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2022-03-31-accounts

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum

Trustees’ Annual Report and Receipts and Payments accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Registered Charity number 1170171

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Index
Page
Report of the trustees 3-11
Report of the Independent Examiner 12
Receipt and payment accounts 13
Statement of assets and liabilities 14
Notes to the accounts 15-16

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Report of the trustees

The trustees of the Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (“the Charity”) have pleasure in presenting the accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022 which comply with the Charities Act 2011 and the Charity’s Constitution.

The Charity was registered on 15 November 2016 and commenced activity once a bank account had been opened and funds transferred from the previous unincorporated charity. This took place on 1 February 2019. Prior activity is shown in the accounts of the old charity (Birmingham Open Spaces Forum, registered number 1142231).

Objectives and activities

As set out in its Constitution, the Charity’s objects are:

The Charity pursues its objects through the following activities:

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Report of the trustees continued

In shaping the objectives for each year, and planning ahead, the Trustees take due consideration of the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit, including the guidance “Public Benefit: Running a Charity (PB2)”.

For a large part of the year April 2021 – March 2022, COVID continued to impact on our service. The benefits and delights of Birmingham’s parks and open spaces were heightened during the pandemic and this led to an increase in enquiries particularly from communities who previously, we had little or no engagement with. Measures adopted during the pandemic to bring members together via Zoom proved to be immensely popular and alongside a series of face to face social events, continued to be arranged enabling more members ready access to our networking events. As a result, we sought funding to employ a second community development team member on a part time basis and delightfully, made an appointment in February 2022.

Achievements and performance

(A) To advance the education of the public in the environment, understanding, application and conservation of open spaces within the City of Birmingham.

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF) is a membership organisation that brings together people in Birmingham with an interest in parks and green open spaces. We support groups who want to ensure that green open spaces are accessible to people who live and work across the city. We do this by providing information to groups and individuals. We create opportunities for groups and individuals interested in open spaces to share skills, knowledge and experience by arranging networking and knowledge exchange events. We also produce regular updates about funding sources, training opportunities, events in open spaces and other information of interest to our members.

We believe that an ‘open space’ is any green area accessible to the local community and this includes parks, allotments, nature reserves, public open spaces, cemeteries, wildlife corridors, woodlands, playing fields, community gardens and informal green spaces.

During the year we set up 14 new groups and undertook intensive community development Endeavors, hopefully concluding with the formation of a further 6 groups. Other activities continued including an increased social media presence which not only served to celebrate the work and successes of our membership but also acted as the conduit of information relating to the environmental agenda, our partners and the safe use of parks whilst the effects of the pandemic continued. At the close of the financial year our Twitter followers numbered 2,676, Facebook 1,723 and Instagram 978.

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

In 2021 - 2022 we organised 11 events which took place at a range of locations and via Zoom Unfortunately, COVID restrictions meant we were unable to host our annual conference and Christmas lecture.

( B) To promote the protection, conservation, and improvement of the physical and natural environment of Birmingham.

With support from Birmingham City Council and Get Grants Ltd., we continued to operate a ‘seed corn fund’ for member groups. This provided member groups with a means to apply for funding for projects they wanted to deliver. £10,000 from Birmingham City Council (‘BCC’) enabled the generation of funds to the value of over £100,000 for sites across the city and in the latter stages of the financial year, we were given a further £20,000 to continue this work which allows our members to protect, improve and enhance their respective park and/or open space.

Our Freelance Administrator collected volunteer data from member groups allowing us to promote the great work and extent of volunteering taking place in Birmingham’s parks and open spaces. In 2021/22 a total of 118 member groups undertook 86,537 hours of volunteering work across a range of disciplines. This information is hugely influential and informative to Birmingham Parks Service as well as many other environmental partners, as it is indicative of the high regard that our public spaces have in the affections of Birmingham residents as well as the overall desire and need to improve on such spaces and utilises them to their full extent. Our excellent data collection is at the heart of this financial year’s significant successes with funders.

