2022-03-31-accounts

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Annual Report of the Trustees From 1[st] April 2021 to 31st March 2022

Registered Charity No. 1156672

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Background and Details ....................................................................................................................... 3 2. Structure, Governance and Management ........................................................................................... 4 3. Objectives and Activities for the Public Benefit .................................................................................. 5 4. Activities and Performance ................................................................................................................. 6 5. Financial Review .................................................................................................................................. 7 6. Other Information ............................................................................................................................... 8 7. Financial Accounts ............................................................................................................................... 9 8. Declaration ........................................................................................................................................ 11

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1. Background and Details

Charity Name: Careers Springboard West Berkshire

Charity Number: 1156672

Careers Springboard West Berkshire (CSWB) is a volunteer-led support organisation that offers help and advice to out-of-work managers and professionals, especially older and more experienced workers. It started operating in September 2006, taking over the work of the Newbury Executive Job Club. CSWB became a registered charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) on 14[th] April 2014.

CSWB is a founder member of The Foundation for Job Seekers (Charity No. 1136534), a network of four job clubs in the Thames Valley.

Trustees and Officers

Under the terms of our Constitution Trustees retire in rotation but are eligible for re-election. At our AGM on 29[th] June 2021 Ian Vickerage retired but was re-elected. At the same AGM Peter Adams, formerly a job seeker with us and most recently a volunteer, was elected a trustee. Jan Dixon, having moved from Newbury to Devon resigned as trustee on 23[rd] November 2021. The trustees of the Charity at the end of the year were therefore:

Name of Trustee	Rôle	Date of Appointment
Adrian Foster-Fletcher	Chairman	14-Apr-2014
David Skyrme	Treasurer	14-Apr-2014
Charles Fowler	Trustee	8-Aug-2017
Ian Vickerage	Trustee	25-Jul-2018
Peter Adams	Trustee	29-Jun-2021

Address

With COVID-19 restrictions during the financial year, all Trustee activities have taken place via email or virtually on Zoom, and there is therefore no regular postal address. However, correspondence to the Charity can be made to the following address:

c/o Broadway House 4-8 The Broadway Northbrook Street NEWBURY RG14 1BA

Email: enquiries@careerswestberks.org.uk

Website: www.careerswestberks.org.uk

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2. Structure, Governance and Management

CSWB started as an unincorporated association in September 2006. It was registered as a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) on 14[th] April 2014. The governing document is its Constitution based on the CIO model constitution for a membership organisation. The date of the Constitution is 7[th] April 2014.

Trustees are elected by its members (our volunteers). One third retire in rotation at the AGM, though are eligible for re-election. Our Trustees themselves are all volunteers, most of them involved on our our weekly job seeker meetings.

The trustees and volunteer members receive no remuneration, advances, credit or guarantees. The Charity employs no staff and does not own real estate. Our administration is decentralised and uses a cloud-based platform (membermojo.co.uk) through which our volunteers can update records. This resulted in a significant reduction in administration costs from its previous level.

Day-to-day oversight of the operations of the Charity takes place through regular communication via email or phone.

The Charity’s trustees have a risk management policy, which is reviewed annually. The ongoing risks identified and discussed at the AGM were:

Surge in job seekers - high risk, high impact (due to COVID-19 impact); we developed plan of running 2 session a week; in fact our job seeker numbers declined
Succession planning – high risk, medium impact; David Skyrme has given notice of his intention to resign in August 2023; his many taks will be distributed amongst the remaining trustees and volunteers
Lack of volunteers – medium risk, medium impact; plans to recruit former job seekers.

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3. Objectives and Activities for the Public Benefit

From Clause 3 of our Constitution:

"The primary objective of CSWB is to the relief of unemployment for the public benefit in such ways as may be thought fit, including the provision of support, advice and assistance on job-seeking and career-change skills, primarily for managers and professionals in West Berkshire."

The main activities that CSWB undertake in pursuit of its public benefit are:

running of weekly meetings that include workshops to help job seekers acquire and improve their job-seeking skills
provision of help and support on a 1-to-1 basis to help job seekers succeed in their next career move
provision of guidance material on specific job-seeking topics, including CV writing, career choices, networking, using LinkedIn to get a job, and making direct approaches to potential employers.

In delivering these services the Trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. The benefit to those out of work is that our services help them reenter the workplace, start earning and contribute to the economy sooner than they might otherwise have done without the support and the improvement in skills received through their participation in CSWB activities.

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4. Activities and Performance

As in the previous year the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced how we operate. Our face-to-face meetings were suspended during the first phase of the pandemic in March 2020. From then on our meetings were held on Zoom. For Autumn 2021 we planned a programme based on alternating meetings between Zoom and face-to-face meetings. However, the combination of a third wave of COVID-19 plus declining numbers of job seekers meant that our meeting for Spring 2022 were held entirely on Zoom.

