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2022-04-30-accounts

CARING FOR .OD'S ACRE ANNUAL REPORT 2021- 22

Contents

REPORT FROM THE CHAIR 3
GENERAL INFORMATION 4
OBJECTIVES OF THE CHARITY 6
REVIEW OF PROJECT ACTIVITY 8
REVIEW OF CORE ACTIVITIES 22
STAFF AND GOVERNANCE 27
FINANCIAL REPORTS 32
ANNUAL ACCOUNTS 34

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REPORT FROM THE CHAIR

WELCOME!

This Annual Report for 2022 charts our route out of the limitations we, and all of you reading this will have felt during the last couple of years. Reading the stories in this report you will see how some of the changes we made have proved beneficial and have become a part of our normal way of working with and reaching out to different communities.

Some of you will be reminded as you read, of autumnal afternoons cutting churchyard hay with your scythes or foraging for fungi, perhaps with the your churchyard volunteers. Others will remember recording wildflowers and grasses spotted as you walked through a burial ground as the insects criss-crossed in the shadows maybe as part of an Opening the Ark event. These special moments are hidden in the reports you read and I know from reading all the comments you have made over the years, how much you value them. The natural world has become such an important part of how we enjoy open space and make connection with each other.

As I write this, I am looking back over the work of the Beautiful Burial Ground project (BBG) which completed its final full year during the period covered by this report. It has reached so many people through the local activities and projects it has organised. One of these, the Celebrating Birmingham’s Burial Grounds has demonstrated the usefulness of the recording tools and techniques it has developed for local people to use; a stunning legacy for BBG which will ensure the rich biodiversity of local sites can now be recorded on a national database.

The projects recorded in this report are entirely dependent on the invaluable contribution of our supporting members, organisations and sponsors, we are so lucky to have such a committed group of funders who see the value of our work and are prepared to underwrite our activities. A huge thank you to them and of course to the thousands of you who have participated in our activities over the past year. You have helped spread the word to your friends and families. We look forward to seeing you and many others like you actively engaged in supporting your local burial ground in 2023 and in the meantime I hope you enjoy reading this Report and remember the activities in which you took part.

With Good Wishes,

Oliver Goode,

Chair, Caring for God’s Acre October 2022

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GENERAL INFORMATION

PRESIDENT

PATRONS

Lawrence Banks CBE, DL., VMH. Sir Roy Strong, CH The Rt Revd Dr Alan Smith, The Bishop of St Albans Dr George Peterken OBE Prof Chris Baines Prof Stefan Buczacki Brigit Strawbridge Howard

Whilst Lawrence Banks was one of our patrons during the period of this report we are sorry that he is now deceased.

TRUSTEES

Oliver Goode Chair Gillian Binks Vice Chair Sarah Ellison Treasurer Lisette Davies Secretary Anni Holden Judith Leigh Catherine MacCarthy Alex Glanville Simon Cooter Rev. David Cheshire

During this reporting period Joe Manifold resigned from our Trustees and has been replaced by Sarah Ellison as Treasurer.

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STAFF

Harriet Carty Director Andrea Gilpin Development & Communications Manager Prue Dakin Office Manager Anna Wilde Digital Manager Alex Logan Conservation Volunteer Manager Georgina Sharp Beautiful Burial Ground Community Coordinator Liam Taylor Beautiful Burial Ground Data Manager Mick Clifton Fund Raiser and Project Manager Kirsty Stevens Opening the Ark Project Manager Megan Gallant Opening the Ark Project Assistant

BANKERS

HSBC, 6 High Street, Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire, SY9 5BJ

INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

S.E. Hardwick, Armstrong Rogers & Co., 45 Etnam Street, Leominster, Herefordshire, HR6 8AE

CONTACT

11 Drover’s House, The Auction Yard, Craven Arms, Shropshire SY7 9BZ

01588 673041 - info@cfga.org.uk - www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk Charity Registration Number 1155536.

CfGA commenced operations as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) on 1st May 2014 - CIO Number CE000722.

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OBJECTIVES OF THE CHARITY

The charity’s objectives are to promote, for the benefit of the public and for the advancement of education, the conservation, enhancement and interpretation of the natural and built features of burial grounds of all types and denominations.

ACTIVITIES

REVIEW OF COMMUNICATIONS

Communication developments are led by Andrea Gilpin and Anna Wilde

WEBINARS

All of our project and core work relies on excellent communications and we have focused on this over the year, partly as COVID-19 meant that face-to-face meetings and activities were still curtailed. Our very popular webinar series which ran for 3 months, attracted over 650 viewers, many of whom had not heard of CfGA before. These webinars are now available in the member’s only website.

MEMBERS’ ONLY WEBSITE

The separate members’ site set up in 2021 continues to be regularly updated. This includes book reviews, conference videos, webinar videos and other useful and interesting exclusive content. We have had some success with getting members to engage with us via this platform and are intending to improve on this aspect going forward.

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MAIN WEBSITE

There has been an increase of nearly 10,000 visitors to the website, with around an extra 30,000 pages being viewed over the year. This is almost certainly down to the Churches Count on Nature initiative and also the conference held in March. The four top ways of accessing the site are firstly, through a Google search; secondly, through knowing and typing the web address in; thirdly, by a link from another website and lastly from social media.

Website visitors

May 2020 - April 2021

Website visitors

May 2021 - April 2022

PUBLICITY & COMMUNICATIONS VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media continues to send traffic to our website and we send out regular email newsletters with updates and news.

