Minutes of Meeting - AGM – 12[th] March 2025
Present : John Wharton, Erica Knight, Emma Pipe, Carole Share, Pauline Wright, Alison Johnson, Loran Yates, Heather Benbow, Rhoda Wharton. Apologies : Amii Gunn, Scott Ballinger and Karen Nash
Action
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Recorded names of those present
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Opening Comments and Trustee Annual Report EK opened the meeting. Annual Report will be circulated shortly.
3. Management Annual Report
Management
The majority of our clients are continuing to request face to face counselling with a small number preferring phone. We have 6 counsellors, all of which take 4 clients at any one time, and this is working well. The number of referrals during 2024 were 58 with 83 clients starting counselling and we delivered 583 counselling sessions.
Fundraising
We are grateful for support from Support Staffordshire, Albert Hunt Trust, Yapp Foundation, The Community Foundation, Lichfield District Council, Arnold Clarke, and Whittington and Fisherwick Fund.
Fundraising during 2024 was extremely competitive with Trusts and Foundations receiving three times more applications than previous years, some do not have the manpower to process the volume of applications. Our criteria are difficult to fundraise for as we are asking for running costs, whereby Trusts like projects and equipment. The shortfall from the C and VS grant of £6000 which ended early 2024 has been very hard to replace.
Social Media
We now have a successful Facebook page and Instagram. We can report that our Facebook posts reach in the region of 4,000 people with approximately 160 followers. We also continue to advertise within free publications. Our social media presence has created referrals from various organisations including Andy’s Man Club and Stars.
Client Satsfacton Questonnaire
Our Client Satisfaction Questionnaire is on Microsoft Forms, but we are still getting a very limited number of returned forms. To combat this, Counsellors are now asking clients to complete the form at the end of counselling.
4. Finance Report
JW reported that the accounts have been prepared, examined and circulated.
There is an end of year balance of £36,194 ( cf 2023 -£39223 ). The money is held in the Coop bank current account and the Skipton BS as a deposit account.
There were 583 client sessions ( 627 in 2023 ) and this provided £5,989 showing an increase of £714 compared to 2023, possibly explained by introduction of SumUp.
Payments to counsellors was £11,177 which is a reduction of £3,779 as a result of fewer sessions in 2024. Income from grants was £13,055 which is a reduction of £16,224 compared to 2023.
The calculated average income from client payments per session was £10 compared to £8.4 during 2023.
The overall cost to Phoenix of a session of counselling which includes counsellor, management, insurance and phone costs was £38 compared to £41 in 2023. Approximately a quarter of the cost of a session is paid by the client and so we rely on grant payments to supplement the costs.
The UK economic problems cause significant difficulties for grant providing bodies which makes it harder to secure grants hence our lower than usual grant income.
Discussion took place about the financial security of Phoenix with Fundraising now becoming so competitive, and the necessity to now ask for a contribution from all clients of around £20/25.
- Future of Phoenix
This will be very much in line with similar counselling charities with some asking for £35-40 per session. It was agreed that we would not turn anyone away who could not afford to contribute.
Heather offered to circulate flyers around the local area along with Rhoda, Alison and Loran. RW/HB/LY/AJ
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AOB None
- Date of next AGM – 11 March 2026 Date of next Trustee Meeting – 11 June 2025
| Phoenix - Accountsyear end Dec 2024 | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| INCOME | Current acc 202 | Depacc 2024 | current acc202 | 3DepA 20 | 23 | |
| SKIPTON BS | ||||||
| £ | £ | £ | £ | |||
| Clientpayments | £5,989.31 | 5,275.00 | ||||
| Donatons-unrestricted | £120.97 | 245.00 | ||||
| HMRC-Gif aid | ||||||
| Grants - restricted | £13,055.00 | 29,279.71 | ||||
| TOTAL | £19,165.28 | 34,799.71 | ||||
| EXPENDITURE | ||||||
| Counsellorpayments | £11,177.55 | £14,956.66 | ||||
| Writeup/management | £10,549.73 | £10,432.58 | ||||
| Mobilephone-rental | £113.84 | |||||
| other | £353.20 | 785.52 | ||||
| TOTAL | £22,194.32 | £26,174.76 | ||||
| Cashbook balance at start ofyear | £39,223.20 | 30,598.25 | ||||
| plus receipts since then | £19,165.28 | 34,799.71 | ||||
| less totalpayments/transfers | £22,194.32 | 26,174.76 | ||||
| 36,194.16 | 39,223.20 | |||||
| Skipton end ofyear balance | £33,005.00 | |||||
| Bank balance at end ofyear | £3,189.16 | 39,223.20 | ||||
| minuspayments notyet cleared | ||||||
| adjusted balance at end ofyear | ||||||
| Transfers to SKIPTON from COOP | £38,005.00 | |||||
| Transfers from SKIPTON to COOP | £5,000.00 | |||||
| ^ | John Wharton Jan 2025 | |||||