Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 ## **Uttlesford Foodbank** **Registered Charity Number 1176230 Registered in England and Wales** ## **Annual Report and Statement of Accounts 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024** Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 2 Objective, Purposes and Activities ........................................................................................ 2 Trustees’ Report ................................................................................................................... 3 General Manager’s Report .................................................................................................... 4 Volunteer Coordinator’s Report ............................................................................................. 5 Assistant Manager’s Report .................................................................................................. 5 Usage and Statistics ............................................................................................................. 6 Financial Review ................................................................................................................. 10 Appendix 1 – Trustee Recruitment Policy ............................................................................ 13 Appendix 2 – P&L ............................................................................................................... 15 Appendix 3 – Scrutineer’s Report ........................................................................................ 18 1 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 ## **Introduction** This Annual Report provides a review of the year from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024 and reports on achievements, performance and impact together with a summary of our financial performance and financial situation which demonstrate the Trustees’ stewardship and management of charitable funds. Firstly the Trustees of Uttlesford Foodbank would like to extend their deep appreciation of the incredible contribution made by staff, volunteers and donors without whom our work and achievements would not be possible. The Trustees have continued to have due regard to the Charity Commissions guidance on public benefit and are confident that Uttlesford Foodbank continues to meet these requirements. ## **Objective, Purposes and Activities** Uttlesford Foodbank’s objective is to relieve persons in Uttlesford and the surrounding area who are in financial hardship in such ways as the Trustees from time to time think fit, in particular, but not exclusively by: - providing emergency food, essential toiletries, and household items to individuals and families in need and/or for distribution by charities or other organisations working to prevent or relieve poverty - Such other means, including (but not limited to) the provision of support or signposting to relevant information and/or referral to other support services. We achieve this by distributing parcels containing food and other essential items to last, on average, seven days. We also distribute food vouchers either to augment the food parcels provided or to provide immediate relief to those individuals identified as being in urgent need of support. 2 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 ## **Trustees’ Report** The Trustees who served during the year were: Chair Richard Porch Secretary Gemma Copping Treasurer Rhian Capaner (resigned September ’23) Treasurer Jane Jones (appointed September ’23, resigned June ’24) Trustee Carol Johns Trustee Hannah Henley (resigned March ’24) Trustee Sophie Storey (appointed April ’23) The Trustee board has experienced some turnover during the year; we want to express our gratitude for their valuable contributions. Since the end of the reporting year the Trustees have engaged in a programme of recruitment to replace trustees who have retired and to refresh the board and provide the foundation for the next phase of development of Uttlesford Foodbank. Operationally, this has been another busy year for the food bank team. The continuing rise in the cost of living has resulted in an increase in demand across the district together with a stagnation in the level of donations resulting in us having to use more of our reserves. We have also tried to increase our fundraising to fill the gaps. In April 2023 we moved into a larger warehouse space with more room for storage, deliveries and dispatching parcels. Our team continues to be active in the community and we are proud to see their involvement in a variety of projects, working with other agencies and raising our profile. Des Ashton is an asset as Campaigns and Advocacy Officer and dazzles local councillors and partners with her data and knowledge. We received funding from Trussell Trust to fund 2 part-time Financial Inclusion officers for a period of 3 years, these advisors work from the Citizens Advice Bureau and attend outreach events across the district. In December 2023 Sophie Durlacher, our food bank Director, resigned from her volunteer role and has been very ably succeeded by Katy Mendes-Day as General Manager. Katy