Director’s Report 2023 – 2024
Well, nearly a year already. Your new Leadership team took over last August, and now as we head into July it’s a great year to look back on.
Mel, our last Director, gave us all a lovely handover, and has always been there to answer questions and support our activities. Thanks so much Mel.
On a sad note, before I move on to the positives, I just wanted to remember Dave 1 who so sadly died suddenly in late December. Dave with his wife Louise was a long standing listening volunteer and leader, and led our Education Outreach team. Many of you will remember Dave as your trainer too. We hope Louise will be able to return to us soon, and thank them both for all they have done for the Branch. Just over a week ago Ann PearceMariner also died. While many of you did not know her, our Training room is named after her following her long service to the Branch in many roles.
A key summary for you all – in the last 12 months we answered 30,480 calls and 706 chats. So looking at the number of active listening volunteers (there are always a few of us on holiday or taking a few weeks off) we’ve talked to 280 callers each, and our chatters have spoken to 29 callers each. Thank you so much from our callers.
Your Branch Leadership Team (BLT), particularly the two Vice Directors Gill and Tony have done so much over the year to keep the Branch happy and effective. Gill as Vice Director for Volunteers has initiated and developed our relationship with Samaritans Training School. This year all our New Samaritans core training has been done on-line centrally. We learned how to ensure these new volunteers felt part of Exeter Branch from the start, with meetings with the training team, our New Sams mentoring co-ordinator Ralph, and where possible their mentors, from day 1.
Tony Vice Director Operations has had a wide range of areas to co-ordinate. There’s the prison under the leadership of Rob, facing the usual issues at Exeter Prison of a constantly changing team of Listeners, but with a great team spirit there, and such empathy with prisoners’ challenges. The building with the key support of Chris 1 always needs some work, but nothing major this year so far – thanks Chris! There are on-going legal meetings with the owners of the Sidmouth Shop building which Tony is leading, and Tony also wrote to our neighbours in Richmond Road to discourage those thinking our car parking spaces were for them!
Roger our Treasurer and Secretary has ensured our Accounts are within budget and financially correct. I’ve learned so much this year about how the Branch functions and how we pay our suppliers and partners. Thanks so much Roger. We are showing a healthy position this year and looking forward to similar stability in 2024 – 2025. After nine years in these roles Roger is taking a year out and we’ll come back to that later in this meeting.
Helen 3 is just great! She works so hard in the background on fund-raising and governance. She led, with Sarah, our very effective Brew Monday, way back in January. She has taken on the interim role of Outreach DD, leading the teams that work with schools and the university, and give talks to other organisations about Samaritans. Helen is always there for help and support, bringing a wealth of knowledge from her own wide experience.
Gary as I’m sure you all know leads Volunteer Support, the volunteers in our Branch who support all of us when we need it. Gary and his team have had a really busy year – ensuring as many of us as possible completed the Volunteer Voice survey (as a Branch we had almost the best response rate!), planning and carrying out our lovely party to celebrate Exeter’s 60 years as a Samaritans Branch, and of course being there as a listening ear for all of us.
Jeannett leads our Rota Team. Thanks to you all for taking shifts and being so flexible, but I’m sure you’ve seen how hard the Rota Team work to fill gaps, sometimes with only a few hours’ notice. We’ve added another Chat Shift and a Night Shift since last year and we’re still filling them and showing ourselves to be one of the top branches in the country.
And then Lucy. The shop is such a lovely place, happy volunteers (more than 25 of them now!), beautiful layout, lots of lovely items, and they make money! Lucy is there most days and still finds time to do Listening shifts, and her volunteers keep telling me how wonderful she is. Some of our shop volunteers also do listening shifts, so many thanks to you all.
Nick is our BHLO (Branch Hub Liaison Officer) with Lisa working with him to ensure we support our more challenging callers effectively, and that we know how to use the Caller Support and Safeguarding Hubs when we need to. Sadly, but rightly, Nick has resigned from the BLT to have enough time for life including family and grandchildren. We’ll miss your input Nick, but are so happy to still have you as BHLO.
Our new BLT member is Ryan, leading the EDI (Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) initiative. Welcome Ryan!
So just to finish with other changes in the Branch this year.
Our special thanks to Steven for all his years supporting the Branch’s IT. Given all the change that is happening in this area, we now have a company supporting our IT. We did a formal selection process last year, and Tony and Helen and myself selected a small flexible company to work on the move to VoIP and the Listening Centre (replacing Link), and to support our day to day IT.
We have put forward our Branch to take on Email callers again. We don’t have a timescale for this yet, but will keep you informed.
Early this year we had a Branch Quality Audit, always held in the first year of a new director. We think it went really well, with a lot of positives about how we run the Branch, and some agreed plans for our three years including some of the activities included above (additional shifts and taking on Email). Our other key plans are enlarging the prison team, which Rob is
already working on; Tony is leading the team looking at how we use the building; Helen, with Rod leading Schools Outreach, is ensuring we focus on all aspects of Outreach; and we will be building up Ryan’s EDI team.
