2021-03-31-accounts

ANNUAL REPORT FOR HUDDERSFIELD SAMARITANS 2020-2021

Huddersfield Samaritans

14 New North Parade

Huddersfield HD1 5JP

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Director’s Report _______ 3 Financial Report _______ 4 Trustees who have served ______ 6 Caller Support Report _______ 7 Recruitment and Selection Report ______ 8 Training Report________ 10 Continuous Development (formerly Ongoing training) Report __ 12 Buildings Report _______ 13 Shop Report __________ 15

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DIRECTOR’S REPORT

2020/2021 has probably been one of the most challenging years for Huddersfield Samaritans. During March 2020, we went into the first of three national lockdowns for coronavirus and were still covered by the third one a year later. As Samaritans, we were designated as an essential service, carrying on providing telephone and email support throughout the year.

We needed to make big changes to the way we volunteered - cleaning before and after each shift, putting an hour between shifts to maintain social distancing and keeping shifts to two volunteers only for social distancing. Many volunteers needed to shield and continued to be shift leaders and joined the volunteer support team to support each other.

It was a difficult year for us all. No-one was unaffected by Covid, and we found ourselves supporting callers who were having a difficult and distressing time. Despite this, we switched to online, zoom training for recruitment, training, skills practice and meetings. Huddersfield Samaritans continued to grow, and 26 new Samaritans joined the branch.

This progress would not have been possible without the hard work, flexibility and creativity of all the volunteers.

This Annual Report gives me the opportunity to say "thank you" to all Huddersfield Samaritans volunteers for the part they played in keeping the branch running and growing.

Mary Simpson, Director

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FINANCIAL REPORT

Income

This was a difficult year for us globally, not just for our charity, due to the pandemic.

Overall, income increased by 4.6% due to the government’s Covid funding. We received 19.8k, which was a considerable help. Although the shop income dropped dramatically by 23.4k, the net loss was 11.4k in comparison to the previous year of 30.7k. Therefore, overall, we were in better position due to the funding and increase in donations.

Expenses

Due to the shop being closed, there was a drop in expenses such as rates, utilities and sundry expenses. Also, we were given a temporary reduction in rent of 2.8k. This contributed to the overall drop in shop expenses by 4.9k for the year. Volunteer expenses have fallen by 50%, due to periods during which we were closed.

Due to the lockdown for most of the year, as well as social distancing, it was not possible to do any fundraising. Therefore, we will look into this option in the near future.

Fameeda Ahmed, Treasurer

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HUDDERSFIELD SAMARITANS

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

For the year ended 31 March 2021

	2021	2020
	Unrestricted funds	Unrestricted funds
	£	£
INCOME AND EXPENDITURE
Incoming Resources
Donations and Fundraising	7,193	1,055
Incoming Resources from Operating Activities	27,445	50,872
Covid funding	19,872
Investment Income	20	93
Total Incoming Resources	54,529.43	52,020
Resources Expended
Direct Charitable Expenditure	5,673	10,886
Fundraising Costs	19,151	24,096
Management and Administration	41,154	47,728
Total Resources Expended	65,979	82,710
NET INCOMING RESOURCES FOR THE YEAR	(11,449)	(30,690)
Balance brought forward	382,066	412,756
BALANCE CARRIED FORWARD	370,617	382,066

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TRUSTEES WHO HAVE SERVED

Director	Mary Simpson
Vice- Director	Sophie Millington
Secretary	Ann Hunter
Treasurer	Fameeda Ahmed
Trustee	Pancham Bansal
Trustee	Alison Chown
Trustee	Cécile Genneviève
Trustee	Margaret Robb-Webb
Trustee	Clare Townend
Trustee	Tim Varga
Trustee	Richard Woffenden

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CALLER SUPPORT REPORT

During 2020 – 2021 Caller Support was relatively quiet but kept volunteers informed about callers who may need extra support or callers of concern who were misusing the service. Most of the information that needed to be communicated to volunteers moved online. The use of eLog continued to be an effective way to highlight calls and emails which volunteers felt needed looking at in more detail. The withdrawal of the SMS service last year saw an increase in the number of e-mails received. We did not support any assigned e-mail callers during the year.

