# Annual report and accounts
1 April 2023 — 31 March 2024
Birmingham Community Matters (BCM) is a charity registered in England & Wales: 1179442
Birmingham Community Matters
## **Annual report and accounts 1 April 2023 – 31 March 2024**
Birmingham Community Matters (BCM) is a charity registered in England and Wales: 1179442
Registered office: Stirchley Baths, 2–4 Bournville Lane, Stirchley, Birmingham B30 2JT
## Supported by
**info@birminghamcommunitymatters.org.uk**
**www.birminghamcommunitymatters.org.uk**
brummatters
birmingham-community-matters
birminghamcommunitymatters
**About**
**Work and impact**
## **People and partners**
## **Finances**
## Contents
- 4 Welcome
- 5 Our organisation
- 6 Our objects
- 7 What we do
- 8 How we help
- 14 Case studies
- 17 Further work and impact
- 19 Structure, governance and management
- 21 Our partners
- 24 Financial review
- 9 Our values
- 25 Accounts
- 10 Our core work
- 27 Report of the Independent Examiner
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Welcome
At last it feels like we, and all the groups we work with, are able to return with renewed focus to making Birmingham a great place to live for all communities.
At Birmingham Community Matters that means getting back to our mission: to sit face to face with people, listen to their ideas, and help them explore their next steps towards making good things happen locally.
There are still many pressures that bring uncertainty and worry to our communities. Despite these - and sometimes in response to them - Birmingham is full of keen volunteers: makers, listeners, carers, crafters, grafters, gardeners, helpers. All of whom make our city an even better place to live.
This year, thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund and our other funders, we have been able to work on a bigger scale than before, with the support of an expanded team.
I believe success in improving communities comes from creative, tenacious and generous individuals coming together to make change. That’s exactly what our volunteer BCM helpers are, helping people work through their ideas and problems, and sharing their own knowledge and experience. We thank them all for enabling BCM to support more small community organisations than ever. And our partners - new and longestablished - for the extra reach and impact they help us achieve.
Thank you to everyone who has engaged with BCM this year and worked to make our city a great place to live.
Emma Woolf MBE, Chair of Trustees
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our organisation
Our vision
**Strong and connected Birmingham communities where local needs are met.**
Our mission
**To support small and micro community organisations in Birmingham to connect and build their skills, confidence and resources.**
We call our approach peer support, as our BCM helpers support people as equals, rather than as experts. They don’t give advice or answers and they nearly always end up learning something new too.
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our objects
**BCM is established to promote the voluntary sector and promote the efficiency and effectiveness of other charitable organisations by:**
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1
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Helping to build the capacity of small voluntary and community organisations and provide them with the necessary support, information and services to enable them to pursue or contribute to any charitable purpose
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Promoting, organising and facilitating cooperation and partnership working between small voluntary and community organisations, statutory and other relevant bodies in the achievement of the above purpose within the area of benefit.
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About Work and impact People and partners Finances
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## What we do
**We see** that micro and small community organisations are uniquely placed to identify and serve the needs of their communities. Whether tackling specific challenges or seizing opportunities, they have the local insight and relationships to make the changes they want to see.
**We believe** that all the qualities needed to build strong, sustainable community groups already exist. Our role is to help groups share and discover the knowledge they need.
**We champion** volunteers and volunteering. We seek to bring people together as peers to exchange knowledge, information, experiences and contacts, and to nurture a city of skilled volunteers.
**We support** and work with Birmingham-based partners who share our interest in developing strong local networks that bring about positive change in our city.
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## How we help
## **We achieve our objectives by:**
Sharing useful resources, templates and information to supplement peer learning and support - and distributing them via our monthly newsletter
Holding events in local neighbourhoods where people involved in running micro community groups have opportunities to meet, support and learn from one another
Running group learning sessions around specific topics that are important to small groups - such as fundraising, financial management, working with volunteers, and aspects of local placemaking such as Community Asset Transfer and Neighbourhood Planning
Offering online support from skilled volunteers - generally around more complex issues
Giving online support to people who may have difficulty accessing our in-person events.
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our values
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Thoughtful
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People come first. We are compassionate towards one another, and our supportive working culture encourages us to be compassionate to ourselves as individuals and to model that style of working to the groups we support. We embed inclusivity and accessibility into everything we do.