So thank you all so much for everything you do, we need you all. And here’s to 2024 – 2025.
Anna
SAMARITANS EXETER MID & EAST DEVON
STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
| Unrestricted Funds 2023/24 |
Unrestricted Funds 2023/24 |
Restricted Funds 2023/24 |
All Funds 2023/24 |
All Funds 2022/23 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Incoming Resources Incoming Resources from Generated Funds Voluntary Income Donatons Gif Aid Collectons Legacies Grants Total Voluntary Income Actvites for generatng funds Shop Investment Income & interest Total Incoming Resources from Generated Funds Incoming Resources from Charitable Actvites Training Other Total Incoming Resources from Charitable Actvites Other Incoming Resources Total Incoming Resources |
£ 8504 2292 2337 1000 3450 17583 103492 3379 106871 0 5746 5746 130200 |
£ 2140 2140 2140 |
£ 8504 2292 2337 1000 5590 19723 103492 3379 106871 0 5746 5746 0 132340 |
7728 782 3599 0 13730 |
|
| 25839 79477 1226 |
|||||
| 80703 0 14589 |
|||||
| 14589 0 |
|||||
| 121131 | |||||
| Resources Expended Cost of Generatng Funds Fundraising costs Net incoming resources available for charitable purposes Charitable Expenditure Outreach Advertsing and Service Promoton Phone lines Recruitment & Training costs Volunteer expenses Printng, Statonery & Postage Premises Insurances Branch contributon Total Charitable Expenditure Governance costs Total Resources Expended |
66864 66864 63336 356 525 3673 1325 4250 876 13274 1206 1498 26983 97 93944 |
0 0 2140 0 0 0 0 2140 0 0 0 0 2140 0 2140 |
66864 66864 65476 356 525 3673 1325 6390 876 13274 1206 1498 29123 97 96084 |
71643 |
| 71643 | ||||
| 49488 | ||||
| 506 639 2151 2433 5539 1375 14465 1167 8013 |
||||
| 36288 10153 |
||||
| 118084 | ||||
| Net Income (Expenditure) for the Year Other recognised Gains and Losses Net Movement in Funds Balances brought forward at 31.03.23 |
0 36255 515561 |
0 0 0 |
0 36255 515561 |
0 3045 512516 |
| Balances carried forward at 31.03.24 551816 SAMARITANS EXETER MID & EAST DEVON BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2024 £ 2023/24 |
Balances carried forward at 31.03.24 551816 SAMARITANS EXETER MID & EAST DEVON BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 MARCH 2024 £ 2023/24 |
0 | 551816 | 515561 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| £ 2023/24 |
£ 2023/24 |
£ 2022/23 |
£ 2022/23 |
|
| Fixed Assets Investments Current Assets Debtors Cash at Bank Creditors due within one year Net Current Assets Net Assets |
1251 51946 53197 8008 |
343047 163580 45189 551816 |
1206 61837 63043 1055 |
343372 110201 61988 |
| 515561 | ||||
| Represented by: General Fund Restricted Fund Total Funds |
551816 0 |
551816 | 503205 12356 |
|
| 515561 |
Approved by the Board of Trustees on 11 July2024 and signed on its behalf by:
Roger Randall
Veronica Davies
Treasurer
Director
NOTES TO THE ACCOUNTS TWELVE MONTHS ENDED 31 MARCH 2024
-
1 1.1 The Accounts have been prepared on the basis of historic cost in accordance with Accounting & Reporting by Charities - Statement of Recommended practice (SORP 2005) and with Financial Reporting Standards for Smaller Enterprises (FRSSE) and also the Charities Act 1993.
-
1.2 There has been no change to the accounting policies since last year
| 2023/24 2 Fixed Assets 7.1 Freehold property - 10 Richmond Road, Exeter 338060 Improvements and Alteratons in year - At cost 0 338060 7.2 Equipment, Furnishings, etc. purchased 1st January 1991 to to 31st March2023 42425 Purchased in Year 258 42683 37114 Depreciaton in year 582 37696 4987 Total Fixed Assets 343047 Less: Depreciaton to 31.03.23 |
2022/23 305377 32683 |
2022/23 305377 32683 |
2022/23 305377 32683 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 338060 39183 3242 |
|||
| 42425 37114 |
|||
| 5311 343371 |
3 As part of the restructuring of the national Samaritans organisation, on 1 April 2016, the assets liabilities and activities of Samaritans of Exeter, Mid and East Devon ("the Charity") were transferred to a new Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO), Samaritans of Exeter, Mid and East Devon, registered number 1165042. The transfer to the new CIO had no effect on the operations of the branch. The Charity has become a dormant charity, called Samaritans of Exeter, Mid and East Devon, and is linked to the new charity. As a linked charity, separate accounts for the Charity will no longer be prepared.
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