has made the role her own and brings new skills and experience. Our team has also increased to include Jennie Brown, Assistant Manager and Lynne Smith, bookkeeper. We are very grateful to this amazing team for their drive and commitment to the organisation. During the current financial year of 2024/25 the issues and trends of the reporting year have continued. Donations have not kept pace with the continuing rise in demand for food parcels. This has bought a focus on the need for a longer term strategy to ensure that we can continue to fund a level of service provision that meets needs across the district. This will require us to develop additional sources of funds and new approaches to fundraising. We are confident that we have the team and the support in our community to achieve this, We thank our small team of employees for their dedication and tenacity, our large team of incredible volunteers for their commitment, our partners who collaborate with us so effectively and our donors, without whose continuing support we would not be able to provide our service. ## **Board of Trustees** 3 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 ## **General Manager’s Report** I started off the financial year within my previous role as Operations Manager, working alongside Sophie Durlacher, our Director. Throughout the year I took on further responsibilities, freeing up time for our Director (a volunteer) and allowing her to focus on tasks outside of the operation of the organisation. Sophie retired from the food bank at the end of December 2023 and I took on her responsibilities in their entirety, with my job title being changed to General Manager and recruited an assistant manager to take on many of the operational tasks. This is still a work in progress as I develop the organisation and take it in a direction to best support and address the needs of our clients whilst maintaining and developing a welcoming and mutually beneficial environment for both our volunteers and staff. Our new Assistant Manager started just before Christmas 2023 and immediately fitted into the team With her support we have started to make plans to open up the food bank to client collections (as an alternative to deliveries and increasing access to our service outside of delivery days), become a certified safe space for victims of domestic violence and develop our interactions with clients to ensure they were connected with other support services to address their immediate and ongoing needs, with the ultimate goal being to reduce the likelihood that they will need to return to a food bank. ||||**Parcels**
**Provided**|**Households**
**Supported**|**Individuals**
**Supported**|**Stock Donated**
**(kg)**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---| |||||||| |**22/23**|||1,668|1,503|4,345|69,065| |**23/24**|||1,771|1,626|4,937|55,531| |||||||| |**% Increase/Decrease**|||6%|8%|14%|-20%| The continued increases in the cost of living have had a significant impact on both the demand for our services and the public’s ability to increase donations to match the rise in referrals. As a result, we found ourselves in a position where we were ordering stock from our wholesaler from the beginning of January 2024 onwards, when the previous pattern was that we would not need to start purchasing stock before summer. We also continued to feel the impact that the migration from legacy benefits to Universal Credit was having on the financial stability of many of our district’s residents, as well as the effect of reduced services and longer waiting lists within the NHS for those struggling with either physical or mental ill health and the effect that this had on their earning ability. We anticipate that this upward trend in demand with donations remaining at the current level will continue into the next financial year and possibly beyond. Some economic predictions indicate that in real terms, incomes will not return to prepandemic levels until 2027. Therefore, we now have a heavy focus on maximising donations - both material and financial - to maintain our stability and ability to respond to increased levels of demand. We also have a continuing emphasis on campaigning and communication, both to increase awareness of the local and national pressures that result in people using food banks and to influence change going forwards into 24/25. ## **Katy Mendes-Day** ## **General Manager** 4 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 ## **Volunteer Coordinator’s Report** The food bank currently has 128 volunteers, which is a similar number to last year. Some volunteers are involved in more than one team. The teams comprise: - Trustees 6 - Admin 10 - Campaigns and community outreach 5 - Saffron Walden Warehouse 64 - Saffron Walden Drivers 28 - Dunmow team 7 - Stansted team 8 - Takeley team 5 We are aiming to reopen our Saffron Walden Warehouse to clients early in the next reporting year, giving them the option of collecting their food parcel rather than having it delivered. Eighteen of our warehouse volunteers are being trained to meet with clients at the food bank when they arrive to collect their food. We frequently accommodate Corporate