**Trustees’ Annual Report** 2020-21 

Registered charity number 1178499 

1 



## **Section A:** 

## **Administration Details** 

This report covers the period from 6 April 2020 to 5 April 2021. 

Friends For Families (Sevenoaks) was established in January 2018 and became a registered charity on 23 May 2018. The registered charity number is 1178499 and the address the charity is registered to is 10 Pinewood Avenue, Sevenoaks TN14 5AF 

The charity’s name is Friends For Families (Sevenoaks) and it is not known by any other name, though it is often abbreviated to Friends For Families or F4F. 

## **Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity** 

Shona Campbell (Chair), first charity trustee. 

Claire Davison (Treasurer):  Claire was appointed as a trustee and as Treasurer in January 2021, taking over from Debbie Griffin, first charity trustee. Hannah Gwyther: Hannah was appointed as a trustee in February 2019. Hayley Hansford: Hayley was appointed as a trustee in February 2020 Kelly Barlow: Kelly was appointed as a trustee in February 2020 

There are at present no other trustees, and there are no staff members. 

## **Section B: Structure, Governance and Management** 

The charity is governed by its constitution, and is a Foundation Charitable Incorporated Organisation.  Apart from the first charity trustees, all trustees are appointed for a term of three years by a resolution passed at a properly convened meeting of the charity trustees. 

The charity is managed and run by the trustees, and there are no paid staff members. There are several volunteers who work with the trustees on an ad hoc basis. 

2 



## **Section C:** 

## **Objectives and activities** 

The objects of the charity are 

To relieve the poverty of families with children who are living within the Sevenoaks district and Dartford or are otherwise clients of West Kent Children’s Services at Kent County Council, specifically families who do not have the resources to provide themselves with the normal things of life which most people take for granted, by 

- providing items including but not limited to furniture, bedding, clothing, food, fuel, heating appliances, washing machines and fridges or by providing grants to purchase these items. 

- payment for services including but not limited to essential repairs, hairdressing or outings and entertainment for children. 

- providing facilities including but not limited to the supply of equipment, books, and travelling expenses to attend school, and equipment and funds for recreational pursuits intended to bring the quality of life of the beneficiaries to a reasonable standard 

- financing any other items, services or facilities that the trustees agree should be provided to bring the quality of life of the beneficiaries to a reasonable standard. 

The main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects are 

- The purchase of beds and bedding, basic furniture and white goods, whether new or second hand. Where appropriate donated second hand items are also provided. 

- The purchase of clothing, nappies, basic baby equipment, cleaning equipment and products. Where appropriate donated second hand items are also provided. 

- The purchase of food. Much of the non-perishable food we supply is donated, and we fund the rest and specifically perishable foods. 

- Payment for children’s groups and classes, particularly where these are therapeutic and/or prevent a child being isolated on grounds of poverty. 

- Payment for school uniform, shoes, bags and equipment and travelling costs to school where no alternative is available that can be funded by the family or statutory services. 

In all cases the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit. 

The charity does not give cash grants to families, and all activities are undertaken in conjunction with and through the intermediary of West Kent Children’s Services. 

The charity benefits greatly from the support of the local community, both in volunteering their time and making financial donations, but also in supplying the charity with second hand items and ensuring they are in a good condition to be donated, purchasing food supplies, and providing the charity with advice and support on a range of issues. 

3 



## **Section D** 

## **Achievements and performance** 

The charity was first established by the people who became the first trustees as a source of informal support to Children’s Social Work Services client families in January 2018, so the 2020-21 financial year was the third full financial year that the charity has been in operation. 

The trustees raise the funding for the work to be undertaken from two sources: individual and corporate donations, and grants. In 2019-2020 the trustees successfully applied for and received several grants, more than doubling the grant income compared to 20182019 from £12,000 to £28,948. The trustees also worked to raise awareness within the local community, resulting in many individual donations to the charity. Further financial details may be found in the annual accounts. 

A new trustee and Treasurer was recruited to take over from founding trustee Debbie Griffin, who stepped down from the charity upon relocation. All trustees worked to develop the pool of volunteers willing to assist with the workload (particularly important as the charity has no paid staff). This included building relations with local businesses and community groups. 

In mid-March 2020, in response to the first national lockdown, the charity began supplying food for a pop-up food bank within Children’s Services to deal with the immediate crisis for vulnerable families. The charity continued to supply this food bank until the end of May 2020, spending over £4,800 on food for this purpose (approximately £2,500 of which was spent in this financial year ) as well as taking large quantities of donated food to Children’s Services. 

The charity was also asked to source laptops and other devices for home schooling during lockdowns, and in the course of 2020-2021 purchased 25 devices for children who were unable to access online schoolwork. This is not normally something the charity does, and together with the food bank supplies demonstrates that the charity was able to respond swiftly and flexibly to changing requirements during the pandemic. 

The charity met 211 referrals in 2019-20, at a cost of £45,370. In 2020-21 the charity funded 244 referrals in addition to supplying the pop-up food bank. Expenditure on all of this totalled £67,366. The increase in expenditure per case is due in large part to the increased hardship caused by the pandemic, meaning that a wider range of items were required to help individual families. 

In addition to these individual case referrals, the charity also provided 548 Christmas gifts for children identified by the social work teams, and 114 Christmas food parcels for their families. 

## **Section E:** 

## **Financial review** 

The Trustees have reviewed the guidance "Charity Reserves: building resilience" (published Jan 2016) and do not consider that the charity requires a reserves policy at this time. This is due to the nature of our funding and expenditure. This will be reviewed by the trustees on a regular basis. 

5 



The charity has no funds in deficit. 

The charity’s principal sources of funds are grants from grant-making bodies and businesses and individual donations. The charity also organises fundraising events and raffles in normal years, but was unable to do so in 2020-2021 due to the pandemic.. 

The charity has been fortunate enough to raise enough funds from these sources to enable it to meet all the referrals made to it that were found to be consistent with its objects. 

The charity does not have sufficient funds to make investments and does not anticipate this situation changing in the foreseeable future, and therefore has no investment policy. 

## **Section F: Other optional information** 

None. 

## **Section G:** 

## **Declaration** 

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.  The Trustees are of the view that there are no uncertainties at present as to the charity’s status as a going concern. 

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees: 

Signature 

Full Name Shona Agnes Brown Campbell Position Chair of Trustees Date 27 January 2022 

6 



Friends For Families
Sevenoaks

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Endowrnent
Totil fund
Lasty￿r
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