We continued to support the Future Parks Accelerator Programme, both strategically and as a delivery partner, and consolidated our support by becoming an integral partner in the Birmingham City of Nature Alliance, an initiative borne from the Future Parks Accelerator Programme which was funded by the Commonwealth Games Legacy fund administered by Birmingham Council. We continued to be represented on the West Midlands Park Forum and the National Federation of Parks & Green Spaces consolidating our national profile. Other organisations we have worked closely with include, Clean-up UK, Birmingham Trees for Life, the University of Birmingham, the RSPB and the Birmingham and Black Country Wildlife Trust.

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

(C) To promote and enhance the open spaces within the City of Birmingham as recreational facilities in the interest of social welfare, to improve the conditions of life for the inhabitants without distinction of political, religious, or other opinions:

Neighbourhood Network Scheme funding whose specific aim is to develop the support people need to lead happy, independent lives, allowed us to roll out Tai Chi sessions to 27 different parks enabling us to promote the benefits of our parks and open spaces to a new audience. We have continued to develop support for additional groups working to improve their local streets and areas through ‘Greening the Grey’ the effects of which are to be seen in reductions of litter, minor works, trough planting and improved community cohesion.

Although something of a diversification, the success of the Tai Chi programme illustrated how we reached out to new audiences. By facilitating Tai Chi in our parks, we have broadened park usage beyond that which is traditional. More people now appreciate the importance of their park and/or local green space. Going forward we intend to facilitate further park-related activities thereby engaging yet more people and affirming the significance of parks and open spaces in the day to day healthy lives of more Birmingham residents.

Financial review

Over the year, BOSF received a total income of £249,164. Out of this income with an expenditure of £135,843 leaving an operating surplus of £113,321.

Income

BOSF’s net income has increased by £137,305. The organisation received grants from various funders. These sources of income have allowed us to finance all our activities as well as guarantee a consistent restricted and unrestricted stream of funding.

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

During the year BOSF supported the installation of notice boards in several parks to enhance communication with park users and promote local activities, as such, BOSF anticipated and transferred the money for the cost of the notice boards and their installation which was later reimbursed by the Council (£2,327). This has helped to speed the process up and allow an earlier start of the work. Additionally, £6,000 were paid for the service of a Financial Sustainable Adviser who was engaged as a consultant to BOSF to explore sustainable finance for the Birmingham Future Parks Accelerator Project. Lastly, £1,000 was held on behalf of a friend’s group until their bank account is opened.

In February BOSF received £192.70 from HMRC as part of covid related statutory Sick Pay for one of the workers.

In addition, BOSF received the following donations:

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

21-22 has shown the importance of income diversification to help with the financial sustainability of the organization, therefore this new operating model which involved more bid writing and partnership work will continue to be used to have a more balanced approach to income generation.

Expenditure

BOSF’s expenditure increased substantially last year. The nearly 58% increase (£49,758) in the charity expenses is due to the employment of two additional members of staff to support the existing volunteer offer and get a better understanding of volunteer motivations and participation, and the increase of weekly hours of the existing FPA Community Facilitator from 22.5 to 35. In addition, freelance contractor hours also increased to carry out additional responsibilities managing the tai-chi funds and volunteer data. As a result of this, there has been an overall rise in overhead costs, including salaries, national insurance and pension contributions but also, payroll and bank charges.

Project expenses were also much higher than in previous years due to the high number of tai-chi sessions delivered on a weekly basis across Birmingham and engagement sessions provided by the Volunteer Development Coordinators. Professional and fundraising fees have increased because of the work carried out by the Financial Advisor and Get Grants.

Overview

2021-2022 has been a very successful year for BOSF and we are very proud of all that we have achieved together. Despite the great opportunities that the year has offered us, BOSF Trustees are aware that challenges will also arise and continue but Trustees now feel more prepared to face unforeseen situations.

Based on the information available in respect of the future, the reviewed forecast and cashflow for March 2023, and the income generated during the current financial year, Trustees are confident that BOSF has the plans and resources to manage its business risk successfully and to continue delivering its core activities effectively next year.

