Registered Charity Number: 1177939
BRISTOL HOSPITAL BROADCASTING SERVICE
Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts
Year Ended 31[st] January 2021
Bristol Royal Infirmary Upper Maudlin Street
Bristol BS2 8HW
Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Trustees’ Annual Report
The Trustees of Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service are pleased to present their Report and Accounts for the period 1[st] February 2020 to 31[st] January 2021.
Organisation
Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (‘CIO’) registered in England and Wales on 12[th] April 2018 and governed by a constitution signed on 16[th] December 2020.
The organisation is managed by the Charity Trustees who are elected by its membership.
Throughout the period the charity continued to operate with no paid staff, being run entirely by a membership of volunteers.
Charitable Objects
Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service (‘BHBS’) has two objects:
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“the relief of sickness, poor health and old age amongst people living in Bristol and the surrounding area by providing a local broadcasting service for hospitals, residential homes and similar institutions, and for patients receiving community care; and
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“the advancement of health and prevention or relief of sickness for the public benefit through the promotion of the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle, and the importance of maintaining good personal mental and physical health by (mainly, but not exclusively) the means of broadcasting health education messages to people living in Bristol and the surrounding area.”
These objects are based on the model wording agreed between the Hospital Broadcasting Association (‘HBA’) and the Charity Commission.
BHBS currently provides a hospital radio service to patients at various hospital sites via the bedside entertainment systems in furtherance of the first object. During the period BHBS also started sending pre-recorded request programmes to local care homes.
The second of these objects allows BHBS to target its services at the local population outside the hospital, with the intent of helping and encouraging them to live a healthy and active life in the local community, and therefore potentially reducing the use of health services.
In managing the charity, the Trustees have, at all relevant times, had regard to the charity's charitable objects, and the Charity Commission's public benefit guidance (PB1, PB2 and PB3).
Review of Activities and Achievements
During the period BHBS, operating under the name ‘Hospital Radio for Bristol’, provided a hospital radio and ward visiting service to hospitals managed by University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (‘Hospital Trust’) in central Bristol. In November BHBS also started remotely recording request programmes for Four Seasons Health Care to be played out in three of their Bristol based care homes.
As part of our core activities we transmit a variety of music programmes, along with local hospital news, comedy, drama, quizzes, interviews, health messages and more. Most of these programmes are pre-recorded and broadcast via our automated playout system. However, the highlight of our schedule would be our live programmes. These include
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
request shows which air five nights a week and our sports output. Our volunteers visit the hospital wards to talk to the patients, tell them about our service, collect requests and dedications and generally provide a welcome distraction. On the sporting side, we cover all of the home games of Bristol City Football Club, Bristol Rovers Football Club and Bristol Bears (Bristol Rugby Club). The Trustees thank the football clubs and the rugby club for allowing BHBS to broadcast these matches to the patients.
Until early 2016 we broadcast classical concerts from the Bristol Beacon, but this has temporarily ceased whilst the hall is refurbished. We look forward to recommencing our coverage of the concert season from the hall when it is expected to reopen in 2023.
The Trustees express their continued gratitude to the Hospital Trust for providing us with our studio space in the main Queen’s Building of the Bristol Royal Infirmary (‘BRI’) and the opportunity for us to offer our services to their patients. BHBS relies solely on the infrastructure provided by the Hospital Trust and another third party service provider to send the output from our studios to the multimedia bedside system within the hospitals. Since 2016 we have been undertaking the enormous task of fully equipping our studios using both existing and new broadcasting kit and towards the end of the period our second control studio finally went live. We also switched to the Myriad playout system, purchased at the end of our last financial period, which will be used for both live and recorded programming and will eventually replace our ageing sustain system which has been in service for around 14 years. The new software should give far greater flexibility and will allow remote access to the studio, which will be particularly beneficial if we cannot access our studios for whatever reason. We thank both Rick Parsons (engineering) and Chris Wood (programming) for leading on these projects.
Like many charities, we have been heavily impacted by the Covid 19 global pandemic which took hold at the end of March 2020 and brought about an unprecedented national lockdown. At the beginning we had to restrict access to our studios, and had no access to hospital wards at all, which forced us to suspend all, but essential, volunteering activity in the hospitals. Consequently, we had to rely solely on pre-recorded programming.