volunteers in the warehouse and have had some school work experience students as well. We currently have 40 names on our waiting list to join our volunteer team. All volunteers are included in the Trussell Trust’s Assemble, their web-based Management System, and are required to undertake an online Safeguarding course every three years. Many volunteers also choose to avail themselves of the wide range of other training courses available on the Trussell Trust’s site. We continue to provide positive and accessible volunteering opportunities, embracing diversity and promoting inclusion. Our volunteer team is the lifeblood of our organisation; without their incredible commitment we simply wouldn’t be able to do what we do. ## **Lesley Murdoch** ## **Volunteer Coordinator** ## **Assistant Manager’s Report** I joined the food bank as Assistant Manager in December 2022 whereupon I immediately immersed myself into the role. As part of my induction I completed a number of shifts with the warehouse and parcel preparation teams to gain a better understanding of the operation of the food bank and to see the entire process from beginning to end. This also gave me the opportunity to get to know our wonderful team of volunteers who really are the backbone of our organisation. The commencement of my employment with the food bank coincided with a new significant change within the organisation with the departure of Sophie Durlacher as Director and the restructuring of the employed staff with Katy Mendes-Day taking on the General Manager role and my appointment as Assistant Manager. I was aware from the start that these changes needed to be handled sensitively, especially with our volunteers. I made sure from the beginning that I became fully integrated with the volunteers: popping into every warehouse 5 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 shift to check in and engage with the volunteers and emphasising our identity as a team. I regularly liaise with Lesley Murdoch, our Volunteer Coordinator, to ensure that our volunteers are happy and fulfilled and to sort out any welfare or training issues. In an attempt to close the gap between stock and donations I have implemented “In Need Of” lists at all our donation points within the district. These are updated fortnightly to reflect the most current needs of the food bank and are distributed by volunteers. I also regularly update the website and we now use the ‘BanktheFood’ app which is designed to link food banks to donors when they are physically at the supermarket. We continue to advertise the app on our social media platforms to increase engagement and donations. I was frequently asked by our volunteers about recent figures of food bank usage and so I reimplemented the quarterly newsletter to regularly update both our volunteers and our trustees. The newsletter also contains information about fundraising, upcoming events and training. I have also introduced new quarterly hub meet ups with the volunteers from the south of the district to discuss any ideas and issues they may have. These are useful in strengthening our identity as a team and providing a useful face to face opportunity to meet and support these volunteers. Together with Katy, I have been working on new processes to enable us to re-open the warehouse to the public thereby giving our clients the option to collect their food parcels from the Saffron Walden warehouse. This has involved ensuring that new client facing volunteers have the relevant training needed for this role and also creating processes and writing role descriptions. We have also updated the role descriptions for many of the volunteer roles within the warehouse to include newer information and processes. Looking forward to the next year 2024/25 my principal aims are to: - Continue to work on wrap around care for all clients (including in the South of the district) and maintain good relationships with referral agencies. The primary aim here is to reduce the need for food parcels and reduce the number of clients using us more than once and enabling clients with the resources they need to support themselves. - Re-open the warehouse to the public for walk-in clients. - Become a registered Safe Space via the J9 Domestic Abuse Initiative. ## **Jennie Brown** ## **Assistant Manager** ## **Usage and Statistics** ## **Overview** 2023/24 marked my second year in the role of Advocacy and Campaigns Officer. I am now one of around 100 Local Organisers created and funded by Trussell Trust, the aim being to bring forward the views and voices of those with lived experience of poverty. **Projects & Initiatives** 6 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 2023/24 has been a busy year for projects: **Feeding The Family** – in April 2023 we were invited to take part in the Feeding The Family exhibition at Saffron Walden Museum. This exhibition ran through late spring/early summer and focused on the role of food in households through the ages. We were delighted to be asked to create a display and included information around our food parcels. The exhibition attracted more than 2200 visitors. **Guarantee Our Essentials** – our campaign work in 23/24 fed into the Trussell Trust campaign supporting everyone’s right to afford life’s essentials. The focus has been on campaigning for a more robust benefits system where the amount people receive is based on a genuine assessment of real living costs. We know Universal Credit is a key driver of food bank use, with more than 90% of those using food banks being in receipt of benefits. Our data has played an important role in raising awareness of this and pushing for greater investment of local grants in areas where Universal Credit uptake is higher. 