## **Herts Musical Memories Annual Report**
## **For Period 29/11/2019 - 31/12/2020**
**Charity No: 1176007**
## **Charity Registered Address: 20a Bournehall Ave, Bushey, WD23 3AY**
## **CEO – Kerry Brabant**
Herts Musical Memories provides stimulating and inspiring activities for people with dementia and their carers, improving the quality of their lives and alleviating their fear and isolation.
## **Values**
Herts Musical Memories (HMM) passionately believes that all people with memory problems or dementia should still enjoy positive fulfilling experiences that enhance their lives and improve their health, confidence, and sense of wellbeing.
Health, wellbeing, and equality are at the core of HMM’s activities relating to service users, staff, volunteers and the wider public.
HMM will actively promote equality for people with dementia and their carers, demonstrating to the wider public that people with dementia still have a place in society and should be treated with dignity and respect.
## **Activities and Objectives**
HMM provides a stimulating social activity based in musical therapy for people with dementia and their carers. The charity runs 13 singing groups which are run in 4 weekly blocks across Hertfordshire. Every 5[th] week there is a break for administration, research, and song preparation. HMM has 447 clients who have signed up to our services. An average 24 people attend each group regularly with some groups reaching up to 40 members. The sessions last 90 minutes with time set aside for socializing and light refreshments.
1
The majority of the participants are dealing with the impact of an early diagnosis and are usually accompanied by a family member, usually a spouse. People who live alone attend with professional carers. A limited number of people with dementia attend alone – these may be people who are worried about memory loss, who feel isolated and need social interaction to maintain their mental and physical health.
Sessions are held at fixed dates and times in community centers or church halls. The venues are chosen carefully for ease of access, to be on regular bus routes, for good parking and for providing good facilities. The venues can be expensive, but the quality of the premises plays an important part in making the sessions a positive experience.
The sessions are structured to include a range of activities that are repeated each week providing the service users with a routine that becomes familiar with regular attendance. Songs are chosen from a variety of genres and cover decades from 1930s up to the 1970s. Service users are asked to contribute to song choices to ensure the sessions are relatable and have meaning to the participants. The sessions include songs that require actions to improve dexterity, the singing of rounds to develop cognitive skills and also include the use of a variety of percussion instruments to experiment with rhythms.
The service users are taught new songs. Incredibly, because of the way the human brain remembers music, people with dementia can do this even when their powers of speech are deteriorating and have become significantly impaired. People actively enjoy learning new things – it increases confidence and boosts self-esteem.
The sessions are delivered by a professional group leader with the support of volunteers. Herts Musical Memories uses professional leaders to ensure the quality and continuity of the service. As well as preparing the sessions using techniques based in music therapy, the leaders are responsible for administering the sessions, collecting fees and ensuring the health and safety of the members.
## **4. Managing 2020**
HMM began 2020 with 13 groups spread across Hertfordshire. Out of these groups, 10 ran to full capacity with a constant stream of referrals. After a very challenging 2019 HMM was poised for a successful 2020. At the beginning of March the charity had finance in place for the rest of the year as a result of being the chosen charity for the Rotary Club at St Albans, Nationwide in Hitchin, The RO Group in Potters Bar and Hertfordshire County Golf Club. In addition, volunteers were running a repeat of a Watford music festival that achieved over £2,000 summer 2019.
In relation to fundraising the charity had successfully achieved £5,000 from the Herts Community fund for general costs and £10,000 towards Herts Year of Culture. HMM was also in the last stages of a large application to the Big Lottery for 5 year funding.
HMM after only 3 years had achieved funding for the year and was looking (as mentioned in the annual report of 2019) to appoint a new member of staff to ensure the charity maintained and built on this success to ensure its long-term sustainability.
2
## **5. COVID 19**
As a result of COVID 19 HMM had to reinvent itself and find new ways to provide services. The charity was ill equipped to provide online services due to unreliable wi fi and computers. There was also some urgency to seek new funding streams to help HMM create an online service.
In response to the pandemic, HMM was able to provide 3 Zoom sessions per week with supportive phone calls for the more vulnerable members of the charity or for people who were not able to use computers.