As time progressed we were pleased to be able to broadcast live sport when the football season resumed in June 2020 and in August, as further restrictions were lifted, we received permission to return to our studios, whilst still observing Covid 19 safety measures. We are pleased to report that many of our volunteers have returned to the studio and sports stadia and that live programming is being broadcast on most evenings of the week.
The Trustees consider ward visiting to be a vitally important activity for our volunteers to undertake on a regular basis, however there remains great uncertainty over when we might be allowed to enter wards again. If access is denied long-term, the Trustees will make it a priority to formulate a plan, working with the Hospital Trust, to engage with patients via alternative means as this is critical if we are to serve our purpose.
The wellbeing of our members has been our foremost priority which is why we have ensured that only those who have met the Hospital Trust’s strict health and safety requirements have returned to the studio. At the same time, we completely support those members who have chosen not to return at this time.
During the early stages of the national lockdown some of our members offered to volunteer in the hospital in other non-BHBS roles. The Hospital Trust was grateful for this support, and we are proud of those individuals who felt able to put themselves forward, although in the end these opportunities never materialised.
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
We have continued to receive interest from potential volunteers, however with the Hospital Trust suspending their mandatory induction and training programmes we have not been able to welcome any new volunteers throughout the period.
Our financial management and reserves policies, along with the strict controls on expenditure, have minimised the impact of Covid 19 on our finances. The single biggest reduction in income came from our inability to hold our Christmas bucket collections at Tesco and Sainsbury’s. We’ve also seen a drop in interest income. The only significant additional cost was for video calls necessitated to hold virtual meetings.
We took the decision to defer membership subscription fees during the period of suspended volunteering as we felt this was the right thing to do.
Although there is no intention to introduce any specific financial controls, the charity’s reserves policy and level of reserves is closely monitored and any non-budgeted spend kept to a minimum. The Trustees are hopeful that we will be able to hold collections during 2021.
For the first time in BHBS’s 68 year history our 2020 Annual General Meeting (‘AGM’) was held remotely, facilitated by the Government’s emergency measures which allowed charities to hold their general meetings online, even if it was prohibited by their constitution. Taking place in September, which was later than originally planned, we are pleased to say that the AGM was well attended.
On 16[th] December 2020 BHBS held a virtual Extraordinary General Meeting (‘EGM’), again taking advantage of the emergency measures, as the Trustees sought approval from the members to update the charity’s constitution to allow us to hold both hybrid and fully virtual general meetings in the future. The latter only being permitted where the Trustees decide it is impossible or impractical to hold a general meeting in a physical location. The resolution received full support from the members and was duly passed.
BHBS continues to face one of its biggest challenges to date as we continually adapt to a Covid world where we cannot directly promote our service to hospital patients. Up until Covid struck, we undertook regular ward audits to ascertain our potential audience and to report back any faults to Hospital Trust personnel. It was our intention to expand this further, during the period, in order to document listening figures and listener feedback as there remains no other way of establishing the number of patients who listen at any given time. At the end of our financial year we found ourselves in another national lockdown, however with the roll out of the vaccination programme there is at least some light at the end of the tunnel.
We are pleased to report that broadcaster Chris Serle has continued as our President throughout the period and BHBS wishes to thank Chris for his continued support for our cause.
In March 2020 the comedian, author, actor and broadcaster Roy Hudd, OBE sadly passed away. Roy had been an Honorary Member of BHBS since he officially opened our old studios in 1994. We still very much appreciate Roy’s contribution on that day – he brought both wit and warmth to a very memorable occasion.
We were sad to learn of the passing of John Chivers in November 2020. John was a Life Member who for many years was part of our Bristol City commentary team.
At the beginning of 2019, the Board of Trustees began the process of setting several goals for the charity to achieve over the next 1 – 3 years. These goals are intended to focus both the Trustees and the membership on raising the profile of the charity, improving radio and ward visiting activities and strengthening our governance. Altogether these goals have been designed to secure the long term direction of the charity and further its objects.
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
The immediate focus has been to enhance our profile, particularly within the hospital, and until March 2020 we had continued to regularly collect music requests on the wards, had an annual patients’ guide, and we were going to feature in the patient welcome pack. Owing to the Covid-19 restrictions on ward visiting and being unable to distribute the patients’ guide this has caused huge frustrations in our efforts to enhance our profile. However we do see opportunities arising as restrictions begin to ease and we are hopeful of working with staff at the hospital to educate them about what we can offer patients.
