Trustees’ Annual & Finance Report 2023/2024
Period from 1[st] July 2023 to 30th June 2024
Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Table of Contents
Overview ........................................................................................................................... 3 Objectives and Activities .................................................................................................... 4 Achievements and Performance ......................................................................................... 5 Financial Review ................................................................................................................ 5 Structure, Governance and Management ........................................................................... 5 Reference and Administrative details ................................................................................. 6 Declarations ...................................................................................................................... 7 Appendix A: Activities, Services and Projects delivered ....................................................... 8 Appendix B: Application for Future Steps Award .............................................................. 11 Appendix C: Application for Future Steps Programme ...................................................... 13 Appendix D: Trustees’ Financial Report 2023/2024 .......................................................... 15
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Overview
The William Mills Centre and Youth Hub has been open since March 1[st] 2022 and has continued to increase activity and community engagement.
It continues to be used by up to 50 young people on Tuesday to Thursday evenings. The feedback from young people and the community has been extremely positive. The centre is used by multi-agency organisations to assist with your work in the morning and The William Mills Foundation has access to it in the afternoons and weekend evenings, for delivery of our Programmes and fundraising activity.
Our main fundraiser for the year was a quiz night. We also received regular donations from supporters and a grant from Bewdley Town Council of £1000 to extend our School Holiday Brunch Club provision.
We made three awards during the year.
-
We supported installation of a defibrillator for the benefit of a primary school and football club, who use the school for training and matches.
-
We supported two young people on school trips abroad that staff felt they would really benefit from, but families could not afford. We had amazing feedback from both these young people on the impact of the events.
Our awards were all at least double well above the set £250 limit and we are finding that we do need to extend that figure as costs of all the services and equipment we have previously supported has risen significantly. This will be discussed at our AGM. We also need to discuss at the AGM, how the William Mills Centre may be supported after the 5-year lottery funding has expired.
Our aims for the year were:
-
To extend sessions and delivery within The William Mills Centre
-
To increase our activity across the community
-
To reinstate The WMF Future Steps Programme.
We achieved objective 1 .
Objective 2 was achieved.
We achieved objective 3.
Our volunteers have continued to show wonderful support in undertaking individual events and increasing donations. In addition, we have kept our running costs as low as last year’s levels.
Expenditure has increased this year, as we decided to support Brunch Club through every holiday period. In addition, the Future Steps Programme was delivered for 11
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
young people, with amazing outcomes, but at a cost. Every activity provided had increased significantly in cost since last delivered before COVID. As this expenditure crosses two financial years, we will report on the cost per young person in the next report.
However, the WMF still ends the year in a healthy financial position for a charity of our size and longevity, and confident that we will remain resilient and able to operate in the years ahead.
Please refer to Appendix D: Trustees’ Financial Report 2023/2024
Objectives and Activities
| Statement | SORP1 reference |
|
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the purposes of the charity as set out in its governing document |
Para 1.17 | To advance in life and help young people who are socially, physically or economically disadvantaged in Worcestershire through the provision of awards to support activities which develop their skills, capacities and capabilities to enable them to participate in society as mature and responsible individuals |
| Summary of the main activities in relation to those purposes for the public benefit. |
Para 1.17 and 1.19 |
Refer toAppendix Abelow for details |
| Statement confirming whether the trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit |
Para 1.18 | The objective of the charity, as set out in as it’s purpose above, was finalised upon advice from the Charity Commission. |
| Policy on grant making | Para 1.38 | Refer to Appendix B: Application for Future Steps Award below Refer to Appendix C: Application for Future Steps Programme below |
| Contribution made by volunteers |
Para 1.38 | Our Board and trustees are volunteers who have contributed all year to attend meetings, approve awards and deliver programmes and events. |