Reserves policy

As part of the BOSF’s Reserves Policy, BOSF holds a reserves account to ensure that main operations can continue for a period of at least three months and that redundancy costs are covered if funding difficulties arise. At the last review done in September 2021, trustees agreed that a transfer of £5,000 to accurately reach the amount stated in BOSF’s reserve policy. At end of March 2022, the account held £20,183.75 . The reserves policy will continue to be kept under periodic review and reserves levels may be adjusted as perceptions of risks and other factors change.

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Structure, Governance and Management

BOSF registered as a CIO with the Charities Commission for England and Wales on 15 November 2016.

Governing Document

Birmingham Open Spaces Forum is a registered Charity governed by its Constitution adopted on 16 February 2016 and amended on 10 July 2017.

Appointment of trustees, induction & training

All trustees are elected at a BOSF Annual General Meeting and serve a two-year term. They bring with them skills, knowledge, and experience to contribute to the Charity’s activities and to discharge their obligations as Trustees.

In order to keep the Trustees and Friend’s groups fully informed of the progress of the projects and to ensure that staff are provided with support and strategic direction, meetings are held monthly, alternating between Trustees only meetings and advisory committee meetings.

Management and administration.

The Community Open Spaces Development Manager’s role is to develop and manage the Forum in line with current aims and objectives as well as raise the profile of BOSF locally and nationally and establish good links with Parks and Open Spaces Community Groups, Birmingham City Council and all interested agencies. Amongst other duties, the manager helps to set up new groups and support existing ones, attends Steering group meetings, and give regular update reports and newsletters; organises and runs BOSF annual conference and networking opportunities in Birmingham and helps secure funding, not only to friend’s groups, but also the Forum.

The Communications Officer’s role is to support the effective promotion of BOSF’s aims and objectives using a mix of social media, communications, and marketing channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Website) and attending steering group meetings with partners. In addition, the Communications Officer assists BOSF’s member groups on social media and communications and is currently working with young people to increase young people’s knowledge, input, and activity in green open spaces.

Two members of part time staff fulfilled their fixed term roles as Volunteer Development Coordinators as part of the Future Parks Accelerator programme in August 2021. The success of this work was the foundation for further work and in February 2022, we recruited a further Volunteer Development Co-ordinator to engage with park users and the wider community to develop opportunities for volunteering, community management and development of the sites.

Freelance admin provides administrative support 1 or 2 days a week. Her main aim is to gather and compile volunteer data from Friend’s groups, produce infographics and give administrative support in meetings.

An Operations Manager was recruited in November 2021 to oversee operations, staff, budgets, project delivery, strategy and reporting to the Trustees. This post is strengthening our governance as a Charity and indeed as an employer; we now have a suite of policies, key

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

performance indicators for ease of reporting to our funders, and a proper structure for the care and oversight of all staff.

The Trustees delegate the day-to-day running and administering of the charity and its activities to the Operations Manager, Community Open Spaces Development Manager and other members of the staff team.

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Reference and administrative information

Charity Number: 1170171

Trustees:

C Blythe (Chair) T Clark A Grande Cristobal E WoolfMBE

Registered Office:

School of Horticulture The White House Kings Heath Park Vicarage Road B14 7TQ

Bankers:

Independent Examiner:

Unity Trust Bank plc Karen Hanlan independent Examiner Ltd Nine Brindley Place 1 Saracen Close Birmingham Ettington B1 2HB CV37 7SZ

Approved by the Board and signed on its behalf by:

Date: 29[th] January 2023

C Blythe Chair of Trustees

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Birmingham Open Spaces Forum on the receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 31 March 2022

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (‘the charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2022 which are set out on pages 13 to 16.

Responsibilities and basis of report

As the trustees of the Charity, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the Charity’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 2011 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:

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.