We have pushed forward with our goal to be unique and local with an emphasis on health and wellbeing. We continue to broadcast more hospital related content within our evening news bulletins with a focus more towards events happening within hospitals. We have also increased the number of health and wellbeing messages broadcast throughout the day. A new look programme schedule was launched during the year which we hope will be more attractive to our listeners. As a result of these schedule changes 4.77% of our output has a focus on health and wellbeing, up from 0.9% previously. Whilst this may not sound much it equates to almost 500 minutes each week. We are hopeful that this will continue to increase over time.
The Trustees wish to bolster the board by appointing at least one new Trustee who is not currently a member of the charity in order to give us a fresh perspective. We had hoped that this might have been achieved in 2019, and with this year’s interruptions, we believe an active recruitment campaign may be needed to be able to achieve this goal.
One of our longer-term goals had been to broadcast to other care settings e.g. residential care homes, as part of our object to provide a local broadcasting service to residential homes and similar institutions. During the enforced volunteering downtime, we decided to accelerate this goal by reaching out to private care providers in the Bristol area, however by sheer coincidence we were contacted by Four Seasons Health Care (‘FSHC’) wishing to use our service to promote their facilities. We took this opportunity to set out our goal and FSHC expressed a desire to work with us to produce programming for their residents. Since the end of 2020 we have been remotely recording a regular programme compiled of resident requests collected by staff at the FSHC care homes. The feedback thus far has been very positive and we look forward to expanding this service in the future. The next steps will involve broadcasting live online to these, and other, care homes in future. This will also allow us a way to broadcast back to the wards at Southmead which was another goal we had set. Broadcasting online, whilst providing us with huge potential opportunities, also comes with challenges and whilst this is something we continue to investigate and indeed acknowledge is the way forward, it does require careful considerations at every point along the way. Our initial priority will be to find out how many people are listening to our programmes in order for us to establish a base from which we can move onwards, and we look forward to working with our members, the Hospital Trust and care settings in the near future to help us progress our plans.
Membership
There are four classes of membership, along with a probationary membership:
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Full membership is granted to those volunteers that have met both the requirements of the Hospital Trust and BHBS and have paid the annual subscription fee.
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Associate membership is offered to those who no longer wish to be actively involved in the service but would like to remain a member. A reduced fee applies.
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Life membership is awarded to those members whose contribution to BHBS has been recognised by the Trustees as being significant. No annual subscription payment is requested.
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
- Honorary membership is awarded to persons who are not members of the service but have made either a one off, significant, or long term contribution to BHBS or they hold a specific honorary position within the charity e.g. President.
Both associate and honorary members are classed as non-voting members and do not qualify as members for any purpose under the Charities Acts, General Regulations or Dissolution Regulations.
During the period the annual membership subscription fee was £25 (2020: £25), however this was waived due to members being unable to volunteer. The average number of members was 31 (2019: 32).
We are grateful for the many hours volunteers have spent ward visiting, fundraising and programme making. Without this valuable contribution of time, energy and expertise we would not be able to achieve so much.
Acknowledgements
We would like to pay particular thanks to: The HBA for its advice and guidance throughout the period; Smile Publishing for our patients’ magazine and regular donations; Laura Parslow for, once again, independently examining our accounts at no costs to ourselves; and Costa at the BRI for free publicity.
Review of Financial Activities and Affairs
The financial position of BHBS remains satisfactory with the charity holding sufficient cash reserves at year end. The charity had unrestricted funds of £16,929, with income of £3,986 and expenditure of £8,153.
Receipts
Income is generated from several sources, however principally it comes from donations from individuals, companies and other organisations, Gift Aid and the sale of surplus equipment.
Unlike prior years, due to Covid, we were unable to hold any bucket collections which has meant our fundraising receipts have fallen significantly.
We have continued to sell redundant equipment which produced receipts in the year of £1,083. Since we sold our first item, at the start of 2019, we have generated £5,561 in equipment sales.
Gift Aid mainly derives from cash donations, received in prior periods, claimed via the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, with the balance claimed through the main scheme on donations where we are in possession of a signed declaration.