7 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 On 9 September 2023 we played our part in the **Trussell Trust National Action Day** by hosting a stall in the market in Saffron Walden and inviting passers-by to sign the national petition calling for an **Essentials Guarantee** . Supported by volunteers and Uttlesford District Councillors we secured more than 350 signatures. Drawing on the experience of our community, we created some short reels of client quotes to support this campaign. These were shared on our socials and really helped to highlight the challenges faced by those in receipt of UC. 8 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 **Community Projects** – FY23/24 has seen us roll out our Community Cook Club programme for households with children. During the year we ran several Slow Cooker Cook Clubs, offering each household a free 6L slow cooker, recipes and free and ingredients over a period of 6-10 weeks. Each week the group would meet for one hour to discuss the recipes, which included Turkey Meatballs, Speedy Risotto, Cauliflower Tandoori Masala, Sausage Savoury Rice, and many more! Participants were recruited through our client-base and also via our community partners. Over the course of the programme we supported around 60 adults and almost 100 children. Not only did the attendees learn new cooking skills that were time and budget friendly but developed peer support networks. ## **Further Work** In addition to the above projects, work undertaken within my role has included: **Worrying About Money Leaflet** – working across our community partners, we have continued to promote our ‘cash first’ leaflet which focuses on sign-posting local routes to help in Uttlesford which is included in all our parcels to help people tackle some of the factors which are bringing them to the food bank. **Collating and Sharing Data** – our food bank captures anonymised data which means we can monitor demand for our service. We know that pre-pandemic we issued around 600 parcels a year. By the 2023/24 financial year this had risen to almost 1800 parcels a year. This equates to around 4900 individuals, almost half of whom are children. The most frequently cited reasons for needing a food parcel are: rising cost of essentials, priority debt and the impact of ongoing mental or physical health conditions. We also pull government DWP data from StatXplore. By combining both data sets with ours we have been able to create an informative data-pack which is now shared with key partners, such as Uttlesford District Council, and a range of community partners. The combined data helps ensure that investment is shared across the District, targeting projects which will have the most impact on those who are struggling. In addition, by tracking data around initiatives such as the Cost Of Living payments, we can show that food bank use dips when more money goes directly into people’s pockets. This helps support the argument that a robust benefit system can reduce food bank use. **Attending Panels & Forums To Influence Decision Making** – a large part of the Advocacy & Campaigns activity involves attending local panels, meetings and forums to ensure that the 9 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 experiences and views of those who are living in poverty feed into and influence decision making. **Financial Inclusion Work –** during this past year we have secured a three-year funding agreement with Trussell Trust allowing us to pay for two part-time advisers in Citizens Advice. These advisers will specialise in debt management and financial planning; supporting individuals and households to work through complex circumstances. We already work hard to ensure anyone coming to us is cross-referred to other support services. This funding will allow for an even more targeted approach for some of our most vulnerable households. ## **Looking Forward To 2024/25** Over the course of the last year, we have strengthened our reputation as a strategic partner across the District; our data and insights are seen to offer an important lens into poverty in Uttlesford and this has allowed us to contribute constructively to many panels and forums. Our community work has raised our public profile for being about ‘more than just food’. Going forward we hope to build on all of the above. Funding permitting, we will continue to offer further Cook Clubs to different groups in our community. By sharing our data and insights we can continue to support targeted investment. Most importantly, we will ensure that the experiences of those who are struggling represented and influencing change within