The group leaders had to learn new skills to create an effective program that was able to engage the members. In the charity’s live sessions, we usually sing a cappella but online this was not effective, and we began to use instruments and backing tracks. Poetry corner was introduced, and we explored ways to make the sessions more interactive which helped to maintain the connection with the members. The Zoom sessions were a huge challenge but became a lot of fun. Comments from members:
‘These sessions are a life saver’
‘I don’t know what we would do without you’
‘I have loved meeting people from the other groups’
‘You have brought routine back to our lives’
The sessions ran every week without a break including Christmas Day. The Zoom sessions have been a great achievement for HMM both for the team and for our members. It was a learning curve for the whole community of HMM and we all rose to the challenge and as a result people who would have otherwise been isolated were able to cope a little better through the many difficulties presented by the pandemic.
In addition to the Zoom sessions HMM created a live online D Day Concert and an online Christmas concert. Songs were posted regularly on Facebook. There were also a couple of sing a long event in local parks.
The charity is pleased that it has achieved it’s goal of moving into a small office space. The rent is manageable for the charity and has been negotiated recognizing HMM’s charitable status – the office is part of a much larger complex providing events and sports for the surrounding area.
## **HMM Trustees**
Heather Hurford
appointed: March 2019
Musfika Begum
appointed: November 2017, resigned April 2020
3
David Bates – Treasurer
appointed: May 2019
Helen Poole
John Dyer
appointed November 2017 – resigned January 2020 appointed June 2020
## **Governing Documents** –
Constitution of CIO, HMM is a CIO whose only voting members are its Board of Trustees. Trustees are recommended and elected by the Board.
The Board has access to training through HMM’s membership of its local CVS and have created a policy which will be available to new trustees providing guidelines on becoming a trustee. The topics covered are:
- General information
- Trustees responsibilities
- Understanding governing documents
- Difference between Trustees and Membership
- Public & Private Benefits
- Finance
- Conflicts of Interest
- Trustee Meetings
## **HMMs Structure**
The charity has a board of trustees who support the CEO. The CEO is responsible for the day to day management of the charity and the delivery of the business plan. To help the charity carry out delivery of its services the charity engages 5 freelance staff. There is also a regular team of 40 volunteers who help run the singing groups providing support to the group leaders. Volunteers also, from time to time, help with administration.
The charity has close links to Hertswise, who are a regional arm of Age UK. They are helping the charity to develop training and support for volunteers, strengthen the charity’s policies and procedures and generally offering help and advice where needed.
Referrals also come via Herts Help, Social Services, Alzheimer’s Society, Carers in Herts, Social Prescribers, Admiral Nurses, GPs and word and mouth.
## **Financial Review**
As mentioned at the beginning of 2020 HMM faced its most successful year to date, however, as a result of the Pandemic this situation rapidly changed. Within two weeks of the first lock down all funding had been withdrawn to be redirected into emergency funds and all fundraising events were cancelled. The charity survived thanks to funding achieved from the Herts Community Fund – they were immediately contacted, and it was agreed the funds could be repurposed to develop the online Zoom sessions. Fundraising was then carried out to access emergency funding to enable the charity to adapt it’s services to deliver them online.
4
HMM was successful and achieved funds from the Charities Aid Foundation, Government funding via the Big Lottery and NHS commissioning and emergency funding from Watford and Three Rivers Trusts. All these funds were unrestricted and went towards developing singing sessions on Zoom.
## **2021**
For 2021 HMM will look at how the charity can build a strong base and what actions need to be taken to ensure the charity will continue to grow and develop. The charity will also work with Age UK and Hertswise – taking advice regarding risk assessments and precautions needed to reopen the Singing Sessions. Members have been surveyed with regards to returning to live sessions. Many feel that they would still like to continue with Zoom sessions whilst others would prefer live sessions – HMM will raise funds to run both live and online services. HMM anticipates the numbers will be low to begin with and that time will be needed to rebuild the sessions.
