2021-03-31-accounts

Herefordshire Heartstart Trustees Annual Report 2020-21

Introduction

Herefordshire Heartstart, registered office 24 Netherwood Road, Hereford, HR2 6JU, is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) number 1177931.

The objects as set out in its constitution are the advancement of education and the protection and preservation of life by:

• increasing local public awareness of the need for emergency life support training

• arranging and providing courses and other opportunities for people to learn the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to help them deal with emergency situations to the best of their ability

• encouraging attendance on training courses

• ensuring that the conduct and delivery of training of and by the instructors is in accordance with the current guidelines set or accepted by the Resuscitation Council UK or any other guidelines approved by the British Heart Foundation

• contributing to the wider development of the Heartstart initiative.

The Trustees at 31 March 2021 were David Landey, Clive Edwards, Jan Powell, Cathy Matthews and Gina Children.

The Charity’s Activities 2020-21

Herefordshire Heartstart’s activities from April 2020 to March 2021 were curtailed by the Covid pandemic, the lockdowns and the closure of clubs and community facilities which are at the heart of our charitable mission. It was not possible to assist school training nor to provide cardiac rehabilitation talks for the same reasons. Many regular events and pre-booked courses were cancelled at short notice. The impact on our ability to serve the Herefordshire communities was significant and was mirrored by our deterioration in income.

Return to courses was planned, revised and re-planned, taking into account risk-assessed locations, safe distancing and number of attendees as well as ‘safe’ course content. This work has stood the Charity in good stead and made us ready to return quickly to training in the second half of 2021. The “downtime” was used to overhaul our policies, practices and training content and to make significant improvements to our website.

The Trustees, Committee Members and Volunteers remained in touch with the Charity and actively engaged in improving our services; the spirit was evidenced by video contributions to the Toilet Roll Challenge! Regular Zoom meetings were held for Committee and Trustees. We thank all our members and supporters for their active engagement during the pandemic and are deeply appreciative of their willingness to return to training in 2021. The Trustees are appreciative of the work done by Jayne Jenkins and Sarah Grimes, with trainer and medical specialists to revise our course content in line with Covid risk assessments. They acknowledge significant unpaid support from Stoyan Tenev and David Williamson in updating the social media platforms. We continue to benefit from meeting facilities and other support from the TRP Sealing Group.

The inability to deliver courses during the year is reflected in the reduction of income from £13096 in 2019-20 to £2717 in 2020-21. The Charity reduced its expenditure from £15618 to £3999 primarily via fewer chargeable Co-ordinator contractor hours and course costs. Income was helped by the first payment from the Co-op Local Community Fund. The Charity is appreciative of the financial support for specific purposes from Tesco in prior year [2019-20] which had allowed the replacement of equipment and to the Co-op Local Community Fund [2020-21] and to Waitrose for a significant donation as well as private and organisation contributions. The Charity is pleased to

report that its finances remain sound with a closing funds balance of £15004 and that it was able to weather the impacts of the pandemic without needing to access the reserves of £5000. This level of reserves is reviewed annually by the Trustees. All funds are held in a Charities Aid Foundation bank account. There was no income from central or local government or local authorities and furlough payments were not applicable to the Charity. There were no payments made to Trustees.

The retirement of Lady Darnley, the Lord-Lieutenant of Herefordshire, meant also the departure of our Patron. A letter of appreciation and a retirement gift were sent as a mark of our gratitude for her active personal support for the Charity. The Covid situation has made difficult the appointing of a successor.

Despite the anxieties and enforced changes in 2020-21, the Charity is pleased to report that training practices and procedures have been updated during this period and that it is able to continue and to deliver its charitable objectives. We look forward to serving our communities in the future with renewed and positive momentum.

The financial statement for 2020-21, reviewed at the AGM on 22 November 2021 is attached.

Financial Report for the Year to 31[st] March 2021

			2020/21	2020/21			2019/20
	Total		Unrestricted		Restricted Funds
				Funds
Openingbalance	16,286			16,286	0		18,808
Income:
Donations and sponsorship	749			749	0		9,105
Traininginvoiced	140			140	0		400
Sales	0			0	0		176
Grant: Tesco Bags of Help	0			0	0		2,900
NeighbourlyCommunityFund	400			400	0		0
Co-opLocal CommunityFund	1,428			0	1,428		0
Schools income	0			0	0		515
	2,717			1,289	1,428		13,096
Expenditure:
Coordinator	3,233			3,233	0		9,688
Coordinator(schools)	368			368	0		648
Coordinator's mileage	0			0	0		326
Phone & broadband	211			211	0		556
Volunteers' mileage & training	21			21	0		561
Course costs inc equipment	0			0	0		3,065
Other expenses inc office costs	166			166	0		415
Schools costs	0			0	0		359
	3,999			3,999	0		15,618
Closingbalance	15,004			13,576	1,428		16,286
CommunityFunds	7,968			7,968	0		8,951
Schools Funds	2,036			2,036	0		2,335
Reserves	5,000			5,000	0		5,000
	15,004			15,004	0		16,286