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2024-01-31-accounts

Registered Charity Number: 1177939

BRISTOL HOSPITAL BROADCASTING SERVICE TRUSTEES’ REPORT & ACCOUNTS YEAR ENDED 31[ST] JANUARY 2024

Bristol Royal Infirmary Upper Maudlin Street Bristol BS2 8HW

Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Contents
Page
Trustees’ Report 2-8
Independent Examiner’s Report to the Trustees 9
Receipts and Payments Account 10
Statement of Assets and Liabilities 11-12
Notes to the Accounts 13-14

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Trustees’ Report

The Trustees of Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service are pleased to present their Report and Accounts for the period 1[st] February 2023 to 31[st] January 2024.

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 dedicated group of volunteers.

Charitable Objects

Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service (‘BHBS’) has two objects:

  1. “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

  2. “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 provides a hospital radio service to patients at various hospital sites via local Wi-Fi in furtherance of the charity’s first object.

The second of these objects allows BHBS to also target its services at the local population, not just those in hospitals and care homes, with the intent of helping and encouraging listeners 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.

The Trustees would like to express their continued gratitude to the Hospital Trust for providing us with our studio space in the main Queens 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 the Wi-Fi service provider WiFi Spark to enable our broadcasts to be accessed from around the hospital locations.

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

2023 saw the biggest change to the way we broadcast to patients in and around the hospitals run by the Hospital Trust since our inception in 1952. We no longer require patients to be physically connected to a bedside listening device, with our broadcasts now available to anyone logging on to the NHS Wi-Fi service operated in the hospitals using their own personal device that has Wi-Fi capabilities, such as Smart phones, tablets or laptops.

We would like to express specific thanks to the IT team within the Hospital Trust for their help with getting us access to the system and their continued support in maintaining broadcast capabilities on the Wi-Fi network. We would also like to thank WiFi Spark, who operate the Wi-Fi Network and have been extremely helpful with getting us set up successfully broadcasting on the network.

The change to the way we broadcast opens up exciting new possibilities to expand our broadcasts to other facilities and premises as we continue to work towards our goals that were set out at the beginning of 2019 and which have been renewed annually since then.

Our priorities for 2024 are to gain maximum publicity for our broadcasts, with the help of the Hospital Trust, to enable patients to listen and interact with our programming, to make their stay in hospital more enjoyable. Our volunteers are already around communal areas handing out leaflets and magazines (produced by Smile Publishing) as well as making sure these can all be found at various locations around the hospitals.

One of the biggest challenges we have faced since our return from Covid enforced lockdowns has been to reestablish the one-on-one patient contact via ward visiting. Regaining access to the wards has proved to be an extremely frustrating, time consuming, and it must be said, exhausting task, with a number of hurdles continually standing in our way. The Trustees would like to place on record that worsening bureaucracy within the NHS has a serious effect on any plans that can be made by the charity, operating within the hospital environment, and whilst we have good relationships within the Voluntary Services department, it does feel that more time than necessary is taken up trying to implement ideas or come up with solutions to problems as they arise. This would appear to go against the idea of volunteers freely giving up their own time. Progress, however, does continue to be made and we remain hopeful of a return to ward visiting, in some form, in 2024 in order to meet the main purpose of the charity. The Trustees continue to look at alternative ways to make contact with patients and this remains a major priority.

Despite the challenges stated above the Trustees are excited by the possibilities that come with our new online broadcasting presence and we will continue to explore these possibilities such as a return to Southmead Hospital and creating a presence in care home settings where we believe we can make a positive difference to the lives of patients and residents in line with our stated aims, commitments and goals.

Volunteers

We have continued to receive interest from potential volunteers. Since Covid the hospital training is largely done online rather than two physical half days in the hospital. This meant those volunteers who were employed would need to take 2 days leave to attend which some interested folks were not able to do.

