Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Receipts and Payments Accounts for the year ended 30 September 2023
Registered Charity No. 1173795
Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Contents
| Reference and Administrative Details of the Charity, it’s Trustees and Advisors | 2 |
|---|---|
| Chair’s Report | 3 |
| Trustees’ Annual Report | 4 |
| Independent Examiners Report | 7 |
| Receipts and Payments Accounts | 8 |
| Notes to the Receipts and Payments Accounts | 10 |
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
REFERENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE DETAILS OF THE CHARITY, ITS TRUSTEES AND ADVISERS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 30[th] SEPTEMBER 2023
Trustees Sharon Beattie – resigned Sept 23 Gillian Caldicott (Vice-Chair) Tracey Dennison Sylvia Doughty (Secretary) James Grainger (Treasurer and Associate Trustee) – resigned Jul 23 Matthew Knight (Chair) Chelsea Martin – resigned Sept 23 Jean Reed – appointed Jan 23 Laura Walker (Treasurer) - appointed Jan 23 Charity registration number 1173795 Registered Office Older Citizens Advocacy York Priory Street Centre 15 Priory Street YORK YO1 6ET Bankers CAF Bank Independent Examiner Helen Faraday, FCA Of Accounts Patron Professor Dianne Willcocks Honorary Vice President Douglas M Craig, OBE
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Chair’s Report
The last 12 months have seen some significant increases in OCAY’s workload, as well as some big changes in our staffing and organisation. We are a developing and ambitious charity - small, but determined to do more to help those older people in the City who need our help.
In the year 2022-23 we dealt with 468 cases - an increase of 50% on pre pandemic levels. Demand shows no signs of decreasing and we have to be constantly on the look out for new ways to make sure we can continue to meet it. We’ve particularly seen an increase this year in the numbers of benefits related cases coming to us.
It’s important to say that we have coped with the additional numbers thanks to the tremendous commitment of both our staff and our volunteer advocates. My particular thanks go to those who have taken on additional cases in recent months and/or have committed to doing so during the winter. And a warm welcome to the new advocates who have joined us during the year. The biggest challenge we face is recruiting new volunteers, to replace those who inevitably leave us from time to time and to enable us to respond to those who need our help We are always looking for new advocates, so please do point any possible new recruits towards our Advocacy Manager, Dan Brittan.
Our new staffing structure saw Abi Willis appointed as Operations Manager, with Dan as Advocacy Manager. We also welcomed Danni Gordon as our Administrator, and Danni has proved to be an excellent addition to the team. In addition, I’m very pleased that the Trustees have recently agreed to appoint a new and additional part time paid advocate, and that person will support Dan and strengthen the ways we can support our volunteers. We are determined to remain a volunteer led service but we have to balance what our volunteers can do with the right level of staff support and its great we have been able to take this important step.
Abi has had a very successful year in leading our fundraising efforts and its partly because of this that we are confident enough to add to the staffing team. We remain incredibly indebted to The National Lottery for their support, but we know we cannot be complacent. In this context we were particularly grateful to receive important financial support this year from the Aviva Community Fund.
Abi and Danni have put a lot of effort this year into increasing the quality and quantity of our outreach work as we try to publicise OCAY more effectively and to make sure that those who need us know about us. We have done more organised outreach in the last 12 months than at any other time in OCAY’s history.
We lost James Grainger, Chelsea Martin and Sharon Beattie as Trustees during the year and I want to put on record my thanks to all three for the vital parts they have played in guiding OCAY in recent years. They will both be much missed. We were delighted to welcome Laura Walker to the Board to succeed James as our Treasurer. Laura brings a great deal of financial expertise from her work as a Finance Director at Asda, as well as experience as a charity Trustee. We also welcomed back Jean Reed to the Board – it’s really important we have serving advocates as Trustees and Jean’s experience is very helpful to keeping our discussions informed and grounded. I’m very grateful to Gillian Caldicott - OCAY’s excellent Vice Chair - and to all our Trustees for their continuing hard work and enthusiasm. We are currently recruiting for new Trustees to strengthen the Board further.
