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2022-10-31-accounts

VISION OF ADVENTURE ÉHANFTY 118ts151 ENABLING BLIND AND PARTIALLY SIGHTED ADULTS TO ENJOY THE OUTDOORS Annual Report and Accounts Year to 31st October 2022
Trustees' Annual Report for the period
From Period start date To Period end date
Day
1		 Month
11		 Year
2021		 Day
31		 Month
10		 Year
2022

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 16, Gowan Close, Staveley, Cumbria Postcode LA8 9NW

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

1
2
3
4
5
6		 Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole year Name of person (or body) entitled to
appoint trustee (if any)
Mark Colman Chair
David Corso Treasurer
Stephen Bateman
Paul James
Francesca Higgins
Emily Banks

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

Charitable Incorporated Organisation How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company) Appointed by existing Trustees Trustee selection methods

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.

Management and Trustees seek the views of both visually impaired and guide participants in deciding the activities to be run and policies to be adopted.

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

Section C Objectives and activities

THE RELIEF OF VISUALLY IMPAIRED ADULTS LIVING WITHIN THE UK BY PROVIDING AND FACILITATING RECREATIONAL AND SOCIAL ACTIVITIES, IN Summary of the objects of the PARTICULAR THOSE CONNECTED TO ADVENTUROUS OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES, IN charity set out in its governing THE INTERESTS OF SOCIAL WELFARE SO THAT THEIR CONDITIONS OF LIFE SHALL document 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 or honing existing outdoor skills. The acquired skills may subsequently allow Summary of the main activities participants to join main-steam clubs and organisations to continue the undertaken for the public benefit activities. Skills gained and improvements to well being are transferred other in relation to these objects areas of their lives. (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance We encourage participants and guides to organise their own outdoor activities issued by the Charity Commission and events. We do this by offering administration support, providing on public benefit) information and advice on trips and allowing equipment to be borrowed. However, due to the ongoing restrictions around Corona virus this has been limited (again) this year. It remains a priority for the future. The main programme of courses and activities was impacted by the Covid 19 pandemic. We have started to return to our pre pandemic level of provision. We have continued with some of remote activities which we developed during the Covid pandemic as they have proved very popular for keeping participants connected and fit during the winter months.

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. This year we have actively recruited new volunteers and provided training for them. All are willing to travel considerable distances to help ensure that we could put on courses. We are extremely grateful for the selfless contribution they make.

You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:

Section D

Achievements and performance

Summary of the main
achievements of the charity during
the year		 It has been a tricky fourth year for Vision of Adventure!
Courses and events
This year we have welcomed back many of our regular participants and guides.
Some have still not been able to attend due to our Covid vaccination policy.
We have been well supported by some regular funders as well as some who
have not supported us before.
In the Winter we ran Zoom Online fitness and exercise sessions which not only
provided a way for people to keep fit but also a regular chance to meet online
and socialise. We also ran a popular one to one mentoring scheme, where
people could have fortnightly remote meetings with a coach who could help
them plan their fitness and training activities.
In early 2022 we ran 2 “Learn to Swim” courses in response to requests from
our participants. These were very successful, and we hope to repeat them.
We also ran an early season fitness / triathlon prep weekend which kick started
people’s fitness coming out of the winter.
In the Spring and Summer, we focussed on our core offering of residential
weekends and ran a further 13 courses, providing over 100 places overall.
We ran courses in triathlon, climbing, cycling, open water swimming, canoeing
and multi activity. Our climbing and cycling and open water courses continue to
be well oversubscribed.
Although most of our courses were fully booked, in practice most ran with
spaces due to last minute cancellations. The main reasons for this were last
minute positive covid tests and train strikes. We were quite generous with
refunds for people unable to attend but we cannot continue to sustain loss of
course fees in this way. In 2022/ 2023 we will need to address this problem
Some of our triathletes have competed in mainstream events this year and this
is something we wish to promote especially by encouraging long term guide/
athlete partnerships where possible.
Staffing
Dave and Jill Corso continue to be the main driving force behind the charity. Jill
has continued as operations manager. 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).

We have had an unsettled year in the admin team as Lucy left us in April. Anthony Emmet, who had recently joined us to assist Lucy, stepped up and has been running the admin team. We were also joined by Rachel Duncan who works 10 hours per week on course admin and Lisa Kenton working 10 hours per week on accounts and the fundraising database.

