Another year completed and we’re still on the go
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ON PARADE: kitted out in badged high-viz jackets, our teams - two three-handers here - ready for night patrol.
Foreword:
AS WE SUBMIT our annual return to the Charity Commissioners for the year 2022-2023, Hartlepool Town Pastors, aka as Street Angels, have seen a steady refreshing in our volunteers with some younger members joining the team. The period under review is for our financial year ending November 30, 2023, which saw some growth in the night time economy as new pubs opened in Church Street and Victoria Road. As reported last year the level of confidence in the night time economy has continued to increase so we have increased provision of street patrols at night during 2023 to help members of the public in need. We’re also glad to signal that trend has continued into 2024 to ensure a street presence of HTP volunteers on at least one and sometimes two weekends a month. We continue to build on our existing partnerships with Hartlepool Borough Council and Cleveland Police and have been glad to play a part in the roll out of the local campaign around serious violence prevention and work to tackle the threat of spiking of drinks.
Thanks:
FOR YOUR amazing continued, patient support. Thanks, as always, 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, licensees, door staff, CCTV operators and generous public out and about in Hartlepool’s night time economy. Without their support and co-operation, the work of Hartlepool Town Pastors / Street Angels would not be possible.
STREET SCENE: our friendly faces are welcoming
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 the enterprising community resource group Poolie Time Exchange for access to and use of restroom facilities in their base at Bovis House.
New joint working:
WE HAVE ALSO been successful in forming a working partnership with another charity, LilyAnne’s Wellbeing Café. The partnership came about after we assisted one of their clients after they had experienced a mental health crisis. In following up after that event, we realised that there were some real benefits in working together and now regularly conduct joint patrols that reach out to the homeless in the town and offer mental health support … beyond that which HTP can offer on a Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
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 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:
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❖ make a contribution to the safety and wellbeing of fellow citizens;
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❖ offer care, compassion and appropriate practical & spiritual help to members the public;
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❖ help those who find themselves marginalised and vulnerable;
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❖ 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.
CHEERS: thank you for a peaceful night say LilyAnne’s team in red along with our high-viz yellow- jacketed HTP Street Angels
Hartlepool Town Pastors Income from 01/12/2022 to 30/11/2023
Deposit # Stand Order Petty Cash Funding Donations
| 15/12/2022 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16/01/2023 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
| 15/02/2023 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
| 28/02/2023 | 300.00 | AF | 300.00 | ||||
| 15/03/2023 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
| 17/04/2023 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
| 15/05/2023 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
| 15/06/2023 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
| 17/07/2023 | 10.00 | 10.00 | |||||
| 17/07/2023 | 305.00 | GRMC | 305.00 | ||||
| Totals | 80.00 | 0.00 | 300.00 | 305.00 | 685.00 | ||
| 685.00 |
AF - Asda Foundation
GRMC - Grange Road Methodist Church
Hartlepool Town Pastors Expenditure from 01/12/2022 to 30/11/2023
| CHK # | Consumables | Account | BNIB | Meals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Check | Insurance | |||||
| 20/01/2023 | 000043 | 104.49 | 104.49 | |||
| 22/05/2023 | 000044 | 248.73 | 248.73 | |||
| 08/08/2023 | 000045 | 37.00 | 37.00 | |||
| 37.00 | 248.73 | 104.49 | 390.22 | |||
| 390.22 |
Hartlepool Town Pastors Income and Expenditure Summary year from 01/12/2022 to 30/11/2023
Income
| Standing Orders 80.00 Donations 305.00 Funding 300.00 Petty Cash 0.00 Total Income Expenditure Consumables 0.00 Account Check 37.00 Insurance 248.73 Meals 104.49 Total Expenditure Net income for period Opening Bank Balance Add Net Income Closing Bank Balance |
685.00 |
|---|---|
| 390.22 | |
| 294.78 | |
| 5303.1 294.78 5597.88 |
CHECKING OF ACCOUNTS FOR THE YEAR FROM 01/12/2022 TO 30/11/2023 BY EKATERINA VERNER
Introduction
I was asked to make an independent check of the HTP financial statement for the period from 01/12/2022 to 30/11/2023. I agreed to do this, and this is my report. I know the treasurer Keith Milner having conducted the check for the last seven years.
The Charity Commission for England and Wales (italics used to quote from their document)
Guidance
Charity reporting and accounting: the essentials November 2016 (Updated 14 June 2023)
From the government website
- Charity reporting and accounting: the essentials November 2016 GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
This is 2016 (Updated 14 June 2023) and I have checked that it remains the same at the date of this report.
1.4 Audit or independent examination?
Except for certain NHS charities and where the charity’s governing document requires some form of external scrutiny, only charities with a gross income of more than £25,000 in their financial year are required to have their accounts independently examined or audited.
The type of scrutiny required 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.
1.3 Types of charity accounts
A charity may prepare either receipts and payments accounts or accruals accounts. Which of these is needed will depend on the income of the charity and whether or not it has been set up as a charitable company.
Receipts and payments accounts
This is the simpler of the 2 methods of accounts preparation and may only be used where a noncompany charity has a gross income of £250,000 or less during the financial year. Receipts and payments accounts contain a statement 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 accruals accounts that comply with the applicable Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP). The SORP to follow will depend upon the charity’s financial year. Accruals accounts 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 13 years) and has prepared these accounts. We 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 01/12/2022 to 30/11/2023 together with the supporting documentation and he answered all questions I put to him.
Conclusion
As a result of this examination, I am satisfied that this statement of accounts is a fair and accurate record of the financial activities of Hartlepool Town Pastors between 1 December 2022 and 30 November 2023.
Ekaterina Verner AATQB Date: 31 July 2024