## Our Barn Community Report and Accounts For the period ended 31 March 2021
This year Our Barn Community is funded by:
London Borough
of Hounslow
Hounslow
Heathrow Community Fund
CITY
BRIDGE
TRUST
YEAR5
JackPetchey<
Department for
Digital, Culture
Media & Sport
. COMMUNITY
FUND
## Our Barn Community
## Financial Statements
## For the period ended 31 March 2021
## Contents
||**Page**|
|---|---|
|Chair’s report|1 - 6|
|Independent Examiner’s Report|7 - 8|
|Statement of financial activities|9|
|Balance sheet|10|
|Notes to the financial statements|11 - 14|
## Our Barn Community
## Legal and Administrative Information
Trustees Tom Ruchniewicz (Chair) Beverley Stansby Rachel Smith Charity Number: 1181421 Chief Executive Officer Karen Adams Treasurer Judith Sheppard Principal Address and Registered Office Jubilee Lodge Jersey Road Isleworth TW7 4RB Bankers National Westminster Bank plc 314 Chiswick High Road London W4 5TA
Our Barn Community Chair’s Report and Accounts For the period ended 31 March 2021
The Chair of Trustees presents Our Barn Community’s report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2021.
## **Structure, government and management**
On 4 January 2019 Our Barn became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation with the Charities Commission, under registration number 1181421. At this point we formally changed our name from Our Barn Youth Club to Our Barn Community to better reflect our widening range of activities.
Our formal charitable aims are:
To advance in life and to help people with learning difficulties or other disabilities, especially but not exclusively, through:
- (a) The provision of social, recreational, educational and other activities as a means of developing their confidence and independence, and their skills, capacities and capabilities for work, and participation in adult life and the community; and (b) The provision of support to family carers.
Our rather unusual name comes from the log cabin in Redlees Play Centre, where our youth club started in 2012. We refer to participants and users of our services as members.
Our ethos has also developed to include strands of work that:
- Make a contribution to our local community (giving back)
- Incorporate elements of environmental protection and conservation
- Follow the Five Ways to Wellbeing principles
- Raise expectations of what disabled people can achieve
2021 has continued to present extraordinary challenges for everyone. It was clear, amid so much uncertainty, that Our Barn’s services were needed more than ever, and the big challenge was how to deliver them.
We started the year with all our staff on furlough, having lost access to all our venues. Following guidance from the National Youth Agency, we adapted and got creative. By May all our staff were back at work, connecting with isolated households. Having used the Five Ways to Wellbeing principles previously, we took the decision to embed them across all our projects. This simple tool brings focus, reduces anxiety and helps with resilience.
During the year of our activities consisted of:
## Our Barn Youth Club
Our ‘flagship’ youth club usually takes place on Sundays at Redlees Play Centre in Isleworth. Access to this local authority venue was denied for the entire twelve months, only reopening in October 2021.
We rapidly switched to online video calls, supporting our members to get online, download the right App, register and join us. For some, though, the switch to online was a step too far. We tell you what we did about this in our Digital Inclusion section.
Our Youth Club leaders got to grips with delivering online, something we had never done before. Emphasis was on having a fun time, a distraction from other difficulties. We encouraged leaving the home to take part in exercise or observe nature, to connect with each other and maintain our friendship group.
Participants are aged 16 to 25, with most of the funding coming through Hounslow Council’s Short Breaks budget. We normally experience extremely high demand for this service, which is often the first social activity outside of home or school that our members access. The youth club is the first entry point to Our Barn and the emphasis is on fun activities and building a friendship group, whilst gradually removing some of the high support and structures needed in education.
We continue to operate the **Jack Petchey Foundation Achievement Awards** , celebrating our young people’s strengths and enhancing what we have to offer.
## Our Futures
Supported by the **National Lottery Communities Fund** this project supports those not in education, employment or training (NEET). It recruits people with learning disabilities or autism who have finished formal education.
