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← Lighthouse Central

2023-12-31-accounts

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REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 DECEMBER 2023 FOR

LIGHTHOUSE CENTRAL

Registered charity in England & Wales with registration no: 1169839

LIGHTHOUSE CENTRAL

CONTENTS OF THE REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENTS for the year ended 31 December 2023

Page
Report of the Trustees 3 to 8
Section 1: Structure, Governance &
Management
Section 2: Objectives & Activities
Section 3: Achievements & Performance
Section 4: Financial Review
Section 5: Declaration
Independent Examiner's Report 9
Statement of Financial Activities 10
Balance Sheet 11
Notes to the Financial Statements 12 to 13

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LIGHTHOUSE CENTRAL REPORT OF THE TRUSTEES

for the year ended 31 December 2023

The trustees present their report together with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 December 2023. The trustees have adopted the provisions of Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015).

ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS

Registered Charity number 1169839

Registered address:

Lighthouse Central Bridge House Station Approach Great Missenden HP16 9AZ

Trustees:

Graeme Slocombe - Chair, end of term 14[th] November 2023 Ben Sharp - Chair from 14th November 2023 Toby Long - appointed 26[th] September 2023 David Knights - resigned 14[th] November 2023 Cathy Rayner - appointed 14[th] November 2023

Director:

Patricia Reading

Patron:

Gary Grant

Independent examiner:

Ian Branch

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Section 1: Structure, Governance & Management

Governing document

Lighthouse Central is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) governed by its Constitution dated 19 October 2016. The members of the CIO are its trustees and membership cannot be transferred to anyone else. Therefore, only the trustees of the CIO can vote on any matter relating to the CIO. The CIO is also governed by its Bye Laws dated 21 October 2016. The Bye-Laws can be changed, but only by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the trustees.

Appointment of trustees

As set out in the Constitution, trustees are appointed by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. The chair of trustees is nominated by the trustees of the CIO and may at any point revoke such appointment. When considering the appointment of trustees, the board has regard to the requirement for any specialist skills needed for the effective administration of the CIO.

Trustee induction

Having mostly had personal contact with a local Lighthouse, new trustees are often well aware of our objectives and the work we undertake. As such, the induction of new trustees is minimal. New trustees receive a copy of the current version of the Constitution and Bye Laws, a copy of the most recent Trustees’ Annual Report and statement of accounts, and the Charity Commission’s ‘Charity Trustee Welcome Pack’ and ‘The essential trustee: what you need to know, what you need to do (CC3)’ guide. All of the Trustees are also required to complete the NSPCC on line training course for charity trustees.

Organisation

The board of trustees, which can have up to eight members, administers the CIO, with responsibilities for different areas. The Director reports to the Chair of Trustees, Volunteers with management responsibilities report to the Director. The board meets at least three times a year, in accordance with the Bye Laws.

All trustees, and members of committees, give their time voluntarily and received no benefits from the charity.

Key management remuneration

Key management staff received remuneration of £18,831 during the year. The salary was decided by the trustees and will be reviewed annually and benchmarked against national rates for Youth and Community workers.

Our Director now works three days a week for Lighthouse Central.

Section 2: Objective & Activities

Lighthouse Central was set up to:

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Significant activities

Lighthouse is a non-residential, week-long holiday club for children run by Christians from local churches working together, bringing churches and communities together around young people.

Lighthouse Central brings together everything that churches need to run a Lighthouse, delivering administrative support, content and leadership. We are passionate about seeing children from all walks of life and abilities, those with faith and without, encountering God in a fun-filled week with teaching, sport, craft, performing arts and music.

Each one of the established Lighthouses is an independent charity who raise their own funds and make all their own local arrangements.

During the last 12 months Lighthouse Central has:

Public benefit

In shaping our objectives for the year and planning our activities, the trustees have considered the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, including the guidance ‘Public benefit: running a charity (PB2)’.

Lighthouse Central facilitates the provision of free children’s holiday clubs which are open to all irrespective of beliefs. They provide a great week of fun activities and teaching and strengthen relationships in the community with several churches working together.