Membership subscriptions are £nil as the Trustees took the decision to suspend subscription fees during the period.
Bank interest and other receipts account for the remainder of our income.
Payments
A tight control has been maintained over expenditure during the period.
During the year our greatest expense was repairs, renewals and equipment which included the cost of a new server and back up hardware at £2,241; repairs and upgrades to our broadcast desks totalling £1,995; external hard drive and an uninterruptible power supply costing £409; USB audio interfaces at £264; compressor limiter at £141; with the balance of £874 being other smaller repairs, renewals and studio upgrades. Although there was an unexpected fall in fundraising income and donations during the period we continued with our
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
planned spending in this area, using available reserves, so that we can complete the upgrade of our studios by 2021/22.
The increase in telephone and internet charges is due to broadband being needed for the studio, the cost of which only began part way through the prior period.
Outside broadcast costs decreased in part because of Covid, but mainly thanks to the generosity of our sports commentator, John Malyckyj, who covered the cost of the Bristol Rovers broadcast charges.
Subscriptions, licences and website costs have risen as antivirus software was now needed on each of our computers, following connection to the internet throughout the studio.
Trustees’ meetings and AGM costs, which was a new expense last year, have risen as all meetings needed to be held online.
Financial Management and Reserves Policy
The charity has a Financial Management Policy which defines the controls to be implemented to ensure that the charity’s assets are secure. This policy meets all the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 and the Charity Commission guidelines “Internal Financial Controls for Charities” (CC8).
The charity has a Reserves Policy which sets out our free reserves, which are defined as non-designated unrestricted funds. There are a range of risks we face, including the risk of an unforeseen drop in income or unbudgeted increases in expenditure.
The policy sets out the framework we have in place to confirm the level of reserves we have determined is appropriate for our organisation and draws upon advice such as the Charity Commission’s CC19 guidance.
We have calculated an appropriate reserves range for our organisation of £10k to £15k which is broken down as:
| Reserves range | £k |
|---|---|
| Cost of unforeseen emergencies | 7.0 |
| Small contingency fund for unforeseen operational costs | 0.5 |
| All of our income streams temporarily cease | 2.5 |
| Minimum level | 10.0 |
| Range | 5.0 |
| Maximum level | 15.0 |
The target range is set at five thousand pounds above the minimum level.
The Board of Trustees consider that this target range provides sufficient flexibility in the context of operational requirements and for an organisation of our size and complexity.
At year end the charity had designated unrestricted funds of £6,126 and reserves of £10,805 with no restricted funds. The reserves held are in line with our target range.
The Trustees have a duty to apply charitable funds within a reasonable period of time for the benefit of the people we serve therefore our reserves levels and balances held in designated funds are monitored as part of monthly financial reporting with regular reports provided to the
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Board of Trustees. The balances held in designated funds are reviewed to determine whether these funds are likely to be committed in the near future and the extent to which there is a continuing need identified for any particular designated fund(s). Any inactive funds will be closed and the funds transferred to reserves.
Charity Trustees
Chris Mountain (re-appointed September 2020) Paul Popiel David Rawlings* Jonathan Rogers (re-appointed September 2020) Chris Wood
*Chairman of the Board of Trustees
Charity Number
1177939
Principal Address
Bristol Royal Infirmary Upper Maudlin Street Bristol BS2 8HW
Independent Examiner
Mrs Laura Parslow ACA MAAT
Signed on behalf of the Trustees:
………………………………….. D J Rawlings Chairman
………………………………….. P M Popiel Secretary
23[rd] May 2021 23[rd] May 2021 ……………………………… ……………………………… Date Date
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Independent Examiner's Report to the Trustees
I report to the Trustees on my examination of the accounts for Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service for the year ended 31[st] January 2021.
Responsibilities and basis of report
As the Charity's Trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the charity’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent examiner's statement
I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection 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 did not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
…………………………………..