## **Summary**
Whilst HMM responded well to the pandemic there still needs to be more work done to ensure the long-term sustainability of the charity. However, for a small organisation HMM has shown incredible resilience in the face of extraordinary circumstances. The need for the services HMM provides have been heightened by the devasting impact on many of the charity’s clients. The rapid decline in their health and the large numbers having to go into care homes can be linked directly to the loss of their services. Through case studies carried out by the charity, scientific research and anecdotal evidence there is no doubt that ‘singing in groups’ is the single most important activity for people with dementia. HMM will continue to promote the benefits of singing and deliver a vibrant and stimulating activity supporting people to live well with dementia. 2020 was a huge learning curve which can be summed more effectively through the words of our clients.
_‘You were amazing, we don’t know what we would have done without you – the zoom sessions gave back purpose to our lives’._
## **Declaration**
## **The Trustees declare they approve the above report**
## **Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees**
Signature John Dyer (Oct 28, 2021 15:03 GMT+1)
> Full Name John Dyer Position Trustee Date Oct 28, 2021
5
## Annual Report November 2019 - 2020 final copy
Final Audit Report 2021-10-28
Created: 2021-10-28 By: Kerry Brabant (admin@hertsmusicalmemories.org.uk) Status: Signed Transaction ID: CBJCHBCAABAAW4iDVcxfya_VeLegPHi8QxGzyg3a3hxh
## "Annual Report November 2019 - 2020 final copy" History
## Document created by Kerry Brabant (admin@hertsmusicalmemories.org.uk)
2021-10-28 - 12:52:28 PM GMT- IP address: 188.31.224.153
## Document emailed to John Dyer (jdjldyer@gmail.com) for signature
2021-10-28 - 12:53:18 PM GMT
## Email viewed by John Dyer (jdjldyer@gmail.com)
2021-10-28 - 1:58:40 PM GMT- IP address: 86.1.243.113
## Document e-signed by John Dyer (jdjldyer@gmail.com)
Signature Date: 2021-10-28 - 2:03:43 PM GMT - Time Source: server- IP address: 86.1.243.113
## Agreement completed.
2021-10-28 - 2:03:43 PM GMT
|**HERTS MUSICAL MEMORIES**||**1176007**|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|**Receipts andpayments accounts**||||**CC16a**|
|01/01/2020
Period start date
**For the period**
**from**|**To**|31/12/2020
Period end date|||
|**Section A Receipts and payments**|**Section A Receipts and payments**||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|**A1 Receipts**|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**13,647**
**9,714**
**59,351**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**82,712**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**82,712**
**41,211**
**4,351**
**542**
**1,501**
**686**
**2,764**
**1,894**
**2,200**
**2,905**
**58,054**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**58,054**
**24,658**
**-**
**142**
**24,800**|**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**Total funds**
**to the nearest £**
**13,647**
**9,714**
**59,351**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**82,712**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**82,712**
**41,211**
**4,351**
**542**
**1,501**
**686**
**2,764**
**1,894**
**2,200**
**2,905**
**58,054**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**58,054**
**24,658**||**Last year**
**to the nearest £**|
|User fees|**13,647**|||||**34,126**|
|Donations|**9,714**|||||**21,042**|
|Grants|**59,351**|||||**5,000**|
|Sponsorship|**-**|||||**470**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
||**-**|||||**-**|
|~~**_Sub total_**~~~~_(Gross income for_~~
_AR)_|**82,712**|||||**60,638**|
||||||||
|**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**|||||||
||**-**||||||
||**-**|||||**-**|
|~~**_Sub total_**~~|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total receipts_**
**A3 Payments**|||||||
|||||||**60,638**|
||||||||
|
Personnel|**41,211**|||||**42,471**|
|Venue hire|**4,351**|||||**15,969**|
|Insurance|**542**|||||**476**|
|Marketing|**1,501**|||||**671**|
|Training|**686**|||||**1,355**|
|Computers & telephones|**2,764**|||||**832**|
|Stationery|**1,894**|||||**169**|
|Rent & storage|**2,200**|||||**939**|
|Sundries|**2,905**|||||**648**|
