Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 30 September 2023
www.opendofe.org Registered Charity No. 1169592 Charitable Incorporated Organisation No. CE008073
Open DofE Centres in West Sussex
Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 30 September 2023
Table of Contents
| Public Benefit Declaration | 2 |
|---|---|
| Report of the Trustees: | |
| Chair’s Report | 2 |
| Treasurer’s Report | 3 |
| Achievements & Performance | 3 |
| List of Leaders & Volunteers | 5 |
| Receipts and Payments account for the year ended 30 September 2023 | 6 |
| Statement of assets and liabilities at 30 September 2023 | 7 |
| Notes to the Accounts | 8 |
| Trust Information | 9 |
| Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Open DofE Centres in | 10 |
| West Sussex (the CIO) |
Open DofE Centres in West Sussex Annual Report for the year ended 30 September 2023
Public Benefit Declaration
The Trustees have paid due regard to the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit.
Our Charity’s aim is to provide open access for the delivery of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award in West Sussex.
We pride ourselves in supporting all the young people to ensure they complete their full Award, to provide them with the experience and life skills their participation gives them individually.
The following reports describe how the charity meets its aim.
Some silver teams arriving at camp on their assessed expedition in the Peak District
Report of the Trustees
Chair’s Report
It has certainly been a stable accounting year, the first one where only one location had been operating under the charity.
Personnel wise, it has been great to have the help of Oli and Alice, two of our recent Gold achievers, as well as Russ, who contacted us wanting to volunteer with us – Thank you and welcome to the charity and organisation.
It has continued to be a busy 12 months, for all levels of the Award. More detail about the activities are noted in the achievements and performance section below. The year saw a slight change in responsibilities, with Ollie taking the lead for our Gold participants.
Ongoing interest from new participants remains steady.
All trustee meetings have continued to be held virtually, very much for convenience and sustainability, rather than necessity now, as the trustees live a number of miles from each other.
Our focus for the coming year, will need some new kit, specifically tents, as well as a review of the website, to make it easier to maintain and undertake regular required updates.
Cathy Childs Chair
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Treasurer’s Report
The Accounting Period for the Charity’s sixth year of operation is 1st October 2022 – 30th September 2023 and I am pleased to report that it has been another good year.
All activities are running well as we fully return to our pre covid adventurous areas, but unfortunately due to the cost of living increase our running costs have also increased compared to last year. However, we have tried to keep our expedition costs reasonable, but transport hire is proving challenging due to the lack of local minibuses available for hire.
In general, the Charity has seen an increase in new participants from the previous year, however a decrease in the numbers undertaking an expedition with us has caused a subsequent decrease in income. This year, the number of participants doing their expedition would generally be those who registered with us in the year. The previous years’ expeditions, due to delays because of the Covid restrictions, would include participants who have registered in previous years.
The Charity is still in a very strong position going forwards and it is looking to use some of its funds to simplify the maintenance of the website by purchasing some new software as well as purchasing some new equipment for the 2024 expedition season, which will be mainly tents.
Dave Hatton Trustee and Treasurer
Many of the achievers attending the 2022 presentation evening
Achievements & Performance
This last year felt as if we caught up with the delays and backlogs caused by the COVID pandemic and that we had returned to our pre-pandemic levels of activity across all sections and levels of the Award.
Once again, the Bronze level saw a high number of enrolments with a pleasing number of completions so far. The Silver level of the Award had a record number of participants this year and many of whom have already completed their Silver Award and have progressed to Gold.
We saw a slightly reduced number of participants enrolling for the Gold Award however as this level requires a minimum age of 16 to register, when many Silvers have not yet attained the age, a small delay in registration is expected.
A lot of Volunteering hours were devoted to supporting Parkrun as well as the various levels of the Scout and Guide movement. Helping with junior sports teams also continues to be a popular Volunteering opportunity and we did see a return to charity shop volunteering opportunities. Albeit taken from a slightly different reporting period (1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023) the volunteering commitments from the young people were a huge 1794 hours equating to a social value of £8628.
The Physical Section has seen a full return to team sports this year as well as an increased interest in racquet sports and fitness. We have also seen a return to popularity for swimming and horse riding.
