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Thirsk Community Library Registered Charity Number: 1169352

Annual Report April 1[st] 2020 to March 31[st] 2021

Introduction

This is the fourth annual report of Thirsk Community Library Charity. During this very unusual year we continued to provide services but in very different ways. We were closed to the public or offering a restricted face to face service for much of the year but we continued to do our very best to ensure people could access books and IT and to keep our volunteers engaged. We were supported by many local people and organisations, including schools, councils and businesses. We received ongoing support and advice from North Yorkshire County Council and funding support from Town and Parish Councils. We also received financial support from the Government in the form of Covid related grants.

Our volunteers continue to be brilliant, ensuring that we can keep the library functioning, even in the middle of a global pandemic.

Leadership of the Charity

Trustees lead the charity and are responsible for the overall sustainability of the charity, setting priorities and direction, ensuring that we meet the requirements of the agreement with North Yorkshire County Council and of the Charity Commission and overseeing financial and service governance. For 2020 to 2021 the trustees were:

Sally Burton: Chair

Shirley Ward: Secretary

Mel Johnson: Treasurer

Abigail Homer: Trustee Anna Naughton: Trustee Irene Marwood: Trustee

Operational Management

Day to day operations are overseen by a Management Group of volunteers. Any volunteer can ask to join this group and can submit ideas and proposals to them.

Policies and Procedures;

The Charity maintains policies on Health and Safety, Safeguarding, Data Protection, Equality and Diversity, Volunteers and Cash Management which are reviewed and updated as needed. We provide a detailed induction for new volunteers to ensure they are aware of all requirements.

We also provide ongoing refresher training and our partners at North Yorkshire County Council offer training to all new volunteers and ongoing training on procedures, IT, and best practice.

Key highlights of 2020-2021

At the end of the financial year 2019-2020 the country entered a national lockdown and the library was closed.

We anticipated this and widely advertised that people could borrow up to 30 books to read during this time.

After a few weeks, and with good weather we decided to make good use of our stock of second hand books and to place them around Thirsk so that people could pick up a book while out for a walk. This was very popular and we started to get requests for more books and especially for books for children who were not attending school.

Libraries could not legally open to the public but we asked the question ‘could we legally select, issue and deliver books to people who are stuck at home?’ After some local discussions and advice we decided that we would work jointly with Community Works, a local charity that had been designated as a Community Support Organisation by North Yorkshire County Council. We set up strict health and safety protocols and library volunteers worked in socially distanced pairs to select books for people which were then delivered by volunteer drivers from Community Works.

This service proved popular with a wide range of people, from traditional home library users to families with children who were being home educated and parents of pre-school children who were missing story times.

This young reader is enjoying her library books in the garden.

When we were allowed to reopen we continued this offer and we also set up a ‘Select and Collect Service’ for people who didn’t want to come into the library. We also created bundles of books for people to ‘grab and go’ to reduce the time people spent in the library.

As soon as we were able we re-opened to allow essential use of IT as we are aware that access to our computers is a lifeline for many people who do not have WIFI or a computer at home.

There was a very significant amount of work to develop Risk Assessments, ensure everyone was trained and also to set up all the systems for selecting, issuing and delivering books to people during the lockdown periods. We are very grateful for all of our volunteers who all attended training 2 sessions to ensure that everyone was fully appraised of the Health and Safety Systems we put in place and the processes for this new style of delivery. We hope we don’t need to do it again but if we do, we have all the information we need to be effective.

Volunteers helped in many ways, from coming in and undertaking cleaning, designing registration forms, issuing new library cards to new members by post, delivering books and delivering training sessions. This was a massive team effort.

Activities and events

Obviously we had to stop all our activities but we didn’t stop trying to reach people.

We recorded a story time which was posted on Facebook each week, with different people from around our town reading the stories. This varied from a Councillor, a Scout Leader, Charity CEO, Estate Agent, Butcher, Bookshop Owner, Head Teacher, World Champion Rower, and some of our volunteers.

We also set up a Virtual Lego Club, run by two fantastic children who set a challenge each week and were then joined on Zoom by other children who all shared their creations.

In the winter of 2020 we planned a Christmas Reading Challenge and were supported by a donation from the Rotary Club of Thirsk and by Thirsk Yarnbombers to produce a craft bag for every child who participated. Just as we launched this the Country entered another lockdown period which meant we couldn’t invite children into the library to sign up. We managed to sign up nearly 200 children remotely and to issue them with a bag of books and a craft bag with activities in it.

This young reader collected his bundle of books and craft bag from the door of the library.

Financial Position

Our accounts for 2020-2021 show a strong position in terms of income and reserves. However, this figure hides a significant underlying challenge.

We were grateful to receive grants from Hambleton District Council to support us with some of the costs of reopening the library, such as increased costs for sanitiser, signs and cleaning materials. We also received grants from the Treasury aimed at supporting certain businesses and organisations to cover lost income and to re-open and re-launch services. In addition we had already received a grant of £10000 from the National Lottery towards the cost of a part time activities coordinator.

During 2021-2022 we have started to spend this money. The charity trustees felt that as we had received public money we should invest some of this in offering activities at a subsidised price to encourage people to attend the library and to broaden what we could offer to people. We have thus invested in salaries, equipment and promotions and we are planning improvements to the library environment.

We should note that during 2020-2021 our monthly income was reduced by over £1000 per month due to library closures and the reduced ability to raise funds and hold fundraising events.