Mrs L J Parslow ACA MAAT Independent Examiner
7[th] May 2021
………………………………
Date
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Receipts and Payments Account for the Year Ended 31[st] January 2021
| Receipts Donations Fundraising Gift Aid Interest received Membership subscriptions Sale of surplus equipment Other receipts Payments Telephone and internet charges Outside broadcast costs Printing, postage and stationery Repairs, renewals and equipment Insurance Subscriptions, licences and website Health, safety and personal protective equipment Fundraising costs and fees Merchant and auction fees Trustees' meetings and AGM costs Net of Receipts / (Payments) Total Fund Brought Forward Total Fund Carried Forward |
Note 1 2 |
2021 Unrestricted Funds £ 1,465 54 1,327 51 - 1,083 6 |
2021 Unrestricted Funds £ 1,465 54 1,327 51 - 1,083 6 |
2020 Unrestricted Funds £ 2,088 2,676 11 51 400 4,160 2 |
2020 Unrestricted Funds £ 2,088 2,676 11 51 400 4,160 2 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3,986 £ 529 158 296 5,924 487 534 64 14 32 115 |
9,388 £ 430 338 220 5,215 486 396 - - 45 43 |
|||||
| 8,153 | 7,173 | |||||
| (4,167) | 2,215 | |||||
| 21,096 | 18,881 | |||||
| 16,929 | 21,096 |
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31[st] January 2021
| Cash Funds Lloyds - Treasurer's Account 1 Lloyds - Treasurer's Account 2 Lloyds - Savings Account Santander PayPal Other Monetary Assets Funds held by Sainsbury's Assets Liabilities Amounts falling due within one year Net Assets Funds Restricted funds Unrestricted funds |
Note 3 |
2021 £ 430 125 1,660 14,096 823 |
2020 £ 973 49 910 18,346 573 |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17,134 - |
20,851 878 |
|||
| 17,134 | 21,729 | |||
| 205 | 633 | |||
| 16,929 | 21,096 | |||
| - 16,929 |
- 21,096 |
|||
| 16,929 | 21,096 |
The Trustees confirm, in accordance with the Charitable Incorporated Organisations (General) Regulations 2012, that at year end Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service did not have any outstanding guarantees to third parties nor any debts secured on its assets.
All funds held at year end are unrestricted and available to be applied in furtherance of Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service’s charitable objectives at the discretion of the Trustees.
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31[st] January 2021 (continued)
Assets retained for Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service’s own use
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Radio broadcast studio equipment, including mixers, CD players, turntables, etc;
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Computerised audio playout systems;
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Music library consisting of approx. 5,000 CDs, vinyl singles and LPs;
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Outside Broadcast equipment, including mixers, speakers, CD players, radio mics and radio link equipment;
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Audio editing software; and
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Office facilities, including chairs, desks, PCs, printers etc.
Signed on behalf of the Trustees:
………………………………….. D J Rawlings Chairman
…………………………………..
J Rogers ATT(Fellow) FMAAT Treasurer
23[rd] May 2021
……………………………… Date
23[rd] May 2021
……………………………… Date
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Notes to the Accounts for the Year Ended 31[st] January 2021
| 1. Donations Chris Mountain Dave Fox In memory of Roger Morris In support of Bristol Rovers commentaries Individuals and friends of BHBS Jon Rogers KPMG Smile Publishing Ltd Unite the Union 2. Fundraising Bucket collections at Sainsbury's, Emersons Green Bucket collections at Tesco, Brislington Everyclick Ltd - Give As You Live Stanbury News, Downend 3. Liabilities: Amounts falling due within one year Alice Soundtech - repairs, renewals and equipment PPL - subscriptions, licences and website |
2021 2020 £ £ 30 - - 50 480 - - 295 30 93 25 - 150 150 750 1,000 - 500 |
|---|---|
| 1,465 2,088 |
|
| 2021 2020 £ £ - 878 - 1,709 54 38 - 51 |
|
| 54 2,676 |
|
| 2021 2020 £ £ - 633 205 - |
|
| 205 633 |
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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Annual Report & Accounts 2021
Notes to the Accounts
for the Year Ended 31[st] January 2021 (continued)
4. Trustees expenses
No expenses were paid to any of the Trustees during the year, except to reimburse them for purchases made on behalf of the charity.
5. Accounting policies
Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation and, as such, is governed by the Charities Act 2011. As it has gross income which does not exceed £250,000 per annum, section 133 of that Act entitles the charity to present a Receipts and Payments Account and a Statement of Assets and Liabilities. Accordingly, equipment purchases are not capitalised and depreciated. The full cost appears in the accounts for the year in which the equipment was purchased.
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