OCAY says farewell this year to one of our most experienced and committed advocates as Sir Alistair Graham steps down. His contribution has been immense (and irreplaceable!) and we are delighted he has agreed to be our guest speaker at this year’s AGM, sharing his thoughts and perspectives on OCAY’s work and how he evaluates the work that we do.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the excellent support and co-operation we continue to receive from colleague organisations in the City. The York Older Peoples Assembly (YOPA) and Age UK York are particularly important partners, but we operate very positively in collaboration with many other organisations too. My thanks to all our friends and supporters for everything they continue to do to help our work.
Matthew Knight
Matthew Knight, Chair
Date: 28/11/23
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Trustees’ Annual Report
The Trustees of York Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY) are pleased to present this annual report together with the financial statements of the Charity for the year ended 30 September 2023.
The financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011.
The Trustees have paid due regard to the requirements to act for the public benefit and are fully satisfied that the activities of the Charity meet all of the Charity Commission's guidance on public benefit in exercising their powers or duties.
Charity objectives and activities
The charitable objects of OCAY are:
- To provide relief to older people in need in the City of York and its surrounding area by the provision of a general advocacy service.
OCAY was founded in 2001 by a group of older people. They became involved in a pilot run by ‘Better Government for Older People’, intended to orchestrate better services and communities that worked for older people. We emerged to meet these needs, ensure inclusion, and get older people’s voices heard. We have continued to evolve over the years, with funding from the National Lottery Community Fund supported by smaller grants from City of York Council wards and grant making organisations alongside our own fundraising. We have offered an independent, free and confidential advocacy service to those over the age of 50 in the City of York area for 22 years and continue to successfully advocate for those in need.
Achievements and Performance
Support for client needs
The need for OCAY and the support we give is growing. In 2020/21 we supported clients on 290 cases; in the year to September 2022, this number had risen to 463 and this year, we supported clients on 468 cases – which is similar year on year – which shows demand for our services has risen significantly since the pandemic.
Of the 468 cases we worked in on 2022/23:
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89 cases (last year 137 cases) were signposted to another supporting organisation (such as Age UK, Christians Against Poverty and York Mind)
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76 cases (last year 56 cases) were ongoing at the end of the year
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we closed 303 cases in the year (270 last year).
We’ve spent 1390 hours (1271 last year) directly advocating for clients on these 303 cases - an average of 4.6 hours of support for each client (4.7 last year).
Many of our clients have underlying health conditions, mental health issues or are often very frail and elderly. This year 89% of our clients stated they were disabled (physically, mentally or intellectually), 47% lived alone and 16% cared for someone else.
We support clients with a diverse range of issues. Our most common issue this year has been benefits, including information, form-filling and assessments. We’ve also helped with consumer complaints, family, housing and employment issues and we have helped people find out what is going on in their communities.
We’ve seen an increase in people looking for support around Blue Badge applications in the past year from 4 in 2020/21 to 65 this year.
Clients come to OCAY in a variety of ways - many are referred to us by organisations across the city, some contact us directly by phone or by email, some enquire via our website, others have heard about us through a friend or have previous experience working with us.
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
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Volunteer Support
We remain committed to being a volunteer-led service. We currently have 21 active volunteers and have recruited new volunteers in the year and are looking to recruit more. We continue to advertise for volunteers on the OCAY website, social media and local community newsletters, such as Local Link and Handy Mag.
Towards the end of the year, we ramped up our volunteer recruitment efforts and have since held new volunteer training sessions for 5 new recruits. We have advertised for volunteers on the OCAY website, social media and local community newsletters, such as Local Link and Handy Mag.
This year, we have launched a volunteer mentoring programme for newer volunteers and have held a new “Coffee & Chat” every other month for our volunteers so they can share ideas and experiences. We also held an information session with one of the GP Social Prescribers in York to discuss how they work in relation to OCAY with their cases and referrals.
