2023-12-31-accounts

St Francis' Community Church CIO Year ended 31 December 2023

Accounting Policies

1. St Francis' Community Church is a charitable incorporated organisation registered with the Charity Commission in England and Wales. (Register number 1181105)

2. Accounting convention

As the income level is below £250,000, these financial statements are prepared on a receipts and payments basis under the historical cost convention and in accordance with the rules applicable to a Charitable Incorporated Organisation under the Charities Act 2011.

3. Assets

Purchases of items of fixtures, fittings, or equipment costing more than £1,000 are capitalised and depreciated on a straight line basis over 4 years. Items costing less than £1,000 are written off in the year of purchase.

1. As a charity, St Francis' Community Church is not liable for Corporation Tax, but has no VAT status and must bear this as charged.

St Fra￿15. Comm￿ltY Church CIO Year ended ai December 2023 Re￿Ipts and Paymerts Note5 2023 2022 Totul Unre5trirted Re5trirt Totsl Receipts Funding from Chèlmsford Diocese PGS giving (incl GAI tk>nations Grants Social Supermarket Sum up and cash payments for Social 5'mkt Grant Winter Wamer Funeral fee5 Bank interest Refund re admin fee 19.012 19.012 4,969 7,418 50.ICX) 999 4,969 750 4,066 1,165 6,668 50,10) 3.658 3.658 1,000 206 io 140 6,586 77 77 5.796 80,438 86.234 Payments Beaulieu CCJYMCA for salaries Social 5LJpÈrmarket Winter Warrner re Sunday Kitchen Insurdnce Halloween Hidden Saints Trail Administration tkimain renewal Printer Bank Charges 19.012 27.207 956 445 19.012 27.207 956 445 399 98 63 33 391 84 290 399 98 17 17 171 81 1.113 60 574 47.620 48,194 Surplus l Deficit) Opening balance 5.222 12.335 32,818 260 38.040 12.595 5.473 7.122 Closing balance 17.557 33,078 50.635 12.595 ststement of Assets Llablllties Represented bv Bank balance 17.557 33.078 50.635 12.595

St Francis' Community Church CIO Year ended 31 December 2023

Notes to the accounts

1. There were no guarantees given by St Francis' Community Church.

2. There were no outstanding debts at the accounting date, secured on any asset of St Francis' Community Church.

3. There were no transactions between related parties during the year.

St Francis Community Church (CIO) 1181105

YEAR END INDEPENDENT EXAMINERS REPORT 2023

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St Francis' Community Church

(a Charitable Incorporated Organisation)

Financial Statements

Year ended 31 December 2023

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St Francis' Community Church CIO Year ended 31 December 2023

Contents

Report of the Trustees

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St Francis' Community Church CIO Year ended 31 December 2023 Report of the Trustees

The Trustees present their Trustee Annual Report and financial statements for the charity's year ended 31 December 2023.

This Trustee Annual Report and financial statements comply with the current statutory requirements under the Charities Act 2011 for a smaller CIO (i.e. with gross income less than £250,000) and The Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations 2008 as specified under Charity Commission Guidance on charity accounting and reporting (CC15d) and the charity's constitution.

Reference and administrative details

Charity Name: St Francis’ Community Church Charity Registration number: 1181105 Operational address: 2, Fairway Drive, Chelmsford, Essex, CM3 4FH Trustees: Trustees who served during the period of this report were as follows: Revd Daniel Pierce (Chair from 31 October 2022) Mr Andy Butt (appointed 21 June 2022 and Secretary from 30 September 2022 until December 2023) Mr Joel Gowen Revd Jacqui Pearson Revd Emma Wylie Mr Andrew Drake (appointed 9 February 2023) Ms Katie Gauden (appointed 9 February 2023)

Bankers:

CAF Bank Ltd 25 Kings Hill Avenue, West Malling, Kent ME19 4JQ

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Exemptions from disclosure

There are no exemptions from disclosure.

Objectives and Activities

a) Purposes

The objects of the charity as outlined in our Constitution are:

Within the four ecclesiastical parishes of Boreham, Broomfield, North Springfield, and Great and Little Leighs and Little Waltham, in Chelmsford Essex:

(1) to advance the Christian faith for the benefit of the public in accordance with the beliefs, doctrines and practices of the Church of England,

(a) by means of broadcasting messages of an evangelistic and teaching nature, and (b) through the holding of public worship, prayer meetings, lectures, producing and/or distributing literature, holding and facilitating church and community events and activities to enlighten others about the Christian faith;

(2) to develop the capacity and skills of the community in such a way that they are better able to identify, and help meet, their needs and to participate more fully in society.

b) Main activities undertaken to further the charities purposes to the public benefit:

• i) advancing the Christian Faith:

• growing a new worshipping Christian community within the new housing areas of Beaulieu and The Channels supported by a Lead Minister

• creating a daily opportunity to gather, for either prayer together, learning

  • together, friendship or community action

• collaborating with the churches of the North Chelmsford Mission and Ministry Partnership (NCMMP) in relation to mission, ministry and pastoral care ii) developing the capacity and skills of the community

• providing activities, advocacy and support to benefit social cohesion and community capacity

• • providing opportunities for individual members of the community to engage in activities with other community members and work together as a community
• • helping to open and run the new Beaulieu community centre

• looking out for ways to grow neighbourliness, empower those in the community to effect positive change, engage those who are socially and economically disadvantaged, and create a culture of kindness on our estates

• developing a prominent and active social media presence to support our community capacity building activities.

