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2020-10-31-accounts

VISION OF ADVENTURE CHARITY 118N51 ENABLING BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED ADULTS TO ENJOY THE OUTDOORS Annual Report and Accounts Year to October 31st 2020
Trustees' Annual Report for the period
From Period start date To Period end date
Day
1		 Month
11		 Year
2019		 Day
31		 Month
10		 Year
2020

Section A Reference and administration details

Charity name[Vision of Adventure ]

Other names charity is known by[VoA ] Registered charity number (if any) 1180451 Charity's principal address 5 Highgrove, Bankfield, Kendal Postcode LA9 5DR

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

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12		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole year Name of person (or body) entitled to
appoint trustee (if any)
Stephen Bateman Chair
David Corso Treasurer
Patrick Finn
Paul James
Francesca Higgins 4thMarch 2020 onwards

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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Operations Manager (Part time) – Jill Corso

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Constitution adopted 23/10/18 (amended 16/2/19) Type of governing document (eg. trust deed, constitution) Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted

Appointed by existing Trustees Trustee selection methods

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:

New trustees are expected to volunteer on some of the activities to ensure that they are fully conversant with the charities work, beneficiaries and outcomes.

All trustees give their time voluntarily and received no remuneration or other benefits.

Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

THE RELIEF OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED ADULTS LIVING WITHIN THE UK BY PROVIDING AND FACILITATING RECREATIONAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES, IN PARTICULAR THOSE CONNECTED TO ADVENTUROUS OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES, IN THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE SO THAT THEIR CONDITIONS OF LIFE SHALL BE IMPROVED.

The Trustees have taken care to ensure that all our activities comply with the Charity Commission’s guidance on public benefit. The courses, which are residential in nature and typically last a long weekend, allow participants to meet and socialise with like-minded others. Long term friendships develop among Visually impaired participants and also with the sighted guides. Isolation is reduced and mental and physical well-being are improved. Participants on courses develop and increase their confidence by learning new Summary of the main activities or honing existing outdoor skills. The acquired skills may subsequently allow undertaken for the public benefit participants to join main-steam clubs and organisations to continue the in relation to these objects activities. Skills gained and improvements to well being are transferred other (include within this section the areas of their lives. statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission We encourage participants and guides to organise their own outdoor activities on public benefit) and events. We do this by offering administration support, providing information and advice on trips and allowing equipment to be borrowed. However, due to the ongoing restrictions around Corona virus this has been limited this year. It is a priority for the future. The main programme of courses and activities was seriously impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic. However, when the restrictions were relaxed at the end of the summer we were able to offer a limited programme of activities.

Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

Volunteers have again this year played a key role in allowing us to run the courses we did. These included not only our ‘regular’ volunteers but in order to comply with Corona virus restrictions we welcomed ‘new’ volunteers who You may choose to include further formed part or some of the participants own ‘bubble’. All are willing to travel statements, where relevant, about: considerable distances to help ensure that we could put on courses. We are extremely grateful for the selfless contribution they make.

Section D Achievements and performance

Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year

It has been a tricky second year for Vision of Adventure! Courses and events After a successful first season in 2019 we had a full programme of courses set up, funded and filled. There should have been 15 courses as well as 4 events. Due to the global pandemic we were forced to cancel all these courses. As the situation eased in late August and the government advised that visually impaired people could receive assistance from sighted guides from outside their household, we were able to rapidly plan and implement a short series of courses. This involved a lot of planning to ensure the safety of both participants and staff with relation to Corona Virus as well as complicity with Visit England’s ‘We’re Good to Go’ campaign. Activities which we were able to run in a “Covid safe” way were rock-climbing, flat water canoeing, tandem cycling, archery and open water swimming. In the end we managed to run several day activities, 4 open residential weekends and 2 privately booked courses. We have been very fortunate that all our funders have been very understanding and helpful in the face of this year’s difficulties. We were able to move funding from the original courses to the short autumn series and also carry over a large amount of funding towards next year’s courses. Staffing

Dave and Jill Corso continue to be the main driving force behind the charity. Jill has continued as operations manager (although she has been furloughed from this position for much of the year). Jill also continues in her voluntary capacity as fundraiser and has been successful in securing much needed funding from grant giving bodies and Trusts.

