OpenCharities

This text was generated using OCR and may contain errors. Check the original PDF to see the document submitted to the regulator.

2021-12-31-accounts

Charity Registration number: 1174906

Gurnell Grove Community Trust Report and Financial Statements (unaudited) 12 months to 31 December 2021

Page
Trustees' annual report 1
Independent examiner's report to the trustees 9
Statement of financial position 10
Statement of financial activities 11
Notes to the financial statements 13

Gurnell Grove Community Trust

Trustees Report and Declaration

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

The trustees present their report and the financial statements of the Trust for the period ended 31st[t] December 2021.An audit is not required but they have been examined by an Independent Examiner.

Reference and administrative details

Registered charity name Registered charity name Registered charity name Registered charity name Gurnell Grove Community Trust
Other names by which the charity is sometimes
known		 The Grove
The Grove Community
Eden Gurnell Grove
Charity registration number 1174906
Principal office c/o St Stephen’s Church,
St Stephen’s Rd,
Ealing,
London, W13 8HB
The charity trustees
during the year		 Gordon May (Chair) 2 years to 30th Sept 2022
Revd Rachel Bedford 2 years to 30th June 2022
Jane Maffett (Treasurer) 2 years to 31st Oct 2023
Revd Steve Newbold 2 years to 30th Sept 2022
Project Leader Mark Tate
Independent examiner Frederick Eaves MRICS
53 Ludlow Road, Ealing, London, W5 1NX

Structure, governance and management

Gurnell Grove Community Trust CIO was set up as a newly formed charitable incorporated organisation on 2nd October 2017, when its constitution was adopted. It is governed by a Board of Trustees.

One Trustee will be the Vicar of St Stephen’s Church, Ealing, by virtue of their role as leader of the Church of England Parish in which the Gurnell Grove Estate is based. In selecting individuals for appointment as the other charity trustees, the charity trustees have regard to the skills, knowledge and experience needed for the effective management of the CIO. There must at all times be at least 3 trustees and no more than 8, and trustees are elected for a 2 year period.

The Trustees recognise a lack of diversity on the Board of Trustees and continue to consider how to rectify this - an advert to expand the board was unsuccessful in 2021.

2

Gurnell Grove Community Trust

Trustees Report and Declaration

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

The CIO was established to take over the management of an initiative on the Gurnell Grove Estate in Ealing, which started under the PCC of St Paul’s Church Ealing in September 2016. It is known on a day to day basis as The Grove Community.

The Project Leader reports to the Trustees and is managed by the Chair.

Objectives and activities

The Objects of the CIO are, for the public benefit:

  1. the advancement of the Christian faith (in particular but without limitation) by the provision of worship services, prayer meetings, the public celebration of Christian festivals, Christian literature and in such other ways as the Charity Trustees may from time to time decide; and

  2. the relief of persons who are in need by reason of financial hardship, unemployment, disability, ill-health, lack of education or skills attainment and such other economic or social disadvantage.

To achieve these objectives, for the public benefit, the Trust employs a full time project leader, Mark Tate, who, together with his wife and family, moved onto the estate in 2016 – it is our core belief that transformation is best led by being a real part of the community.

1.1 ACTIVITIES DURING THE YEAR

With the support of an employed community worker and others, the team usually run a range of ‘in person’ activities.

However 2021 continued the very different and extraordinary circumstances of 2020 due to the Coronavirus pandemic. From January onwards the Community centre was again closed and restrictions on meeting people outdoors or indoors were reintroduced. Until the summer the team could still operate but in a limited way on a remote basis to support the Grove residents, both spiritually and practically. This did not take up all their contracted time, so we partially furloughed our 2 employees, gradually bringing them back to normal hours by August.

From September the Community centre re-opened and the team re-introduced normal activities.

Throughout the year there was a focus on Prayer , in particular for three things: for the team to grow; a time slot at the Community Centre to be opened up at a suitable time for us to launch a church service; and the opportunity to play a more influential role in the running of the Community Centre.

Objective 1 – advancement of the Christian faith

House church – a small group usually gathering in the Tates’ flat, where individuals who have recently come to faith, or want to explore, meet weekly in term time to sing, read the Bible, discuss and pray together. This continued throughout the year, but mostly by Zoom.

Bingo Church – this popular monthly evening event, always including a short talk on faith and opportunity for prayer, moved online with Zoom again until September and ran throughout the year.

Christmas – once again we had Winter Wonderland outdoors with Donkey rides, Winter market stalls Refreshments (covid-secure!) Children's craft activities, and a short Christmas talk – gathering many residents and bringing joy to the estate with all residents receiving Christmas cards and invites, and hampers delivered to those in need.