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Listening
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Our motto (below) and our peer learning model reflect the value we place in each person’s knowledge and experience. We seek to nurture a diverse team of employees, associates, BCM helpers and trustees, valuing the different worldview that every individual brings.
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Adaptable
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We are open to new opportunities, thoughts, and ways of doing things. We respond to the needs of the people and groups we support, as well as the changing needs of communities. We are innovative in our approach to reaching people, and keep our working systems flexible so we can react quickly to new situations — and we never assume we’ve got everything right.
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Empowering
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We are generous with our knowledge, connections and experience. We work with people to explore what their next step should be, rather than telling them what to do. We are comfortable with not having the answer straight away, taking an iterative approach to solving problems.
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Authentic
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We foster a culture of openness, sharing our failures as well as celebrating our achievements. We view mistakes as part of being human – and a vital way of learning. This frees us to try new things, ‘fail fast’ if needed, and find more effective ways forward.
## **Everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to teach**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our core work
## **During the year, across all our different projects, we supported 371 unique service users.**
By April 2023, with Covid-19 disruption an increasingly distant memory, we were continuing to deliver our mission with refreshed focus on face-to-face support and partnership building. Happily, we had more people to help us. Our trustees had recognised the need to change our staffing structure and grow our team, to meet the greater demand on our services. Thanks to their decision, and repeat funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, we were able to recruit another project officer and delivery support officer, and employ one of our freelance associates - also as a project officer.
In our recruitment process, we focused on finding colleagues who would help us establish new partnerships and further expand our reach across Birmingham — especially north and east of the city. And so with Becky, Claire and Mansukh on board, we began homing in on neighbourhoods with which BCM was less familiar. There, we formed ties with local community venues and support organisations who shared our passion for
boosting the confidence, networks and success of nearby community groups. The map on page 13 shows you the geographical range of the support we delivered.
We continued to work with Neighbourhood Network Schemes (NNSs). These are Birmingham City Council-funded initiatives to strengthen communities, beat social isolation, and help older adults in Birmingham (as well as younger adults with additional needs) to lead happy, healthy lives. One way they do this is by giving support and small grants to local community groups, recognising their vital role in bringing people together. So, alongside lead agencies, we worked with NNSs in the constituencies of Selly Oak, Perry Barr, Northfield and Edgbaston to boost the capacity of identified community groups. We did this mainly through learning events, on topics that included managing community buildings, risk assessments for buildings, managing money, recruiting and involving volunteers, and health & safety.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our core work continued
**We recorded the legal structure of the groups for whom we delivered more in-depth support:**
We also continued our close working relationship with Birmingham City Council’s Neighbourhood Development and Support Unit (NDSU). Through joint events, we supported groups to access small grant funding and exercise their powers under the Localism Act, such as the community right to bid on listed assets. (See page 17.)
Witton Lodge Community Hub became one of our partners. Thanks to that partnership, we delivered hands-on sessions to help groups in Erdington apply for grants with a short deadline, as well as workshops on policies and procedures, governance, constitutions, and community bank accounts. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund made this all possible.
I was helped to gain a better and clearer understanding […] into what is required and needed to be a fundable [community residents’ forum]”
**Sonya** from Burbury Residents’ Forum.
As always, we listened to Birmingham’s volunteers and small groups, and responded with events and workshops suited to their needs. We became highly attuned to the ways in which the cost of living crisis was affecting the city. We continued with our informal monthly Zoom briefing to talk about current funding opportunities. We held our ‘Get help with your community group’ session at many venues, enabling people to sit down, one to one, with a BCM helper and talk through their ideas and challenges, then come up with simple, suitable next steps together.
As well as holding events, we shared information to help people get their projects up and running, to help groups grow, or access funding, or upskill. We continued creating templates that small community groups can adapt, such as sample constitutions and policies. We host some of these on our website; others we share directly, with guidance. We also maintained our resource pages, including one on the cost of living crisis. We continued sending our popular monthly newsletter, featuring BCM updates and signposting people to grant funding, useful events and more.