The advantage of meeting on Zoom is two-fold:

We retained the services of two workshop leaders; both had moved from Newbury to Devon
During the pandemic we attracted job seekers from outside our normal catchment area; by planning at least some of our meetings on Zoom and also offering 1-on-1 Zoom sessions we were able to continue to provide support.

Some of the year’s highlights:

After an initial flux of job seekers between March and August 2021, the number of active job seekers declined to five at the end of the period.
During the year 21 job seekers joined us and at least 14 got new jobs.
We planned 38 meetings; because of low numbers, some of the planned face-to-face were switched to Zoom and some were cancelled. The final tally was 33 on Zoom, 2 face-to-face and three cancelled.
As well as supporting our weekly meetings, the volunteers provide 1-on-1 support to job seekers and carry out necessary ‘back office’ functions.

The table below summarises the number of job seekers who joined during the year and to whom we provided help in getting back into work:

	Apr-Jul 2021	Sep-Dec 2021	Jan-Mar 2022
Jobseekers at start	4	6	3
New registrations	11	5	5
Leavers into Jobs	7	6	1
Leavers (not specified)	2	2	2
Active jobseekers at end	6	3	5

Average jobseekers/meeting	4.7	3.2	2.7
Average age new joiners	53	44	52

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5. Financial Review

The accounts for the financial year 2021-22 are shown in section 7 below.

Normally we received grants from The Foundation for Job Seekers, but none were received during the financial year.

Our expenditure for the year was virtually identical to that of last year. The monthly cost of running meetings on Zoom is over 80% less than holding face-to-face meetings. Therefore as face-ot-face meetings increase in the future, our annual expenditure will also increase. For the 2021-22 year our single largest item of expenditure is currently that for liability insurance, representing 69% of all outgoings. It increased 8% over the previous year, but after searching around it was found to be competitive.

Our reserves policy is to have reserves that will cover at least two years running costs. At the current rate of expenditure and with resumption of grants from the Foundation for Job Seekers we could operate for another decade. However, we do expect room hire costs to increase over the next few years. With uncertainty as to future job seeker numbers we believe that there is no need to seek additional sources of funds for the foreseeable future.

The Trustees believe that the financial statement gives a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the Charity and that appropriate accounting policies have been applied.

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6. Other Information

In normal times CSWB uses facilities provided by The Greenham Trust, a West Berkshire based charity that uses funds generated by rents at Greenham Business Park to support local charitable and community causes. They offer such organisations facilities at their building Broadway House in central Newbury at a favourable rate. As a result of moving our meetings to Broadway House in September 2014, CSWB has reduced its expenditure for meeting room hire from over £4,500 to around £1,500 in a normal year.

We send out a leaver’s survey to job seekers who leave us, whether that is for a new job or for other reasons. Data from these surveys provide useful feedback on the usefulness and quality of our services. This feedback is used to adjust content and format of meetings.

During the year, we were well supported by our volunteers. We are grateful for their hard work and dedication to helping our job seekers. We continue to receive thanks and appreciation from job seekers who we have helped back into work.

We believe that the current programme provides our older job seekers with the skills and resources they need to successfully re-enter the workplace and contribute their extensive experience to the vibrancy of the local and regional economy.

Further information on the activities of Careers Springboard West Berkshire can be found on our website at:

www.careerswestberks.org.uk

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Financial Accounts Careers Springboard West Berkshire Balance Sheel- 31 March 2022 31 Mar 2022 31 Mar 2021 ASSErs 8ankkcount- CUsnt Bankkcovnt- saiings Cash k¢ounl TOTAL ASSETS 11556 11,028.68 2.153.92 9,527.61 11,144.24 11.881.53 LUmEs ru•d E>pendibJr8 Creditors- amounts f811ing dua wilhin one sv•r TOTAL LIBILmES 78.13 68.80 78.13 6880 ErASSErs 11,066.11 11.812 73 CSWBFUNDS Unrestnc¢ed Furth - Ly y Surplus - current y TOTAL FUNC6 11,612.73 1546.62 11,066.11 10,155.63 1.457.10 11.612.73 Income and Ex endlbjre - 1 rf12021 to 31st March 2022 202142 2020-21 INCOME Granls Reid Donabons Bank Inter•st Other InGome 2.000.IXI 1.07 4.57 TOT INCOP 1.07 2,004.57 EXP&4t4TURE Meetng Room Renlal Other ets9 Eyn$es Imini$tratson & QTh¢e Serw¢¢$ Ststicnery and Supplies bsite and Publicity Tra4 Insuran¢e 50. 68.74 40.Q) 107.94 40.00 3.65 4934 12.59 376 38 346.54 547.47 547 69 SLWLUS ILYlaTI 1546.621 1A57.10 Trustee SIWre and t IILJ

Notes to the Accounts 2021-22

Volunteer expenses are for Zoom payments, Membermojo subscription and website hosting
Grant from The Foundation for Job Seekers – none received this financial year.
Cost of Zoom Meetings
Web hosting and domain renewals
This is for public liability, trustees liability and professional indemnity. It does not cover equipment.

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8. Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the Trustee's report and accounts above.

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