women in Shipbuilding First World War This was a partnership project with Historic England which began in late 2023 with an exhibition of photographs of women working in the Tyne & Wear shipyards during the First
Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) World War. RTP was commissioned to undertake interviews with people who had family stories of women who worked in the shipyards during this time, as well as contemporary accounts of young women who aspired to work in the STEM sector. In total 7 interviews were recorded and shared via project page created on the website. New projects in 2024: Women in Shipbuilding 1945- 1980s During our time working on the Women in Shipbuilding First World War exhibition, we spoke to many women who had worked in the shipyards during the period from the end of the Second World War up to the closure of the yards in the 1980s. They were keen to put their voices on the record and tell their experiences and in June 2023, we were awarded £1990 from the Frederick Milbum Trust to enable us to do this. We have begun advertising the project and recording interviews and aim to complete this work by Summer 2025. Bishopwearmouth THI As part of our work on business planning, we have been looking at ways to diversify income streams and this year trialled charging a fee to undertake transcription work, host archive records and host a project page on our web site for the Bishopwearmouth Townscape Heritage Initiative. Feedback from the client was that our fee of £700 was modest and this was further emphasised by the length of time that our volunteers spent working on the records to get them ready to showcase on the website. Following evaluation of the trial, we have developed some more accurate pricing and also a list of key areas to consider when taking on other organisation's recordings. Events Local History Day We attended Local History Day at North Shields Library in May with an exhibition of local local photographs. Although not a great attendance at the event as a whole, we made some new contacts and had some great engagement with people visiting our stand. New York Primary Heritage Day 2 of our volunteers attended a Heritage Day, where they ran an oral history activity for 55 pupils from New York Primary School. Talks Programme: We made the decision in 2023 to halt the talks programme for 2024 whilst we reviewed this area of work as part of our business planning process. However, one of our volunteers was happy to continue giving talks and spoke to three different societies during the year.
Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) Looking forward to 2025 We look ahead to 2025 with optimism and anticipate that this year will see the end of our process of review and development and the start of putting our new strategies intro practice. However, our NLHF funding will finish towards the end of 2025 and we are keenly aware of the state of the funding landscape in the UK at present. funding for UK charities and voluntary organisations has seen sharp declines across the board: central govemment funding decreased by 33 /0 from 2022 to 2023, local authority funding dropped by 23 % since 2009-2010, and individual donations have fallen by 14 % in recent years. To be successful in such a competitive environment, we will need to clearly articulate our aims and demonstrate the impact of our work. The Trustees would like to thank all our partners, stakeholders, freelancers, staff, funders, volunteers and audiences who have supported the charity over the past year. Financial Review Financial information At the end of the financial year, the charity's total reserves stood at £11 ,849. This comprised of unrestricted reserves of £19,326 and restricted reserves overspent of £{7,477) which was recovered within 2025. In 2024 RPRF raised funds from the following charitable sources: Funder Milburn Trust Amount £1,990 In 2024 RPRF raised funds as a result of fees for service from: Project Herring Girls Funded by North Shields fishing Heritage Project Historic England Sunderland City Council Amount £1,000 Historic England Bishopwearmouth THI £2,500 £ 700 In 2024 RPRF raised funds from the following sources: Funding Source Donations, Talks & Sales of Books Bank Interest Amount £ 135 £ 488
Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) The charity's policy on reserves We are aware as trustees of the need to have sufficient free reserves (unrestricted funds not invested in fixed assets or otherwise designated) to enable the organisation to respond to any unexpected reductions in funding or additional unexpected expenditure. It is the intenlion of the Trustees to grow and maintain the charity's reserves to the equivalent of six months, operational expenditure. This is calculated at approximately £16,000. Structure, governance and management Constitution adopted: 16" December 2013 How the charity is constituted.. Charitable Incorporated Organisation Trustee selection methods: Trustees are appointed for a period of three years Trustee Meetings.. The Trustees met on four occasions to receive quarterly reports on activities and financial updates and review policy. Additional Governance Information.. RPRF is a member of North Tyneside VODA, the local voluntary development agency, which provides support and guidance on governance and good practice in employment matters from the charity sector perspective and an associate member of the North East Business Chamber which keeps us in touch with local developments in the business world. The charity is also a member of the Oral History Society, the professional body relating specifically to our memory collection activities. OHS provides training and resources to ensure we adhere to good practice in the collection and archiving or oral histories. The contribution of volunteers: RPRF is an organisation which only exists because of the work done by its committed team of volunteers. We are grateful for the many hours they have spent collecting and disseminating memories, developing new local history resources and managing the day to day running of the organisation. Without this valuable contribution of time, energy and expertise the organisation would not exist. RPRF offers the following benefits to volunteers: Varied and rewarding volunteering opportunities to ensure that the RPRF community history archive is maintained, expanded and made publicly available to as wide an audience as possible and in as many formats. A non-threatening introduction to every aspect of IT technology through activities relating to collecting memories for the organisation's website and archive. An opportunity to develop high levels of skills in oral history collection, archiving and dissemination. These are recognised to be at professional or skilled level by National Heritage Lottery Fund criteria.