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REVIEW OF PROJECT ACTIVITY

Project activity undertaken this year:

1. The Beautiful Burial Ground including Churches Count on Nature

2. Caring for God’s Acre Conservation Volunteers

3. Biodiversity Hotspots in Mid Wales

4. Celebrating Birmingham’s Burial Grounds

5. Welsh Burial Grounds for Wildlife

6. Opening the Ark

1 THE BEAUTIFUL BURIAL GROUND including Churches Count on Nature

Delivered by Harriet Carty, Georgina Sharp and Liam Taylor, supported by Prue Dakin, Andrea Gilpin, Anna Wilde and Mick Clifton

The Beautiful Burial Ground (BBG) project was running for the whole of this reporting period. It started in May 2018 and is scheduled to end by December 2022.

This remains our largest project, it involves two dedicated members of staff, George (4 days) and Liam (4 days), plus combined nine days per week from Prue (2 days), Andrea (1 day), Anna (1½ days) and Harriet (2½ days) and Mick (2 days). The fourth year of the Beautiful Burial Ground Project seen us bounce back from delays caused by Covid-19 and lockdowns with many events rescheduled from 2020 or 2021 as well as additional activities.

In December 2020 the National Lottery Heritage Fund granted CfGA an extension to this project, to allow us to regain time lost due to Covid-19 and lockdown. The project will now end at the close of December 2022 rather than May 2022. As many of our activities are seasonal, with most taking place in the spring and summer, this gives us an extra spring and summer season of work.

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1 THE BEAUTIFUL BURIAL GROUND including Churches Count on Nature continued

Biological recording takes place in the main during these seasons (apart from autumn fungi) and built heritage /social history recording tends to run in warmer months as this is more pleasant for participants.

We have continued to work in partnership with the National Biodiversity Network, the Church of England and the Church in Wales to deliver this project and continue to build relationships with interest groups.

We have run 162 events in the project so far against a target of 124 for the whole project.

BEAUTIFUL BURIAL GROUND CONFERENCE

We decided to hold the conference online rather than in person to make it as accessible as possible as many people were still avoiding group situations. We had a great turn out with 335 people registered , of which 265 attended the day and more watched the recordings after the event. Our patron, Chris Baines began the conference with an inspiring talk and then 9 other talks/workshop followed. Zoom had some technical hitches but, apart from that we had a great day with positive feedback from participants.

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UNDER-REPRESENTED GROUPS

We are working with three groups of people, frequently under-represented in heritage projects that we have identified as being particularly suited to our type of activity. These are families with younger children, people with disabilities and people with mental health issues . 48 sessions have taken place in the project so far, many facilitated by partner organisations. 828 people have been engaged with the project.

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DATA MANAGEMENT

We have finished mapping the burial grounds of England and Wales, and now have complete coverage across England but lack cemeteries and non-conformist chapel yards in Wales.

The Beautiful Burial Ground project is funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, thanks to National Lottery players.

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CHURCHES COUNT ON NATURE

Delivered by Harriet Carty and Anna Wilde

This initiative is part of the BBG project and is a partnership between Caring for God’s Acre, the Church of England, the Church in Wales and A Rocha (a Christian charity who run the Eco Church award). Churches of all denominations were encouraged to take part in Churches Count on Nature and to run biological recording events . The first event took place during Love Your Burial Ground Week in June 2021 . This was a great success with 520 different church, chapel and cathedral groups getting involved and spotting nature within their burial grounds. In total approximately 17,000 new biological records were added to the Burial Ground portal within the NBN Atlas. The partnership decided to continue to run Churches Count on Nature, raising awareness during the year and encouraging participation in Love Your Burial Ground Week each June. During January, February and March of 2022 we upgraded our website to digitise registration and added to our FAQs and available resources.

Screenshot of Churches Count on Nature event map

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2 THE CARING FOR GOD’S ACRE CONSERVATION VOLUNTEERS

Delivered by Alex Logan

This project is on-going and the team have been active now for over a decade. We continue to build our conservation volunteers and to seek funding for their work. There were still complications relating to the pandemic especially in the early part of the year but things settled down much more as time went by.

We managed to do 98 task days in this year with some 18 volunteers record attendances of volunteers with up to present. This equates to 638 volunteer days or 3,190

volunteer hours. We have taken on another couple of new sites and we now visit 44 sites regularly. We’ve given advice, support or practical assistance to burial grounds in Shropshire, Herefordshire and Powys.

The support of our enthusiastic volunteers was vital in enabling this to happen and thanks go to them for their fantastic efforts and continued support. We have 74 volunteers registered (three more than the previous year) and 40 of these come out on tasks regularly. There are usually up to 18 of our regular volunteers on a task, often joined by local people, although this was reduced to follow the varying government guidelines which were in place over the year.

PARTNERSHIP WORKING

This year saw the CfGA Conservation Volunteers working with several partners to deliver conservation management to as many burial grounds as possible . Partnerships included:

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The volunteer team have always been interested in the biodiversity of the sites they visit and this year they . These records continued recording species systematically and making biological records after each task are submitted to the local record centre and to the Burial Grounds portal on the NBN Atlas.

This year we have installed twenty bat boxes and 11 bird boxes including a barn owl box that were given to us by The Environment Agency, in addition to the 36 dormouse boxes at Bromfield that have now yielded three live specimens for Shropshire Dormouse group we have volunteers making swift boxes and more dormouse boxes for other likely churchyard sites in South Shropshire.

A volunteer scything a very good churchyard meadow in South Shropshire.