We continue to invest in our Volunteer Training Programme to ensure all new volunteers receive the information and gain the skills that they need in the role. We are increasing volunteers’ knowledge of services available to clients during the cost of living crisis and beyond. Services and provision of services are ever changing and this is being addressed as and when it occurs. Our Advocacy Manager produces a newsletter every 2 weeks for the volunteers to keep them appraised of what is happening within OCAY as well as important updates of our partner organisations and information changes to subjects such as benefits.
Quality Standards, Monitoring & Evaluation
We carried out a longer-term impact survey in June/July 2023 to understand the long-term impact of working with OCAY. We want to increase our knowledge and understanding of the longer-term impact of our work on clients, to help us to improve our service delivery and find out what other factors could be impacting on older people’s feelings of wellbeing.
We conduct a “pre and post case” questionnaire with clients and the questions cover feelings of control, being taken seriously, having your voice heard and the impact the advocacy issue is/was having on well-being. The responses were mainly favourable, participants appreciated the service and were extremely grateful for the support OCAY had provided. This is demonstrated by 100% “yes” on the question: if you had a problem in the future would you go back to OCAY for help? Most people felt that OCAY’s support had positively impacted their well-being over the past 6 months. 85% of people gave scores of 8 out of 10 or more.
Financial Review
After a very successful year of fundraising, the charity is in a strong financial position, despite cost increases in the year.
The main costs for the charity are the salaries of our key staff members and the cost of our premises. Both costs have increased in the year due to inflationary pressures, but we have worked hard to control other costs and manage our resources carefully.
We continue to be grateful to the National Lottery Community Fund for the provision of our main source of funding. This year was the second of a four year funding cycle and our funding from the National Lottery Community Fund tapers throughout the funding period. To build financial resilience, significant effort has been put into identifying and securing alternative sources of funding. This year we were pleased and grateful to be awarded over £25,000 from the Aviva Community Fund.
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Due to the uncertainty in funding beyond 2025 (when the funding from the current National Lottery Community Fund grant ends), we continue to explore further sources of ongoing funding and are holding an increased level of reserves to support our ongoing work. At the end of the year, the charity held £111,000 in reserves.
Trustees continually review forecast sources of funds and the financial outlook of the charity. Due to good financial management, an improving outlook on sources of alternative funding and the level of reserves forecast at year end, the Trustees approved investment into a paid advocate role which was recruited at the end of the financial year. Investment into this role will reduce the level of reserves in 2023.
Structure, Governance and Management
Older Citizens Advocacy is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) formed on 12[th] July 2017 (succeeding an unincorporated charity Older Citizens Advocacy York, charity number 1094279) and governed by a constitution.
Trustees
The charity has a minimum of 3 and a maximum of 12 Trustees; every trustee must be appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. In selecting individuals for appointment as charity trustees, the charity trustees must have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective administration of the CIO.
The Chair and Vice-Chair are responsible for assessing the need for new Trustees and overseeing the recruitment of new trustees. Two new Trustees were appointed in the year and a process is ongoing to recruit more Trustees in the new financial year.
Operational Management
During 2023, a management restructure was implemented. Day to day, the charity is run by the Operations Manager, Abi Willis and the Advocacy Manager, Dan Brittan . They are supported by Admin Assistant, Danni Gordon who joined the team this year and has been an excellent addition. The Trustees meet with Dan and Abi on a bi-monthly basis to review operational and financial performance, as well as progress against charity strategy.
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees of Older Citizens Advocacy York
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Older Citizens Advocacy York (the Charity) for the period ended 30 September 2023.
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 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 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:
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accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
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the accounts do not accord with those records.
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.
Use of this report
This report is made solely to the Charity's Trustees, as a body, in accordance with Section 145 of the Charities Act 2011. My independent examination work has been undertaken so that I might state to the Charity's Trustees those matters I am required to state to them in an Independent Examiner's Report and for no other purpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, I do not accept or assume responsibility to anyone other than the Charity and the Charity's Trustees as a body, for my independent examination work, for this report, or for the opinions I have formed.