Plans for a regular Sunday Service – an answer to prayer emerged as we ended the year as a time slot on Sunday afternoon opened up. We now have an Easter launch date planned for 2022, and in the preceding weeks a small team are meeting in advance in this slot to plan, pray and worship.

Summer camp – Edgefest summer Christian festival was again cancelled, so the team took a group of families on a camping trip to the New Forest.

3

Gurnell Grove Community Trust

Trustees Report and Declaration

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

Objective 2 – relief of persons in need .

The team again responded to the practical implications of Coronavirus with energy, determination and vision to support the residents with shopping, telephone calls, drop off packs and continued some of the activities virtually until they could meet again in September.

Building Community – Our overall and long term aim is to bring social transformation by developing a deeper sense of community, allowing people to build meaningful relationships, by gathering people together and facilitating residents to meet one another – a challenge this year.

The monthly Pop up events could not take place until the autumn, but then included a lively event celebrating 5 years of the project. And Bingo church (mentioned above) continued in some format throughout the year.

Supporting children & families

Eden Kids - a weekly Kids Club activity pack continued to be dropped off to families in a ‘socially distanced’ way, returning to much welcomed ‘in person’ weekly meetings on Fridays from September.

Tackling Isolation

The weekly Community Lunch started the year as doorstep delivery of a lunch pack by the team and reverted to ‘in person’ from September. It is taking some time to get back to its pre-pandemic numbers.

A weekly Community Cafe, which was very popular in the open air during early summer, is now in the community centre for the winter, but in lower numbers.

In Heron House, the sheltered housing complex, our weekly club continued to be suspended as the common room was out of commission, but the team still visited individuals (when allowed).

Transforming Lives - The aim over time is to provide social action schemes that equip people with the skills and resources that they need to move out of hardship. Our group of resident volunteers continued to thrive in their roles.

Summary

2021 has been a second exceptional year like no other and it is a real testimony to the team that the trust and confidence built with residents (and the Council) over time enabled them to adapt and support so many on the estate.

Coronavirus Crisis As we write this in Spring 2022, normality is returning, with many restrictions lifted as the benefits of the vaccine programme kick in. The Trustees are satisfied that the Trust continues to be financially viable.

4

Gurnell Grove Community Trust Trustees Report and Declaration

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

The team

Mark Tate, the project leader, his wife Laura and their two children moved onto the estate in 2016, then into their own home there in 2017. Our part-time Community Worker, Catherine Patterson was a real blessing and strengthened the team, taking responsibility for Community Lunch and social events. However she has been called to ordination training and we were delighted to welcome Denise Colliver to take her place in November on a 2 year fixed term contract.

Under our recognition scheme volunteers were recognised at celebration events. Paula has made a remarkable journey as a Christian and has become a key Eden team member, building in confidence - listen to her story here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GiMF91AUWt8

The Trustees are very grateful to the volunteers, individuals and teams, including those from partner churches, who come alongside the team and inject energy and support to those on the ground week in week out and at special events .

The Trustees are very appreciative of the faithfulness, dedication, energy and enthusiasm of Mark and Laura Tate and Denise Colliver as they lead this work.

Looking ahead

Our Vision is to see a healthy, growing church community in the heart of the Gurnell Grove estate. Our Aim - We seek to cultivate an expression of church that is accessible and relevant to local people. This expression of church will be a spiritually and socially transforming place where individuals:

As we start 2022 and the restrictions of the pandemic continue to recede, we are very excited by a number of emerging opportunities:

  1. starting a Sunday afternoon church service in the Community Centre at Easter 2. a small youth group

  2. committing to increase our wrap-around care for the community including English classes, a Trauma course and Debt advice

  3. working with the Message Trust and the Council to try and establish a Community Grocery in a Portakabin

5

Gurnell Grove Community Trust

Trustees Report and Declaration

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

Stories - 5 years in

See this video of comments from Grove residents:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFa7I4L-HF0

Here are a few snippets from it - check the whole video out for more:

“They’ve done amazing for the estate, really helped a lot of kids on the estate, they seemed a bit lost at one point, it’s given them a new lease of life, the kids like to do things and its nice to see them getting involved, mixing with each other …Mark and Laura’ve done an amazing job on here, they’ve really turned it around. they’re brilliant for us …”

“We attend the kids’s club … favourite things … we go to the tuck shop, make cakes, make smoothies … love how many different activities there is … ”

“When I first moved here, after a few weeks of settling down, I was invited to, what was then a Wednesday then, where we did games and Bingo and films and gave me a chance to meet The Grove Community and also the people within the flats.”