We are glad to say that we are now welcoming into the studio new and capable volunteers of a high standard which bodes well for our broadcasts and the future of the service. Two of our new volunteers keenly assisted at our most recent Christmas collection despite having not completed their induction. We are glad to say they are attending the studio with all the hurdles completed.

In the summer of 2023, the Hospital Trust organised a boat trip in the City Docks for Volunteers’ Week and all of our volunteers were invited to this celebration event to thank them for their contribution to the NHS.

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

We would like to thank Volunteer Services for their help and assistance during the last year. Some of the trials and tribulations of getting volunteers through hospital training has eased a little but anything to make it easier still would be an advantage.

Mary Eales, the widow of our former Treasurer, Brian Eales, was made an Honorary Member to continue to acknowledge her husband’s contribution to the service over 35 years.

Programming

As part of our core activities, we transmit a variety of music programmes, along with national & local news, drama, quizzes, interviews, health messages, hospital news and more. Most of these programmes are pre-recorded and broadcast via our automated playout system. However, the highlight of the schedule is undoubtedly our live programmes which includes request shows, which air three nights a week, and our sports output. Our volunteers collect requests from patients and visitors in public areas, tell them about our service, and generally provide a welcome distraction.

Until early 2016 we broadcast live classical concerts from the Colston Hall, one of the city’s largest permanent music venues, but this closed for refurbishment. It has now re-opened as the Bristol Beacon and we are in the process of re-equipping the hall for broadcasting more live concerts in 2024.

We have increased our stock of original in-house produced pre-recorded programmes during the period which includes more editions of ‘Step Aside for the Stars’, and ‘Duets Through the Decades’ plus a new series called ‘Memories Are Made of Music’. With more new volunteers coming on board we plan to increase the number of live request programmes each week.

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 towards events happening within hospitals. We also broadcast around 560 minutes of health and wellbeing messages throughout the week which equates to 5.55% of our output. This should continue to increase over time.

Sport

During the year, we continued to bring sporting outside broadcasts to our listeners for both the 2022/23 and 2023/24 seasons - something that started the service way back in 1952.

However, there was a first this year with Women's Super League (WSL) coverage of Bristol City Women live from Ashton Gate following their promotion from WSL2 last season. Unfortunately for Lauren Smith and her side (one with the youngest average age teams in the WSL) the step up in class has proven difficult with them not making it outside of the bottom two all season. It wasn't all doom and gloom however with the major positive being the attendances down at The Gate for the WSL games. City have the fifth highest average in the WSL this season with 7,260, whilst a bumper 14,138 witnessed their game against Manchester United in November. It is this popularity which means we will continue broadcasting Bristol City Women matches next season.

Meanwhile the men's team have been playing in the EFL Championship once again, however they have looked unable to quite push for the playoffs but should be safe from any relegation threats. A highlight of the 2023/24 season for the reds would be their run in the FA Cup, with BHBS covering all home matches, which saw City stun premier league side West Ham after a replay. This led to a tie against another top division team - Nottingham Forest - which saw City narrowly defeated in another replay at Forest’s City Ground on penalties.

Over to the blue half of Bristol and it’s a similar story, with Rovers expected to finish midtable in EFL League One. A notable mention for John Kay who has taken a step back from

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

our commentary team after nearly 40 years. We’re sure John, a life member, will make himself available, if required, so he hasn’t permanently hung up his microphone.

The Bristol Bears provide sporting coverage from a different discipline – rugby. The Bears have had a strong season in the top flight and are pushing for a play-off spot.

The Trustees thank the football clubs and the rugby club for allowing BHBS to broadcast these matches and to our commentary teams, that cover all of the above, for the excellent service they provide in helping to bring non-music content to BHBS.

Technical

This has been a milestone year as we changed over from broadcasting to bedside units using technology which was being slowly undermined by equipment failures in the wards and we moved to Wi-Fi broadcasting over the internal hospital network.