In memory of Laura Brown

Everyone at Thirsk Community Library was deeply saddened by the sudden passing of Laura Brown in October 2021. Laura was a stalwart of our volunteer team. She was the Vice Chair of the Management Group and took a particular interest in inducting and training new volunteers. Laura was a retired professional librarian who had held many posts in libraries in Belfast and Northern Ireland and her passion for libraries and providing a public library service continued into her retirement. Laura was the inspiration behind our initiative to place books around the area and to deliver books to people during the lockdowns and she worked tirelessly to ensure the library was available to all who wanted it. Laura moved to Thirsk to be near her family and we are glad she came here. In her own quiet way she made a massive contribution to Thirsk and the surrounding area. We miss her greatly and will do all we can to ensure we keep her passion alive.

Thirsk Community Library

Customer Service Standards

We are committed to providing excellent Customer Care.

We will always:

Treat all of our customers fairly, equally and with respect

Help anyone who needs additional support to use our services

Try to make our communications clear and easy to understand

Help people to find the books or information they need and help them connect with other organisations that can help them

Help people with IT or make them an appointment with an IT Buddy

When customers visit us we will:

Greet them and offer help

Attend to people as soon as possible

Provide a welcoming and attractive environment

When a customer calls us we will:

Aim to answer the phone in person within 5 rings

Respond to voicemail messages within one day

Resolve the issue or pass it onto someone who can respond within one working day, letting you know if there is a delay

When a customer contacts us via email or Facebook we will:

Acknowledge the contact and resolve the issue the same working day

Advise the customer if it will take longer and keep them up to date

We will also

Make it easy for you to give us feedback

Use customer feedback to help us improve the service

Share information to tell you how we are doing

Charity Name No (if any) Thirsk Community Library

Receipts and payments accounts For the period Period start date Period end date To from 1-Apr-20 31-Mar-21

Section A Receipts and payments

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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Lottery Garnt 10,000 - - 10,000
COVID Business Support 39,513 - - 39,513
IT Project 2,680 - - 2,680
Other Grants & Donations 1,412 - - 1,412
Library Services 1,002 - - 1,002
Fund Raising 982 - - 982
Room Hire 428 - - 428
Bank Interest 89 - - 89
56,106 - - 56,106
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 56,106 - - 56,106
A3 Payments
Events 220 - - 220
COVID Provisions 2,863 - - 2,863
IT Project 1,284 - - 1,284
Insurance and Rent 4,025 - - 4,025
Staff Salaries 2,430 - - 2,430
Marketing 400 - - 400
Legal Costa 720 - - 720
Fund Raising 348 - - 348
Administration Costs & Maintenance 610 - - 610
Sub total [ 12,900 ] - - 12,900
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
Camera 808 - - 808
Office Equipment 570 - - 570
Sub total [ 1,378 ] - - 1,378
Total payments 14,278 - - 14,278
Net of receipts/(payments) 41,828 - - 41,828
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end - - - -
Cash funds this year end 41,828 - - 41,828
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

			Unrestricted		Restricted
Categories	Details		funds		funds
B1 Cash funds	Barclays Bank Nationwide Building Society *Total cash funds*		to nearest £ 61,118 10,089 - 71,207		to nearest £ - - - -
	(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))		Agreement Error	OK
			Unrestricted		Restricted
			funds		funds
B2 Other monetary assets	Details		to nearest £ - - - - - -		to nearest £ - - - - - -
B3 Investment assets	Details		Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) - - - - -
B4 Assets retained for the	Details Shelving and Supports		Unrestricted Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional) 2,541
charity’s own use	Trolleys & Library Boxes Blinds Gazebo Table & Chairs Desk Chair Camera Filing Cabinets		Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted		208 140 523 154 808 270 - -
			Fund to which		Amount due
B5 Liabilities	Details		liability relates		- - - - - (optional)
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees		Signature	Print	Name

Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees

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CC16a
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Last year

to the nearest £

5,000 5,482 5,571 4,757 3,150 - 23,960

23,960

1,190 - 2,462 4,249 - 70 - 1,338 1,270 10,579

718 154 872 11,451 12,509 - - 12,509

Endowment funds

to nearest £ - - - -

Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - - - -

Current value (optional) - - - - -

Current value (optional) - - - - - - - - - When due (optional)

Date of approval

Independent euminerfs to the tntstees of Third( Conwnunity Ubrary Tnst I report to the trustees on my examÉnation ofthe accounts ofThirsk Community Library Trust Ithe Trust) for the year ended 31 March 2021 Responslblllts ba515 of report As the charity trustees of the Trust you are responsible for the preparatn of the accounts in accordan with the requirements of the Charities Art 2011 (the Artl. I report in re5pert of my exarnir)*itin of the Trusvs accounts carried out under settion 145 of the 2011 Att and in carrying OLrt my examination I have followed all applicable Direciions given by the harity Commission undersection 14515llbl of the Act lftdependent examinerfs statement I have completed my examination. I confim) that no material matter5 have come to my attention in connecknon with the examlnation &4ving me caijse to beEie¥e that in any material respetr. l. Atcounting records were kept in respeLt of the Trust as requId by seLtion 130 of the Act: or 2. The accouTrts do not accord wtth those record& I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this rewjrt in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be rea Signed: Name David Reginakl TUCKER Relevant professional qualification or membership of professional bodies lif any)- Nil Address: 98 Topcliffe Road. Sowerby. Thirsk. North Yorkshire. Y07 IRY Date: 25 August 2021

2021-03-31-accounts