Dave has continued to manage all things financial in his role as Treasurer (a voluntary trustee role).

Chris Calvert has been a very welcome addition to the team in his role as Support Team Manager. Chris was appointed to this full time position in March. Just after his appointment we, along with the rest of the country, were plunged into a period of uncertainty by the Covid 19 crisis. He very generously agreed to take a reduced contract and worked, from home (in Glasgow) on a 0.5 basis for the first 5 months. At the start of October he finally became full time and will be moving down to the Kendal area shortly to take charge of the office. Chris’s position is currently supported by joint funding from the government and the National Lottery.

We are, in normal times, dependent on zero hours staff who work as needed on our courses. This has of course been a difficult year for them and we have been pleased to be able to place them all on furlough and employ some of them in the autumn courses.

In March Sinead left us after a year as our admin assistant. We were sorry to see her go but appreciated that her other roles were expanding and life was just getting too full!

Trustees

We continue to be well supported by our original group of 4 trustees. Steve Bateman (Chair), Dave Corso (Treasurer), Paddy Finn (Safeguarding) and Paul James (Safety).

We were delighted when Fran Higgins joined us as a further trustee in March. Fran has a strong background in HR and led the process of appointing the Support Team Manager.

Volunteers

Sadly, due to Covid 19, we have not seen many of our regular volunteers this year. We were delighted to be supported by a small team of volunteer guides in the autumn. We recognise that many could not attend due to having vulnerable families or being at higher risk themselves. Additionally, we were pleased to welcome some new guides in the form of the family and friends of VI

participants who came along so the VI could be guided by someone from their own household or bubble.

Many of our volunteers have kept in touch and we look forward to welcoming them back as soon as we can.

Equipment & facilities

We have been donated 2 tandem bicycles this year suitable for our triathlon project and another which we aim to lend out for VI’s who come to the Lake District on holiday.

Again, we have been grateful to a volunteer, who with the assistance of a local bike store has maintained the whole fleet of 11 tandem bikes for no charge.

We have been given small grants to purchase general outdoor equipment but because of Covid reasons we have delayed buying the items.

The charity runs its office, for no charge, from the attic of the founders home. Similarly, much of the transport of the equipment used on courses has been undertaken using the staff’s own vehicles.

Fundraising

With Corona Virus dominating the year fundraising has been a challenge.

However, our supporters have once again done us proud. One competed in one of the country’s hardest mountain-based triathlons and through sponsorship raised just under £1800. One of our Trustees along with his pilot raised over £1300 cycling 3500Km around Britain.

Additionally, some of our participants donated their refunded course fees after their courses were cancelled because of Covid.

‘Go Ape’, a local Tree Top Challenge company, awarded us their ‘Charity of the Year’ status. They collected money on our behalf by way of collecting tins at their venue. We are still waiting to collect this donation due to issues surrounding Corona Virus and changes in Go Ape’s Management.

We have had a generous pledge from a supporter, which combined with backing from a charity champion enables us to take part in December’s “Big Christmas Give” a matched funding campaign through which we aim to raise £6000 to start next season’s fundraising.