“Since Mark and his wife and The Grove came here … I started coming to this club and I enjoy coming every week ….I thank God for them”

“Brilliant, brilliant … they’ve brought everyone together … I mean usually this block wouldn’t be talking to that block … now everyone seems to be talking together, they get along, kids talk to each other, I can let my daughter out now… much better community spirit. …come along to Bingo Church ….”

“The main thing I’ve found is that there’s been someone there willing to help, that’s what The Grove Community does”

6

Gurnell Grove Community Trust

Trustees Report and Declaration

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

Financial review

2021 was an extraordinary year with the continuation of the Coronavirus pandemic. However income held up well, from both individual givers and mission partners.

The charity continues to receive committed funding from founding partner churches, St Paul’s and St Stephen’s in Ealing, and newer mission partners including three year commitments from churches in the UK and US. The Trustees are very grateful to them for their continued financial, practical and prayer support.

We continued to benefit from grants from Ealing Council for our response to Covid-19 on the estate, and a Pathways one year grant to run Community lunches and Social activities. We also again received targeted sponsorship towards our Christmas event. All such grant funds were channelled through restricted accounts, and we are incredibly grateful to all these organisations, which enabled us to carry on during the pandemic.

With our ability to run key projects much reduced for the first 8 months, we took a sensible approach and partially furloughed both members of staff but were able to keep them employed thanks to the Government’s Job Retention scheme.

Our expenditure on core projects was much lower, especially as we could not use the community centre for eight months, but the team – paid and volunteer – were busy supporting the residents in so many ways.

Our strategy on income is:

To build up and maintain strong relationships with mission partners , and at the end of 2021 we have

We are thrilled to be working with all our mission partners and look forward to the years ahead together.

We have also been trying to build a base of personal donors , to whom we are indebted for their regular ongoing commitments.

However our seed funding from The Message Trust has now come to an end with the final tranche received in 2021, and some of the three year commitments are approaching their end so we are seeking to renew or replace these. So in the new year we appealed to our supporter base to build our regular giving, with some success as we write this.

Our main expenses are staff costs, with overheads carefully managed against budgets. The Christmas Winter Wonderland event was, in the main, covered by an event-specific sponsorship from a range of churches and trusts which enabled us to create a ‘covid secure’ outdoor event that will live on in the memories of the residents.

Going Concern and Reserves – overall expenditure exceeded income in 2021 so we saw a deficit of £4,953 (though a surplus of £2,989 in the unrestricted General Fund). The Trustees have a policy to ensure unrestricted reserves are adequate to cover operating costs for two months. The level of unrestricted reserves at 31 December 2021 were £44,471 (2020 £41,482), comfortably satisfying this policy.

7

Gurnell Grove Community Trust

Trustees Report and Declaration

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

Risk Management - The Trustees have considered the risks to which the charity is exposed and have considered ways of mitigating those risks.

The major financial risk concerns the need for a constant flow of donations and grants and the Trustees and project leader continue to make every effort to consolidate relationships with current donors and develop new partners and sources of income.

There is a ‘key person’ risk if the project leader were to leave the charity or be unable to fulfil his duties. The charity mitigates that risk by placing emphasis on the development of staff and volunteers at all levels through training and the employment of a community worker to strengthen the team.

There is an operational risk that inappropriate actions of those involved in charity activities could result in injury, loss, damage, or reputational harm. To guard against this risk the charity maintains comprehensive policies and procedures reflecting best practice. And training of staff and volunteers continues. The staff and activities of the charity are covered by employers and public liability insurance.

Overall the trustees consider the financial position of the charity to be sound.

Declaration

The trustees' annual report and financial statements were approved on 28 September 2022 and signed on behalf of the board of trustees by:

Gordon May, Chair

Jane Maffett, Treasurer

8

Gurnell Grove Community Trust

Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees

Period from 1[st] January 2021 to 31[st] December 2021

9

Gurnell Grove Communlty Trust Charity Commission Registration Number 1174906 Balance Sheet- Comparative As at December 31, 2021 31 D•c 2021 31 D•c 2020 Cun•nt Assets Cash At ArKI In HaTh 46.813 CrnthLWS Olhw Crf*JrtcKs 46,813 & ReS•￿S R•lam•d Fth 46.813 21.788 cumulthl (111r2021- 3111212021) 4.953 25.025 Funds Provldod 41,860 46,813 10