This was achieved with a lot of help from the Hospital Trust technical and IT departments and by engaging with an outside contractor to manage the distribution. We send an audio stream to Broadcast Radio Ltd. They then make our service available to any listener within any of the Hospital Trust’s hospitals. We have tested this in the Queens Building, Children’s Hospital, St Michael’s and the out-patient facilities at the Eye and Dental hospitals. It may also work at Weston General Hospital. To complement this, we activated a facility which announced on a web page the track or programme being played in real time plus an online way to view the schedule and send requests. We also started broadcasting hourly news bulletins and set up on-the-hour time checks.

A negative report from the year is that the internal broadband service in the studio (not the outbound broadcast) has been very poor and we have had considerable trouble trying to improve it. Being in a commercial part of the city and on the 10[th] floor means that options are limited at prices the charity can afford.

70[th] Anniversary

Although 23[rd] August 2022 was the 70[th] anniversary of our first broadcast, an event to celebrate this was deferred until March 2023. Volunteers and members, past and present, attended Ashton Gate for what was a memorable evening as memories were shared amongst those present, some of whom had volunteered for BHBS as far back as the 1970s.

Fundraising

We held a successful bucket collection at Tesco, Brislington over two days in December 2023 raising a total of £2,405, before card payment fees. We were unfortunately unable to hold a collection at Sainsbury’s, Emersons Green, however they have offered to support us in 2024.

Governance

Our 2023 Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held in the upstairs function room of a public house, a first for us. Both Andy Sloper and Jon Rogers were reappointed as Trustees. Broadcaster Chris Serle also agreed to continue as our Honorary President and BHBS wishes to thank Chris for his invaluable ongoing support.

The Trustees wish to bolster the board by appointing at least one new Trustee who is not currently a member of the charity to give us a fresh perspective. We had hoped that this might have been achieved by now, but with the interruptions caused by Covid and a desire to improve our governance structure this has been postponed until 2024/25.

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Membership

There are four classes of membership, along with a probationary membership:

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 (2023: £25). The average number of qualifying members was 29 (2023: 30).

We are grateful for the many hours our volunteers have spent collecting requests, 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; John Malyckyj for covering our Bristol Rovers outside broadcast costs; Tesco for allowing us to hold a bucket collection at their store; and Laura Parslow for, once again, independently examining our accounts at no costs to ourselves.

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 £17,390, with income of £3,768 and expenditure of £4,010.

Receipts

Income is generated from several sources, however principally it comes from donations from individuals, companies and other organisations, membership subscriptions, and Gift Aid. Receipts totalled £3,768 for the year (2023: £4,314).

Donations are unpredictable and often fluctuate from one year to the next, but we saw a substantial decrease this year. However, this was, in part, due to a donation of around £750 which was anticipated in this period but should be received after the year end.

We were offered very favourable dates for our Christmas collections which is reflected in the increase compared to last year and was our most rewarding two day collection to date.

Gift Aid, bank interest and membership subscriptions accounts for the remainder of our receipts.

Payments

A tight control has been maintained over expenditure during the period. Payments totalled £4,010 (2022: £2,484).

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

We were able to stabilise most of our costs with either a decrease or modest increase in costs compared to the prior period. However, there were some exceptions.

There was a significant increase to repairs, renewals and equipment which, given we rely heavily on technology to deliver our services, was expected as last year’s cost was unusually low.

Subscriptions, licences and website costs also rose fairly significantly due to us taking responsibility for our website costs as these had been previously paid for by a third party, and also a new streaming service related to us now broadcasting on Wi-Fi in the hospital.

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 “Charity reserves: building resilience” (CC19) guidance.

We have calculated an appropriate reserves range for our organisation of £4k to £9k which is broken down as:

Reserves range £k
Cost of unforeseen emergencies 1.5
Small contingency fund for unforeseen operational costs 0.5
All of our income streams temporarily cease 2.0
Minimum level 4.0
Range 5.0
Maximum level 9.0

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 £11,514 and reserves of £5,876 with no restricted funds. The reserves held are inline 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 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.

