2021-11-30-accounts

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

AS WE FILE our annual report here and make our annual return to the Charity Commissioners for the year 2020-2021, Hartlepool Town Pastors, aka Street Angels, are still in unusual times. The period under review for our financial year ending November 30, 2021, remained heavily influenced by coronavirus restrictions and considerable natural public caution which

became the main feature of life on Hartlepool streets from April 2020, already reflected in our report to the Charity Commission for 2020.

Nonetheless, we can now report an increase in experience, a gradual return of confidence, and provision of some street patrols at night during 2021 to help members of the public in need during Hartlepool’s nighttime economy – a considerable improvement on having to suspend all street operations during general lockdowns a year earlier. We’re also glad to signal that trend continued into 2022 to ensure a street presence of HTP volunteers at least one weekend a month.

Hartlepool Town Pastors 2021

Thank you for your amazing continued, patient support

We start with a repeat of the project’s sincere thanks to all our benefactors, sponsors and supporters – not least the members of the public we meet on the street during volunteer night patrols seeing people home safely for their kind words, generous backing and often spontaneous small gifts of money. These are carefully recorded, safeguarded and banked by project officers to add to the resources of Hartlepool Town Pastors.

That kind of public acceptance and support not only sustains the morale of our small number of volunteers who make up our three-person patrols during weekend nights, it also underpins the confidence of larger community and business organisations who provide the essential support for our efforts throughout the year.

These organisations include the churches in Hartlepool, the police, representatives of Hartlepool Borough Council, councillors, local business people, supermarkets and stores, licensees, door staff, CCTV operators, and the generous public out and about in Hartlepool’s nighttime economy. Without their support and co-operation, the work of Hartlepool Town Pastors’ Street Angels would not be possible. Thanks again to Pastor Colin Sawtell and his team in Whitby Street for providing us with a base to start from at night – to Hartlepool Foodbank, who generously responded to HTP’s request to use spare storage room for some of our coats and other resources – and, during the year, to the enterprising community resource group Poolie Time Exchange for access to and use of restroom facilities in their new base at Bovis House.

About Hartlepool Town Pastors

HTP is a charitable volunteer initiative that started life in May 2011 in Hartlepool and followed the Christian Nightlife Initiatives ‘Street Angels’ model now widely used in other towns and cities across

HTP 2

the UK and (from 2022) becoming part of and adopting the new title of Redeeming Our Communities. HTP volunteers do not have to profess any faith but must be prepared to deal with people in a totally non-discriminatory way. We have won three awards for the service provided and were publicly recognised by Hartlepool’s Mayor during 2019 for the long service of four volunteers who had completed more than eight years with the project.

HTP charitable objectives

To advance the Christian faith in Hartlepool and in such other parts of the United Kingdom or the world as the steering board may from time to time think fit particularly but not exclusively by means of caring, listening and helping people on the streets and at various venues day and night. Hartlepool Town Pastors aim to:

make a contribution to the safety and wellbeing of fellow citizens;
offer care, compassion and appropriate practical & spiritual help to members of the public; help those who find themselves marginalised and vulnerable;
signpost services available from other organisations and help individuals access them.

What this means in practice

Hartlepool Town Pastors, aka Street Angels, go out into the nighttime social scene in Hartlepool from 10.30pm until 4am.

We help to get people home safely and help to cut down on anti-social behaviour merely by our presence on the street.

Annual report 2021: Registered Charity No 1160052 : www.facebook.com/hpooltownpastors

Hartlepool Town	Pastors
Income from 01/12/2020 to 30/11/2021
	Deposit # Stand Order	Petty Cash	Funding	Donations
15/12/2020	10.00				10.00
15/01/2021	10.00				10.00
15/02/2021	10.00				10.00
15/03/2021	10.00				10.00
15/04/2021	10.00				10.00
17/05/2021	10.00				10.00
15/06/2021	10.00				10.00
15/07/2021	10.00				10.00
16/08/2021	10.00				10.00
15/09/2021	10.00				10.00
15/10/2021	10.00				10.00
15/11/2021	10.00				10.00
Totals	120.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	120.00
					120.00

