**City Church Lancaster** ## **Report of the Trustees for the Year Ended 31 March 2024** The trustees present their report with the financial statements of the charity for the year ended 31 March 2024. The trustees have adopted the provisions of the Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) 'Accounting and Reporting by Charities' issued in March 2005. ## **REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS** ## **Registered Charity number** 1172291 ## **Principal address** 4 Prospect Drive Hest Bank Lancaster Lancashire LA2 6HX ## **Trustees** Mr Malcolm Robinson (Chair) Mr Scott Lingard Mr Peter Carrington Mr Jethro Niven Mrs Hannah Little Miss Heather Tallents Mrs Miriam Clissold ## **Independent Examiner** John Fazackerley A.C.M.A (retired) 6 Queens Drive, Preston, PR2 9YH ## **STRUCTURE, GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT** ## **Governing document** The charity is controlled by its governing document, a deed of trust, and constitutes an unincorporated charity. This deed of trust was first adopted on 01/03/2017. ## **Trustee Selection** Potential trustees are identified by current trustees. Candidates are then recommended to the board of trustees and if no objections are raised then candidates are formally appointed. **Charity Organisational Structure** Corporately the trustees hold responsibility for the financial health and legal requirements of the charity. The day to day running of the charity is carried out under the leadership of the eldership team with the authority of the charity’s trustees. ## **Risk management** The trustees have a duty to identify and review the risks to which the charity is exposed and to ensure appropriate controls are in place to provide reasonable assurance against fraud and error. In all cases two signatories are required to authorise online payments and appropriate records including receipts and invoices to support payments are held. Our financial risks are managed by our financial controls policy. Appropriate insurance cover is in place and is reviewed regularly to ensure that the charities risks are covered adequately. A health and safety policy is in place and additional policies in place for all the charities projects. We also have safeguarding policies in place and all staff and volunteers who work in relevant projects are subject to a DBS check. We also subscribe to a Protection Advisory Service to ensure compliance with rules and regulations relating to the protection of children and vulnerable adults. ## **OBJECTIVES, ACTIVITIES AND ACHIEVEMENTS** ## **Objectives** - i. To promote the Christian faith and to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world with particular focus on the Lancaster and Lancashire area. - ii. The relief of poverty, hardship and distress in particular but not exclusively within the areas of Lancaster and Morecambe through provision of grants, items and services to individuals in need and/or charities, or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty ## **Activities and achievements** City Church Lancaster has continued to thrive and grow over the last 12 months with 125 regularly attending our Sunday gatherings and 7 mid-week small groups meeting regularly. Our staff team and staff hours have also grown and increased in response to the growing work and activity of the church and through the provision of regular giving and a healthy financial reserve that the trustees felt was best used in part, towards increasing staffing capacity. We now employ five staff, three in leadership roles and two new administration roles replacing the previous administrator who handed in her notice in September. Further increasing of staff hours has also been agreed by trustees for the next financial year. Over the last year the church has sought to further its objectives through activities including running an Alpha course, running regular café church meetings for those who don’t normally attend church, promoting a Christmas carol service and Easter service and going away as a church community for a weekend in February to Quinta House in North Wales. We have also continued to provide regular discipleship, mentoring