The volunteers collected well over three from local kilos of yellow rattle seed

meadows some of which we used to enhance our churchyard sites and some was sold, creating much needed funds for the project. Our part in the National Trust/Natural England Stepping Stones Project was a little reduced by the lockdowns however Alex did run two scythe courses for National Trust volunteers and staff as well as local smallholders, this also generated scythe sales through our CfGA shop.

We also manage 2 roundabouts in Presteigne , introducing meadow species including oxeye daisy, red clover and yellow rattle. Alex also ran a scythe course for staff and volunteers of Buglife (a partner charity). The scythe shop, hopefully going online soon, continues to gather momentum and we continue to supply scythes locally. The Opening the Ark project has also proved an invaluable link for the volunteers as we now have local people getting more involved with us and planning to collect green hay from some sites in the summer.

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3 BIODIVERSITY HOTSPOTS ACROSS WALES

Delivered by Andrea Gilpin and Mick Clifton

This project started on 1st October 2020 and will continue until 31st March 2023. This is the second year of a three-year project which is enabling and supporting managers of burial grounds to help preserve and enhance their flower rich grassland and engage the wider community. The project runs across the counties of Wrexham, Flintshire, Denbighshire, Ceredigion and Powys.

Since the 1940s over 97% of flower-rich grassland, that was once widespread in the countryside, has vanished, with burial grounds remaining one of the few strongholds of this incredibly important habitat. As a response to this we are offering a range of free services to burial ground managers across the project area which include:

We now have over 50 burial grounds registered with the scheme and will be commencing grassland surveys of these burial grounds and cemeteries in the Spring of 2022. This will enable us to work with volunteer burial ground managers to develop management plans for specific sites.

Biodiversity Hotspots across Wales is funded by the Welsh Government via Natural Resources Wales.

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4 CELEBRATING BIRMINGHAM’S BURIAL GROUNDS

Delivered by George Sharp, Harriet Carty and Anna Wilde

This project started in December 2019 and will continue until December 2022. This project is primarily concerned with social history and it takes place within 5 burial grounds in Birmingham, which are:

Local people are encouraged to discover the interesting social history to be explored in these burial grounds which were chosen by Birmingham City Council bereavement staff, focusing on sites representing particularly multi-cultural communities . The sites were mapped using a mapping and recording system called the Burial Ground Management System which has been created by Atlantic Geomatics, a private company. The system allows users to interrogate data, searching for specific names, dates or other parameters. Once full of monument records, this will be invaluable for local history research and will be stored within the Birmingham Archive.

Over the year we have run 21 sessions for the project totalling 465 volunteer hours from

participants. The majority of these sessions have been collecting the details of the memorials in the burial grounds. We have also run indoor sessions where volunteers learnt to add the collected details and photographs on to the digital maps. When covid levels began to rise again, rather than meet in small spaces indoors, volunteers took packs of records home to continue to add them to the maps. Several volunteers have added hundreds of records in this way.

Volunteers are at the heart of this project and so many people have given a great deal of their time to participating in the sessions we run.

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4 CELEBRATING BIRMINGHAM’S BURIAL GROUNDS continued

We also have volunteers who are independently recording and photographing and, in some cases, then adding those details to the map with family members and around their other commitments. We are grateful to all of those who have chosen to give their time to the project.

St Barnabas Churchyard in Erdington has had all its memorials recorded and photographed and added to the map thanks to the efforts of two people from the Erdington Historical Society. There is a wider churchyard project here to try and make the churchyard a safer and more pleasant place to spend time. Through the project we are supporting the church in making these changes and are actively supporting the church team in setting up a Friends group and moving their churchyard initiative forward.

In the Jewellery Quarter Cemeteries , we have been recording memorials throughout the warmer months of the year and have started on the second cemetery, Key Hill. It looks possible that we will fully record one of these cemeteries during the life of this project. In May 2021 we ran a dawn chorus event and invited people to join us at 5:30 am to listen to the birds before the city woke.

Josie Wall, Birmingham based heritage expert, is working freelance on the project delivering sessions and developing a research guide.

The Friends Group at Brandwood End Cemetery are keen, key partners and with their support we have run monthly sessions in this huge cemetery. We ran a session as part of the Friends Heritage Week programme and Lukas Large, local fungi expert led a fungi walk for the project in October.

In St Mary’s Churchyard , Handsworth we have taken a slightly different approach. The churchyard was surveyed in detail in the 1980s by the Handsworth Local History Society and so we have taken a copy of the extensive survey are checking what is now present in the churchyard against this and then adding the details to the map. It has taken a while to build up a group of volunteers here but we are making steady progress.

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4 CELEBRATING BIRMINGHAM’S BURIAL GROUNDS continued

In November 2021 we ran an afternoon of talks in central Birmingham around burial grounds and why their heritage should be recorded. Speakers were Harold Mytum, Josie Wall and Colin Venn, unfortunately rising Covid cases, chaos on the trains and the assumption that this was an online event hampered our attending numbers but we were able to film the talks to share them to those who couldn’t attend.

Celebrating Birmingham’s Burial Grounds is funded by the National Heritage Lottery Fund, Historic England and the Garfield Weston Foundation.

5 WELSH BURIAL GROUNDS FOR WILDLIFE

Delivered by Mick Clifton and Harriet Carty

This project started in November 2019 and will continue until December 2022.

The project will build on the work done by the Beautiful Burial Ground, taking the raw, biodiversity . Whilst most of information that is being generated by this project and using it to influence management the project will be Wales based, some aspects span Wales and England.

