2025-03-31-accounts

Annual Report of the Trustees From 1[st] April 2024 to 31st March 2025

Registered Charity No. 1156672

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Contents

1. 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 one third of our trustees retire in rotation but are eligible for reelection. Paul Adams resigned as a trustee at our AGM on 17[th] July 2024 while Dorothy Nesbit and Ian Vickerage will retire as trustees at our upcoming AGM on 16[th] July 2025. We thank them for their support of our activities both as trustees and volunteers over the last few years. The trustees of the Charity serving during the financial year were therefore:

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Date of Next Retirement /
Name of Trustee Role Appointment Re-election (at AGM)
Adrian Foster-Fletcher Chairman 23 [rd] October 2013 2025
James Gardiner Treasurer 27 [th] July 2022 2025
Charles Fowler Trustee 8 [th] August 2017 2026
Ian Vickerage Trustee 25 [th] July 2018 Retired 16 [th] July 2025
Peter Adams Trustee 29 [th] June 2021 Retired 17 [th] July 2024
Dorothy Nesbit Trustee 27 [th] July 2022 Retired 16 [th] July 2025
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Address

Although most communications with the charity is via email or phone, postal correspondence can be sent to our face-to-face meeting address which is:

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

This is retrieved only periodically. Therefore please use the contact details below and on our website.

Email: [e-mail]

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 involved on 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, telephone or Zoom.

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

• Surge in job seekers - high risk, high impact (initially due to due to COVID-19 impact, but more recently threat of recession); we considered a plan to run two session a week; in fact we have seen average class size rise to 12.5 since the April 2025 Employer National Insurance increase with a peak or 17 attendees, but have managed this through a group discussion approach to TMAYs and so continue to offer one session per week.

• Succession planning – high risk, medium impact; we are taking action to recruit new trustees to share the administrative burden while keeping running of the charity as simple as possible.

• Lack of volunteers – medium risk, medium impact; plans to recruit former job seekers. We continue to seek new volunteers both from job seekers and elsewhere.

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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 re-enter 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

Meetings held this year were all held face-to-face except for the once-per-term session on LinkedIn involving screen sharing. Unfortunately meeting attendance and leaving data is incomplete as, given the increase in job seekers over the year, membership data was deleted to minimise fees for membermojo, our online membership support system. However, we can extract the following data which shows a significant increase in jobseekers over the year.

	Apr-Jul 2024	Sep-Dec 2024	Jan-Mar 2025
New registrations …	10	12	21
…of which Leavers into Jobs	4	6	8
… of which Leavers (other reasons)	5	2	1
Average age new joiners	49.9	48.8	51.3

Our highest meeting attendance was 13 (and 17 in the current term) with additional apologies received so an increase against 2023-24 reflecting tighter employment conditions. A summary of our meetings is shown in the table below:

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Apr-Jul 2024 Sep-Dec 2024 Jan-Mar 2025
Planned Meetings 12 13 12
Nr Face-to-face 11 12 11
Nr on Zoom (LinkedIn session) 1 1 1
Average Attendance N/A 5.0 6.8
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In summary, the job market has become tighter during the year with increasing numbers of attendees as the year has progresses. This is particularly marked in the current financial year, i.e. since April. In addition, we continued to provide ongoing 1-on-1 support, including reviewing CVs, LinkedIn profiles and also holding individual advice sessions.

We remain concerned to maintain a sufficient cohort of volunteers of necessary experience to facilitate our meetings. Peter Adams and Dorothy Nesbit both stepped back during the year to pursue professional priorities. As with so many volunteer organisations, we are constrained by the limited number of those with time and interest to commit beside family and working lives. We are grateful to Graham Storey who joined as a volunteer last autumn, and to Bryan Davies and Jonathan Firth who have recently joined the team.

In addition we thank William Pitt who has upgraded our website.

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5. Financial Review

The accounts for the financial year 2024-25 are shown in section 7 below.

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

Our expenditure for the year was up compared to the previous year reflecting more face-to-face meetings, increased room hire cost, and some expenditure to upgrade the website. Our principal cost is room hire at Broadway House. Professional indemnity insurance accounts for a significant chunk of our expenditure. This was retendered in 2023, no changes to the policy provider were made.

Our policy is to have reserves that will cover at least two years running costs. Our projected rate of expenditure is likely to continue at around £2,000 a year, so the trustees consider that reserves are currently sufficient to support our activities through the coming year. Even without a resumption of grants from the Foundation for Job Seekers, it is estimated that we could operate for another three years. Therefore, seeking additional sources of funds is not a priority for the trustees for the foreseeable future although the trustees are aware of various potential grant funding sources that could be approached in the 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

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.

During the year we moved our bank accounts from Barclays to MetroBank due to poor service and response when trying to change the bank mandate on David Skyrme’s retirement as treasurer. We now operate all banking online with access limited to the Chairman and Treasurer.

In the past we sent a leaver’s survey to job seekers who leave us, whether that is for a new job or for other reasons. We found that this information was becoming more limited and required considerable time to interpret. This year Dorothy Nesbit and James Gardiner undertook feedback discussions with recent jobseekers and review of emailed and oral group feedback. Overall client satisfaction and appreciation of CSWB, and the support offered by the volunteers, is very high. Clients recognise and appreciate that we are a volunteer organisation that operates on a very low budget and is free to them. We should be proud of what we offer, but at the same time take on board suggested improvements.

Specific areas for improvement cover meeting management and style, programme and content upgrade, clarity as to what CSWB can (and cannot) offer, our website and availability of material digitally, promotion of networking within our client (current and alumni) and volunteer base. Some of the feedback is new or highlights previous concerns while in other areas have already acted, notably with website improvements.

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 whom we have helped back into work.

We believe that the current meetings programme and ongoing 1-on-1 support 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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7. Financial Accounts

Careers Springboard West Berkshire Balance Sheet - 31 March 2025

	Note	31 Mar 2025	31 Mar 2024
		£	£
ASSETS
Bank Account - current		49.70	177.70
Bank Account - savings		7,183.09	9,069.26
TOTAL ASSETS		7,232.79	9,246.96
LIABILITIES Accrued Expenditure Creditors - amounts falling due within one year		159.76	356.64
TOTAL LIABILITIES		159.76	356.64
NET ASSETS		7,073.03	8,890.32
CSWB FUNDS Unrestricted Funds - prior year Surplus - current year		8,890.32 (1,967.29)	10,340.68 (1,450.36)
TOTAL FUNDS		6,923.03	8,890.32
Income and Expenditure - 1 April 2024 to 31st March 2025
INCOME		2024-25 £	2023-24 £
Grants Received		-	-
Donations		-	-
Bank Interest		74.93	117.43
Other Income		-	-
TOTAL INCOME		74.93	117.43
EXPENDITURE
Meeting Expenses	1	1,469.67	1,204.10
Administration & Office Services	2	50.00	40.00
Stationery, Supplies & Postage		23.14	3.75
Website and Publicity	3	185.67	14.14
Insurance	4	313.74	305.80
Bank charges		0.00	0.00
		2,042.22	1,567.79
SURPLUS (DEFICIT)		(1,967.29)	(1,450.36)
ACCOUNTS APPROVED
Trustee Signature and Date		Trustee Signature and Date

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Notes to the Accounts 2024-25

• 1 Room rental, Zoom subscription, consumables etc.

• 2 Subscription for online membership system

• 3 Web hosting and domain renewals

• 4 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.

As agreed at AGM Adrian Foster-Fletcher 16[th] July 2025 (hard copy signature with treasurer)

Adrian Foster-Fletcher Date Chairman On behalf of the trustees.

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