Hartlepool Town Pastors Expenditure from 01/12/2020 to 30/11/2021

	CHK #	Laptop	Account	BNIB	Meeting		TESCO	PC LOTTERY
			Check	Insurance	Refreshments
19/03/2021	000033	72.00	20.70			92.70		72
25/05/2021	000035			237.64		237.64
02/07/2021	000034	330.38				330.38		330.38
12/08/2021	000031				19.70	19.70
		402.38	20.70	237.64	19.70	680.42	0.00	402.38
						680.42

Hartlepool Town Pastors Income and Expenditure Summary year from 01/12/2020 to 30/11/2021

Income

Standing Orders	120.00
Donations	0.00
Funding	0.00
Petty Cash	0.00
Total Income		120.00

Expenditure

Laptop	402.38
Account Check	20.70
Insurance	237.64
Meeting Refreshments	19.70
Total Expenditure		680.42
Net income for period		-560.42
Opening Bank Balance		5711.33
Add Net Income		-560.42
Closing Bank Balance		5150.91
TESCO BID		0
POSTCODE LOTTERY BID		402.38

CHECKING OF ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR FROM 01/12/2020 TO 30/11/2021 BY EKATERINA VERNER OF MANDELBROT LTD.

Introduction

We were asked to make an independent check of the HTP financial statement for the period from 01/12/2020 to 30/11/2021. We agreed to do this and this is our report. We know the treasurer Keith Milner having conducted the check for the last five years.

The Charity Commission for England and Wales (italics used to quote from their document)

Guidance

Charity reporting and accounting: the essentials March 2015

Published 27 March 2015

From the government website

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/charity-reporting-and-accounting-the-essentialsmarch-2015-cc15c/charity-reporting-and-accounting-the-essentials-march-2015

This is 2015 and we have checked that it remains the same at the date of this report.

1.4 Audit or independent examination?

Except for NHS charities, only those charities with gross income of more than £25,000 in their financial year are required to have their accounts independently examined or audited - below that threshold, an external scrutiny of accounts is only needed if it is required by the charity’s governing document.

Precisely what type of scrutiny is needed depends on the income and assets of the charity. Broadly speaking, an independent examination is needed if gross income is between £25,000 and £1 million and an audit is needed where the gross income exceeds £1 million. An audit will also be needed if total assets (before liabilities) exceed £3.26 million, and the charity’s gross income is more than £250,000.

In this respect, the Hartlepool Town Pastors require neither independent examination nor audit. The checking and report of my checking is based on a brief look by myself as a financially unqualified person. I do however have experience of preparing and checking accounts for both small commercial companies and charities, so am honoured that I should have been asked to perform this voluntary check.

But in addition to my use of my lay experience my colleague Ekaterina Verner has looked closely and checked these accounts. Ekaterina is a qualified and experienced accountant in Russia, and now lives in the UK where she is undertaking British training and qualification. In May of this year (2021) she passed with distinction Level 3 of the Advanced Diploma of Accounting of the Association of Accounting Technicians.

1.3 Types of accounts

Charity accounts may be prepared either on the receipts and payments basis or the accruals basis. Which of these is needed will depend on the income of the charity and whether or not it has been set up as a company.

Receipts and payments

This is the simpler of the two methods of preparation and may be adopted where a non-company charity has a gross income of £250,000 or less during the year. It consists of an account summarising all money received and paid out by the charity in the financial year, and a statement giving details of its assets and liabilities at the end of the year. Charitable companies are not allowed by company law to adopt this method.

Accruals

Non-company charities with gross income of over £250,000 during the financial year, and all charitable companies must prepare their accounts on the accruals basis in accordance with the applicable Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP). The SORP to follow will depend upon the charity’s financial year. They contain a balance sheet, a statement of financial activities and explanatory notes. These accounts are required in accountancy terms to show a ‘true and fair view’.

For Hartlepool Town Pastors having a gross income of less than £250,000 per year it is quite in order that the “Receipts and payments” method be used. This has been the method used.

The Treasurer, Keith Milner

Keith has been the treasurer and a pastor with the Hartlepool Town Pastors from the start (for 11 years) and has prepared these accounts. Ekaterina and he have conducted the check by exchanging documents, including images of invoices and bank statements, over email.

In this way we were able to go through the figures for 01/12/2020 to 30/11/2021 together with the supporting documentation and he answered all questions we put to him.

Conclusion

As a result of this examination we are satisfied that this statement of accounts is a fair and accurate record of the financial activities of Hartlepool Town Pastors between 1 December 2020 and 30 November 2021.