Section 3: Achievements & Performance

Lighthouse Central supported 12 local Lighthouse charities to each run a week-long holiday club in July/August 2023.

Two Lighthouses were unable to run this year due to changes in their Trustee base, one will return with a new team and a new site in 2024, the other will not be able to continue.

One new Lighthouse started in Haddenham, a village about 5 miles south-west of Aylesbury and 4 miles north-east of Thame in neighbouring Oxfordshire.

The services provided included:

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These 12 Lighthouses were able to reach over 2,250 children and involved over 1,400 volunteer helpers from teenagers to retirees.

Chairman’s Report for 2023

We began the year with a Vision Day, re-setting the Lighthouse Central Strategy and Plan.

Our vision: Bringing God’s Kingdom to children and young people

Our mission: Growing and supporting the family of Lighthouses across the UK

Lighthouse Central is passionate about seeing children and young people from all walks of life and with any ability encounter God. We support a family of Lighthouses across the UK to provide nonresidential holiday clubs for children and young people. We help churches to build strong ties with their local communities, bringing them together to provide fun-filled activity weeks with teaching, sport, craft, performing arts and music.

To fulfil our vision and mission, we set the following strategic objectives which guided our 2023 work and which we envisage will endure for at least 5-10 years::

We were delighted that a new Lighthouse opened at Haddenham with 147 children attending and over 90 volunteers. They plan to increase numbers in 2024.

Lighthouse Burnham will be returning in 2024 and our 15[th] Lighthouse is expected open in Derby City in 2024.

We had the great honour of being the subject of a film made by the Church of England (CofE) that will be shown across all CofE social media channels. We have prayed that this will lead to many new enquiries from communities across the UK who would like to run a Lighthouse of their own.

We supported Lighthouse Hazlemere, who have been running since 2000, in their decision to move from their traditional site and to instead run in a local church primary school. By reducing the number of children attending they were able to use the school and the adjacent Holy Trinity Church, which had recently been extensively remodelled and offered excellent space. The move was extremely effective and the Lighthouse had a very successful year.

Our model shows financial self-sustainability for Lighthouse Central once there are around 50 Lighthouses within the family and using our services. Until then, we are reliant on financial donations from both existing and new supporters and so we put effort into expanding our ‘Friends of Lighthouse’ initiative and continuing to make applications to funding organisations.

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We finished the year again with our Trustees and Director dressed as Santas, complete with beard, and running a 5k fun run in Marlow. The sponsorship was a great success and we also gratefully benefited from a shared pot of money from Marlow Rotary Club, raising over £2,600 in total.

Our biggest initiative throughout 2023 has been adopting a new database, provided externally by The Software Charity. The product is called SignMeUp and is a bespoke, secure, on-line database with an intuitive and easy to use software solution that automates the administration processes required to run a Holiday Club as far as practical. Our existing database was falling behind modern technology practices and was not keeping pace with the demands of a growing base of Lighthouses. We have worked very closely with The Software Charity to ensure that SignMeUp delivers everything and more to run the best holiday club possible.

We said a fond farewell to our Chairman, Graeme Slocombe, towards the end of the year as he moved to elsewhere in the UK. He had steered us out of the Covid-19 pandemic and was instrumental in crafting the strategy and delivery plan. We gave him our very grateful thanks for all his input and guidance.

We are delighted to welcome one new Trustee and one returning Trustee to Lighthouse Central. We are actively recruiting more to ensure strong governance and oversight.

We would also like to thank all the volunteers who work so hard to ensure Lighthouse can continue to be described by many as “the best week of the summer holidays!”

Section 4: Financial Review

Financial position

The annual subscriptions from the 12 Lighthouses that ran this year covered the day-to-day administration costs of Lighthouse Central together with approximately 33% of the costs of the director.

