2024-03-30-accounts

HCCN Trustees’ Annual Report For the period May 2023 to March 2024

Aim and Purposes

Hunts Community Cancer Network (HCCN) comprises of the charity working alongside the Community Cancer Nursing team to provide community-based care for people across Huntingdonshire living with or recovering from cancer. Our purpose is to transform the quality of life of those living with a cancer diagnosis, in the Huntingdonshire area, by providing no cost, regular, evidence-based activities that promote healthy eating, physical exercise and mental well-being: a triad of highly recommended self-care strategies.

We do this by:

• Recruiting and developing the best team of caring, committed and skilled volunteers and contractors. Supporting them and providing them with the resources to do their best.

• Focusing on fundraising – building and maintaining relationships; producing compelling proposals; reporting on plans and progress.

• Collaborating with reputable partners for our mutual benefit and that of the people we support.

• Continuing to provide a caring, safe, supportive and respectful environment for the people we support whilst ensuring HCCN has secure tenure of premises from which to operate.

We also ensure the HCCN nursing service is well equipped to provide the best quality of care to people being supported in the community.

Achievements and Performance 2023/2024

The trustees carried out a strategic review in November 2023, confirming the charity’s vision as being to enhance the quality of life of adults living with cancer in Huntingdonshire by:

• Providing (no cost) regular, evidence-based activities to promote healthy eating, exercise, physical and mental wellbeing

• Actively supporting the HCCN nursing team

• Collaborating in partnership with other providers across the Hunts area

• Providing information and educational activities to promote living well with cancer

Conferences

Our charitable objectives include advancing the education of the public in healthcare related to cancer by the provision of lectures, which we address through our conferences. Conference management is in the safe hands of Gill Monsell and we held two events during the period.

In April 2023 we held an open event at Bradbury House for people living with cancer when our contractors and volunteers showcased our range of ‘feel good’ activities. 10 of our activity leaders presented, covering Pilates, Beauty, Active Lifestyles, Men's Group, Yoga, Living Well, Tai Chi, Reflexology, Women's Group and Line Dancing. More than 50 people attended.

Charity registration number 1163051

In November 2023 we resumed our usual conference approach. Speakers included:

• Paula Read, specialist nurse at Sue Ryder, St John’s hospice, covering lymphoedema

• Zara Ball, NWAFT Lead Cancer Nurse, on Cancer Treatment and Management in Huntingdon and Peterborough hospitals

• Rosie Dean on the development of the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital

• Cherry May Sanchez, Programme Lead for the CRUK CC NAHP Programme, on Immunotherapy

Around 70 people attended across the day. Full reports on both events are available on the HCCN website.

Programmes and Activities

The charity funds and delivers a wide range of activities that help people as they seek to regain control of their lives and reduce the impact (physical and emotional) of their cancer. Everything we do is underpinned by proven evidence and a desire to support people back to independence, whether recovering from or living with cancer.

Emotional wellbeing

We know that the emotional impact of cancer can be long lasting. Our three drop-in groups provide the opportunity to share a safe place to talk and try new things.

Friday drop-in at Bradbury House - a full day of activities with the support of our team of volunteers. Yoga classes, Tai Chi, Pilates and our new Balance & Strength class that started in March 2023, with funding from the Huntingdonshire District Council, all help the body to move, improving both wellbeing and fitness. Reflexology, Reiki, footcare, beauty and massage provide a range of complementary health benefits.

Women’s Cancer Group - incorporating the Hollywood or Bust breast cancer support group, inherited from the Woodlands, Hinchingbrooke Hospital, meets at Bradbury House every Wednesday evening.

Men’s Group - Although everything offered by HCCN is available to anyone affected by cancer, most activities attract fewer men than women. The men’s support group was established in 2019 to provide men with a sociable place to connect with other men coping with cancer or supporting someone with cancer or bereaved through cancer. The men attending the Huntingdon Working Men’s Club on Wednesday mornings create an environment welcoming to all men.

Counselling

Counselling is one of our main and important out-goings, for those requiring in-depth, one to one help and support. As a charity we are able to supply access to counselling very quickly, supporting individuals and their family members at the toughest of times. We continue to refer to a valued team of qualified counsellors for support to adults, couples and children.