Charitable incorporated organisation (CIO): **4%** Community interest company (CIC): **13% Groups** Constituted group/ **supported** unincorporated **by BCM** association: **36%** Individual*: **12%**
Informal group without governing document**: **13%** Registered charity: **18%**
Governance: **28%** First steps: **2%** Compliance: **2%** Financial: **2%** Fundraising: **36%**
**Support** Financial: **2% needs** Fundraising: **36% on first** Project support and delivery: **2% contact** Policies and procedures: **4%** Volunteering: **7%**
Partnerships and networks: **3%** Marketing and promotion: **1%** Digital tools: **1%** Organisational development: **14%**
- Individuals are those at the very start of their journey, exploring options and yet to connect with others around their ideas
- ** Although our governing document precludes us from offering in-depth support to CICs, we did accommodate some social enterprises through attendance at webinars and by signposting them to support. This included CICs which were embarking on a change of legal structure to become CIOs.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our core work continued
During the period we supported 371 individuals and group representatives across Birmingham (some of whom attended more than one of our events):
**15 22 27 73 facilitated online small in-person peer people received in-person group group sessions, support sessions, one-to-one learning sessions, supporting providing onesupport online supporting 143 people to-one support 50 people to 315 people** 4 networking events
We always ask people we help about their ‘confidence to take next steps’ before and after our help.
I feel that I can take the next steps confidently and I know that there is always help”
**On average, people reported a**
**98.3% of people said they would recommend the support session to others**
**28% increase in confidence levels** (most people rated their confidence quite highly at ‘before’ stage)
**Empress** from Skate Buddies, a community group to help children, young people, adults and families to improve their mental, physical and emotional health through roller skating.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our core work continued
**Groups and individuals we helped**
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Sutton Coldfield
Erdington
Perry Barr
Ladywood
Hodge Hill
Edgbaston
Yardley
Hall Green
Selly
Oak
Northfield
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**Our newsletter in numbers:**
**1052 mailing list subscribers by the end of this reporting year, a percentage increase of 17%**
**40.7% average open rate, slightly higher than the average 40.04%* for nonprofit organisations**
**7.8% clickthrough rate, significantly higher than the average 3.27%* for nonprofit organisations**
* Statistics from Mailchimp, the email platform we use.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Case study
## Helping an individual to realise her vision for ‘green care’
**At Woodgate Valley Urban Farm, Sue established an outdoor therapeutic space for vulnerable children and young people. We have been delighted to support her in achieving her goals - and to see how Reboot Green Care has evolved into a national consultancy.**
We first met Sue in 2021 when she was exploring her vision to set up an outdoor space for children experiencing school refusal – perhaps due to their special educational needs such as autism and/or high anxiety. Sue had seen the therapeutic value in 'green care', enabling children to engage with nature and animals to support their education. She wanted to find a suitable place or partner with whom she could move her vision forward.
Sue sat with our BCM helpers to look at all aspects of her research and ways to turn her learning into action. Together we explored the merits of various organisational structures,
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our core work continued
potential partnerships and the processes of recruiting trustees, business planning and raising funds. One of our BCM helpers has experience with therapeutic horticulture and relevant contacts in care farm sites, which was especially useful. Another has deep knowledge of charity governance rules, which helped Sue through the process of taking on the trusteeship of an existing charity – Woodgate Valley Urban Farm.
With the help of corporate volunteers and grant funding, Sue transformed the site at Woodgate Valley. It became an accredited Care Farm — meaning it is nationally recognised for providing therapeutic use of farming practices. Sue also launched Reboot Green Care there in July 2023 as an NHS-funded project. Participants could be referred by parents and guardians, local authorities, healthcare commissioners, the police and other
professionals. It supported 48 children with a diagnosis of (or self-identifying as having) autism. Participants would have one-to-one and small group sessions on the farm and in the woodland, caring for animals and engaging with nature.
Reboot Green Care is now a standalone organisation that works nationally to support local authorities to put in place green care as early intervention for children, particularly those with additional needs and those facing exclusion. Reboot also offers consultancy services to forest and farm sites.
Sue stepped down as a trustee at Woodgate Valley Urban Farm, but not before securing £95k of grant funding for the farm, £28k of funding for the Reboot project, and a royal visit from Prince William.
BCM were key to me achieving my goal of setting up a site to support vulnerable children. Their helpers’ ability to connect me with other organisations was invaluable. To have a service in the geographical area where you want to make a difference, that is free, is so very important to individuals and organisations such as myself who are all committed changemakers. I would not have been able to pay for their level of support. The amount of people that they indirectly helped by supporting me is huge. Thank you”
**Sue,** Reboot Green Care.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Case study
## Empowering a group to empower others
**BCM supported a small group in Bordesley Green that works across Birmingham with people from the Sudanese community. Many of the group’s beneficiaries first arrived in the UK seeking asylum; some having been evacuated from the ongoing civil war. The group started informally in 2022, distributing food and essential items to families with young children.**
In 2023, two members approached us for help with developing the group, which did not then have a formal structure. They wanted to be able to support more people, seek funding, and find a more permanent physical space from which to run the group. They had identified people’s needs for ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) classes, for more information on accessing services, and for practical assistance with accessing benefits, housing, healthcare and schools.