Over the lifetime of the project, we will:

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5 WELSH BURIAL GROUNDS FOR WILDLIFE continued

So far we have made a good start and are close to creating the bespoke IT system linking the Burial Grounds Portal with the two Church Heritage systems. Wales is now mapped and visible within the Burial Grounds Portal and we are encouraging recorders to visit sites and submit records. Membership continues ‘excellent’ sites across to grow and stands currently at 235. We have developed a system for selecting the England and Wales and have been contacting churchwardens or other site managers of the chosen sites.

We have 52 sites up on the webpage with 23 more in the pipeline awaiting full information from the site managers.

Four toolkits are now complete (Amphibians & Reptiles, Ancient Trees, Wildflower Meadows and Lichens). Two minifilms are also complete (Using the Botanical Companion and Find a Beautiful Burial Ground Near You) with the remaining six minifilms in a well-developed stage of completion.

Screenshot from CfGA website showing a page from Burial Grounds to Inspire section

As the Summary Field is not yet complete on the Church Heritage Record and Church Heritage Cymru we are looking at other ways to identify the most important sites for wildlife.

Welsh Burial Grounds for Wildlife is funded by the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund.

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7 OPENING THE ARK

This project started on 1st November 2021 and will continue until 31st March 2023.

The project, which focuses on 26 churchyards across the Shropshire Hills AONB area aims to engage local communities with the biodiversity to be found in their local churchyard.

Opening the Ark will plan, organise, manage and deliver a programme of activities and public facing events with a specific focus on nature-based volunteer involvement and participation which will go towards reversing the trend of habitat loss and species decline.

Opening the Ark project activities will include:

The majority of work to date has been spent on site familiarisation, building contacts and approaching the various Parochial Church Councils to inform them of the project and ask whether they would like to be involved.

We have also been publicising the project via contact with partner organisations and through our new Opening the Ark Facebook page.

We have organised 7 of the Love Your Burial Ground community engagement days which will take place over the summer and autumn at the following sites: Bromfield, Hope Bagot, Clun, Norbury, Clungunford,

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7 OPENING THE ARK continued

Bishop’s Castle and Buildwas. These sites were chosen to ensure a wide geographical spread across the project area in order to engage as many different communities as possible. Specialists have been booked to run family-friendly activities around the subjects of dormice, swifts, invertebrates, wildflowers and more, with a focus on meaningful, hands-on activity.

A community involvement event is also scheduled for St Leonard’s in Ludlow, but this will be a more focused, training session due to the nature of the site.

We have also approached all schools within walking distance of the 26 sites to see whether they might be interested in some wildlife inspired education sessions, either within their school grounds or at the churchyard. We have had an enthusiastic response to this and expect to be working with pupils across the project area.

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REVIEW OF CORE ACTIVITIES

Delivered by Andrea Gilpin and Harriet Carty with office support from Prue Dakin and Anna Wilde.

1. Support local communities, groups and individuals who manage burial grounds

2. Charity and project development plus general fundraising

3. General management of the charity, its staff, governance, office

4. Organising Love Your Burial Ground Week

5. Supporting and increasing membership including Diocesan Membership

6. Responding to the Covid-19 pandemic

1 SUPPORT LOCAL COMMUNITIES, GROUPS & INDIVIDUALS WHO MANAGE BURIAL GROUNDS

We offer support and guidance to anybody involved in managing a burial ground. We encourage them

to consider the full range of features within their site; biodiversity, built heritage and social history plus the opportunities to involve their local communities and inform their visitors. We advocate investigation, recording and research within burial grounds, to increase the body of knowledge about these fascinating places.

This is achieved through a combination of phone calls, emails, public speaking and visits, and through the provision of resources including written material, video, website content and social media. This year we added virtual visits to our methods of reaching and supporting burial ground managers.

CfGA also supports burial ground managers through the resources that we provide: our Action Pack, Education Pack, Field Studies Council Fold-out Chart, Botanical Companion, Beautiful Burial Ground DVD and Starter Guide. All of these are available to download and/or buy via our website. The Starter Guide is currently sent out in hard copy to anybody who requests it as part of the BBG project. In addition, we now have on our website. 14 mini-films available

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2 CHARITY & PROJECT DEVELOPMENT PLUS GENERAL FUNDRAISING

During this year, focus has been on continuing the delivery of the Beautiful Burial Ground project plus building resources via grant applications and increasing the income raised by staff through management planning and paid practical work for our volunteer manager. We have been building projects which were submitted during this financial year or shortly afterwards by Mick Clifton our Fund Raiser.

These include:

Our Digital Ancestors: over the next 7 years the Church of England is working with Atlantic Geomatics to map all Church of England burial grounds. These maps are useful for church wardens and incumbents and also anybody interested in social history or family history. Atlantic Geomatics has received commercial funding to carry this out, but there are no funds for training, awareness raising or celebration of this amazing endeavour. CfGA has applied for funding to run a training project in parallel to the mapping work so that these maps can be used by local communities. If successful this will start in autumn 2022.

Churchyard Carbon analysis: working in partnership with the Church of England and the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (UKCEH) we are investigating the Carbon stored within churchyards. This includes the vegetation cover such as trees and shrubs and also the carbon within churchyard soils. During 2021, UKCEH carried out a desktop analysis using existing data from the Church Heritage Record mapping of burial grounds and their own habitat mapping work. The conclusion from this was that further analysis was needed as burial grounds could well be exceptional in terms of Carbon storage and the current data does not include any burial grounds. Working in partnership we devised a methodology for soil sampling which was trialled once by CfGA staff. This will be rolled out further over the next 6 to 9 months.