our district and nationally. ## **Des Ashton** ## **Advocacy & Campaigns Officer** ## **Financial Review** ## **Expenditure** 23/24 saw a significant increase in our outgoings in comparison to the previous year. We moved into a larger warehouse which both incurred moving expenses and increased our monthly rent significantly, this has been partially offset by sub-letting some space to another local charity. Our employee head count increased; our Director (volunteer), left the organisation and the Operations Manager (employee), stepped into her role, leaving a vacancy which was filled by recruiting a new employee. This increased our salary costs and associated PAYE and National Insurance obligations. We had to purchase significantly more stock and vouchers (for local shops and supermarkets to allow our clients to purchase fresh food or essential products such as baby formula, nappies or hypoallergenic food), reflective of both the increase in demand on our services and a stagnation of the quantity of donations received. Just under £41,000 was paid to an external organisation for the provision of Financial Inclusion services for our clients, with an emphasis on debt management. This has been fully funded by Trussell Trust. It is worth noting that the grant to cover the 23/24 provision of this service was received in the previous year, so not reflected in the P&L below. ## **Grants & Donations** We receive financial donations from a multitude of sources; the general public via online giving or cash, either as a one off or recurring; corporate donations; community groups; churches 10 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 and school fundraising activities and legacy giving. 23/24 saw a reduction from each of these sources. We believe the main reason for this reduction is that pockets were hit and budgets reviewed in light of increasing interest rates and continued increases in living costs. Whilst this was not new, many of our donors would have been able to “ride the wave” for the initial year, whilst being extremely conscious of the impact it was having on the most vulnerable in our district and thus able to maintain, or in some cases increase, their donations. But a combination of peoples reserves being reduced or exhausted in that first year, along with the desensitisation that relentless media coverage of the crisis created a reduction in cash donations. Grant income is skewed on the P&L due to a Trussell Trust grant for a 23/24 project being paid in the previous financial year. ## **Reserves** We recently reviewed and amended our reserves policy to ensure we have enough cash in hand to run for one year regardless of donations or grants. No matter how much you prepare for the future and mitigate against potential risk, in reality we do not know what we may have to contend with. By holding reserves of 1 year, we are building in resilience and factoring in an appropriate amount of “breathing space” to find alternative sources of funding and/or reducing costs to mitigate significant impact on our service level. In addition, funds will be used for projects that will enable us to achieve our longer term plans to enhance and extend our services to fulfil our charitable objects. ## **Sources of Stock** The majority of our stock is donated to us via donation points dotted around the district; the most successful of these donation points are located within supermarkets in Uttlesford and we are fortunate to have 3 larger out of town supermarkets, 3 town centre mid-size supermarkets and a multitude of smaller local shops. We do have to top up our stock to ensure we are providing our clients with the range and quantity of food that is required to provide appropriate and adequate nutrition for between 5-7 days for the household. 15% of our stock had to be purchased in 23/24. 11 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign Envelope ID: 05FE5FE7-BADE-470D-B3A8-DDAD2FC41C00 ## **23/24 Sources of Stock** 12 Uttlesford Foodbank (Registered Charity Number 1176230) Registered in England and Wales Docusign EnvelopÈ ID". 0SFE5FE7-BADE470D-83A8-DDAD2FC41COO Appendix 1- Trustee Recruitment Policy I. POLICY CO￿Trol TRUSTEE RECRUITMENT POLICY Version Name Trustee Recru11meni LLxarion Rwew Date oQii12025 1.1 Related Policies Ver51on Pollc N•rne L¢(a￿ Next Revlew D•le pUry￿Se of th15 Staiement To detail the Tru51ee Re(ruTlmenl Poliiy 61 Uriie5ford FDodbank Dated 0111112024 SecTpiaryITrustee 2. INTRODucfioN Uttleslord Foodbank rÈcognises effective di¥er5e Po4rd of Trusrees Is e5$eTh￿al if the charity is lo be elfelia￿ and the Cont￿ inforrnatioD ol b(%aTd tnembers aTKJ ihe fix)d bank IT￿nager. The newlyAprx>lnred Trustee is pr(￿thd A fo(xJ bank èma4 ai*JrtssAnd Instruatd on how to atce55 their food bank ithbox. The ne¥vly appoinred Tru51ee 15 PrO￿ded acc&5 1¢> the Tru%sel Di Iial Hub and 5peofically directed to the even15 calendar Wthere rraining opp)rtunitrtt can be idenrlied 3nd bLK>ked, The newly apwinted Trustee is Ik)oked onto the next a¥aiL4ble Safeguard￿9 for Trustees. Irainin9 £our5e Pr￿ded by TrusseWhlrtyone."eighl. Newly appointeinl onward5 45 the 15 to protnole dIVer￿lY and avoid conllirts of interest