Charity registration number 1163051

Prehabilitation / Rehabilitation

The clinical evidence for being active before, during and after treatment is clear, compelling and well accepted, but is not implemented by the NHS as part of the care pathway or mandated by NICE. However, getting a person newly diagnosed with cancer, or who is in treatment and may be physically and emotionally at their lowest ebb, to re-engage in being active is a huge challenge.

Working with the team at One Leisure, Huntingdon, we offer exercise classes ( Circuits ) weekly on a Tuesday and Thursday to help prepare for treatment from diagnosis, and after treatment when it is as important to get fit, healthy and feel good in a very supportive atmosphere.

We offer a range of regular Yoga classes across the region – seated, seated/standing and standing – via Zoom and in person. These classes can be used sequentially to rebuild strength or accessed according to capability.

Nutritional advice

Funding from the Cambridgeshire Community Foundation enabled us to develop our first healthy eating programme, to help the people we support to learn how to achieve a healthier lifestyle while coping with the side-effects of cancer and its treatment. The Living Well With Cancer Drop-In focuses on practical ways to rebalance the body for health. We share tried and tested approaches for a better relationship with food and eating, and how this can be supported by moving more and improving mood. By harmonising the way in which one eats, moves and maintains one’s mental health, the intention is that the body can achieve the best possible state for coping with cancer treatment and recovery.

Occasional programmes

Patient to Person improves mental health through healthy thinking strategies, aimed at people ready to move on from their cancer treatment but who find themselves emotionally stuck.

Acupuncture

Supporting the HCCN Nurses with training and supplying acupuncture needles to provide this valued service to their patients to help with movement and the side effects of cancer treatment.

Financial Review

HCCN trustees elected to change the financial year of the charity to align with the fiscal tax year. To do this, HMRC was notified that the financial year would run from April 1 to March 31. Therefore, the accounting year reported here comprises 11 months only.

From next year (April 2024 – March 2025) a 12-month year will be reported. Please note it is impossible to make a direct comparison year on year due to the disparity in financial reporting periods.

Charity registration number 1163051

The table below shows that average funds raised rose slightly whereas costs rose considerably during the year.

	Average Monthly Income	TOTAL	Average Monthly Expenditure	TOTAL
23-24 (11 months)	£9,672	£106,397	£11,745	£129,195
22-23 (12 months)	£9,227	£110,719	£9,515	£114,183

Trustees applied for and were successful in being awarded a number of grants for restricted use as well as winning the Health Inequalities Prize of £20,000.

During the period Trustees have monitored the financial health of the charity on a monthly basis to ensure the level of service provided is sustainable. Reserve funds were maintained in line with the charity’s policy. The charity is reporting a loss of £22,798 for the period. Last year a loss of £3,464 was reported.

Fundraising

An important part of running the charity is going out into the community to talk about HCCN, focusing on raising our profile in the Hunts area, to make sure that everyone who could benefit from the charity and nursing team know we exist, and that we can encourage more people to support us financially.

Our primary fundraising event of the year is the HCCN Charity Ball , held once more in May 2023. The evening is the result of everyone at HCCN who works so hard to organise the evening over many months and the people joining in for the evening. Nurse Mel Scholes leads this effort, securing amazing support from the whole community, through company sponsorship of tables, casino tables at the event, an auction and raffle, and tickets sales to attend.

Buckfest – a live music festival held every July in Huntingdon – continues to support HCCN as one of their permanent charity partners.

Westfest – a live music village festival held in Hail Weston in August, is now an annual event supporting HCCN.

Individual giving and sponsored activities ‘in aid of’ HCCN continue to be a very generous source of much needed funds. Sadly, funeral donations also make up a large percentage of our income.

Grants

In June 2023 we were awarded a grant of £4,000 by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care System "to conduct an inclusive and accessible consultation to explore

Charity registration number 1163051

Personalised Care and access barriers within the community of people who have experienced a cancer diagnosis”.