Small grants for our Conservation Volunteers and other aspects of our work: numerous applications have been made to other trusts and agencies, and our successful applications were:

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3 GENERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE CHARITY

Core staff are charged with management of the charity including:

4 ORGANISING LOVE YOUR BURIAL GROUND WEEK

This national event takes place in the second week of June, spanning two weekends. People are encouraged

to run an event of their choice to encourage the public to visit their burial ground, learn something about it and have an enjoyable time. Events are logged on the CfGA website. During 2021 there were 520 events during Love Your Burial Ground Week.

5 SUPPORTING & INCREASING MEMBERSHIP INCLUDING DIOCESAN MEMBERSHIP, INDIVIDUAL AND GROUP MEMBERSHIP

During 2021/2022 we have developed a membership forum, where members can log on, browse specific resources such as the recordings of our webinars and conference talks, and download past copies of our magazine, The Lychgate. They can chat with each other and book monthly ‘surgeries’ asking staff for bespoke advice. This is live now and open to all with a valid membership, including diocesan members.

The membership of CfGA stood at 223 individual, couples or group members at the end of April 2022, excluding honorary members, Trustees and Patrons.

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5 SUPPORTING & INCREASING MEMBERSHIP continued

Two editions of the members’ newsletter, The Lychgate were produced and distributed.

This year we ran a virtual AGM on Zoom, where the speaker was Sheldon K Goodman from the Cemetery Club, whose talk on the Père Lachaise cemtery was informative and enjoyable. 114 people attended the online AGM, nearly double the previous year.

Invitation to 2021 AGM

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DIOCESAN MEMBERSHIP WITH LICHFIELD DIOCESE

We have a rolling membership with the Lichfield Diocese through which CfGA supply a range of services including advice, support, communications and our printed resources. The Lichfield Diocese commit to monthly financial support of the charity.

We have:

DIOCESAN MEMBERSHIP WITH HEREFORD DIOCESE

Hereford Diocese initiated a rolling membership following an evening of talks and discussion where Harriet was the main speaker. This started in March 2022 and involves:

6 RESPONDING TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

distance Much of our work has returned to a new normal in 2021/2022. We continue to use our improved working systems and protocols for staff, volunteers and those attending our events and activities. We kept

up to date with advice from a variety of sources including government websites, ACAS website and the Small Charities Coalition. The Finance and Risk Committee gave governance to the decision-making taking place which needed to react to rapidly changing conditions. We are now using our office again with most staff coming in one or two days a week and working from home or out on site for the remainder of their working week.

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STAFF AND GOVERNANCE

TRUSTEES

The Trustees who held office during the financial year and at the date of this report are:

Oliver Goode Chair
Gillian Binks Vice Chair
Joe Manifold & Sarah Ellison Treasurer
Lisete Davies Secretary
Anni Holden
Judith Leigh
Catherine MacCarthy
Alex Glanville
Simon Cooter
Revd David Primrose

Our treasurer Joe Manifold resigned at our AGM in November 2021. He was replaced by Sarah Ellison. Sarah works for Enterprise House, a social enterprise offering support to individuals, businesses and community groups as well as charities. Sarah is able to deliver our governance needs via their Enterprise Initiative programme.

New trustees are recruited as needed, either by appointment at the AGM or by co-option. In 2015 we carried out an initial skills audit of trustees which is updated annually. New trustees are recruited as needed and we have invited Revd David Primrose to join the trustees in June 2021. The charity is governed by its constitution.

TRUSTEE RECRUITMENT

The CfGA Director or existing trustees suggest potential new trustees and identify the skills and experience which they would bring to the group. This is then considered by the Director and Chair of Trustees, assessing whether the new individual will fit with the existing skills of the trustees and whether a balance is being maintained regarding skills and experience and the objectives of the charity.

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TRUSTEE RECRUITMENT continued

If the potential new trustee is deemed to be suitable then either the Director or Chair of Trustees will approach them to see if they will be willing to stand and the other Trustees are informed of this by email or post. If interested, the individual is invited to the next Trustees meeting to learn more about the charity and the role of Trustees. They are then invited to join.

New Trustees meet with the Director prior to their first Trustees meeting, who explains the work and objectives of the charity. They are given a full set of our publications and also a copy of the Roles of Trustees and generic guidelines on being a Trustee from the Charity Commission. One individual joined the Trustees during this financial year; this is Revd David Primrose who brings with him a great deal of experience in community engagement and cohesion as well as working within a diocese.

The Trustees have assessed the major risks to which the charity is exposed, in particular those related to its operations and finances, and are satisfied that systems are in place to minimise exposure to those risks.

GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY

During the year trustees held four trustees’ meetings in June, September, December and March. Our Finance & Risk Committee meets a few weeks in advance of each of these meetings and then reports to full Trustees. Trustees are also sent the minutes of the Finance & Risk Committee meetings. Two of these meetings took place digitally, on Microsoft Teams. Our December and March meetings were hybrids, with several trustees there in person and others on Teams.

The Finance and Risk Committee oversees the management of the finance, monitoring expenditure and against budget over the financial year. This includes the preparation of the charity’s annual accounts the routine financial management. This committee also considers the risks to the charity and the projects being delivered by the charity. The risk log is considered and updated at each meeting. The Finance and Risk Committee were also consulted regarding changes to working practices brought about by COVID-19 and the decisions regarding returning to the office. These included plans, risk assessment and protocols for returning to the office and restarting our volunteer group.

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GOVERNANCE ACTIVITY continued

This committee reports to the full board of Trustees which is responsible for approval of the budget and the annual accounts . This committee met four times this year.