and pastoral support for those who request it or need it within the church. We have also sought to further our objectives through the provision of financial support to those in hardship through our cost of living fund as well supporting local social action initiatives such as Christians against poverty. The strategic and day to day leadership of the church continues to be held by our Core leadership team under the direction of our two elders. Some of this team attended a leadership conference in June run by ChristCentral churches, the network we are connected to. Our trustee team also continues to play an active role in oversight and governance of the charity. They have worked through a number of areas including an accessibility review and a use of power audit provided by an organisation called Living leaders. The trustees also hosted a general meeting for the church in December sharing updates on the current finances of the church, governance and how we are seeking to keep our leadership transparent and accountable and ensuring the culture of our church is a safe place for members to raise concerns or issues. In the last year Malcolm Robinson has taken on responsibility for chairing our trustee team and we were delighted to welcome Miriam Clissold to the team in March and Heather Tallents also joined the team at the beginning of the next financial year in May 2024. ## **FINANCIAL REVIEW** ## **Reserves Policy** It is intended that sufficient reserves are retained in order to enable the charity to undertake its financial commitments for a minimum of three months. Principle funding sources are generous contributions and regular giving from individuals who are a part of the church. **ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD** : Mr P Carrington (HARITY MIWON Independent Examiner's Report on the Accounts Section A In¢JependeTri Examiner 5 Report w Ip* b￿1¥ ￿ l¢aty 4t*oul pagE5 ReywiiYefw0r￿il1￿01tr￿5*E￿5 re{￿l¥.3￿￿5*QS￿￿(￿¥￿tr4e4￿thE It*ttwrtV5 JÈtsm*Au t1kn51tt5(QD5thf undt[Stri￿ T¥di (￿[j￿￿5&12011Ith¢(t￿￿es r*eéed. tofokn¥ ￿t￿￿eth￿ Li￿￿ffl I4%$M￿l 01tht￿mIEsA(iL￿l* {hJriiycomiThsyN A￿eF￿llna￿￿ rÈtaTd5 kept ￿the￿an￿ IlaknKKludescwd¥ww IbeatE[￿ls. ex￿1￿1￿%1(0rnthetsUs￿es mall￿￿ untsn*nd0￿Jl PT0¥X*￿ I￿*￿*r￿t￿l anttf￿ tewi ￿r￿D￿d￿Thpse wttwssétr￿ ￿the$latI1￿￿t￿J* 11) 5iy¢ffl*rtS- Rdevanrwof0Ss￿ydqv3lhCW(¥ arkndylifary> 2Dii Section B I wMthe5to thsdo* IA*th 1012 Lancas18r City Church 1111 A Receipts and payments accounts CC16a For the period To 0111)4r2O23 3110W024 Section A Receipts and payments Unrestricted funds Restricted funds Endowmeni ft5nds Total funds st year to the nearesi iothè ne8f88t £ tothè n8•rest£ toth* noarest £ A1 Recelpts 72,228 13.089 72,226 13.089 8.563 3,264 54,402 20.419 7,633 S,594 Gift D2ys Weekend ¥rtay Other Incorne 818ckpool KCK Contribubons 7.550 Sub total{Gn)ss inwme for AR) 97.142 97.142 95.598 A2 Asset and in¥estment sales, Isoe tablel. Sub total 97.142 97.142 95.598 A3Pa ments Newday l Devoted ivorship 4.617 4.617 4,991 39.687 20,S26 39.687 20.528 42,016 21.241 8.872 13.092 6,213 567 Cheque paym￿￿0￿￿ Costs Rentsis Weekend Away slolicJAdmin Admin 11.962 2.072 2.072 Sub total 85.210 94,992 A4 Asset and investment urchases. e table Sub totsl 85,210 85,210 94,992 Net of recw'pts/(payments) A5 Transfers between funds A6 Cash funds last y•ar end Cash funds this year end 11.932 11,932 606 83,506 95,438 83.506 95.438 82,900 83,506 CCXX R1 accounts ISSI 0410112025 Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period Unrestricted funds eaTest £ Restricted fund¥ to nea￿1 É Endowment funds to near¢si £ Categories Oetails 81 Cash funds Bank cwrentAca￿Tht 95.438 Total cash funds 95,438 $11 Unrestricted funds to nearest £ Restricted funds lo neargst £ Endowment funds near￿ £ B2 Other monetary assets to which asset belo Currenl value tional D¢tsil$ (6t loptlon•ll Fund 10 which asset tr*lon DLJidils Cost loptiotNqll urront value tional B4 Assets rotained for the charity's own use Fund 10 which re￿1￿$ Amount du• When duo nal Detsils B5 Li•bilitiÈ$ Zalz Signed by one OF trustees on b&h8K of all the tNslee5 Si9natu Prott Name Dale ol roval PETER CARRINGTON 10101125 CCXX R2 acwunts ISSI 04101Q025