The pandemic continued to impact Samaritans as an Organisation, callers and volunteers alike. A trend began to emerge where some calls tended to be longer and the content more intense. There was an increase in the number of prison calls as prisoners spent longer periods of time locked in their cells and more Samaritans phones were placed in cells.

Claudine recently went on sabbatical, but the work of Caller Support could not continue without her hard work and support.

Alison Chown

Deputy Director, Caller Support

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RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION REPORT

This time last year, I commented about the challenging nature of the year and hoped that the year 2020 – 21 would prove less so … well, didn’t we all?

Recruitment and Selection has moved entirely to interviewing by Zoom this year. The team has been extremely supportive and has continued to show a can-do attitude, even where the technology has thrown up challenges. Our thanks go to Richard 1404, who has helped with technical issues from time to time. It is helpful to know that we can call on him if needed.

Covid has again affected training and had a knock-on effect on R & S, so we have recruited volunteers for two cohorts once again this year.

The Branch Management Tool was made available to us in November and applications have been hosted and managed through the BMT since then. This means that potential volunteers’ details appear on the BMT, and we can automate the interview, reference and DBS process to a much greater extent. Recently, we have also been able to see which branches are training when, which presents the option of volunteers being able to attend training at a different branch or to catch up on modules missed. Central Office are keen to take our feedback through the Helpdesk to keep improving the BMT. One unintended consequence of the BMT going live has been that new applicants have been able to take cancelled interviews and “jump the queue”. We have since developed a slightly different way of allocating interviews so that this is unlikely to happen again.

Along with the release of the BMT came a dedicated Samaritans’ e-mail address for R & S, something of a mixed blessing in the first few months. A great deal of work was needed to transfer all volunteer details across to the new address, but we are now at a stage where the old address has been, to all intents and purposes, retired.

Numbers selected for training were: 9 for September (2 selected on our behalf by Wakefield branch) and 13 for January.

In addition, we were able to fast-track the applications of 2 previous volunteers to get them back on shift more quickly.

It is becoming much more difficult to track the number of applications we receive since the arrival of the BMT, as applications are periodically removed from the system when they are withdrawn. However, we have a long waiting list and one of the challenges has been to manage the expectations of newer potential volunteers, whilst ensuring that earlier applicants are offered the first interviews available. However, we feel that interest in volunteering has revived somewhat, after last year’s reduced numbers.

R & S has continued to be supported by the regular team, but we are always happy to train new volunteers, either at regional level or online. We have a good induction system, which allows volunteers to observe interviews before taking a more active role. All members of the team have undertaken training this year as the process has continued to be refined.

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Thanks go, as usual, to our willing band of volunteers, which has comprised

Alison

Chris

Christine

Clare

Loretta

Margaret

Mary

Richard

Sophie

Please do drop me an e-mail if you would be interested in joining the team.

We are looking forward to another productive year.

Loretta Gibbons

Deputy Director- Recruitment & Selection

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TRAINING REPORT

2020 / 21 was undoubtedly an exceptional year for both Huddersfield Samaritans and the training team and was defined by the pandemic. The pandemic took hold just as our January 2020 intake had finished Core, delivered by Stuart and Clare, and were about to begin mentoring. The intake was healthy with 10 out of 12 starters completing Core and raring to go on the phones. With the first lockdown coming into effect, we decided to put the mentoring on ice. Fortunately, the trainees were understanding of the situation, and Leonie and I kept in regular contact throughout.

At the same time, the Autumn 2019 intake were part way through Embedded training. Natalie and Jayne were able to adapt the last two sessions to deliver them via Zoom. This was an important step for us as it showed what capabilities we had for delivering training online. Just as importantly it allowed the Autumn intake to graduate on time.

With the uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, our usual Spring intake for 2020 was cancelled. We did however manage to get some of the January trainees through mentoring after the first lockdown eased at the end of June. This was a real boon for us as numbers had started to become critical due to people self-isolating.

We decided to plan and go ahead with an intake for Autumn 2020 to be delivered online. At the time, we were still waiting for Central Office to confirm the format and number of sessions, but they pulled out all the stops on and we had a course to deliver.

I have to say a massive thank you to Stuart and Clare for their brainstorming and problem solving, which mitigated many of the issues we may have encountered delivering Core online for the first time.