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Creative arts have been in evidence this year along with cooking/baking, first aid courses and music at all levels for the Skill Sections and one participant learning sign language via an online course.
Expeditions had local training (Surrey/Sussex) at all levels as well as outdoor days devoted to skills learning, i.e. campcraft. Bronze expeditions continued close to home on the South Downs and the woodlands of the Surrey/Sussex borders. Silver expeditions were in the New Forest and Peak District. Gold expeditions were once again in the Dark Peak (Derbyshire) and Brecon Beacons. Weather conditions continue to vary greatly and provided an additional challenge for the young people in having to be adaptable to cope with a variety of temperatures as well as the dry and wet weather.
The Gold Residential had a variety of environmental and activity-based opportunities, including some waterbased ventures, with some of them overseas too.
Overall enrolments were slightly up on the previous year, though the number of young people undertaking an expedition was slightly lower. The previous years expedition numbers would have been a little skewed as a number of participants had registered in a previous year and due to covid restrictions, the expedition part had been delayed. It was though fabulous to facilitate the completion of a couple of Gold Awards where some participants had delayed their expedition to focus on their education post covid, a real benefit of out Open status to be able to facilitate the award for your people of any age. In addition, one gold participant did their expedition on horseback, via an AAP and had a great time.
Our overall completion rate was 89% (91 enrolments and 81 achievers), a wonderful achievement by the young people from Horsham.
Our enrolments during the 12 months
Our completions during the 12 months
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List of Leaders & Volunteers
The following individuals, either regularly or occasionally, have contributed to the successful delivery of the Duke of Edinburgh Award for young people in West Sussex during the period.
Some feedback shared from 2023, summarises to well what a valuable role all the volunteers are undertaking to support the young people from the Horsham area:
“It is so kind of you all to give up your time to support our teenagers, to teach them new skills, to help them become more resilient and to grow in confidence. (It is also great to be able to get them off their phones for 4 days-that's an achievement in its own right!!)
I just wanted to say thank you because what you do as part of the DofE is really valuable and very much appreciated!”
The volunteers are listed in alphabetical order.
Linda Batchelor David Hatton Paul Brooks David Munn Cathy Childs Charlotte Nichols (CJ) Keith Ediss Michelle Pope Oliver Foord Martin Tomlinson Barry Goodchild Oli Tullett Kate Hall Richard Ward Dorothy Harrod Alice Slade Mike Harrod Russ Warman
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Open DofE Centres in West Sussex (Charity No 1169592) Receipts and Payments account for the year ended 30 September 2023
| Income Note Contributions to Training costs Expeditions 10 Grants and Donations 2 Direct Charitable Expenditure Equipment Repair / recurring costs Expeditions 10 Fees and Insurance 9 Training 8 Other expenditure Bank Charges/Fees Support Costs 3 Cash and bank balances carried forward Cash and bank balances brought forward Net Surplus/(Deficit) for the year Total expenditure Camping and Navigation Equipment Asset purchases Transport and Fuel Registrations Fees & Interest Registrations Sales and Events Sundry |
2022-23 2022-23 2021-22 2021-22 Unrestricted Funds Total Unrestricted Funds Total £ £ £ £ 0 0 504 504 11,165 11,165 14,193 14,193 149 149 822 822 72 72 0 0 4,507 4,507 3,215 3,215 0 0 0 0 0 281 281 15,893 15,893 19,015 19,015 |
|---|---|
| 20 20 3,771 3,771 5,542 5,542 1,318 1,318 1,131 1,131 3,021 3,021 1,484 1,484 100 100 1,182 1,182 3,407 3,407 3,545 3,545 |
|
| 11,637 11,637 12,884 12,884 187 187 138 138 425 425 662 662 |
|
| 612 612 13,684 13,684 940 940 1,174 1,174 |
|
| 13,189 13,189 14,858 14,858 |
|
| 2704 2704 4,157 4,157 13828 13828 9,671 9,671 |
|
| 16532 16532 13,828 13,828 |
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Open DofE Centres in West Sussex (Charity No 1169592) Statement of Assets and Liabilities at 30 September 2023
| Santander Business Savings a/c Insurance value Insurance value Cash in hand Cash and bank balances Santander Current a/c Paypal Represented by funds: Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Other assets and liabilities Fixed Assets Equipment Computer equipment Current Assets |