Gurnell Grove Community Trust Statement of Financial Activities (Receipts & Payments) January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 (compared to January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2020) Unrestrlctod Rostrlct•d Endowment Totsl Prlor Totsl Recelpts Income and ErKlowments In¢ome from t)onatk*ns arn1 L8gacl88 Evenl Ddven SFonsorshlp 2,311 2,311 3,214 IndI￿dual$ Glvlng Donatlons 8t ovents 478 478 Indlwduals - plann8d 13,711 13,711 13,267 Indiwduals - unpLqnned 674 674 11,395 Organlsational giving Org t)onations & Grants Grants- Recumng 5,C(10 Mission Partners 32,782 32,782 32,546 stsrtup fundir¥J 3,51K) 3,YJO 5,YJO Org Dcmations & grants (one offl 2,241 2,241 30,376 Inv8slment Inccme 18 Other Incoming Resources 9,735 9,735 Total Rocelpts 63.125 2.311 65.436 101.941

Gurnell Grove Communlty Trust Statement of Financial Activities (Receipts & Payments) January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021 (compared to January 1. 2020 to December 31, 2020) Unr•B1rlcl•d Total Prlor Tot 1.372 1.372 974 Cl4vty Ci s.￿7 7.656 48.811 3,212 51.823 4rKI Inrfkn• 4.41S 11.343 10.311 Totsl Payin 10.136 10.253 70.310 All R•cdpt• 13.12S 1311 101.•41 All P•ym•nlJ 10.136 10.2S3 70.310 2.•8• Tothl Fund• Brou￿ Forwwtl 41.412 5,331 46.813 Tol•l FuTrJ• c•Irl￿ F<Th• 44A71 -1611 16,813

Notes to Financial Statements

2. GENERAL INFORMATION

The CIO is a public benefit entity and a registered charity in England and Wales and is unincorporated. The address of the principal office is St Stephen’s Church, St Stephen’s Rd, Ealing, London W13 8HB. All income and expenditure derive from continuing activities.

3. STATEMENT OF COMPLIANCE

These financial statements have been prepared to be consistent with the recommendations in Accounting and reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice 2005 (the Charities SORP) as they apply to smaller charities.

4. ACCOUNTING POLICIES

4.1 Basis of preparation

These financial statements have been prepared on a ‘receipts and payments’ basis. The financial statements are prepared in sterling, the functional currency.

4.2 Going concern

There are no material uncertainties about the charity's ability to continue.

4.3 Judgements and key sources of estimation uncertainty

The preparation of the financial statements requires management to make judgements, estimates and assumptions that affect the amounts reported. These estimates and judgements are continually reviewed and are based on experience and other factors, including expectations of future events that are believed to be reasonable under the circumstances.

4.4 Fund accounting

4.5 Receipts

All incoming resources are included in the statement of financial activities as follows:

4.6 Payments made

Expenditure includes any VAT which cannot be recovered, and is classified under headings of the statement of financial activities to which it relates:

All costs are allocated to expenditure categories reflecting the use of the resource. Direct costs attributable to a single activity are allocated directly to that activity. Shared costs are apportioned between the activities they contribute to on a reasonable, justifiable and consistent basis.

4.7 ADDITIONAL DECLARATIONS NEEDED

The Charitable Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012 require the following information for charities preparing accounts on a ‘receipts and payments’ basis:

13

Notes to Financial Statements

5. EMPLOYEES

At the end of the year 2 people were employed by the Trust, one full-time one part-time. No employee received employee benefits of more than £60,000 during the year.

Due to the need to partially furlough both employees in the early part of the year we were able to claim £9,735 under the Government’s Job Retention Scheme.

6. TRUSTEE REMUNERATION AND EXPENSES

No remuneration or other benefits from employment with the charity or a related entity were received by the trustees.There have been no related party transactions in the reporting period. Normal expenses incurred on trust activities were reimbursed to trustees.

7. RESTRICTED FUNDS

Restricted Funds 31/12/2020 Income received Expenditure 31/12/2021
Christmas Events -£795 £2,311 -£4,127 -£2,611
Ealing Emergency Covid-19
grant		 £965 £0 -£965 £0
Pathways grant £5162 £0 -£5,162 £0
rounding adjustment -£1 £1
Total £5,331 £2,311 -£10,253 -£2,611

7.1 The ‘Christmas Event Restricted Fund’ shows a negative position at year end – this is due to timing differences, with the expenditure on the ‘Winter Wonderland’ almost all coming before the year end, but the committed sponsorship covering this was received in January / February 2022.

7.2 The Ealing Emergency Covid 19 Pandemic Grant of £10,000 was awarded by Ealing Council to help The Grove support residents through food distribution, delivery of children’s packs, shopping, practical and pastoral support and to enable remote working. The grant has now been fully utilised.

7.3 The Pathways Gran t of £7,987 was awarded for 12 months from September 2020 to support Community Lunches and Social events.The grant has now been fully utilised.

14