## **Trustees’ Report 2021-22 Submitted to the AGM** ## **Financial report year end March 2022** Unlimited had a busy year in 2021-22 which explains the large difference in expenditure from the previous year. We were recipients of a grant from Disability Action distributed as a response to Covid-19, to enable small organisations to work with vulnerable members. The grant was paid in two parts with the second instalment in this financial year of just over £1,300. We also had three donations from individual members which were very welcome, two in response to the survey we sent out to all members. Our total income this year was just over £1,400 and coupled with cash in the bank of £8,000 we entered the year with a healthy balance. Over half of this was in the form of a restricted fund formed by the first instalment of the Disability Action grant received the previous year. The grant was for a six-month period and we spent it on developing relationships with members and checking in with individual members on the phone to see what support they needed. We gave freelance contracts to two people who between them improved our social media and website communications and rang all members we had phone numbers for. This was followed up with a survey we sent through the post with a newsletter to all members. We have not had a development support before and it made a huge difference to who we could contact and when and the quality of engagement with members and other Disabled people; a big supplement to our volunteer hours. We used the grant to print the newsletter and survey and buy stamps and envelopes for postage. Having stopped the expensive 0800 number which Unlimited had had for some years we invested in a much more economic mobile phone package. We also invested in a Zoom account and started holding monthly online meetings which have proved to be very successful. All the grant was spent to the funder’s deadline and they were pleased with the evaluation report we sent. We ended the financial year with £5,000 in the bank, about the same as we had before the grant was given to us. Our ongoing commitments are the monthly fee for mobile phone, and an annual fee for Zoom, and our website and email domain and hosting costs. We can cancel all these contracts when we want but the total of these and expenditure on materials for our printer mean our average yearly running costs are about £550. ## **Activity report year end March 2022** The first 4 months of 2021-22 were very busy for Unlimited. Activity was broadly divided into two – membership development and external meetings to be a voice for Disabled people in the county. The committee also met. ## **External Activity** We mobilised Disabled people to respond to consultations and undertake individual actions around Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and inaccessible spaces, including letters to local press. We now have individual members in addition to the committee taking actions and attending external meetings (which has not been the case for the past two years). We increased awareness of Unlimited with public sector bodies such as Cherwell District Council the County Council, the Oxford Community Health Trust, the CCG and HealthWatch. From our phone interviews survey we realised that, although there were some issues caused by lockdown and the pandemic, ongoing issues of access to the built environment and services were just as much a problem. Loneliness, isolation and boredom were what impacted the phone interviewees the most. We submitted 2 Freedom of Information requests (one to the County, one to the City). We joined in a campaign with Oxford Pedestrian Association (OxPA) called #inaccessibleoxford, asking Disabled people to send in photos of physical barriers. We took joint action with Oxford Transport and Access Group (OxTRAG) in meeting with City Council officers at sites of concern caused by post-lockdown pavement clutter. We submitted a formal response to Oxfordshire CC’ss Local Transport and Activity plan after surveying our members for their views on this strategic consultation and inviting a member of the OCC team to hear views at a members’ meeting. We responded to the national Channel 4 privatisation consultation because we felt strongly as a user led charity that the broadcaster had a good track record of creating diverse programming particularly with Disabled presenters and disability relevant content. We attended 1 meeting of Oxford Hub (community group networking), 1 consultation of Oxford University Hospitals Trust on their EDI policies, 2 meetings of Headington Action (a collection of community groups in that areas), .1 LTN consultation, 1 meeting with County Councillors about concerns with highways and access, 5 Co-production Oxfordshire Board meetings and 2 SENDPO meetings. We enabled Oxford Community Foundation donate a laptop to one of our members. ## **Membership Development** We focussed on contacting