We are, still, dependent on zero hours staff who work as needed on our courses. We have a stable team of 6 staff who work with us on an ad hoc basis.

Trustees

We continue to be well supported by our existing trustees. Mark Coleman (Chair), Dave Corso (Treasurer), and Paul James (Safeguarding and Safety), Fran Higgins (HR). Steve Bateman and Emily Banks.

Four of our six trustees are visually impaired, and we can truly say that we are a Visually Impaired led organisation.

Volunteers

We are still very well supported by our volunteers. This year we have welcomed back many of our regulars. For the first time we have actively advertised and recruited new guides for whom we have provided specialist training. We now have a well-defined process for safe recruitment.

Equipment & facilities

With the help of donations and grant funding we replaced one of our ageing tandems. Additionally, we received a donation of 3 nearly new tandems from Eden Sight Support charity. Our tandem fleet now stands at 13.

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

We have this year moved the office from the attic of the founder’s home. We now rent a small office in Stricklandgate House, Kendal. Stricklandgate House is itself a charity and provides low cost office space to other charities. We are very grateful for this facility.

We continue to use minibuses hired from Cumbria Community Transport, another charitable organisation without whom we could not operate.

Much of the transport of the equipment used on courses and all the towing of trailers is still undertaken using the staff and trustee’s own vehicles.

Fundraising

We continue to be very well supported in by many Trusts and Foundations and finish this year in a healthy financial position.

Notes on Restricted and Unrestricted funds

Cash at bank at 31[st] October 2022 was £30,931 in Restricted Funds .

We have included our Contingency/Emergency reserve of £16,000 in the Restricted Funds.

The amount in the Restricted Fund has drastically reduced from the previous year when unused grants and donations were rolled over and spent this year.

Cash at bank at 31[st] October 2022 was £12,234 in Unrestricted Funds .

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).

Section E Financial review

Our target policy is to maintain Contingency/Emergency Reserves of 4 months Brief statement of the charity’s core costs (permanent staff costs and fixed overheads). This will ensure the policy on reserves charity can continue to run in the event that there is a shortfall in income or any unforeseen expenditure. We normally review this policy on an annual basis, but because Corona Virus has highlighted the financial threats that the charity is susceptible to, we aim to consider this more regularly. Currently the level of Contingency/Emergency Reserve is set at £16,000 (An increase of £4,000 from last year which reflects increased employment costs of additional staff). At existing expenditure levels this meets our target of 4 months cover. 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. We are delighted that to say that for the coming year we have provisionally put aside £2000 from our unrestricted funds for this.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Not Applicable

Further financial review details (Optional information)

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

The charity continues to rely heavily on grants from charitable trusts.

We continue to be aware that we need to diversify and develop more sustainable funding steams.

Section F Other optional information

Future Plans

Our main aim for 2023 is to build more resilience into the charity for the future.

We are aware that the functioning of the charity is still very dependent on a very small number of people. This will need to be addressed in order to improve the charities sustainability.

Jill continues to carry much of the responsibility for managing the admin team, although Ant Emmet has started to take responsibility for much of the day-to-day management. Jill also has responsibility for designing, managing, and running the courses and activities and ensuring we are adequately funded.

This position is not sustainable in the long term so we will seek funding for a more senior member of office staff.

The demand for places on our courses continues to be high and we will look at ways of expanding our provision without ‘overreaching’.

We aim to produce a separate Impact Report each year by surveying our participants. We hope to publish our first one in April of the coming year.

Section G Declaration

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signatures
Names Mark Colman David Corso
Position Chair Treasurer
Date 01/03/23 01/03/23