Section E Financial review

Brief statement of the charity’s Cash at bank at 31[st] October 2020 was £34,700 in Restricted Funds . policy on reserves The Restricted Fund includes £8000 of Emergency Reserves. (Up by £2000 from last year which reflects increased employment costs of additional staff). This covers approximately 2 months operational costs in the event of loss of income or to meet any unforeseen expenditure. Corona Virus has highlighted the need to hold a sufficient reserve and over the next few years we aim to double our existing amount. We have been fortunate that in the final month of our financial year we have been awarded a £10k grant by the National Lottery to help fund employment over the next 6 months. This too, is held in the restricted fund. The Restricted Fund also holds money designated for future courses or asset purchases. This is typically money that has been paid in advance by course participants or donated grant money. Currently this is approx. £17k and has significantly increased over last year because we have not run the number of courses we planned. Thanks to the grant providers, we have been able to roll these grants over to next year. We have previously declared that we would like to establish a small bursary fund to subsidise course fees for individuals who would otherwise not be able to participate. Unfortunately, we do not feel in a position to do so yet. Cash at bank at 31[st] October 2020 was £17K in Unrestricted Funds . We have been fortunate this year in that a significant proportion of our costs have been covered by Covid related and core-funding grants. Funding levels in the Unrestricted Funds are not uniform throughout the year. They tend to be high at year end and low in late spring. This is explained by the fact that most of the Unrestricted Fund’s income (the transfers from the Restricted Fund) happens generally in late spring and summer. However, major

outgoings (staffing costs and advance course charges) still occur throughout the autumn and winter (when there are few courses).

Details of any funds materially in Not Applicable deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

You may choose to include additional information, where The charity continues to rely heavily on grants from charitable trusts. relevant about:

Section F Other optional information

Future Plans

After a solid start in our first year of operation, our original aim of 2020 had been to consolidate what we had achieved, but this was impacted by Covid. At the time of writing there is still much uncertainty about how it will affect the future.

Therefore, our immediate aim is to keep overheads low and when the Covid situation eases we will start to run courses again. Optimistically, we are planning for 2021 to run a similar number of courses and activities to those first offered in 2020. In addition, we also hope to have more single day activities, where accommodation is not part of the course. It is hoped that we may involve more local people.

We would like to facilitate more self-led courses and expeditions. We see this as our main area of expansion in 2021. Jill is actively seeking funding to support this.

Section G Declaration

The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

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Signature(s)
David Corso
Full name(s) Stephen Bateman
Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Chair Treasurer
Date
16/11/20
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Charity Name Charity Name Charity Name Charity Name Charity Name No (ifany) CC16a
Vision of Adventure 1180451
Receipts andpayments accounts
For the period
from		 Period start date To Period end date
01/11/2019 31/10/2020
Section A Receipts and payments
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Endowment
funds		 Total funds Last year
to the nearest
£		 to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
A1 Receipts
DirectDonations 3,030 3,513 - 6,543 18,710
GiftAid 1,990 - - 1,990 1,446
Donationsvia Charity Collection Agency 505 - - 505 1,110
Fundraising - - - 6,382
Participant Coursefees - 9,860 - 9,860 21,047
Covid 19 Business Support Grants from
Govt andLottery		 24,411 24,411 -
Grants 900 25,809 - 26,709 42,738
Sub total(Gross income for
AR)		 6,425 63,593 - 70,018 91,433
A2 Asset and investment
sales, (see table).
- - - - -
Sub total - - - - -
**Total receipts ** 6,425 63,593 - 70,018 91,433
A3 Payments
Fixed and Admin costs
Salaries and On-Costs
Operations Mgr - course delivery - - - - 6,175
Operations Mgr - office 14,224 - - 14,224 5,351
Other Admin 9,632 - - 9,632 3,043
Storage costs **2,902 ** - - **2,902 ** 2,412
Insurance 1,111 - - 1,111 **1,302 **
IT-Web and Software costs 221 - - 221 410
Staff Training - - - - 276
Transport - - - - 147
Office Sundries 308 - - 308 76
Course and Event costs -
Accommodation 6,189 - - 6,189 **10,407 **
Transport **1,407 ** - - **1,407 ** 3,838
Food costs 833 - - 833 2,495
Event entry fees, Certificates - - - - 1,050
Bike Maintenance 338 - - 338 689
General costs and sundries 325 - - 325 311
Additional Venue hire - - - - **451 **
Additional Course Employment Costs
Casual Employee wages 8,003 8,003 8,584
External coaching costs - - 420
**Sub total ** 45,493 - - 45,493 47,437
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
Asset Purchases: - - - -
Box trailer - - - - **5,157 **
Canoe - - - - 1,080
Tandem - - - - 2,353
Computing equipment - - - - 972
Climbing equipment - - - - 1,074
Caving equipment - - - - 1,209
total of other smaller purchases 442 - - 442 **4,294 **
- - - -
**Sub total ** 442 - - 442 16,139
**Total payments ** 45,935 - - 45,935 63,576
Net of receipts/(payments) -39,510 63,593 - 24,083 **27,857 **
A5 Transfers between funds 41,848 - 41,848 - - -
A6 Cash funds lastyear end 14,893 12,964 - **27,857 ** -
Cash funds thisyear end 17,231 34,709 - 51,940 27,857

Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period

Categories Details Details Details Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Endowment
funds
to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B1 Cash funds Cash at Bank 17,231 34,709 -
- - -
- - -
Total cash funds 17,231 34,709 -
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))		 OK OK
Unrestricted
funds		 Restricted
funds		 Endowment
funds
Details to nearest £ to nearest £ to nearest £
B2 Other monetary assets - - -
- - -
- - -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B3 Investment assets - -
- -
- -
Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional) Current value
(optional)
B4 Assets retained for the
charity’s own use		 Computer equipment unrestricted - 500
Box Trailer unrestricted - 3,500
8 canoes and Canoe Trailer unrestricted - 4,750
Paddling Gear (Bouyancy aids,
~~helmetspaddlescanoe cags~~		 unrestricted - 500
~~,, ,~~
11 Tandems		 unrestricted - 6,500
Cycling gear (helmets, lights, panniers,
~~multi-toolsspares & workshop equipment)~~		 unrestricted - 500
~~,~~
Climbing gear (ropes, harnesses, helmets,
~~hardwarerock boots)~~		 unrestricted - 1,300
~~,~~
Caving gear (ropes, SRT harnesses,
~~helmets lights caving suits wellington~~		 unrestricted - 1,700
~~, , ,~~
Clothing (cagoules,fleeces, fleece
~~underwear Yachting waterproofs)~~		 unrestricted - 250
Other outdoor equipment (archery
~~equipment rucksackskit bagsdrybags)~~
~~,~~		 unrestricted - 400
~~, , ,~~
Domestic equipment (kitchen equipment,
~~bedding workshop trolley)~~		 unrestricted - 150
~~,~~ - -
Details Fund to which
liability relates		 Amount due
(optional)		 When due
(optional)
B5 Liabilities -
-
-
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees		 Signature Print Name Date of
approval
Stephen Bateman 16/10/2020
David Corso 16/10/2020

CHARITY COMMISSION FOR ENGLAND AND WALES Independent examiner's report on the accounts Section A Independent Examiner's Report Roport to the trustsesl members of VISION OF ADVENTURE On accounts for the year •ndod 31 ST OCTOBER 2020 Charlty no (if any) 1180451 Set out on pages I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charityllhe Trust") for the year ended 3111012020 As the charity trustees of the Trust. you are responsible for the preparation Responsibilities and of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act basls of roport 2011 ("the A¢t'). I report in ￿SPect of my examination of the Trust's accounts carried out under section 145 ofthe 2011 Aot and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by Charity Commission under section 145(5}Ib) of the Act. I hawe completed my exarnination. I confim that no material matters have come to my attention } in connection with the examination whiGh gives me cause to believe that in, any material respecl.. accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or the accounts do not accord with the accounting records Independent examinerfs statement I have no concems 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. ' Please delete the words in the brackets rfthey do not apply. Signed: Date: 16th February 2021 Name: Amanda Beuselinck Relevant professional qualificationls) or body lif any): ACMA MIC8 Address: 11 Tewkesbury Avenue Pinner, Middlesex, HA5 5LQ Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concem (see CG32, Independent examination of charity ac¢ounts= directions and guidance for examiners). IER October 2018

Section B Disclosure Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of Con￿rn (see CC32, Independent examination of chanty accounts.. directions and guidance for examiners). Give here brlef details of any items that the examiner wlshes to disclose. IER Oct 2018