1 The Charity Commission SORP is its Statement of Recommended Practice, to which this Annual Report complies.
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Achievements and Performance
| Statement | SORP reference |
|
|---|---|---|
| Summary of the main achievements of the charity, identifying the difference the charity’s work has made to the circumstances of its beneficiaries and any wider benefits to society as a whole. |
Para 1.20 | Refer to Appendix A: Activities, Services and Projects delivered |
Financial Review
| Financial Review | ||
|---|---|---|
| Statement | SORP reference |
|
| Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of theperiod. |
Para 1.21 | Refer to Appendix D: Trustees’ Financial Report 2023/2024.Appendix D: Trustees’ Financial Report 2023/202 |
| Amount of reserves held | Para 1.22 | Refer to Appendix D: Trustees’ Financial Report 2023/2024.Appendix D: Trustees’ Financial Report 2023/202 |
| Details of fund materially in deficit |
Para 1.24 | None |
| Explanation of any uncertainties about the charity continuing as a going concern |
Para 1.23 | None |
| The charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising) |
Para 1.47 | The majority of funds in 2023/2024 were from donations. In terms of fundraising: • Quiz night |
| A description of the principal risks facing the charity |
Para 1.46 | • Poor uptake by local secondary schools of services and funds offered. • Lack of volunteers as time moves on. Current volunteers already work very hard to manage current level of fund raising. • Less energy and desire to donate as all charities compete for donations and time passes since William died. |
Structure, Governance and Management
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
| Statement | SORP reference |
|
|---|---|---|
| Type of governing document |
Para 1.25 | Charitable Constitution |
| How is the charity constituted? |
Para 1.25 | Charitable Incorporated Organisation |
| The charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works |
Para 1.51 | The charity has a chair, a treasurer, a secretary and 5 trustees. It works with the Bewdley School & Sixth Form Centre to identify young people for awards and the programme. It also is supported by and works with the Far Forest Society (reg charity 205210) and Rock Sports Football Club. |
Reference and Administrative details
| Charity Name | The William Mills Foundation |
|---|---|
| Other names the charity uses |
None |
| Registered charity number | 1179790 |
| Charity’s principal address | 11 Newland Road, Droitwich. WR9 7AF |
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
| Trustee Name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for the whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Gould, Gabriella | Trustee | N/A | N/A |
| 2. Bilal Ibrahim | Trustee | N/A | N/A |
| 3. Mills, Elizabeth | Secretary | N/A | N/A |
| 4. Thom, Alex | Treasurer | N/A | N/A |
| 5. Tillett, Jack | Trustee | N/A | N/A |
| 6. Willis, Victoria | Chair to the Trustees | N/A | N/A |
| 7. Hinton, Bethany | Trustee | N/A | N/A |
| 8. Simmonds, Andrew |
Trustee | N/A | N/A |
Corporate Trustees – names of the directors at the date the report was approved
| Trustee Name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for the whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|---|---|---|---|
| None |
Name of trustees holding title to property belonging to the charity
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
| Trustee Name | Office (if any) | Dates acted if not for the whole year |
Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any) |
|---|---|---|---|
| None |
Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
Description of the assets held in this None capacity Name and objects of the charity on whose behalf the assets are held and N/A how this fall within the custodian charity’s objects Details of arrangements for safe custody and segregation of such assets from the N/A charity’s own assets
Declarations
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above. Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signature: …………………………………………………….
Full name: … Victoria Willis………………………………..
Position: …… Chair to the Trustees………………………
Date: ………14/04/25……………………………………..
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Appendix A: Activities, Services and Projects delivered
Future Steps Awards are made to individual young people. These awards are made upon recommendation for young people who have potential shown in relation to a particular skill or life skill, but something within their life presents a barrier to their development or achievement. Generally, these awards are up to £250.
We have made three awards, relevant to this annual report since July 2023.
Each young person awarded has some barrier or difficulty. Some of these are physical, some emotional and some practical. They may be caused by illness, disability, family breakdown or bereavement, for example. We use the knowledge and expertise of school staff to nominate young people for our awards.
We evaluate the effectiveness of our awards by asking the young people what they think they will achieve and why this will help them in their future life. We then set timelines for this feedback. The young people are then also seen and spoken to at some point during their award pathway by trustees from The WMF to assess progress towards these goals.
-
We supported installation of a defibrillator for the benefit of a primary school and football club, who use the school for training and matches.
-
We supported two young people on school trips abroad that staff felt they would really benefit from, but families could not afford. We had amazing feedback from both these young people on the impact of the events.
We can share more details pf the awards but would need to redact some details and ensure confidentiality. If you require more details, please approach the Secretary and we can consider appropriate disclosure if required.
The Future Steps Programme operated with tremendous success between January and July 2024. We invited 11 young people onto the programme. They undertook the below developmental sessions:
Family Induction : Friday 23 February 2024 . At the Youth Hub/Will Mills Centre.