The spirit and ethos of our project was embodied in the project title: “Living with Cancer - what matters to ME”. The project addressed the key principles of Personalised Care set out in the NHS Long Term Plan - a coordinated whole person approach with self-management at its core. At the Health Inequalities Challenge Prize Final Award Ceremony in November we heard that we had won the major prize of £20,000. HCCN is without doubt a huge asset to many for whom cancer has become part of life. However, we have a long way to go if we are to reach many people in our area with a cancer diagnosis and offer them access to our services. The prize money has been ringfenced to develop and launch a Buddy Scheme as a core service. This programme will meet an important personal support gap.

HCCN Small Grants

HCCN the charity makes one-off grants up to a maximum of £250 funding per quarter to individuals who can show that such a grant will make a significant difference to their lives. The purpose of the grant is to address a personal need that is generated by, or is as a direct consequence of, a cancer diagnosis. In this financial year we granted 3 small grants totalling £750.

Reserves Policy

The trustees have set a reserves policy which requires that reserves are maintained at a level which ensures that a minimum of one calendar year of the charity’s core activities could continue during a period of unforeseen difficulty. Consequently, the charity has reserves (unrestricted funds) of £85k, ie the maximum covered by the FSCS.

Reserves are held in interest bearing accounts. The charity holds no designated reserves. A proportion of reserves is maintained in a readily realisable form. The calculation of the required level of reserves is an integral part of the organisation's planning, budget and forecast cycle.

Volunteers

HCCN relies on our volunteers: their ‘gift of time’ makes a significant contribution to the impact that the charity achieves. We are gradually growing our team of regular volunteers and received support from new volunteers both to help us fundraise and to become part of the charity management team. We said goodbye to some volunteers as their own plans changed, though we remain very grateful for their support. We ended the year with 30 active volunteers, excluding the trustees and nurses.

All trustees give their time freely: no remuneration or expenses were paid in the year in relation to their work as trustees. We have a good mix of skills. The trustees take seriously our commitment to our people and their care, and take responsibility for establishing and implementing procedures in this area.

Charity registration number 1163051

To ensure all our trustees, volunteers and contractors know and understand their responsibilities, HCCN provided access to mandatory training in Safeguarding Adults and GDPR.

Running the charity

Increasingly the day-to-day running of the charity is being delegated to an Operations Team to focus professional effort on Service Delivery – with a Fundraising & Marketing Manager starting in September 2023 and a Programme Manager in January 2024 to drive the charity forward. Both these roles are filled by self-employed contractors

Structure, Governance and Management

HCCN the charity operates as a fully constituted membership charity, registered with the Charities Commission, number 1163051.

HCCN’s trustees are responsible for setting the strategy for achieving the objectives they have agreed. At trustee meetings the broad strategy and areas of activity for the charity are kept under review, including consideration of risk; policies, procedures and performance; safeguarding; training; diversity; financial decisions and reserves management.

The charity focuses effort on:

• Raising our profile across Huntingdonshire e.g. educating a wider audience.

• Creating sustainable fundraising processes e.g. securing a major donor(s).

• Developing our programme of activities, services and conferences in response to research e.g. practical nutrition and cooking advice.

• Growing our family of volunteers.

A General Meeting of Members was held in February 2024 to seek a decision on changing the name of Hunts Community Cancer Network, with the aim of making the charity more easily recognisable. The resolution was rejected by Members. However, a new logo and strapline were agreed by the trustees in March 2024.

A second resolution - to seek agreement to increase the maximum number of trustees from 5 to 8 – was carried.

HCCN Nursing Team

The nursing team has remained stable, with a few administrative changes. Gini Melesi's (founding lead nurse) daughter worked with the team briefly and additionally we now have Gilly supporting Sally in the admin role.

As ever the team looks for ways to improve our service. Fiona and Mel are now acupuncturists and all trained acupuncturists have had update training on electroacupuncture. Harriett has taken on the management of the clinics and is trialling a few new times and approaches to benefit the nurses and patient care.

Charity registration number 1163051

At Buckfest we enjoyed a successful day promoting skin cancer prevention, attempting to raise awareness in young men, and are currently in training for a charity triathlon after the 80s ball.

We have spent our money wisely on nonprescribed therapies for patients, and shoe covers to allow us to follow NHS guidelines when visiting patients for clinical treatments, whilst protecting our patients' lovely cream carpets.

As ever we are grateful to be supported by the charity.