A greater proportion of income came from subscriptions from Lighthouses rather than donations creating a more sustainable funding model going forward. Generous donations from individuals, charitable trusts, and some Lighthouses themselves have enabled us to continue to fund the director. This role is essential to grow the numbers of Lighthouses with the aim that in the long term, the increased subscriptions will enable the charity to be self-sustaining.

We are still seeing a residual effect of the pandemic and the return to pre Covid numbers is slow. A number of Lighthouses have not had as many volunteers as they would like and therefore were unable to take all the children that applied. Despite the worst of the pandemic impacting wider society for around 2 years, we assess our growth trajectory was retrograded by 4-5 years.

Principal funding sources

The principal funding source for the CIO are donations from the beneficiaries of the CIO. Donations from individuals and trusts have also been sources of funding.

Reserves policy

None of our reserves are restricted as to their use. The trustees regularly review the reserves of the charity which are held to meet the ongoing salary costs of the director together with running costs incurred prior to receiving subscriptions from the Lighthouses. The trustees consider that reserves should cover at least 4 months of running and salary costs in normal

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circumstances.

Going concern

In 2024 we will continue to develop a network of “Friends of Lighthouse” to raise further funding from individuals as well as continuing to work with Christian organisations and trusts.

The trustees have a reasonable expectation that fundraising efforts together with the current reserves will enable Lighthouse Central to continue in operational existence for at least one year from the date of approval of the accounts.

Funds in deficit

There are currently no funds in deficit.

Principal risks and uncertainties

The timeline of a church or group of individuals expressing an interest in starting a new Lighthouse and it actually starting is generally two years. Initial growth in the first few years is therefore uncertain and at a slow pace. The trustees have therefore deliberately not committed to significant overheads such as premises to minimise costs. Indeed Lighthouse Central relies heavily on the work of volunteers and services generously donated by Peters Research Ltd such as IT skills and administrative time as well as office space and computer hardware and software.

An additional risk identified this year was the financial impact that could be felt by Lighthouse Central should one or more of the Lighthouses not operate for whatever reason. This occurred in 2023: by 2 Lighthouses not running, Lighthouse Central’s income was suppressed by over £3,000 compared to the forecast budget. This risk will be mitigated in future years, including 2024, by forecasting a 20% reduction in overall Lighthouse attendees compared to the numbers agreed with the Lighthouses during budget setting.

Section 5: Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved this trustees’ report.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:

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Full name: Mr Benjamin Charles Sharp Position: Chair of Trustees Date: 10 October 2024

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INDEPENDENT EXAMINER'S REPORT TO THE TRUSTEES OF LIGHTHOUSE CENTRAL

I report on the accounts for the year ended 31 December 2023 set out on pages 10 to 13.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

The charity's trustees are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The charity's trustees consider that an audit is not required for this year (under Section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act)) and that an independent examination is required.

It is my responsibility to:

Basis of the independent examiner's report

My examination was carried out in accordance with the General Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts and seeking explanations from you as trustees concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit, and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view ' and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statements below.

Independent examiner's statement

In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:

  1. which gives me reasonable cause to believe that, in any material respect, the requirements:

  2. to keep accounting records in accordance with Section 130 of the 2011 Act; and

  3. to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records and to comply with the accounting requirements of the 2011 Act

have not been met; or

  1. to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.

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Mr Ian Branch, FCMA 1 Westminster Close High Wycombe Bucks HP11 1QR

12 September 2024

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LIGHTHOUSE CENTRAL STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

for the year ended 31 December 2023

INCOME AND ENDOWMENTS FROM
Donations
Less donations received in 2023 but accrued in 2024
Gift Aid on donations
Charitable activities
Membership subscriptions & service costs from
Lighthouses
Fundraising Income
Investment Income
Total
EXPENDITURE ON
Charitable activities
Staff
Travel, subsistence and fundraising expenses
Purchase of merchandise and volunteers' t-shirts
Annual conference
Teaching material development & delivery
Legal fees
Computer costs
Donation to The Software Charity
Insurance
Banking Fees
Total
NET INCOME/(EXPENDITURE)
Net movement in funds
RECONCILIATION OF FUNDS
Total funds bought forward
TOTAL FUNDS CARRIED FORWARD		 2023
2022
Total Funds
Total Funds
£
£
Notes
15,597
7,438
6
(425)
2,263
1,825
19,105
15,040
5,398
14,087
2
179
56
42,117
38,446
23,240
29,824
4,005
2,876
159
150
200
600
470
470
19,000
350
315
60
81
48,084
33,716
(5,967)
4,729
(5,967)
4,729
32,229
27,500
26,263
32,229