Helen Faraday
Helen Faraday Independent Examiner … 27[th] November 2023
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Summary of Receipts and Payments for the year ended 30 September 2023
| Unrestricted funds |
Designated funds |
Restricted funds |
1 Oct 2022 to 30 Sept 2023 |
1 Apr 2021 to 30 Sept 2022 |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Notes | £ £ | £ | Total | Total | |||
| £ | £ | ||||||
| Receipts | |||||||
| Grant funding | 2 | 0 | 0 | 92,600 | 92,600 | 104,196 | |
| Fundraising | 3 | 2,051 | 0 | 0 | 2,051 | 758 | |
| Donations (inc Gift Aid) | 4 | 27,590 | 0 | 0 | 27,590 | 4,208 | |
| Other income | 0 | 46 | |||||
| Bank interest | 871 | 0 | 0 | 871 | 78 | ||
| Total receipts | 30,512 | 0 | 92,600 | 123,112 | 109,286 | ||
| Payments | |||||||
| Staff costs | 0 | 0 | 69,299 | 69,299 | 99,336 | ||
| Staff training | 0 | 0 | 70 | 70 | 179 | ||
| Staff recruitment and expenses | 0 | 0 | 192 | 192 | 1,668 | ||
| Volunteer training | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 850 | ||
| Investors in Volunteers accreditation | 0 | 2,249 | |||||
| Volunteer expenses | 0 | 0 | 328 | 328 | 354 | ||
| Property costs | 0 | 0 | 11,798 | 11,798 | 13,071 | ||
| Telecommunications and IT | 0 | 0 | 6,649 | 6,649 | 9,211 | ||
| Office supplies | 0 | 0 | 1,734 | 1,734 | 1,992 | ||
| Insurance | 0 | 0 | 1,010 | 1,010 | 981 | ||
| Fundraising expenses | 102 | 0 | 389 | 491 | 499 | ||
| Outreach publicity and events | 0 | 0 | 284 | 284 | 942 | ||
| General publicity and advertising | 0 | 0 | 1,028 | 1,028 | 1,572 | ||
| AGM expenses | 0 | 0 | 222 | 222 | 257 | ||
| Subscriptions | 0 | 0 | 318 | 318 | 42 | ||
| Bank charges | 0 | 0 | 61 | 61 | 155 | ||
| Totalpayments | 102 | 0 | 93,381 | 93,483 | 133,358 | ||
| Cash funds b/fwd at 1 Oct 2022 | 46,143 | 18,000 | 16,922 | 81,065 | 105,137 | ||
| Net receipts/(payments) in the period | 30,410 | 0 | (781) | 29,629 | (24,072) | ||
| Funds transfers | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Cash funds c/fwd at 30 September | 2023 | 76,553 | 18,000 | 16,141 | 110,694 | 81,065 |
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Statement of Assets and Liabilities at 30 September 2023
| Total | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 30 September | 30 September | ||
| 2023 | 2022 | ||
| Notes £ | £ | ||
| Cash funds | |||
| Deposit account | 86,645 | 27,950 | |
| Current account | 24,010 | 53,004 | |
| Pettycash | 38 | 111 | |
| Total cash funds atperiod end | 110,694 | 81,065 | |
| Represented by funds carried forward | |||
| Unrestricted funds: | |||
| General funds | 76,553 | 46,143 | |
| Designated funds | 5 | 18,000 | 18,000 |
| Restricted funds: | |||
| National Lottery Community Fund | 12,000 | 6,940 | |
| Financial Inclusion – Benefits programme | 0 | (261) | |
| Tesco Bags for Help | 0 | 506 | |
| Age UK Outreach | 0 | 841 | |
| NHS APP | 0 | 1,091 | |
| Two Ridings Community Foundation – Belfry fund | 0 | 1,645 | |
| York Common Good Trust | 500 | 738 | |
| Aviva - Dementia | 0 | 750 | |
| Independent Age | 0 | 4,672 | |
| The Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation | 417 | 0 | |
| The Brelms Trust CIO | 458 | 0 | |
| Two Ridings Community Fund 2023 | 1,000 | 0 | |
| Asda Grant | 932 | 0 | |
| York CityCouncil Outreach | 833 | 0 | |
| Total funds atperiod end | 110,695 | 81,065 |
Other Monetary Assets
The Charity does not have any other Monetary Assets.