Launch Date : Tuesday 5th March 2024. After school to 4.30pm. At the Youth Hub/Will Mills Centre.
Circus Skills : Monday 18th March 2024. 2.30 to 4.30pm. At the Youth Hub/Will Mills Centre.
High Adventure Day : Saturday 20th April 2024. Frank Chapman Centre, Park End, Bewdley, DY12 2TY.
Debate Mate : Wednesday 24th April 2024. 9.45am to 3pm. Go to school registration & then to the Youth Hub for 9.45am. Day.
Mosaic Art: Monday 10 June 2024. At the Youth Hub/Will Mills Centre.
Wall/Graffiti Art : Wednesday 12 June 2024. At the Youth Hub/Will Mills Centre.
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Mental Health & Wellbeing
Theatre visit : Friday 28 June 2024. Birmingham Reparatory Theatre. Back stage visit & Rush production.
“Join us for this incredible narrated musical journey as we tell the story of the Windrush Generation and Reggae and hear how this music took the world by storm.”
Activity Weekend : Friday 5th to Sunday 7th July 2024. PGL site in Tregoyd Park, Brecon Beacons.
Awards Evening : Monday 15th 2024. At the Youth Hub/Will Mills Centre.
The Will Mills Centre:
We have extended delivery of the Holiday Brunch Club considerably during this financial year. Having piloted this coming out of COVID and as a result of the energy crisis, the Foundation trustees made a decision to try and support running of Brunch Club every school holiday, except Christmas, when uptake has been minimal.
Brunch Club has up to 40 attendees every day. It is free of charge and provides structured and themed activities, breakfast/brunch and support across the Kidderminster and Bewdley communities. Uptake increases each holiday to the point where we have had to employ extra staff to support numbers. Parents and carers (which are increasingly grand-parents and older carers) express their reliance and gratitude for the provision.
We trialled doing Brunch Club for older teenagers, including specific sessions for young carers and LGBTQIA+ groups, but this had no uptake.
The centre has been open as a youth hub since March 1[st ] 2022 and is used by up to 50 young people on Tuesday to Thursday evenings. Feedback from young people and the community has been extremely positive. The centre is used by multi-agency organisations to assist with your work in the morning and The William Mills Foundation has access to it in the afternoons, for delivery of our Programmes.
We have received the below feedback from the Lottery Panel:
“ Thanks for the report, we really did enjoy reading about the last 12 months. It’s great to see the progress made, especially the fact that the children and young people really seemed to have taken ownership of the direction of the centre – its great that you gave them the opportunity to do so and it seems to be going from strength to strength. It’s particularly positive to see how members of other communities, i.e. BAME, LGBTQ+ and SEN are attending.
The different events and sessions being held, together with the links to other organisations and agencies is also great to see, plus the fact that the centre is open outside of term time as well. We loved seeing that The William Mills Foundation programme ran again and that they running holiday activities and using the centre too.
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
The appointment of the Youth Hub Manager seems a very positive step, especially with their background and experience, which can only help the centre moving forwards.
We would like to congratulate you both on the joint funding for the community youth garden as well.
It seems like the future of the centre is a positive one and we look forward to hearing more over the next year. We may ask if members can visit such a successful project.
Please pass on our thanks to everyone involved – keep up the great work.”
In relation to the youth work within the centre, the WMF is still represented at the Wyre Forest District Schools and Police Panel and the Wyre Forest Suicide Prevention Schools Panel.
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Appendix B: Application for Future Steps Award
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Appendix C: Application for Future Steps Programme
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Trustees, Annual Report 202314 The William Mills Foundation Foundation Registered Charity No. 1179790 The William Mills Foundation Application for a place on the Future Steps Programme 117#7 cl1 No. oY6Ynal Rdatsonship toyour n11 critsria kj oualtyfix ai a¥ATd. CrKerLI chihltsntho a chikJrenthofb)J stream a thallenae Fsfflilios who c(xld Ild confidénL thIL% lrfe 11-18atsdd I thè nèxt 12 Thq wiiam MIL rnay a rtats)ut Page 14of18
Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Appendix D: Trustees’ Financial Report 2023/2024
Quarterly Summary Income and Expenditure
2022/2023 summary included for comparison purposes only.