We supported the group over several months, sending information and resources, and checking in on their progress. A BCM helper met with the two members to
explain various legal structures and a simple constitution that the group could adopt. Together we worked through the process of opening a community bank account, discussing ways to ensure dual authorisation when managing public money.
In a follow-up call, we were happy to hear that the group had progressed well, adopting a constitution and opening a bank account. To bolster their resources, we helped them connect with similar and larger groups that provide emergency support in the city. We also shared a safeguarding template, offering guidance on adapting
it to suit their own activities, management structures and practices.
Because the group also expressed an interest in running a small mother-and-toddler group, and IT and ESOL conversation classes, we explored with them what running such activities would involve, and supported them to complete an application to Awards for All — a National Lottery programme to foster social connections through community activities.
The group was successful in receiving £9355 in grant funding to support its aims. We have since offered help with monitoring and impact measurement.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Further work and impact
## Supporting our communities to save the Birmingham places and spaces they love
**In September 2023, Birmingham City Council issued a Section 114 notice of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, effectively declaring bankruptcy. We knew many people would be worried about resulting cuts to Birmingham services and facilities. We were - and are - worried too.**
But we are determined to hold fast to our mission and share a message of positivity, which is that: _When we work with other people, we have more power than we may think to bring about change in our neighbourhoods and the city as a whole_ .
We have always promoted the ways in which people can collaborate to protect the places they value. We have held information sessions on designating Assets of Community Value (ACV) and Community Asset Transfer (CAT), for example. An ACV register held by a local authority highlights which assets (buildings and green spaces) are valued by communities. It sets a moratorium on any possible sale of an ACV, giving community organisations the
‘community right to bid’: to raise funds to buy that asset before its private sale is allowed. Meanwhile, CAT is a process for passing the management of a building into the hands of a community organisation. We worked with Birmingham City Council’s Neighbourhood Development and Support Unit (NDSU) to hold those sessions, so people could understand the process and learn about the support that NDSU offers to help with it.
Following the Section 114 notice in Birmingham, we have redoubled our efforts to show communities the power they hold when working together. We maintain and update a specialist resources page on our website with templates and ACV/CAT webinar recordings
to give people the latest information. In 2023 we partnered with Save Birmingham - a nonpolitical campaign asking people to nominate their favourite places and highlighting the legal tools they can use to protect those places from private sale. Working together with Save Birmingham, the membership organisation Locality and NDSU, we held even more ACV/ CAT sessions: seven in this reporting period. These included online ‘walkthroughs’ of the ACV form, plus in-person workshops to help people complete their nominations. We added this content to our resources page and YouTube channel, so groups can access it at any time.
**18**
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## continued Further work and impact
## local visions
Inspiring communities to make change happen in their areas of the city
We have sought to make information about Neighbourhood Planning more accessible to people in Birmingham.
BCM (working with Locality as a delivery partnership) were professional, flexible, creative and responsive. They worked constructively in partnership with us and residents who are developing, or already have, a Neighbourhood Plan – to capture their input including via short films. Highly recommended!”
We worked with Birmingham City Council’s Neighbourhood Development and Support Unit (NDSU) and the membership network Locality to create an easy-to-understand Neighbourhood Planning Toolkit for Birmingham. Our collaboration and the resulting website (toolkit) are called Local Visions: **localvisions.co.uk** . We launched this in April 2023.
## **NDSU Team,**
The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities funded this work, through its Neighbourhood Planning Pilots Programme. Local Visions is designed to:
Birmingham City Council.
- Inspire Birmingham residents to consider Neighbourhood Planning where they live
- Give people insight, support and guidance to create a Neighbourhood Plan.