all 380 members we had on our books at the beginning of 2021. Unsuprisingly we decreased the number on our membership database from 380 to 299 because we removed over 80 members (died, no longer in Oxfordshire, unable to contact by any means). The remaining cohort became better connected, for example an increase in attendance in social Zooms over the period, including repeat attendees. We recruited a small number of newer members who are younger people. We sent regular email bulletins to promote our members’ meetings. We had 7 members meetings via Zoom throughout the year some with external guests to enable members to respond to consultations directly or to raise concerns with the County Council Adult Social Care Department. In April-June 2021 we conducted in-depth interviews (from a structured script) with 20 individual members; they were self-selecting from 152 phone calls made. There were also informal conversations with an additional 23 (who didn’t want to do the phone survey). The balance did not answer calls (or numbers unobtainable etc). They were surveyed by post. In addition to the interviews and conversations, some members had issues and enquiries they requested Unlimited support and advice for (we either helped directly or signposted to another agency), wanted an issue raised with local councils (which we followed up on). Others wanted to ensure they had our new phone number in case information/advice needed in future. Our Social Media activity increased from almost zero (monitored start of February 2021). In the first three months of 2021 we had 19 Twitter messages and 14 Facebook posts Our top tweet was the one advertising our newsletter (1,041 impressions) and our top twitter mention was a tweet tag from Oxford Pedestrians Association about the inaccessibility of Oxford city centre for wheelchair users (298 engagements). Engagement also included being tagged in posts by local organisations (e.g. Oxfordshire Association for the Blind) as well as being invited to like and follow pages (such as Cherwell District Council's K5 Better Together partnership). Our Social Media was aimed at tidying up our follow activity, and reconnecting with other local groups. We created a LinkedIn page to help with recruitment (which has helped us connect with professionals in Oxfordshire services) and had a new presence in Pulse (Oxfordshire CVS newsletter). We sent one newsletter by post to 222 members and by email to about 50. Included in this was a survey to about 200 (the balance not interviewed on the phone) with a return envelope. ## **Governance and Committee Activity** The committee met 13 times in the year, all on Zoom because of lockdown restrictions and also continued shielding by vulnerable members. Committee members of Unlimited are also members of/trustees of other county wide or national organisations and bring with them many years of lived experience and professional expertise such as planning law, disability equality training, occupational therapy, and access to the built environment and information expertise. The Committee during the year were: Susan Butterworth – Trustee Joanna Matthews – Trustee and Treasurer Don O’Neal – Trustee Diane Sider – Trustee Tim Treuherz – ordinary Committee Member Report written by Joanna Matthews on behalf of the Committee and read to the AGM. UnLimited un Oxfordshlre Unlimited Oxfordshire Charity No. 1156718 Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 Section A Statement of financial activities Notes Unrestri¢ted funds 2021122 Unrestricted funds 2020121 Incoming resources Donations - opening cash Donations - Disabilrty Action Donations - general Interest 1,346 85 4,037 Profrt on sale of goods Total incoming resources Resources expended 1,431 4,042 Newsletter Communicatlons support Website Office costs Unlimited support line Office phone costs Governance Membership development Meeting sofNvare Committee travel Miscellaneous 525 450 105 96 79 30 113 120 4.059 193 72 76 Total resources expended Net Incomlng/(outgoing) resources before transfers 5,103 664 3,672 3,377 Total funds brought forward Total funds carried forward 8,086 4,708 4,414 8,086 Unllrnlted Oxfordshlre Charity No. 1156718 Accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 Section B Balance sheet As al 31 Alwch 2022 A¥at 31 March 2021 Current assets Cash at bank and in hand Total current assets Crèdltorn: amounts falling due within one ygor 15991 Net curnt assets/(Ilabllrtles) Total assets less current Ilabllities Creditors: amounts falling due after one year hlet assets Funds of the Charlty Notès Unwtri¢ted funds Designated funds Totsl unrestri¢tsd fund8 Restricted income funds Endowment lund5 4,574 Totsl funds Nots 1: The chartty employed no staff throughout tho financial year Nots 2: Balance of grant from Dlsablllty Action spent in 2021122 Signe(I by one or h*rJ trus1￿9 on trthall of all th• trusteos Print namo, 8h)n and dale Diane Sider IA /i-i- Zozl