Members: Oliver Goode, Sarah Ellison, Alex Glanville. Also attending: Harriet Carty, Prue Dakin and Anna Wilde.

2021/2022 marked the development of the new Business Plan. A draft plan was circulated prior to our facilitated Trustees March meeting where it was discussed. During this meeting we decided to have another meeting in June 2022, led by Revd Mark Betson the National Rural Officer for the Church of England. Once the Business Plan is completed we will set up a new Start and Finish Group.

The Project Champions meet or speak to the member of staff responsible for a project prior to the full board of Trustees’ meetings. They then present the report written by staff on their particular project and add their views and information. They take a lead in the governance of the projects for which they are champion.

Governance and support for the Director is given via the full board of Trustees and also through quarterly informal meetings between the Chair of Trustees Oliver Goode and the Director Harriet Carty.

We have a Steering Group for the Beautiful Burial Ground project in delivery, which did not meet during this reporting period. This group includes experts in ecology, built heritage, recording systems as well as the Church of England, Church in Wales plus four of our Trustees.

Members: Lisa Chilton (NBN), Jenifer White (Historic England), Catherine Ross (CofE), James Miles (CofE), Tina Andrews (CinW), Charlie Bell (Stepping Stones), Caroline Uff (independent), Dan Wrench (Shropshire Council), Judith Leigh, Gill Binks, Oliver Goode, Catherine MacCarthy (trustees).

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STAFF

During this reporting period we have retained all of our staff:

Harriet Carty Director, 3.5 days per week
Andrea Gilpin Communicatons & Development Manager,
3 days per week
Prue Dakin Ofce Manager, 3 days per week
Anna Wilde Digital Manager, 3 days per week
Mick Clifon Fund Raiser and Project Manager, 3 days per week
Alex Logan Volunteer Coordinator, 4 days per week
George Sharp Beautful Burial Ground Community Coordinator,
4 days per week
Liam Taylor Beautful Burial Ground Data Manager, 4 days per
week

In November 2021 we successfully recruited for our new project Opening the Ark, adding 2 new members of staff:

Kirsty Stevens Opening the Ark Project Manager, 4 days per week
Megan Gallant Opening the Ark Project Assistant, 4 days per week

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¢fGA Work a￿ful Burol G￿U￿3 Pry)ject OTA Proptt Al pnjects s*•rirE2DUP dirÈcts)r t5 Caring for God's Acre Organisational Chart at April 30th 2022 O CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE 2022 PAGE 31

FINANCIAL REPORTS

RESERVES POLICY

The Trustees believe that the Charity should hold financial reserves because:

The Trustees believe that the minimum level of balance on reserves should be the equivalent of at least three months operating costs for the Charity as a whole. This will be calculated, reviewed and approved annually. The reserves should be built up to the desired level in stages consistent with the Charity’s overall financial position and its need to maintain and develop its objectives. Based on the latest financial statements, three months operating costs amount to approximately £60,000 and this is covered by the reserves held.

TREASURER’S REPORT FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 1ST MAY 2021 – 30TH APRIL 2022

This year’s accounts show a surplus which is reduced from the previous year because of the ending of the furlough scheme.

Income for the year was £268,220 and expenditure was £250,655, giving a surplus of income over expenditure of £17,565.

The Trustees and staff are very aware that the main funded project The Beautiful Burial Ground will be coming to an end in December 2022, along with various other small projects. The Trustees will be looking intensively at future funding and staffing plans in the run up to these projects coming to an end with budget forecasts being prepared for various eventualities.

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We are grateful for the support we have received, and particular mention should be made of:

Following Joe Manifold’s resignation at the AGM in November 2021 I have taken on the role of Treasurer through the Enterprise Initiative project based at Enterprise House in Bishop’s Castle. I would like to thank Joe for his generous help with the handover.

I am enjoying the role and working with Prue and the Trustees and finding out about the many strands of work the charity undertakes.

Sarah Ellison

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ANNUAL ACCOUNTS

CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS' REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

I report on the Accounts of the Charities for the year ended 30 April 2022, which are set out on pages 3 to 19.

RESPECTIVE RESPONSIBILITIES OF TRUSTEES AND INDEPENDENT EXAMINER

The Charities' Trustees are responsible for the preparation of Accounts. The Charities' 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 needed.

It is my responsibility to:-

BASIS OF INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS' REPORT

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commissioners. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the Charities and a comparison of the Accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosure in the Accounts, and seeking explanations from you as Trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all 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 EXAMINERS' STATEMENT

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

have not been met; or

S. E Hardwick Accountant

45 Etnam Street Leominster Herefordshire HR6 8AE

13

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTING POLICIES YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2022

The Financial Statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention as modified by the revaluation of investments and in accordance with the Statement of Recommended Practice, Accounting by Charities.

INCOMING RESOURCES

All incoming resources are recognised when the charity becomes entitled to them, virtually certain of receipt and the amount can be measured with sufficent reliability.

Investment income is recorded when receivable.

RESOURCES EXPENDED

Expenditure is included in the accounts on an accruals basis. Irrecoverable VAT is charged to the Statement of Financial Activities as incurred.

FUND ACCOUNTING

General funds are unrestricted funds which are available for use at the discretion of the Trustees in furtherance of the general objectives of the Charity and which have not been designated for other purposes.

Designated funds are unrestricted funds set aside at the discretion of the trustees for specific purposes.

Restricted funds are those donated for use in a particular area or for a specific purpose, the use of which is restricted to that area or purpose.

TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS AND DEPRECIATION

Tangible fixed assets are stated at cost less depreciation. Where tangible assets have been donated they are stated at their market value at the date of the donation.

Depreciation is provided at rates calculated to write off the cost of the fixed assets, less their estimated residual value, over their expected useful lives on the following basis:

Equipment 15% Reducing Balance Basis
Computer Equipment 33% Reducing Balance Basis
Website 3 Years Straight Line Basis

INVESTMENTS

These are stated at the market value at the Balance Sheet date. Realised and unrealised gains and losses on investments are taken to the Income and Expenditure Account.

14

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2022

Notes
Income and Endowments
Grants and Donations
Other Income:
Investment Income
Other Income
Members Subscriptions
Charitable Activities
Operational Programmes
Total Income
Expenditure:
Expenditure on Charitable Activities
7
Support Costs
8
Total Expenditure
Net Income before Gains on Investments
Gains on Investment Assets
Realised
Unrealised
Transfers between Funds
NET MOVEMENT IN FUNDS
TOTAL FUNDS BROUGHT FORWARD
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD
9		 Un-
Restricted
Funds
£
21,941
46
6,337
5,821
26,923
£61,068
29,421
5,287
£34,708
26,360
-
-
-
26,360
113,297
£139,657		 Restricted
Funds
£
201,175
-
-
-
5,977
£207,152
178,482
37,465
£215,947
(8,795)
-
-
-
(8,795)
37,170
£28,375		 Total
Funds
2022
£
223,116
46
6,337
5,821
32,900
£268,220
207,903
42,752
£250,655
17,565
-
-
-
17,565
150,467
£168,032		 Total
Funds
2021
£
188,832
36
2,137
4,148
32,549
£227,702
160,458
29,483
£189,941
37,761
-
-
-
37,761
£112,706
£150,467

The Accounting Policies and Notes on pages 14 and 17 to 19 form an integral part of these Accounts.

15

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

BALANCE SHEET 30 APRIL 2022

NOTES
FIXED ASSETS
Tangible Assets
1
CURRENT ASSETS
Debtors
2
Cash at Bank and In Hand
CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING
DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
3
NET CURRENT ASSETS
TOTAL ASSETS LESS CURRENT LIABILITIES
FUNDS
Unrestricted Funds
9
Restricted Funds
9
Approved by the Trustees on
and signed on their behalf		 2022
£
£
11,647
11,647
62,276
162,676
224,952
(68,567)
156,385
168,032
139,657
28,375
168,032		 2021
£
£
6,713
6,713
15,110
133,020
148,130
(4,376)
143,754
150,467
124,133
26,334
150,467		 2021
£
£
6,713
6,713
15,110
133,020
148,130
(4,376)
143,754
150,467
124,133
26,334
150,467
150,467
124,133
26,334
150,467

Mr O Goode

Chairman

The Accounting Policies and Notes on pages 14 and 17 to 19 form an integral part of these Accounts.

16

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS 30 APRIL 2022

1.
TANGIBLE FIXED ASSETS
COST
Brought Forward
Additions
Disposals
As at 30 April 2022
DEPRECIATION
Brought Forward
Charge for Year
On Disposals
As at 30 April 2022
NET BOOK VALUE
As at 30 April 2022
As at 30 April 2021
2.
DEBTORS
Grant Debtors
Other Debtors
3.
CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR
Accruals
Other Creditors		 Equipment
£
23,695
9,010
-
32,705
(16,982)
(4,076)
-
(21,058)
11,647
6,713		 2022
£
59,470
2,806
62,276
2022
£
1,775
66,792
68,567		 Total
£
23,695
9,010
-
32,705
(16,982)
(4,076)
-
(21,058)
11,647
6,713
2021
£
14,390
720
15,110
2021
£
1,691
2,685
4,376

17

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS 30 APRIL 2022

TAFF COSTS
Wages and Salaries
Direct Charitable Expenditure
Management and Administration
The average number of full time equivalent
employees was 7, in respect of which expenditure
was in the following ratios:-		 2022
£
181,951
181,951
%
84
16
100		 2021
£
122,779
122,779
%
84
16
100

4. STAFF COSTS

5. TRUSTEES REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES

None of the Trustees received any remuneration in respect of their activities as Trustees.

6. NET EXPENDITURE FOR THE YEAR

This is stated after charging:
Depreciation
Independent Examiners Fees
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
Salaries
Consumables
Small Projects
Training & Events
Travel Expenses
Publicity & Information
Professional Fees
Depreciation		 £
4,076
1,775
£
153,214
2,612
-
9,864
8,424
14,071
15,642
4,076
207,903		 £
4,628
1,691
£
105,590
-
6,315
16,082
2,710
8,663
16,470
4,628
160,458

7. CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES

18

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS 30 APRIL 2022

8. SUPPORT COSTS

UPPORT COSTS
Salaries
Rent & Office Expenses
Accountancy Fees
Sundry Expenses
OVEMENT ON FUNDS
Restricted
Churchyard Task Team
Beautiful Burial Ground
Opening The Ark
Prince of Wales Fund
Naural Resources Wales
Historic England
Unrestricted
General
Designated Funds:
Fixed Assets		 Fund
Balance
B/F
26,334
10,836
-
-
-
-
37,170
Fund
Balance
B/F
106,584
6,713
113,297		 Incoming
Resources
9,727
143,081
22,099
11,750
8,620
11,875
207,152
Incoming
Resources
61,068
-
61,068		 Outgoing
Resources
(25,438)
(143,847)
(21,237)
(11,750)
(5,055)
(8,620)		 2022
£
28,737
11,656
2,330
29
42,752
Transfer
Funds
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Transfer
Funds
(4,934)
4,934
-		 2021
£
17,189
10,062
2,232
-
29,483
Fund
Balance
C/F
10,623
10,070
862
-
3,565
3,255
(215,947) 28,375
Outgoing
Resources
(34,708)
-		 Fund
Balance
C/F
128,010
11,647
(34,708) 139,657