Remembering The Past, Resourcing The Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) An opportunity to influence the development of new projects and develop new organisational skills as well as the core skills of the organisation Risk Management Risk assessment has made us aware of the importance of protecting all participants at every stage of the memory collection process and especially the importance of safeguarding and data protection. There is a vulnerable adults and equal opportunities policy in place which guides all of our work. In 2022 our policies and procedures in relation to General Data Protection Regulation were reviewed. This was in addition to the completion of a review of all other policies and procedures relevant to our activities. Looking ahead to 2025, key risks to mitigate for include losing volunteer interest whilst we are working on our internal project and continuing to run day to day operations whilst also delivering the NLHF project. Compllance with Prevailing Law and Regulations The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with the accounting policies set out in the notes to the accounts and comply with the charity's governing document, the Charities Act 2011 and Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the financial reporting standard for Smaller Entities published on 16 July 2014. The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees, report, Signature: Treasurer Signature: Trustee Date Date 4Lrt4 Ici i<
North Shields Library Club's Remembering the Past, Resourcing the Future Project INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT Report to the trustees of Remembering the Past, Resourcing the Future CIO On accounts for the year ended 31 December 2024 Charity no 1155014 Rospectlve responsibilities of trustees and examiner The trustees of the organisation are responsible for the preparation of accounts., they consider that an audit is not required for this year under section 14412) of the Charities Act 2011 and that an Independent Examination is needed. It is my responsibility to examine Ihe accounts (under section 145 of the 2011 Act). follow the procedures laid down in the General Directions given by the Charity Commission (under section 145{5)(b) of the Act), and state whether particular matters have come to my attention. Basis of independent èxaminer's ststement My examination was Carried out in accordance with General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review of Ihe a¢¢ounling 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 noi provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently I do not express an audil opinion on the accounts. Independent examiner's ststement In the course of my examination, no matter has come to my attention.. 1. which gives me reasonable cause lo believe that in, any material respect, the trustees have not met the requirements to ensure that.. • proper accounting records are kept (in accordance with section 41 of the Act),, and accounts are prepared which agree with the accounting records and comply with the accounting requirements of the Act., or 2. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached. Slgned.. Date." 14 October, 2025 Nam8: Address: Mark Thompson MAAT VODA Spirit of North Tyneside Wing 2nd Floor, Wallsend Customer First Centre 16 The Forum Wallsend NE28 8JR
Remembering the Past, Resourcing the Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) Statement of Financial Activities for the Year to 31st December 2024 RECEIPTS Unrestricted Restricted Funds Funds Total Funds Year to 31-Dec-23 Grants National Heritage Fund RW Mann Trust Rothley Trust Milburn Trust Fees for Service Donations & Sale of Books Bank Interest 27119 1,000 320 1,990 1,990 4,200 135 488 4,200 135 488 3,055 155 219 Total Receipts 4,823 £ 1,990 £ 6,813 £ 31,868 PAYMENTS Sala ries & Pension Training/Professional Costs Staff & Volunteer Travel Costs Other Volunteer Expenses Insurance Internet & Telephones Room Hire IT Costs Resource Materials Marketing Subscriptions & Licences Postage and Stationery Lease Renewal Accountancy Costs Bank Charges 18,000 1,225 287 266 18,000 1,239 46 293 575 608 7,112 810 19 16,702 2,461 14 -12411 28 575 608 486 151 19 839 455 605 5,847 966 350 786 285 70 6,626 659 257 40 250 250 63 298 555 40 250 250 63 220 64 Total Expenses 2,500 £ 27,360 £ 29,860 £ 29,918 Surplus for the Year 2,322 -125,3701 -{23,0481 1,950 Funds Brought Forward Transfer between funds 17,004 17,893 34,897 32,947 Funds Carried Forward 19,326 -{7,477) £ 11,849 £ 34,897
Remembering the Past, Resourcing the Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) BALANCE SHEET a5 at 31 December 2024 31-Dec-24 31-Dec-23 Current Assets Cash at Bank Debtors Prepayments 12,102 34,922 2,800 Total Assets 12,102 £ 37,722 Current Liabllities Creditors and Accruals 253 2,825 Total Expenses 253 2,825 Net Current Assets 11,849 34,897 Net Assets at 31 December 2021 11,849 £ 34,897 Represented bv:. Restricted Funds Unrestrlcted Funds -(7,477) 19,326 17,893 17,004 Funds Carried Forward 11,849 £ 34,897 Signed:. RON HILLABY- Trustee DAVID HODGSON -Trusteenreasurer Date- 4th June 2025
Remembering the Past, Resourcing the Future CIO (Registered Charity 1155014) Notes to the Accounts Year to 31st December 2024 Basis of Accounts These aacounts have been prepare on an Income and Expenditure basi5 reflecting prepayments and accruals 2). Grants Grants were receive during the Period as follows:. Restricted Fund: Milburn Trust 1,900 3). Fee for Service Work Work carried out on this basis during the Period was as follows:. North Shields Fishing Heritage Project - Herring Girls Historic England Sunderland City Council - Bishopwearmouth THI Fees for Talks etc 1,000 2,500 700 135 4,335 Analysis of Funds Balance 0110112024 Income Expended Balance 3111212024 National Heritage Lottery Milburn Trust 17,893 26,520 -£ 840 £ 8,627 1,150 1,990 £ 17,893 £ 1,990 £ 27,360 -£ 7,477