Charity administrative information

HCCN’s trustees are:

Jan Davis - appointed 1 January 2016; Chair until 31 March 2024 Graham Heywood - appointed 14 April 2023; Chair from 1 April 2024 Sallie Crawley - appointed 31 October 2019 Gill Monsell - appointed 17 May 2021 Angela Howells - appointed 13 May 2022 Neil Silby - appointed 14 October 2022; resigned 17 March 2024

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

Jan Davis

Janet Audrey Davis Deputy Chair of Trustees September 2024

Charity registration number 1163051

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND ANQ WALE5 Recei ts and ments accounts CC16a For tho porlod from 0110512023 3110312024 Section A Receipts and payments UnrestrlGted fulld$ Rèstrlcttrd funds Endowment fundB )th• nir•&t£ Total fund8 La8tyoor th• noarMI loth• n•&rwtE io th• n•aT••I£ t4 th• n•ar••t£ Al Recei 70.391 3.284 Eb Sho 4.35e 2.992 2.092 10.000 4.420 16.8 NWAFT R8lfflbui88m8lll 8.305 2D.010 20,000 DC Ke• Web S4198 16 66 ro$s incom• AR) 28,J09 106,397 888 nvo¥ 10$,3•7 Aa Pavm•nts Conf•r•Du. Hav Mir•ihon. B Ex8rc488& Wellbl NurBg 9 •,BQl 41,148 2,709 832 432 2e,911 17,475 760 17,476 700 1,488 10.642 1,000 Grants Room si8ff Cost Wh91 Matt¢iito Me H•Jllh In 6,787 1,022 4,260 4,21) Sub tot81 10.047 A4 ABoot and Invegtmont Sub total 119,148 10.047 114,1B3 Ngt of re¢elptsl(p8ymontsJ AS Tronsfers b&twe&n fund8 A6 Cash fund8 last y•or ond Cash funds th1$ yearend 39,350 18,552 22,79B 39,350 f6,552 22,798 CCXX R1 awxnts IS$) 28108tt024

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Uftrè5trictwl funds to floa￿01£ R88tricted lunds to n•ar•JtC Endowment lund& io n•arut£ Bl Cash funds CumniAcwJni CtsopgrAi￿è 1.897 le￿52 & Coufjdes 74,D23 Monmouth$hWe Bu￿1n0 sO¢￿ty Redwaod Bank J¥A94 n,523 100C￿ts 0,008 PBYP othgr Tol•l cash funds 278,077 16,$62 I•BTM b•lthY•wlth Unr••trl¢t•d funds to nMr•8tÉ RoBtrlctsd fund n•ar••t£ End¢)wfflent fund8 tot114M*I£ Fundto lblllth t b•bn eulMntvalu• onli ootallg GHtlopttyJn•lJ B3 Inv••kn•nt a•8•t• Fund to whkh rr•Trtv•lu• B4 AN¥et• retalned for th• ¢harfty'i own u•0 Fund Iowhlch Amounldu• du• D•t8119 BO Llabllitl88 Skjned by One0rt￿trugl￿a5 on bthaWof all the Itustees natur8 Print N8rne Date of val CCXX R2 aGcaunts ISSI 28

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees

Charity Name Hunts Community Cancer Network

On accounts for the year 31 March 2024 Charity no 1163051 ended (if any) Set out on pages 1 - 2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets) I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended DD / MM / YYYY . Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.

Independent [The charity’s gross income exceeded £250,000 and I am qualified to examiner's statement undertake the examination by being a qualified member of [insert name of applicable listed body]]. Delete [ ] if not applicable.

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination (other than that disclosed below *) which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:

• the accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Charities Act; or

• the accounts did not accord with the accounting records; or

• the accounts did not comply with the applicable requirements concerning the form and content of accounts set out in the Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 other than any requirement that the accounts give a ‘true and fair’ view which is not a matter considered as part of an independent examination.

I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

• Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.

Signed: Name: Peter Barlow

Date: 7 August 2024

Relevant professional ICAEW

Oct 2018

1

IER

qualification(s) or body (if any):

Address:

15 Station Road

St Ives PE27 5BH

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

Oct 2018

2

IER