9. MOVEMENT ON FUNDS

19

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE

CHARITY NO: 1155536

DETAILED MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTS

YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2022

ARMSTRONG ROGERS & CO Accountants LEOMINSTER

© CARING FOR GOD’S ACRE 2022

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CARING FOR GOD'S ACRE FUNDING INCOME & EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2022

INCOME
Grants & Donations
Interest Received
Members Subscriptions
Other Income
Operational Programmes
Total Income
CHARITABLE ACTIVITIES
Salaries
Consumables
Training & Events
Travel Expenses
Publicity & Information
Professional Fees
Depreciation
MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION
Salaries
Rent & Office Expenses
Accountancy Fees
Sundry Expenses
Office Cost Recovery
Total Expenditure
EXCESS INCOME OVER EXPENDITURE
FUNDS BROUGHT FORWARD
TRANSFERS BETWEEN FUNDS
FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD		 Churchyard
Beautiful
Task
Burial
Total
General
Team
Ground
£
£
£
£
223,116
21,941
3,750
143,081
46
46
-
-
5,821
5,821
-
-
6,337
6,337
-
-
32,900
26,923
5,977
-
268,220
61,068
9,727
143,081
153,214
14,109
21,531
96,335
2,612
1,181
75
1,289
9,864
329
245
4,034
8,424
2,003
2,507
2,518
14,071
6,092
-
5,739
15,642
4,287
170
8,100
4,076
1,420
910
1,322
207,903
29,421
25,438
119,337
28,737
28,737
-
-
11,656
6,459
-
5,197
2,330
2,330
-
-
29
29
-
-
-
(32,268)
-
19,313
42,752
5,287
-
24,510
250,655
34,708
25,438
143,847
17,565
26,360
(15,711)
(766)
150,467
113,297
26,334
10,836
-
-
-
-
168,032
139,657
10,623
10,070

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Opening Prince of Natural Historic
The Wales Resources England
Ark Fund Wales
£ £ £ £
22,099 11,750 8,620 11,875
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
22,099 11,750 8,620 11,875
15,792 - 3,668 1,779
45 22 -
400 - 4,856
504 - 88 804
48 2,192 - -
2,158 795 132
424 - - -
17,213 4,372 4,551 7,571
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
4,024 7,378 504 1,049
4,024 7,378 504 1,049
21,237 11,750 5,055 8,620
862 - 3,565 3,255
- - - -
- - - -
862 - 3,565 3,255

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SCHEDULE OF FIXED ASSETS YEAR ENDED 30 APRIL 2022

EQUIPMENT
Scythes
Garden Tools
Wheeled Trimmer
Hand Hay Baler
Wheeled Trimmer
Hand Hay Baler
19" TFT Monitor
Olympus Camera
Computer Equipment
2 Book cases
3 Tables and Chairs
Perch Office Stool
Website
Filming Equipment
Dell Laptop
Samsung Tablet
IT Equipment
Laptop
Office Chair
Microsoft Surface
Zoom Recorder
Dell Laptop
Asus ExpertBook
Printer
Office Chair
Asus Laptop
Dell Laptop & Monitor
Vostro 3515 Laptop
Cycle
TOTAL		 -----------------------C O S T--------------------------------
As at
Additions
Disposals
As at
1.5.2021
30.4.2022
£
£
£
£
3,906
3,395
7,301
449
449
839
839
220
220
839
839
350
350
129
129
430
430
800
800
336
336
586
586
150
150
6,600
6,600
1,379
1,379
2,442
2,442
433
433
475
475
555
555
351
351
649
649
213
213
485
485
1,079
1,079
204
204
410
410
526
526
759
759
809
809
2,907
2,907
£23,695
£9,010
£32,705		 ------------------ D E P R E C I A T I O N --------------------------
As at
On
Rate
This
As at
1.5.2021
Disposals
Year
30.4.2022
£
£
£
£
(1,431)
15
(881)
(2,312)
(385)
15
(10)
(395)
(824)
33
(5)
(829)
(216)
33
(1)
(217)
(824)
33
(5)
(829)
(344)
33
(2)
(346)
(118)
33
(4)
(122)
(425)
33
(2)
(427)
(786)
33
(5)
(791)
(327)
33
(3)
(330)
(570)
33
(5)
(575)
(130)
33
(7)
(137)
(6,600)
3yrs
(6,600)
(760)
33
(204)
(964)
(1,346)
33
(362)
(1,708)
(239)
33
(64)
(303)
(262)
33
(70)
(332)
(306)
33
(82)
(388)
(98)
15
(38)
(136)
(358)
33
(96)
(454)
(117)
33
(32)
(149)
(160)
33
(107)
(267)
(356)
33
(239)
(595)
33
(67)
(67)
33
(135)
(135)
33
(174)
(174)
33
(250)
(250)
33
(267)
(267)
33
(959)
(959)
(£16,982)
(£4,076)
(£21,058)		 NET BOOK
VALUE
30.4.2022
£
4,989
54
10
3
10
4
7
3
9
6
11
13
415
734
130
143
167
215
195
64
218
484
137
275
352
509
542
1,948
£11,647

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