Karen Hanlan, Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales Date: 29th January 2023 Karen Hanlan Independent Examiner Limited 1 Saracen Close, Ettington, CV37 7SZ

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Receipts and Payments Accounts
RECEIPTS
Donations & grants
Charitable activities
Bank Interest
Total receipts
PAYMENTS
Fundraising costs
Payments for volunteer data collection
Staff cost (note 1)
FRAP project costs
Thai Chi Sessions
Project professional fees
Other project costs
Freelance contractor payments
Conference & networking events
Website/IT costs
Travel expenses
Insurance
Payroll charges
Independent Examiners fee
Bank charges
Management Fee
Total payments
NET OF RECEIPTS AND PAYMENTS
Transfer of funds
Cash funds at beginning of year
Cash funds at end of year		 Un-restricted
funds
Restricted
funds
Total funds
2022
Total funds
2021
£
£
£
£
73,500
43,460
116,960
62,974
71,564
60,628
132,192
48,870
12
-
12
15
145,076
104,088
249,164
111,859
-
6,400
6,400
3,007
9,520
-
9,520
8,010
45,066
16,651
61,717
43,632
19,653
-
19,653
15,326
-
15,743
15,743
1,147
12,000
-
12,000
6,000
775
775
1,334
2,048
5,000
7,048
4,251
150
-
150
-
163
-
163
672
794
393
1,187
1,365
471
-
471
494
240
-
240
225
650
-
650
550
126
-
126
72
(5,385)
5,385
-
-
86,271
49,572
135,843
86,085
58,805
54,516
113,321
25,774
-
-
-
-
41,809
10,733
52,542
26,768
100,614
65,249
165,863
52,542

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Statement of Assets and Liabilities

Un-restricted Restricted 2022 2021
funds funds Total Total
£ £ £ £
Unity Trust Current account 100,614 45,065 145,679 37,370
Unity Trust Deposit account - 20,184 20,184 15,172
Cash at bank and in hand 100,614 65,249 165,863 52,542

Approved by the Trustees and signed on their behalf by:

Date: 29[th] January 2023

C Blythe Chair of Trustees

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

Notes to the financial statements

1. Staff costs, trustee remuneration and expenses

Staff costs comprise:
Salaries
National Insurance
Pension costs
Total		 2022
2021
£
£
59,973
42,369
-
-
1,744
1,263
61,717
43,632

The charity’s Trustees were not paid nor received any other benefits from employment in the year (2021: £nil). No expenses were reimbursed to Trustees in the year (2021: £nil).

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Birmingham Open Spaces Forum Trustees Report and Receipts and Payments Accounts for the period ended 31 March 2022

2. Fund movements

Restricted funds
Funder
Fund purpose
Awards for All
Volunteer Group Support
Sports
Birmingham
Thai Chi sessions in parks
Selly Oak NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Selly Oak Park
Edgbaston NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Edgbaston Park
Erdington NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Erdington Park
Hall Green NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Hall Green Park
Ladywood NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Ladywood Park
Northfield NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Northfield Park
Perry Barr NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Perry Barr Park
Yardley Green
NNS
Thai Chi sessions in Yardley Park
Greening The
Grey
Support for groups to clean up open
spaces
Seedcorn Fund
Funding to support groups with
applications for funding
FINCH RSPB
Engaging communities with their
natural heritage
Unrestricted
funds
-
General
funds
Total		 Balance at
beginning
of year
Receipts
Payments
Balance at
end of year
£
£
£
£
-
9,880
(2,470)
7,410
3,600
-
(3,600)
-
7,133
4,200
(7,051)
4,282
-
5,000
(630)
4,370
-
5,000
(1,160)
3,840
-
6,000
(1,530)
4,470
-
2,120
(450)
1,670
-
5,000
(630)
4,370
-
2,020
(210)
1,810
-
4,240
(480)
3,760
-
28,585
(24,961)
3,624
-
30,000
(6,400)
23,600
-
2,043
-
2,043
10,733
104,088
(49,572)
65,249
41,809
145,076
(86,271)
100,614
52,542
249,164
(135,843)
165,863

3. Transactions with related parties

There were no transactions with related parties during the year that require disclosure in these accounts (2021: none).

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