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LIGHTHOUSE CENTRAL BALANCE SHEET

for the year ended 31 December 2023

CURRENT ASSETS
Cash at bank and in hand
Debtors
CREDITORS
Amounts falling due within one year
NET CURRENT ASSETS
NET ASSETS
FUNDS
Unrestricted Funds
TOTAL FUNDS		 2023
2022
Total Funds
Total Funds
£
£
Notes
25,080
30,036
5
2,161
3,060
6
(979)
(866)
26,263
32,229
26,263
32,229
26,263
32,229
26,263
32,229

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LIGHTHOUSE CENTRAL NOTES TO THE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS

for the year ended 31 December 2023

1. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Basis of preparing the financial statements

The financial statements of the charity, which is a public benefit entity under FRS 102, have been prepared in accordance with the Charities SORP (FRS 102) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland (FRS 102) (effective 1 January 2015)', Financial Reporting Standard 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland' and the Charities Act 2011. The financial statements have been prepared under the historical cost convention.

Financial reporting standard 102 - reduced disclosure exemptions

The charity has taken advantage of the following disclosure exemption in preparing these financial statements, as permitted by FRS 102 'The Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the UK and Republic of Ireland':

Income

All income is recognised in the Statement of Financial Activities once the charity has entitlement to the funds, it is probable that the income will be received and the amount can be measured reliably.

Expenditure

Liabilities are recognised as expenditure as soon as there is a legal or constructive obligation committing the charity to that expenditure, it is probable that a transfer of economic benefits will be required in settlement and the amount of the obligation can be measured reliably. Expenditure is accounted for on an accruals basis and has been classified under headings that aggregate all cost related to the category. Where costs cannot be directly attributed to particular headings they have been allocated to activities on a basis consistent with the use of resources.

Taxation

The charity is exempt from tax on its charitable activities.

Fund accounting

Unrestricted funds can be used in accordance with the charitable objectives at the discretion of the trustees.

Restricted funds can only be used for particular restricted purposes within the objects of the charity. Restrictions arise when specified by the donor or when funds are raised for particular restricted purposes. There were no donations received during the year which were restricted in their use.

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Pension costs and other post-retirement benefits

The charity has made contributions to a pension scheme totalling £660 during the year to 31 December 2023.

(2022: £914)

2. INVESTMENT INCOME

2023 2022
£ £
Interest on bank accounts 179 56

3. TRUSTEES' REMUNERATION, BENEFITS AND EXPENSES

There was no trustees' remuneration or other benefits in the year ended 31 December 2023. (2022: nil)

No Trustee expenses were reimbursed during the year to 31 December 2023. (2022: nil)

4. STAFF COSTS

The average monthly number of employees during the year was as follows:

2023 2022
1 1

No employees received emoluments in excess of £60,000.

5. DEBTORS

Gift Aid receivable from HMRC

Lighthouse subscriptions
Donations		 2023
£
2,161

0

0
2,161		 2022
£
1,309
1,122
629
3060

6. CREDITORS: AMOUNTS FALLING DUE WITHIN ONE YEAR

Tax, national insurance and pension
Travel, subsistence and fundraising expenses
Donations received in 2023 but accrued in 2024
Monies owed to Lighthouses		 2023
£
376
177
425
0
979		 2022
£
578
113
0
175
866

7. RELATED PARTY DISCLOSURES

Donations totalling £6,251 were received from trustees or close relatives of trustees of the charity. (2022: £785)

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