There were obvious disadvantages of delivering training online: some of the soft skills and signals you pick up are lost as well as some of the group bonding. I was very impressed however with the group devising its own social framework, organising Zoom get togethers’ and so forth. I think this made the sessions a lot easier for both us and the trainees. There have also been some unexpected upsides to delivering the training online, especially for the skills practitioners not having to trudge into the office every evening. It may be something we have to look at integrating for future intakes.

The autumn intake completed Core just as the winter lockdown hit, meaning another delay in starting mentoring. Much work went on in the background, especially by Leonie, Richard and Tim, to create a second duty room and for mentoring to recommence.

Embedded training saw a change of trainers with the delightful Jayne leaving Samaritans and being replaced by the highly able Alastair. The Embedded team really delivered two training courses as the previous intake had been split due to self-isolating as well as other reasons. They did a magnificent job without airing any discontent.

In many ways Embedded training is even more difficult to deliver online compared to Core. Whereas Core is very much a classroom-based course, Embedded takes a holistic approach, allowing new Samaritans to share their experiences and feedback to each other. Being able to deliver the shared

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learning experience on Zoom was not easy, and a real testament to Nat and Al’s abilities to interact with the group.

Unfortunately, the lockdowns had a knock-on effect, meaning we decided to cancel the January 2021 intake. Therefore, the next intake was after the start of the next financial year.

As always, I cannot thank my trainers enough – Clare, Stuart, Nat and Alastair, for the work they do, especially this year of all years. So much dedication and work goes on in the background to make everything possible. Also thank you to all the skills practitioners: the level of feedback required has certainly gone up a notch and this has been reflected in their level of professionalism. Finally, thank you to the rest of the directorate, especially Recruitment & Selection and Trainee Care, without whose close cooperation the whole thing would never fly.

Pancham Bansal

Deputy Director, Training

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CONTINUOUS DEVELOPMENT (FORMERLY ONGOING TRAINING) REPORT

The first thing to say is that OGT is no more! It is now known as Continuous Development (more below).

As we are still unable to meet face-to-face for training, most training has had to take place via the online modules hosted on SamsHome. Last summer, all volunteers were asked to complete the package “Refreshing our Core Skills”, followed by a module on Safeguarding. Virtual training has also been offered for specific roles in the Branch, such as Leader, Mentor and R & S Training.

The age-old model of 5 hours’ face-to-face training has now been changed and, moving forward, volunteers will be freer to self-select modules from SamsHome. In addition, the plan is to offer 2 sets of face-to-face training at the branch, including an element of skills’ practice. Recent suggestions have been to run a module on Ending Calls and another on the importance of Feedback. As we look forward to society opening once more and Outreach resuming, there will be a need to run another ESOS/ESOB course, as anyone supporting Outreach needs to have completed this training first.

It’s also worth highlighting that, as we move towards supporting Online Chat, volunteers will need to have completed the Online Chat Digital Topic, as well as having undertaken skills’ practice with a fellow volunteer. If you’d like to get a head start on this, feel free. On completion of the online topic, please let Amy or Alison know, as they are leading the rollout of Online Chat and coordinating skills’ practice.

Other recently uploaded courses which you might find of interest include: Making Prison Calls Better, Self-Harm and Mental Health.

Please feel free to browse the packages available and to complete any which take your interest; also, to suggest any areas in which you would be interested in completing training. Likewise, if you feel that you would like to help deliver training, please get in touch. You would be most welcome.

To access the training area, go to SamsHome and click Online Tools. Under the section we use on shift (E-mail, E-log and Link), you will find Learning. The section My Learning suggests packages which might be appropriate to any roles you hold within Samaritans. The Learning Catalogue then has a list of everything available.

Loretta Gibbons, Deputy Director, Continuous Development

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BUILDINGS REPORT

Maintenance activities have continued throughout lockdown when possible. I was pleased to be able to do some Covid related projects, which occupied me a bit when I was stuck at home.

Branch

The services testing has been brought up to date. Risk assessments for water, fire, and asbestos, were all completed. A few issues arising from the fire assessment are being addressed, mainly a new fire alarm. On the electrical side, the emergency lights are now up to standard, and the five-yearly inspection was completed without any issues.