• engaging with the whole of the community we serve and in meeting their needs as we find them, helping and enabling people to help themselves with a particular focus on those who are suffering injustice, or who are economically or socially disadvantaged.

c) Charity Commissions guidance on public benefit

The Trustees confirm that they have had due regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit (specifically the public benefit guides PB1, PB2 and PB3) when making decisions they are relevant to.

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Achievements and performance

i) Advancing the Christian faith

During this time period St Francis has struggled to find its feet post covid. The lead minister's reassignment to look after 6 neighbouring parish churches has had an overall detrimental impact on the life of St Francis so very little has been achieved by way of growing the congregation. This and the success of our Popup food project is causing us to look at our constitution as it no longer reflects the essence of what we have become. A home-group continues but Sunday gatherings have been sporadic and not well attended.

ii) Developing the capacity and skills of the community:

With rising fuel and food costs bringing a cost-of-living crisis we perceived an opportunity to meet the growing needs. The Chelmsford food alliance which is a partnership body for all those trying to alleviate food poverty did a study and felt that a mobile provision was a good idea. The Trussel Trust Chelmsford foodbank were taking a lead but having enjoyed a good partnership with them throughout Covid they felt it would be better for St Francis to take the lead.

We have had a very productive partnership with Chelmsford City Council, Essex County Council and feeding Britain to help get us on our feet. We are Chelmsfords first and only social supermarket.

In March 2023 we employed a community organiser to project manage our Popup food project. In June we employed a second member of staff (project worker).

In June we opened our first venue for the popup. We procured an ex-Asda delivery van which we use to transport goods to village halls and churches to popup as a temporary foodstore. We offer food at cost or greatly reduced prices. This is aimed to be a helping hand with people’s weekly shop giving them the dignity of choosing and buying their own food. We also rent a storage container to house all our supplies.

This project specifically meets our charitable objectives in the following ways. As a support to benefit social cohesion and community capacity through a social space run alongside the Popup inviting customers to stay and chat with each other and volunteers. We meet food needs as we find them, helping and enabling people to help themselves with a particular focus on those who are suffering injustice, or who are economically or socially disadvantaged.

By the end of 2023 we are helping almost one hundred households who struggle with food poverty.

Financial review

The primary sources of income for the CIO during the period were grant funding of 20k from Chelmsford City Council for Popup project capital items. £17k from Feeding Britain for food produce for the Popup. £9600 from Essex County Council towards Popup project staffing costs. Planned Giving (through the Parish Giving Scheme) of unrestricted donations £4969.

Our biggest expenditure has been the Popup project. Staffing cost, purchase of the van, food and storage have been the greatest outgoings.

The Church Commissioners’ funding from its Strategic Development Fund continued and enabled us to employ our two members of staff. The funding of this role continued to be implemented through Beaulieu community centre and then Essex ymca payroll and amounted to approx £19k.

The Trustees aim to retain sufficient free reserves to satisfy the modest levels of assets and liabilities of the charity. Given the re-confirmation of SDF funding for another year, the outlook for the CIO is positive in the short term and in the opinion of the Trustees it remains a going concern. Options and plans to ensure the longer-term sustainability of St Francis’ continue to be actively considered.

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Key Risks section

The key risks identified are:

• Withdrawal of church commissioners funding by end of 2024. The strategic development fund will support us no further than 2024 so we must mitigate this drop-in financial support.

• that a major safeguarding incident occurs resulting in reputational damage to the charity with knockon implications for growth and finance. Safeguarding continues to be at the heart of St Francis' Community Church: all diocesan policies, procedures and best practice are followed and are regularly reviewed.

• Giving within the life of st francis continues to be very poor and may impact our ability to continue.

• The Bishops Mission Order is no longer in place

• Rev’d Dans change of roles is a risk as he has greater responsibility and is spread thinly .

• Rev’d Dans health continues to be poor.

Funds held as custodian Trustee on behalf of others

The charity and its Trustees are not acting as custodian Trustees on behalf of others.

Structure, governance and management

St Francis' Community Church is a charitable incorporated organisation (CIO), and was entered onto the Register of Charities on 11 December 2018. Its governing document is its CIO Constitution (foundation model).

Regarding recruitment and appointment of new charity trustees, the Constitution provides that there shall be not less than four and no more than eleven appointed trustees and one ex officio trustee, being the Lead Minister of St Francis' Community Church. New trustees shall be appointed by resolution at a properly convened meeting of trustees for a term of three years. Retiring trustees are eligible for reappointment unless they have already served for three consecutive terms. They may then be reappointed after an interval of at least one year.

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Statement of Trustees' responsibilities

The Trustees are responsible for keeping adequate accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.

Approved on 30th October 2024, and signed on behalf of the Trustees by:

Name: Andy Drake Date: 30[th] October, 2024

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