Named by our first intake, Our Futures is a fifteen-week programme that works with individuals finding their unique pathway in life. Outcomes are as varied as the individuals who have taken part and include fulltime paid employment, long term volunteering, supported apprenticeships or a community-based programme of activities.
Gaining greater independence has led many of our member to move out of the family home into shared (supported) accommodation. Several of our members took a leap of faith moving further into their community and gained paid employment and long-term volunteering roles. Since the start of the pandemic we have recognised that external work experience placements are going to be difficult to source and during 2020 had already taken the first steps to address this with plans to increase Our Barn work experience provision. We tell you more about this in our Pump & Grind Coffee Shop section.
Access to the local authority community building during the year was also very restricted. Again, we switched to online delivery. A key development was our podcasts which are uploaded to the **Our Barn Community YouTube channel.** These gave participants the chance to reflect on what being part of Our Barn means to them, what they’ve done and how they have progressed on a personal level.
The Our Futures programme was funded for three years as an employability programme. This came to an end officially in April 2021. Other projects better fitted to pandemic restrictions have taken its place. Thanks are due to project leaders David Roughan and Jamie Porter for leading us to a successful conclusion.
## Gardening Project
Our gardening project takes place at Jubilee Lodge inside the beautiful grounds of Osterley Park, a National Trust property. Access was restricted briefly but the park reopened with very many local residents enjoying a stroll past our gate. We recruited a small team of volunteers to help keep the garden in shape whilst our gardeners were on furlough. Many were on furlough themselves from nearby Heathrow Airport and they made an invaluable contribution to keeping the garden in order.
Our gardening project has been incredibly resilient during this challenging year. Major funding was secured from **Inspire Hounslow** and we were able to add grants from the **City Bridge Trust** and **Heathrow Community Fund.**
Adapting to Covid restrictions meant socially distanced workstations, a one-way route through the garden and an increase in cleaning. During an incredibly cold winter our gardening session continued to run outside, with no entry into the Lodge without any cancelled sessions. We installed a polytunnel and put down the first base of our hoggin path.
Gardeners at Jubilee Lodge learn work-related and independence skills through gardening and horticulture. We also embrace an environmentally friendly approach to looking after the space at Jubilee Lodge that includes Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, making bee hotels, creating a wildlife-friendly habitat and observing the plentiful wildlife in Osterley Park. Gardeners learn about food from seed to plate and surpluses are delivered to the Open Kitchen, run by Muslim Hands, where they make hot meals for anyone who needs one.
Numbers attending did fall though, due to households shielding, and to retain connection with this vulnerable group our garden project leaders put together activity packs and posted them out. This was followed up by a video group call which soon became known as Guerilla Gardening (or Gorilla Gardening).
## Multisport
Once again, we transferred this project online, finding an early evening timeslot to be beneficial to families preparing the evening meal. Resources were allocated from the Short
Breaks budget and our qualified yoga instructors were both inventive and entertaining. This proved to be our best-attended online activity.
## Buddy Bicycles
Our cycles received a complete overhaul during the summer of 2020 with an experienced mechanic refurbishing some recumbents that had been donated to us by Ealing Mencap and returning them to use. This added to our cycling offer: low-level, four-wheeled, singleseaters that turn heads on the ride through Osterley Park and are surprisingly fun.
Opportunities for public hire were very limited with many of our regular customers in the clinically vulnerable group, so we concentrated on our own use of the bikes with occasional school and college sessions and incorporated cycling into our multisport sessions. We are looking forward to the work supported experience opportunities this project will bring in the coming years.
## Carers Project
This was a much-needed service this year. Carers tell us they lost packages of care and their young people attended school online, if at all. It was a year of increasing pressures on unpaid carers. We were contacted by more carers ‘in crisis’ than ever before. They reported acute mental health difficulties, extreme financial pressures, food and fuel poverty, physical exhaustion and isolation. Our role was to assist with identifying priorities, taking on some some of the bureaucracy and alerting the relevant authorities.