30/9/2023 £ 59 917 14,572 984 16,532 16,532 12,153 1,467 13,620 |
30/9/2022 |
|---|---|---|
| £ 59 12,403 1,366 |
||
| 13,828 | ||
| 13,828 12,153 1,467 |
||
| 13,620 |
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David Hatton
Treasurer and Trustee
9 January 2024
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Catherine Childs
Chair of the Trustees
9 January 2024
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Notes to the accounts
1 Accounting policies
| 1 Accounting policies | ||
|---|---|---|
| These accounts are prepared on a receipts an 2 Grants and Donations Grants - unrestricted Total 3 Support Costs Post, printing, stationery & phones Website development and maintenance Meetings Award events Premises hire Clothing and Sundry Refunds Total |
d payments basis. 30/09/2023 149 £ 149 £ 7 £ 168 £ - £ 250 £ - £ - £ - £ 425 £ |
30/9/2022 |
| 822 £ |
||
| 822 £ |
||
| - £ 130 £ - £ - £ - £ 532 £ - £ |
||
| 662 £ |
4 Trustees' Remuneration, Expenses and Benefits
No trustee or person connected to them received any remuneration or benefits during the year
5 Risk Management
The trustees have carried out a Risk Assessment audit of all the major risks relating to the operation of the Charity and its conduct of DofE training and expeditions. They actively review this regularly, and are satisfied that systems and procedures are in place to mitigate their exposure to major risks.
6 Reserves Policy
The General Fund represents unrestricted funds arising from past operations, and unrestricted grants or donations. The aim is to keep at least one year’s running costs in reserves.
- 7 Outstanding Guarantees and secured Debts
The trustees confirm, in accordance with the Charitable Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012, that at the year end the CIO did not have any outstanding guarantees to third parties nor any debts secured on assets of 8 Training Costs h Leader training costs for a 16 hour first aid course for 1 leader
9 Fees and Insurance
An increase this year due to paying for an accountancy package.
10 Expeditions
A decrease in costs due to lower number of participants undertaking an expedition with us in relation to the previous year
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Trust information
Trustees
| Trustee Name | Office(if any) | Appointed | Retired |
|---|---|---|---|
| Catherine Childs | Chair | 11/10/2016 | |
| Ollie Foord | 29/6/2021 | ||
| BarryGoodchild | 28/9/2018 | ||
| Kate Hall | 11/10/2016 | ||
| David Hatton | Treasurer from 1/11/2022 |
26/4/2022 | |
| Martin Tomlinson MBE | 11/10/2016 |
Trustees are recruited from persons who are familiar with the aims and policies of the Charity, and the aims of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, and have appropriate skills, knowledge, and experience to undertake specific roles.
Correspondence addresses: Chair: Catherine Childs, 124 Fairfield Drive, Dorking, Surrey RH4 1JJ Treasurer: David Hatton, 34 Hill Mead, Horsham, West Sussex, RH12 2PU
Bankers:
Santander plc, Bridle Road, Bootle, Merseyside L30 4GB
Independent Examiner:
Michael Merritt MA FCA, 87 Worcester Road, Chichester, PO19 5EB
Constitution: Constitution dated 11[th] October 2016
Charity Registration No: 1169592 Charitable Incorporated Organisation No. CE008073 Web site: www.opendofe.org
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Independent Examiner’s report to the Trustees of the Open D of E Centres in West Sussex
(“the CIO”)
I report to the Charity trustees on my examination of the accounts of the CIO for the year ended 30 September 2023.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the Charity trustees of the CIO you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act).
I report in respect of my examination of the CIO’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the Act. In carrying out my examination I have followed all applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5) (b) of the Act.
Independent examiner’s statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
-
Accounting records were not kept as required by section 130 of the Act; or
-
The accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters to which your attention should be drawn to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Signed: M W Merritt Date: 1 May 2024
Name: M W Merritt Relevant professional qualification: FCA Address: 87 Worcester Road, Chichester, West Sussex PO19 5EB
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