or bia5lloyaty. The B(iard wll refer to and lollow the Tru tee Reiruittnenl Guidafjce supplied by ihe Charity commis￿0￿ throughotst Ihe re(ruitfflent pro(es5. Where an expiession ot interesi is received ai a lime when no Trusiee po£tE are available, rhe candidatè's det811s sh811 held on flle until such time a vacancy arises Isubièct to ihe ¢andldate's agreernent to this). Alternabve ¥oluDteenng vaianae5 tnay a150 be di5CU55ed wthereappropriate. When an expressi(￿ ol interest 15 r￿e7Ved at a titDe when Trustee p051s are available, an application lorTn swll be sent for ciJThpletion al￿g with iDlortDation OD the role5 and rÈ5POn5ibilitie5 involved wlh ￿Ing a Trustee. incltsdingexpected rime corntniiment. Tho applicant ¥thll be requirèd 10 pro￿ld￿ two fèleren**funds**||**Restricted**
**funds**||**Endowment**
**funds**| |---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---| ||||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**| |**B1 Cash funds**|BB Online Instant Access||||**195,981**||||**-**| ||Charis Account||||**376**||**-**||**-**| ||Treasurer's Account||||**30,760**||**2,890**||**-**| ||**_Total cash funds_**||||**227,117**||**2,890**||**-**| ||(agree balances w ith receipts and payments
account(s))||||OK||||OK| ||||||**Unrestricted**
**funds**||**Restricted**
**funds**||**Endowment**
**funds**| ||**Details**||||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**||**to nearest £**| |**B2 Other monetary assets**|||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||**-**||**-**||**-**| ||||||||||| ||**Details**||||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |**B3 Investment assets**|||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||||| ||**Details**||||**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**||**Cost (optional)**||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|Laptop||||||**500**||**-**| ||Printer||||||**2,000**||**-**| ||Van||||||**16,500**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||**-**||**-**| ||||||||||| ||**Details**||||**Fund to which**
**liability relates**||**Amount due**
**(optional)**||**When due**
**(optional)**| |**B5 Liabilities**|Trade creditors||||||**809**||| ||P.A.Y.E for M12||||||**2,137**||| ||Pension for M12||||||**232**||| ||||||||**-**||| ||||||||**-**||| ||||||||||| |Signed by one or two trustees on behalf
of all the trustees|
Signature||||Print Name||||Date of
approval| ||||||Gemma Copping||||28/01/2025| ||||||||||| Docusign EnvelopÈ ID". 0SFE5FE7-BADE470D-83A8-DDAD2FC41COO ppenaix J - ocruTineer s Keport CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Report to the trusteesl members of Uttlesford Food Bank On accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024 Charity no lif any) 1176230 Set out on pages I report to the Iruslees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity Iyhe Trust") for the year ended Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordan￿ with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 I'lhe Act")- I report in respect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 14515llbl of the Act. I have completed my examination. I confirni that no material matters have come lo my attention lolher than that disclosed below ') in wnnection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect.. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independenl examiner's statement I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination lo which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts lo be reached. Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply. Date= 2710112024 Signed: Name: Elliot Field Relevant professional qualifieationls) or body lif any1= ACCA IAssociation of Chartered Certrfied Accountants) Address: Cambridge House, 16 High Street, Saffron Walden, CB10 1AX IER October 2018 Docusign EnvelopÈ ID". 0SFE5FE7-BADE470D-83A8-DDAD2FC41COO Section B Disclosure Only Complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32. Independent examination of charity accounts". directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose. Disclosure: The accounts were prepared in house from my colleague Scott Lamoury and reviewed by a senior member of team. I, Elliot, was not involved in the account's preparation after an initial review of the bookkeeping on Liberty accounting software, and the sharing of the draft after the completion of our review procedure. Examination of findings: Bank balances have been confimied lo slatemenls. The fixed assets have been confirmed to still be retairbed by the charity. The liabilities have all had payment dates marked and are verffied as cotrect lo be shown as outstanding. Liberty was a new software intrOdU￿d for FY24 and has seen lo be a valuable tool lo providing information. A big thank you lo the team, and Lynne for the efficient transition lo Liberty software and perfect record keeping. A draft annual report has been provided and reviewed thoroughly and note no material misstatements. Recommendation: . More diligent approach required to the funds within the entity. These need to be reconciled monthly to ensure restricted income which is received is being spent in the correct manner. IER October 2018