We found video calls very useful in connecting with a carer and offering reassurance, but completing 40-page disability benefit applications online has been something of a challenge. One notable success was submitting a DWP Appeal for a young man who had reached the age of 16 and was deemed to not qualify for PIP. The award was back-dated to 18 months previously.
We have attended working groups and partnership boards representing carers, to highlight common areas of need. We thought an increase in the existing welfare benefits service would allow us to concentrate on other difficulties, but appointments with the new service were hard to come by so we were still needed.
## Mayor of Hounslow’s Charity 2019/20/21
The Mayor of Hounslow, Councillor Tony Louki, chose Our Barn to be his charity for the 2019/20 year, alongside Hounslow Seniors Trust. He remains in post for the 20/21 mayoral year with Our Barn gaining a further twelve months as the Mayor’s charity.
Whilst not a project as such, this role requires input in time and resources from all our projects in order to support the Mayor in his aims. For Our Barn he is particularly keen to enhance our fleet of adapted cycles through his fundraising efforts.
Undoubtedly his support has raised our public profile across the whole of Hounslow and beyond as well as ensuring our cycling project is enhanced. We will be exploring the potential of the connections we have made during this year when the situation allows and look forward to a further year of support. Our Barn and Hounslow Seniors Trust will have an ongoing partnership.
## **Committee Membership Recruitment, Roles and Responsibilities**
Our Trustees set and monitor the strategic direction of Our Barn, ensure that Our Barn meets its charitable objectives by using the best possible practice and financial prudence, and take a strong role in Safeguarding.
They also ensure good management of the team leaders, support the day-to-day running of Our Barn’s activities and set some performance management targets for the leaders and manager.
The Trustees meet formally on a quarterly basis and the board is responsible for a strategic plan formed in consultation with service users and staff. Service user consultation is embedded in our practice and is continually being strengthened.
We continue to increase our use of the Outcomes Star measurement tool, tracking individual participants’ progress over time.
The committee has assessed the major risks to which the organisation is exposed and is satisfied that systems are in place to mitigate exposure to those risks. This has included an ongoing review of Covid precautions.
## **Objectives and Activities Our Barn’s Charitable Objects**
Our Barn’s mission is to support young people and adults to achieve their potential. This aim is delivered through providing learning, life skills and social interaction, and meaningful support to their families and carers. Our Barn is committed to:
- Promoting full participation in the community for all its service users
- Developing community resources
- Linking with a range of services in order to meet this goal
Service users and potential service users can expect Our Barn to:
- Provide a high quality of service to all our service users (including carers, other agencies and funders)
- Provide information that is clear and easy to understand
- Provide a secure, safe and confidential environment
- Treat people with respect and courtesy at all times
- Work with all service users regardless of their colour, race, gender, sexuality, disability or religious beliefs
- Ensure staff receive appropriate training and support
- Demonstrate good practice in quality assurance, management and financial systems
- Seek funding from a range of statutory, grant-making, corporate and private sources
## **Financial review**
In the run-up to the pandemic Our Barn had a period of consolidation: sustaining some of our existing projects (particularly gardening) through unplanned changes and relieving some of the demand on youth club spaces through developing the Overs group.
As with most small voluntary sector organisations funding sources continue to be of a shortterm (year by year) nature. The threat this poses to sustainability is spread through a widening fundraising strategy, demonstrating the effectiveness of our work, seeking longer term contracts and partnerships, and the development of new services.
At the end of the year, Our Barn, like every other organisation, was facing an uncertain future. Access to property was restricted, income from grants was paused and it was clear we had to deliver services differently. It was a series of challenges no-one had anticipated and it was clearly a threat to our continued existence as a charity.
## **Reserves Policy**
Our Barn holds reserves to enable it to develop its core business activities in new ventures that will ultimately spread our business risk. Reserves are also needed to ensure that Our Barn is able to meet short term cash requirements surrounding venue needs, maternity cover, recruitment and unforeseen legal liabilities.