The escape chair was serviced, a training session is still required for this. The lift has been serviced. A bit of plumbing was required on one of the toilet sinks, when the waste fell to pieces and the tap also failed. Assorted small issues have been addressed as they arose: stuck locks, wayward coat hooks, tidying the cellar area, hedge trimming and drain unblocking.

I did some work to improve our Covid compliance; I installed some screens in the duty room for bug free ventilation, sourced a couple of see-through barriers for training and constructed some foot-operated hand sanitizer dispensers.

I was inspecting the ceilings, due to noise being transmitted from the corridor to the duty room and discovered that we require some remedial repairs on the old ceilings. This will be addressed once an architect has inspected to inform us of the requirements.

A roof leak was the major work carried out, which involved a large lorry with a lift on it parked in next door’s car park. This was completed without problem and the leak is repaired.

For the next year, as well as the routine maintenance, I would like to get the fire alarm changed and the ceiling repairs resolved.

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Shop

Electrical maintenance has been completed and the emergency lights brought up to standard. Some lights in the cellar were changed, also some other electrical work was carried out to improve things: a light in the storage area and a new one in the sorting room.

The supply for the fire alarm was brought up to standard, this was highlighted during the routine fire alarm testing. We are continuing with Keybury to maintain the alarm for another year.

The water leak at the shop front, although improved, is still causing an issue: further work is to be done. There is some roof work required at present and I am in the process of getting quotes.

To allow us to open when the first lockdown lifted, I constructed a Covid screen for the till area, this nicely complimented the excellent work of Emma and Kath, moving the shop around. As with the branch, a few small jobs have been carried out, loose floorboards and the replacement of a toilet seat being the highlights.

In the next year, I would like to get the fire risk assessment done and get rid of the leaks.

Tim Varga, Buildings Maintenance

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SHOP REPORT

It's been a very unusual year for us this time.

We've not known if we are coming or going, opening or closing, back open and then locked back down!

We have triumphed through the piles (well, mountains!) of never-ending donations, to point where, at the end of some shifts, we have literally collapsed on the (highly sanitised) floor.

Our hands have aged by 10 years due to the copious amounts of hand sanitiser we have had to use.

Even with all this going on, we have somehow managed, by what only can be described as just short of a miracle, to actually be 6.4 % up on profit on last year’s figures!!

We have also had six new volunteers start and a lot of our old volunteers have now started to return.

The whole shop layout has had to be completely changed around to accommodate the new restrictions, such as a one-way system, protective screens, quarantine areas and the changing room has now been removed, but it looks and works really well.

There have even been a few occasions where we have had queues down the road, with customers eager to grab a bargain, so much so that we have had to have volunteers on the door acting like bouncers, to limit the amount of people we can have safely in the shop at any one time.

Our window displays have been spectacular, especially our Christmas display which ended up a local, social media hit. It was wonderful, it cheered up so many people in the area.

Here are some photos of the shop including some of our volunteers.

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Shop Poem

Here's a little poem I wrote Whilst going crazy, yet trying to stay afloat

It's been a very difficult year I'm sure we've all shed a tear

We're open, then we're closed Such a problem this has posed

Running piles of donations up the stairs Whilst chanting our weight loss prayers

The mountains of stock that keep pouring in Some days we don't know where to bloody begin

Summer stock to go upstairs, now it’s back downstairs, oh... the endless rotation It's a good job we've got team motivation

The shop is now full of deals From pots and pans, to skirts and heels

Yet through it all we've kept a smile Hoping it will be back to normal in a while

Emma Bowker, Shop Manager

HUDDERSFIELD SAMARITANS

STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL ACTIVITIES

For the year ended 31 March 2021

INCOME AND EXPENDITURE Incoming Resources Donations and Fundraising Incoming Resources from Operating Activities Covid funding Investment Income Total Incoming Resources Resources Expended Direct Charitable Expenditure Fundraising Costs Management and Administration Total Resources Expended NET INCOMING RESOURCES FOR THE YEAR Balance brought forward BALANCE CARRIED FORWARD	Note 7 8 9 10 11 12	2021 Unrestricted funds £ 7,193 27,445 19,872 19	2020 Unrestricted funds	2020
			£ 1,055 50,872 93
		54,529	52,020
		5,673 19,151 41,154	10,886 24,096 47,728
		65,979	82,710
		(11,450) 382,066	(30,690) 412,756
		370,617	382,066

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