## **What is a Neighbourhood Plan (NP)?**
A Neighbourhood Plan (NP) is a legal document setting out a community’s wishes for the use and development of land in a designated area. It is created by and for the local community. Among other things, an NP can include policies for protecting green spaces, safeguarding or developing community facilities, and allocating sites for housing. Once an NP is brought into force, council planners must take its policies into account when making planning decisions for that area. An NP can’t solve every issue in an area, but it does hold legal weight. It gives a community legal powers to influence future development.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Structure, governance and management
## Our people
**BCM is registered as a charitable incorporated organisation (Association CIO) with the Charity Commission. Our board of trustees has responsibility for BCM’s policies, its strategic direction and priorities. It also has full financial and legal responsibilities for BCM, its staff, activities, services, contracts and assets.**
## **Thank you also to our core team:**
**Thank you to our trustees who served BCM during the period covered by this report:**
- Jo Burrill, Chief Executive
- Becky Coley, Project Officer - North and East Birmingham
- Emma Woolf MBE, Chair
- Helga Edström OBE, Vice Chair
- AD, Operations Support Officer
- � Claire Johnson, Project Officer - South and West Birmingham
- David Broome, Treasurer (appointed October 2023)
- Dipali Chandra (Treasurer until October 2023)
- Mansukh Kaur Dhillon, Delivery Support Administrator.
- Chris Bonnard (resigned October 2023)
## **And associates:**
- Sandra Cooper
- Rob Jones, associate
- Catherine De Soyza (appointed October 2023)
- Marie Kreft, freelance marketing and communications
- Emma Macpherson
- Kerry Leslie, freelance graphic design and administration.
- Denise Peach (appointed October 2023).
## Special thanks to:
**Chris Bonnard** who stepped down from our board in October 2023, having been a founding trustee for BCM and, until 2021, our Vice
Chair. We are so grateful to Chris for his wisdom gleaned from an impressive career in the voluntary and community sector, particularly around governance, as well as his endless patience and kindness. For all those qualities and more, we’re delighted that Chris remains with us as a BCM helper.
**Kerry Leslie** , our associate graphic designer and team support superstar, who created BCM’s visual identity and who was instrumental in bringing the Neighbourhood Planning Toolkit together (see page 18).
Kerry left freelance life and BCM in autumn 2023 to take up a post at Birmingham City Council, which now benefits from Kerry’s digital savviness, thoughtful service design and commitment to inclusion.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## continued Our people
## **BCM helpers**
We are hugely grateful for the dedication and knowledge of our BCM helpers – the people who work with us on a voluntary basis to give one-to-one peer support to small and emerging community groups across Birmingham. We truly appreciate the time they give, their ability to truly listen, and their generosity in sharing their experience and contacts to make a difference.
## Pilotlight
BCM took part in Pilotlight 360, an intensive coaching programme in which business leaders take a close look at a charity with the aim of building its resilience. Pilotlight’s support came at a perfect time, as we had grown from an organisation of two employees to five, and were busy broadening our reach across Birmingham.
Our three Pilotlight mentors and project coordinator conducted a thorough review of BCM, focusing on our strategy impact map, finance and fundraising, operations and strategic planning. They gave us a valuable outside perspective of our work. We thank them for the confidence and insight they gave us as we continue to develop our relatively young charity.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Our partners
**We are grateful to our colleagues in other infrastructure and capacitybuilding support organisations for being BCM’s crucial supporters and collaborators.**
## **Thank you (in alphabetical order):**
- Birmingham LGBT Centre
- Birmingham Open Spaces Forum (BOSF)
- Birmingham Voluntary Sector Council (BVSC)
- Bournville Village Trust
- Cooperatives West Midlands
- Digital Neighbourhood Network Scheme
- Institute for Social Entrepreneurs
- Locality
- Neighbourhood Support and
- Development Unit at Birmingham City Council
- Pilotlight
- Sandwell Council of Voluntary Organisations (SCVO)
- West Midlands Funders Network
- Witton Lodge Community Association.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## continued Our partners
**Our work aligns with grantmaking in the region, from The National Lottery Community Fund, Heart of England Community Foundation, Heritage Lottery Fund, Severn Trent Community Fund and the Neighbourhood Development Support Unit within Birmingham City Council. We have benefited from their support, their insight into the state of the sector, and their trust in us when referring groups for help.**
**Thank you to the following organisations for helping us to support Birmingham’s small community organisations:**
- Age Concern (Sutton Coldfield NNS)
- B8 Network
- Bells Farm Community Centre
- Birmingham LGBT Centre
- Birmingham Settlement (Ladywood NNS)
- Brandwood Community Centre
- CASE at Soho Community Hall
- Christ Church, Yardley Wood
- Christ Church, Selly Park
- Communitea Cafe
- Firs and Bromford Community Hub
- Friends of Cotteridge Park @ The Shed
- Gateway Family Services (Edgbaston NNS)
- Glebe Farm Library
- Holdford Drive Community Hub
- Kingstanding Leisure Centre
- Moseley CDT
- Manningford Hall
- Northfield Community Partnership (Northfield NNS)
- Old Oscott Community Centre
- The Old Post Office, Stirchley
- Pype Hayes Golf Club
- Spring Housing (Perry Barr NNS)
- Stirchley Community Market.