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Charity Trustees

Chris Mountain Peter Newman Paul Popiel Dave Rawlings* Jon Rogers (re-appointed July 2023) Andy Sloper (re-appointed July 2023) Chris Wood

*Chair 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 Chair

………………………………….. P M Popiel Secretary

2[nd] June 2024 ……………………………… Date

2[nd] June 2024 ……………………………… Date

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

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 2024.

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:

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

17[th] May 2024

………………………………

Date

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Receipts and Payments Account for the Year Ended 31[st] January 2024

Receipts
Donations
Fundraising
Gift Aid
Interest received
Membership subscriptions
Sale of surplus equipment
Other receipts
Payments
Telephone and internet charges
Outside broadcast costs
Third party programming costs
Repairs, renewals and equipment
Insurance
Subscriptions, licences and website
70thanniversary event
Fundraising costs and fees
Merchant and auction fees
Volunteer long service award
Trustees' meetings and AGM costs
Net of Receipts / (Payments)
Total Fund Brought Forward
Total Fund Carried Forward		 Note
1
2
3		 2024
Unrestricted
Funds
£
228
2,426
554
135
425
-
-		 2024
Unrestricted
Funds
£
228
2,426
554
135
425
-
-		 2023
Unrestricted
Funds
£
1,366
1,879
435
20
550
62
2		 2023
Unrestricted
Funds
£
1,366
1,879
435
20
550
62
2
3,768
£
843
187
300
717
487
822
550
13
3
-
88		 4,314
£
728
144
240
40
487
597
-
-
2
59
187
4,010 2,484
(242) 1,830
17,632 15,802
17,390 **17,632 **

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Statement of Assets and Liabilities as at 31[st] January 2024

Cash Funds
Lloyds - Treasurer's Account 1
Lloyds - Treasurer's Account 2
Lloyds - Savings Account
Santander
PayPal
Other Monetary Assets
Debtors
Liabilities
Creditors falling due within one year
Net Assets
Funds
Restricted funds
Unrestricted funds		 Note
4		 2024
£
495
14
8,235
8,491
155		 2023
£
249
42
2,002
14,867
372
17,390
**- **		 17,532
100
- -
17,390 17,632
-
17,390		 -
17,632
17,390 17,632

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.

Assets retained for Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service’s own use

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Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Signed on behalf of the Trustees:

………………………………….. D J Rawlings Chair

………………………………….. J Rogers ATT(Fellow) FMAAT Treasurer

2[nd] June 2024

……………………………… Date

2[nd] June 2024

……………………………… Date

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

Notes to the Accounts for the Year Ended 31[st] January 2024

1. Donations
2024
2023
£
£
Clevedon Golf Club via Mark Hoskins
-
50
Dave Fox
-
25
Individuals and friends of BHBS
31
16
Mark Hoskins
25
25
Parsley Box
-
500
70thanniversary event
172
-
Smile Publishing Ltd
-
750
228
1,366
2. Fundraising
2024
2023
£
£
Bucket collections at Sainsbury's, Emersons Green
-
581
Bucket collections at Tesco, Brislington
2,405
1,269
Everyclick Ltd - Give As You Live
-
18
SmileAmazon
21
11
2,426
1,879

3. 70th anniversary event
2024
2023

£
£
Ticket sales
(700)
-
Venue costs
1,250
-
550
-

Donations were received in connection with this event totalling £172 (see Note 1), therefore
the actual cost of holding the 70thanniversary event was £378.
4. Debtors
2024
2023
£
£
Advances for reimbursement of purchases
-
100		 2024
£
-
-
31
25
-
172
-		 2023
£
50
25
16
25
500
-
750
228 1,366
2024
£
-
2,405
-
21		 2023
£
581
1,269
18
11
2,426 1,879
2024
£
(700)
1,250		 2023
£
-
-
550 **- **

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Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service Trustees’ Report & Accounts 2024

5. 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.

6. 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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