Investment Assets
The Charity does not have any Investment Assets other than highly liquid cash balances held in deposit accounts.
The accounts were approved and authorised for issue by the Trustees on 28[th] Nov 2023 and signed on their behalf by:
Matthew Knight
Sylvia Doughty
Matthew Knight Chair of Trustees
Sylvia Doughty Trustee
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Notes to the Receipts and Payments Accounts for the 12 month period ended 30 September 2023
1. These accounts have been prepared under the historical cost convention, on a receipts and payments basis, in accordance with Section 133 of the Charities Act 2011 and following the guidance for accounting for smaller charities issued by the Charity Commission.
2. Grant funding
| 2. Grant funding |
||
|---|---|---|
| 12 month period | 18 month period | |
| ending 30 | ending 30 | |
| September 2023 | September 2022 | |
| £ | £ | |
| Unrestricted funds | ||
| Grants less than £3,000 | 0 | 2,498 |
| 0 | 2,498 | |
| Restricted funds | ||
| National Lottery Community Fund | 69,584 | 82,815 |
| Joseph Rowntreee Foundation | - | 5,000 |
| Financial Inclusion – Benefits programme | - | 8,068 |
| The Liz and Terry Bramall Foundation | 5,000 | - |
| The Brelms Trust CIO | 5,500 | - |
| Grants less than £3,000 | 12,516 | 5,815 |
| 92,600 | 101,698 |
National Lottery Community Fund
The National Lottery Community Fund have provided grant funding to contribute to the delivery of the advocacy services delivered by OCAY along with the general management and running of the charity. This current element of funding was secured in 2021 for the period from September 2021 to September 2025 and income tapers over the 4 year term. In order to mitigate for the reducing National Lottery funding, grant funding has been identified and secured from other sources.
3.
Fundraising
After disruption due to Covid, we are pleased to have recommenced community fundraising events during the year and held successful activities at St Crux, Fulford Show and West Bank Fair.
4. Donations
Donations (including Gift Aid) totalling £27,590 (2021 - £4,208) were received during the year. The Trustees, Staff and Volunteer Advocates would like to express their thanks to everyone who donated to the charity. Particular thanks are noted to the employees of Aviva and the Aviva Community Fund through which a donation of £25,950 was received, which has been invaluable in supporting the ongoing running of the charity.
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Older Citizens Advocacy York (OCAY)
Notes to the Receipts and Payments Accounts for the 18 month period ended 30 September 2022 (continued)
5. Designated funds
At the year end, the following designated fund was held by the charity:
| £ 18 month period ending 30 Sept 2022 12 month period ending 30 Sept 2023 £ |
£ 18 month period ending 30 Sept 2022 12 month period ending 30 Sept 2023 £ |
£ 18 month period ending 30 Sept 2022 12 month period ending 30 Sept 2023 £ |
|---|---|---|
| Contingency fund Total designated funds |
18,000 18,000 |
18,000 |
| 18,000 |
Contingency fund
The Trustees have agreed to hold £18,000 (2021 - £15,000) in designated funds against contingencies such as staff redundancies, early office lease termination or any other unforeseen emergencies.
6. Change of accounting year end
In the prior period, it was decided by the Trustees to change the accounting year end date of OCAY from 31 March 2022 to 30 September 2022. Therefore, the comparative accounting period is for 18 months. The reason for making this change was to align the year end of OCAY with the year end of the Big Lottery grant, the largest funder of OCAY, to align financial reporting requirements.
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