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## continued Our partners
**Thank you to the following organisations for hosting our events and activities:**
- Advocacy Matters
- Asda Minworth Supercentre
- Edgbaston Community Centre
- Erdington Leisure Centre
- Firs and Bromford Hub
- Grove Tenants Hall
- Hawkesley Community Centre
- Holloway Hall Community Assocation
- ISE - Women’s Enterprise and Community Hub
- Kings Heath Cricket & Sports Club
- Moseley Hive
- Nechells POD
- New Heights, Kingstanding
- Oikos Café
- Our Place, Sutton Coldfield
- The Pavilion, Moor Lane
- Soho Community Centre
- St Thomas Church and Community Project - Yardley
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23
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- Stirchley Baths
- Sutton Coldfield Town Hall
- Sutton Coldfield United Reformed Church
- Welcome Change, Glebe Farm
- West Heath Community Centre
- Warstock Community Centre.
## **Thank you to the following funders who have made our work possible:**
- National Lottery Community Fund Reaching Communities England
I’m incredibly grateful to BCM for their unwavering support, especially in helping us address governance challenges. I wholeheartedly recommend their services to anyone looking to make a positive impact in their community. They are true champions of grassroots initiatives, and their expertise is a valuable asset to anyone striving to create positive change”
- Selly Oak Neighbourhood Network Scheme
- Perry Barr Neighbourhood Network Scheme
- � Birmingham City Council’s Neighbourhood Development Support Unit
- Severn Trent Community Fund
- The Dulverton Trust, via Heart of England Community Foundation
- Edgbaston Neighbourhood Network Scheme
- Northfield Neighbourhood Network Scheme.
**A volunteer** for
Stechford Neighbourhood Forum.
**24**
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Financial review
## **Our reserves policy**
BCM has a reserves policy which is reviewed every 24 months. The latest policy was reviewed and approved on 20 October 2023. The current reserves policy is to hold as free reserves a level equivalent to twelve weeks of outgoing resources for critical operations plus redundancy costs for existing staff. For the period 2023/2024 this would be a total of £20,977 as a total.
Based on BCM’s budget for 2024/2025, a minimum designated reserve of £14,957 is required. Actual free reserves are £58,759, which is slightly in excess of policy.
## **Responsibilities of trustees**
Trustees are responsible for preparing BCM’s annual report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards. The duty to file accounts and the trustees’ annual report with the commission applies to all CIOs, irrespective of income.
Trustees are required to prepare financial statements for each financial year in order to give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of BCM as a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO) and of the income and expenditure including the income and expenditure of the charity for that period.
In preparing these statements, the trustees are required to:
- Select suitable accounting policies and apply them consistently
- Observe the methods and principles set out in the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP)
- Make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent
- State whether applicable UK Accounting Standards have been followed, subject to any material departures disclosed and explained in the financial statements
- Prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the CIO will continue in operation.
The trustees are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the CIO and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. The trustees are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the CIO and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
This annual report, covering the period 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024, was approved by trustees of Birmingham Community Matters at their board meeting, held on 17 October 2024.