|**_Sub total_ **|**58,054**|||||**63,530**|
||||||||
|**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**|||||||
||**-**||||||
||**-**||||||
|**_Sub total_ **|**-**|||||**-**|
|**_Total payments_**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**_Cash funds this year end_**|||||||
|||||||**63,530**|
||||||||
||**24,658**|**-**|**-**|**24,658**||**- 2,892**|
||**-**|**-**|**-**|**-**||**-**|
||**142**|**-**|**-**|**142**|||
||**24,800**|**-**|**-**|**24,800**||**142**|
CCXX R1 accounts (SS)
27/10/2021
1
**Signature:** Heather Hurford Heather Hurford (Oct 28, 2021 14:30 GMT+1)
## **Email:** heatherhurford1@gmail.com
## **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period**
|**Categories**
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B3 Investment assets**|Signature
**Details**
**Details**
Bank account
**Details**
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))
**Details**
Heather Hurford|**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**24,800**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**24,800**
**-**
OK
OK
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to nearest £**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Cost (optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Print Name
Heather Hurford|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
|---|---|---|---|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||OK|
||||**Endowment**
**funds**
**to nearest £**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**Current value**
**(optional)**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**-**|
||||**When due**
**(optional)**|
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
|||||
||||Date of
approval|
||Heather Hurford|Heather Hurford|28.10.21|
|||||
CCXX R2 accounts (SS)
27/10/2021
2
## Herts MM 2020 for signing
Final Audit Report
2021-10-28
Created: 2021-10-27 By: Kerry Brabant (admin@hertsmusicalmemories.org.uk) Status: Signed Transaction ID: CBJCHBCAABAAyT-6a1ZdCMH5GnT_-8WWspCR2QEtgAMf
## "Herts MM 2020 for signing" History
Document created by Kerry Brabant (admin@hertsmusicalmemories.org.uk)
2021-10-27 - 10:33:52 AM GMT- IP address: 188.31.224.153
Document emailed to Heather Hurford (heatherhurford1@gmail.com) for signature 2021-10-27 - 10:35:56 AM GMT
Email viewed by Heather Hurford (heatherhurford1@gmail.com)
2021-10-27 - 10:53:49 AM GMT- IP address: 5.170.240.68
## Document e-signed by Heather Hurford (heatherhurford1@gmail.com)
Signature Date: 2021-10-28 - 1:30:53 PM GMT - Time Source: server- IP address: 82.42.248.176
Agreement completed.
2021-10-28 - 1:30:53 PM GMT
CHARITY COMMISSION
FOR ENGLAND AND WALES
Independent examinerfs
report on the accounts
Sectlon A
Independent Examiner's Rewt
Report to the trusteesl
members of
HERTS MUSICAL mEMoFEs
On accounts for the year
ended
310ECEMBER 2020
Charlty no
(if any)
1176007
Set out on pagos
ONEAND TWO
lo in¢IJd8lhpan?nlNrkn. nfAdrtiliDrwlqh&HIsi
I report lo the Iruslees on my examination of the acccmjntsof the above
chanty ('the Trust.) for the year ended
Rosponslbllltles and As the chartty trustees of the Trust, you are resFon5ible forthe preparation
basis of report of the acc¢)unts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act
2011 ("the A¢r).
I report in respect of my examina of th9 Trust's acCntS carri&J out
under seclM)n 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I
have followed the apFlicab DireclK)ns given by Ihe Charty commion
under sectK•n 145151{b) of the Act.
I hav8 completed my examination. l Confimi that rK) material matters have
come lo my attention {othèr than that tlisclos8d below ') in connection with
the examinatth which gNes me cause to bdieve that in, any material
respect..
accounting records were not kept in accordancewlth section 130 of
the Act or
the accounts do t accord wrth the accounting records
Independent
examlnefs statement
I have no concems and have come across no other matters In connecllon
with the examination lo which attent shoukl be drawn in order to enable a
proper understandiro of the accnts lo be reached.
' Please delete the wS in the brackets rflhey do not appty.
Slgnad:
Date:
10
Name:
ANTHONY PHILIP CR
EY
Relevant professlonal
qualification{sl or body
(if any):
ICAEW
Addre5S:
PARKGATE HOUSE
33A PRATh STREET
LONDON
NW1 OBG
IER
October 2018