Charity Name Vision of Adventure

No (if any) 1180451

Receipts and payments accounts

For the period Period start date Period end date To from 11/1/2021 10/31/2022

Section A Receipts and payments

----- Start of picture text -----
Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Direct Donations 2,643 1,000 - 3,643
Gift Aid 176 - - 176
Donations via Charity Collection Agency 317 - - 317
Fundraising - -
Participant Course fees - 22,420 - 22,420
Covid 19 Business Support Grants from
Govt and Lottery - -
Grants 8,150 64,728 - 72,878
11,286 88,148 - 99,434
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
Sale of tandems - - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 11,286 88,148 - 99,434
A3 Payments
Fixed and Admin costs
Salaries and On-Costs
Operations Mgr - course delivery 14,387 - - 14,387
Operations Mgr - office 5,465 - - 5,465
Other Admin 20,656 - - 20,656
Storage costs 4,240 - - 4,240
Insurance 1,722 - - 1,722
IT - Web and Software costs 163 - - 163
Staff Training 17 - - 17
Transport 107 - - 107
Office Sundries 452 - - 452
Course and Event costs
Accommodation 12,410 - - 12,410
Transport 2,412 - - 2,412
Food costs 3,543 - - 3,543
Event entry fees, Certificates - - - -
Bike Maintenance 148 - - 148
General costs and sundries 343 - - 343
Additional Venue hire 1,545 - - 1,545
Additional Course Employment Costs
Casual Employee wages 12,017 12,017
External coaching costs 4,752 4,752
Sub total [ 84,379 ] - - 84,379
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
Asset Purchases: - - -
Box trailer - - - -
Canoe - - - -
Tandems & biking equipment 4,936 - - 4,936
Computing equipment 852 - - 852
Climbing equipment - - -
Swim equipment 1,835 - - 1,835
total of other smaller purchases 345 - - 345
- - - -
Sub total [ 7,968 ] - - 7,968
Total payments 92,347 - - 92,347
----- End of picture text -----

Net of receipts/(payments) - 81,061 88,148 - 7,087
A5 Transfers between funds
70,626
A6 Cash funds last year end
22,669
Cash funds this year end 12,234		 - 70,626
13,410
30,932		 -
-
-		 -
36,079
43,166

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

Unrestricted Restricted
Categories Details funds funds
B1 Cash funds Cash at Bank
Total cash funds		 to nearest £
12,234
-
-
12,234		 to nearest £
30,931
-
-
30,931
(agree balances with receipts and payments
account(s))		 OK Agreement Error
Unrestricted Restricted
funds funds
B2 Other monetary assets Details to nearest £
-
-
-		 to nearest £
-
-
-
B3 Investment assets Details Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional)
-
-
-
B4 Assets retained for the Details
Computer equipment		 unrestricted
Fund to which
asset belongs		 Cost (optional)
-
B5 Liabilities
charity’s own use		 Box Trailer
8 canoes and Canoe Trailer
10 Tandems
Details
Paddling Gear (Bouyancy aids,
helmets,paddles,canoe cags,
Cycling gear (helmets, lights, panniers,
multi-tools,spares & workshop equipment)
Climbing gear (ropes, harnesses, helmets,
hardware,rock boots)
Caving gear (ropes, SRT harnesses,
helmets, lights, caving suits, wellington
Clothing (cagoules,feeces, feece
underwear, Yachting waterproofs)
Other outdoor equipment (archery
equipment, rucksacks,kit bags,drybags)
Domestic equipment (kitchen equipment,
bedding, workshop trolley)		 unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
unrestricted
Fund to which
liability relates		 -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Amount due
(optional)
Signed by one or two trustees on
behalf of all the trustees		 Signature Print Name
Mark Colman
David Corso

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CC16a
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Last year

to the nearest £

2,943 227 195 9,118 12,910 12,507 11,856 49,756

1,350 1,350 51,106

10,516 7,201 10,575 3,260 1,160 324 200 33 247 5,774 1,979 1,791 - 127 119 250 12,711 4,430 60,697

5,249 - 867 - 154 - 6,270 66,967

- 15,861

51,940 36,079

Endowment funds to nearest £

-

OK

Endowment funds

to nearest £

----- Start of picture text -----
-
-
-
Current value
(optional)
-
-
-
----- End of picture text -----

Current value (optional)

900 3,000 4,250 400 11,000 1,000 1,100 1,500 250 900 150 -

When due (optional) Date of approval 3/1/2023 3/1/2023

Independent examiner's report on the accounts

Section A Independent Examiner’s Report

Report to the trustees Vision of Adventure (VoA) On accounts for the 31.10.22 Charity no 1180451 year ended (if any) Set out on pages 11-13 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31/10/22 Responsibilities and As the charity's trustees, you are responsible for the preparation of the basis of report accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).

I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’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 Act.

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.

Signed: Date: 05.04.23 Name: Mike Platten CPFA Relevant professional Member Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: 6 Uplands Road, Farnham , Surrey, GU9 8BP

Oct 2018

1

IER

Section B Disclosure

Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight material matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).

Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .

Oct 2018

2

IER