**Emma Woolf,** Chair of Trustees.
**25**
**About Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Accounts
|Accounts
**Receipts and**
**payments accounts**
for the year ended 31 March 2024|**Unrestricted funds**
**Restricted funds**
**Total** **2024**
**Total 2023**
**Receipts**
**£**
**£**
**£**
**£**|
|---|---|
||Grants
-
126,107
**126,107**
131,418
Other income
68,916
-
**68,916**
31,500|
||**Total receipts**
**68,916**
**126,107**
**195,023**
**162,918**|
||**Payments**
Salaries and staff costs
41,752
79,381
**121,133**
58,344
Administrator’s fees
-
1,350
**1,350**
15,019
Staff recruitment
-
-
**-**
1,024
Staff travel & subsistence
633
2,006
**2,639**
567
Staff training & development
825
1,536
**2,361**
568
Consultancy/partner costs
8,756
3,554
**12,310**
31,731
Fundraising Support
360
-
**360**
1,860
HR Support
-
-
**-**
1,655
Evaluation
-
-
**-**
175
Venue hire
423
2,528
**2,951**
607
Marketing
2,825
11,664
**14,489**
10,929
Website
9,287
391
**9,678**
10,994
Offce costs
2,672
100
**2,772**
3,905
Insurance
747
-
**747**
307
Equipment
560
3,188
**3,748**
606
Independent Examiner’s fee
950
-
**950**
575
Bookkeeping/accountancy
5,568
-
**5,568**
4,248
Bank charges
146
-
**146**
72
Overhead allocations toprojects
(9,114)
9,114
**-**
-|
||**Totalpayments**
**66,390**
**114,812**
**181,202**
**143,186**|
||**Net receipts overpayments**
**2,526**
**11,295**
**13,821**
**19,732**|
||**Cash funds lastyear end**
**42,432**
**47,640**
**90,072**
**70,340**|
||**Transfers**
**13,800**
**(13,800)**
**-**
**-**|
||**Cash funds thisyear end**
**58,758**
**45,135**
**103,893**
**90,072**|
**26**
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## Accounts
**Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the year**
|||**Unrestricted**|**Restricted**|**Total funds**|Total funds|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|||**funds**|**funds**|**31/3/24**|31/3/23|
||**10.1 Cash funds**|**£**|**£**|**£**|£|
||**Bank balances**|**58,758**|**45,135**|**103,893**|90,072|
||**10.2 Restricted fund balances**|**Fund balance**|**Receipts**|**Payments**|**Transfers**
**Fund balance**|
|||**at 1/4/2023**|||**at 31/3/2024**|
|||**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**|
||National Lottery Reaching|25,450|95,636|(84,785)|-
**36,301**|
||Communities 2023-2026|||||
||Perry Barr Neighbourhood|(5,774)|14,271|(9,153)|656
**-**|
||Network Scheme|||||
||Northfeld Neighbourhood|10,000|-|-|(10,000)
**-**|
||Network Scheme|||||
||Edgbaston Neighbourhood|5,000|-|-|(5,000)
**-**|
||Network Scheme|||||
||Perry Barr NNS Younger Adults|-|5,000|(5,544)|544
**-**|
||Dulverton Trust|5,000|-|(5,000)|-
**-**|
||Severn Trent Community Fund|7,964|-|(7,964)|-
**-**|
||Seedcorn Fund|-|11,200|(2,366)|-
**8,834**|
||**Total**|**47,640**|**126,107**|**(114,812)**|**(13,800)**
**45,135**|
Transfers from unrestricted funds have been made to cover project overspending. Transfers from restricted funds relate to income treated incorrectly as restricted in the prior year, income was under service level agreements and consequently should not have been restricted.
## _**Signed on behalf of the Board of Trustees**_
Signature Print name Emma Woolf Chair, Birmingham Community Matters Date 19 July 2024
**27**
**About**
**Work and impact**
**People and partners**
**Finances**
## **Report of the Independent Examiner**
Independent Examiner’s report to the trustees of Birmingham Community Matters on the receipts and payments accounts for the year ended 31 March 2024.
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Birmingham Community Matters (‘the Charity’) for the year ended 31 March 2024 which are set out on pages 25 and 26.
## **Responsibilities and basis of report**
As the trustees of the Charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the 2011 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 all the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under Section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 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 giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:
1. Accounting records were not kept in respect of the Charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
2. The accounts do not accord with those records.
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in this report in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
Karen Hanlan, ACA, ACIE Date: July 2024
Karen Hanlan, Independent Examiner Ltd 1 Saracen Close Ettington CV37 7SZ
Birmingham Community Matters
## **Everyone has something to learn and everyone has something to teach**
**info@birminghamcommunitymatters.org.uk**
**www.birminghamcommunitymatters.org.uk**
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Birmingham Community Matters (BCM) is a charity registered in England and Wales: 1179442 Registered office: Stirchley Baths, 2-4 Bournville Lane, Stirchley, Birmingham B30 2JT