Period from 1[st] July 2023 to 30[th] June 2024
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Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
William Mills Foundation
Summary 2023/24
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Opening Cash Balance | 26,059 | 23,876 | 22,971 | 20,637 | |
| Income | |||||
| Amazon Smile | - | ||||
| DD Donations | 356 | 337 | 327 | 312 | 1,333 |
| Donations | 250 | 250 | |||
| Football '23 | 492 | 492 | |||
| Grants | 1,000 | 1,000 | |||
| Misc | - | ||||
| Quiz '24 | 1,036 | 1,036 | |||
| Total Income | 1,848 | 587 | 327 | 1,348 | 4,111 |
| Expenditure | |||||
| Awards | (1,025) | (22) | (600) | (1,647) | |
| Brunch Club | (2,000) | (1,200) | (1,520) | (500) | (5,220) |
| Circus Skills | (870) | (230) | (1,100) | ||
| Football '23 | - | ||||
| Insurance | (29) | (29) | (29) | (20) | (108) |
| Mind Balance | - | ||||
| Misc | - | ||||
| Programme '24 | (682) | (2,474) | (3,156) | ||
| Savings | - | ||||
| Website | (11) | (11) | (30) | (299) | (350) |
| WMF Centre | (96) | (400) | (496) | ||
| Total Expenditure | (4,031) | (1,492) | (2,661) | (3,893) | (12,077) |
| Closing Cash Balance | 23,876 | 22,971 | 20,637 | 18,093 | |
| Closing Balance per STM | 23,876 | 22,971 | 20,637 | 18,093 | |
| Difference | - | - | - | - | |
| HTB 1yr Fixed Bond | 35,550 | 35,550 | 35,550 | 36,859 | |
| Total Funds | 59,426 | 58,521 | 56,187 | 54,951 |
AJT 14/04/2025
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Trustees, Annual Report 202314 The William Mills Foundation Foundation Registered Charity No. 1179790 Summ Total OpÈrAr*Cash Balaht IS32 19J66 23.n5 2VJ17 Ineob Amaion Smile 7,315 DD Donatwjns DM- Ultra Marath DonatvJn5 Fty)tball'22 FtblI,23 Gdf'13 GullNer Mt BnC KP- London Marathon Misc Quiz'23 356 1.426 1.157 J.157 249 937 1.342 1.472 1.470 750 L342 1.472 IA70 750 875 875 Totsl Income 46ts ts.175 L114 43S3 19.gS8 Eyndlturn Awards Ball'22 artus S11$ FtblI,22 F111,23 Gdf'23 11,rx171 12751 110321 15.n61 15.7361 13291 19471 11271 19471 1311 Insurance Miryj Batsnce Misc Quii'23 Savings Website WMF Centre 1321 1321 11741 11741 1431 12541 I3} Totsl E¥pendIre 10221 IWO) 19.7311 awlwcash Oalanre 19366 2ins 24J117 2W9 8alanre perSTM 19366 2ins 24J117 2W9 rrB Flxed Bond 15.(th 35.(XX) 35.(XK 35.550 Totsl Fund5 .n5 S917 6L609 AJT 15A)112024 Page 17 of18
Trustees’ Annual Report 2023/4 The William Mills Foundation
Registered Charity No. 1179790
Funds held as custodian trustees on behalf of others
Description of the assets held in this Nil capacity Name and objects of the charity on N/A whose behalf the assets are held and how this fall within the custodian charity’s objects Details of arrangements for safe N/A custody and segregation of such assets from the charity’s own assets
| custody and segregation assets from the charity’s |
of such own assets |
|
|---|---|---|
| Statement | SORP Reference |
|
| Review of the charity’s financial position at the end of the period. |
Para 1.21 | See separate Financial Report issued by charity treasurer |
| Amount of reserves held |
Para 1.22 | Nil |
Declarations
The Treasurer declares that this is an accurate statement of the charity’s financial position, as at bank 30/06/24
Signed by the charity’s treasurer:
Signature: A. Thom
Full name: Alex Thom
Position: The William Mills Foundation Treasurer
Date: 14/04/25
The Trustees declare that they have approved the treasurers’ report above
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees:
Signature:
Full name: Victoria Willis
Position: Chair to the Trustees
Date: 14/04/25
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