Our Barn’s reserve policy is to hold a minimum of three months’ operating costs, with the longer-term goal of building reserves to an optimum six months’ operating costs. As a new and expanding organisation this policy has been extremely challenging but we have been delighted to increase our unrestricted funds substantially this year through a substantial DCMS youth sector grant.
## **Management Committee Members’ responsibilities in relation to the financial statements**
The Management Committee Members are responsible for preparing an annual report and financial statements in accordance with applicable law and United Kingdom Accounting Standards (United Kingdom Generally Accepted Accounting Practice).
The law applicable to charities in England and Wales requires the charity members to prepare financial statements for each year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the
charity and of the incoming resources and application of resources, of the charity for that period. In preparing the financial statements, the committee are required to:
- select suitable accounting policies and then apply them consistently;
- observe the methods and principles in the applicable Charities SORP;
- make judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;
- state whether applicable accounting standards have been followed, subject to any material departures that must be disclosed and explained in the financial statements;
- prepare the financial statements on the going concern basis unless it is inappropriate to presume that the charity will continue in business.
The committee are responsible for keeping proper accounting records that disclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial position of the charity and to enable them to ensure that the financial statements comply with the Charities Act 2011, the applicable Charities (Accounts and Reports) Regulations, and the provisions of the Trust deed. They are also responsible for safeguarding the assets of the charity and taking reasonable steps for the prevention and detection of fraud and other irregularities.
The committee are responsible for the maintenance and integrity of the charity and financial information included on the charity’s website at www.ourbarn.org.uk. Legislation in the United Kingdom governing the preparation and dissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation in other jurisdictions.
On behalf of the Trustees
Tom Ruchniewicz
Our Barn Community Independent Examiner’s Report To the Management Committee Members
I report on the accounts of the charity for the period ended 31 March 2021, which are set out on pages 9 to 14.
## Respective responsibilities of Management Committee Members and Examiner
The Management Committee Members are responsible for the preparation of the accounts. The Management Committee Members consider that an audit is not required for this period under section 144(2) of the Charities Act 2011 (the 2011 Act) and that an independent examination is needed.
Having satisfied myself that the charity is not subject to audit under company law and is eligible for independent examination, it is my responsibility to:
- examine the accounts under section 145 of the 2011 Act;
- to follow the procedures laid down in the general Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the 2011 Act; and
- to state whether particular matters have come to my attention.
Basis of independent examiner's report
My examination was carried out in accordance with the general Directions given by the Charity Commission. An examination includes a review of the accounting records kept by the charity and a comparison of the accounts presented with those records. It also includes consideration of any unusual items or disclosures in the accounts, and seeking explanations from you as Management Committee Members concerning any such matters. The procedures undertaken do not provide all the evidence that would be required in an audit and consequently no opinion is given as to whether the accounts present a 'true and fair view' and the report is limited to those matters set out in the statement below.
## Independent Examiner's statement
In connection with my examination, no matter has come to my attention:
(1) which gives me reasonable cause to believe that in any material respect the requirements:
- to keep accounting records in accordance with section 386 of the Companies Act 2006;
- and
- to prepare accounts which accord with the accounting records, comply with the accounting requirements of section 396 of the Companies Act 2006 and with the methods and principles of the Statement of Recommended Practice: Accounting and Reporting by Charities have not been met; or
Our Barn Community Independent Examiner’s Report To the Management Committee Members
(2) to which, in my opinion, attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
A and C Services Apartment 202 Jantzen House Ealing Road Brentford TW8 0GF
## Our Barn Community Statement of Financial Activities
Including Income and Expenditure Account For the period ended 31 March 2021
|Notes
Incoming resources from
generated funds –
Voluntary income
2
Investment income
3
Incoming resources from
charitable activities
4
Total incoming resources
Resources expended
Charitable activities
5
Total resources expended
6
Net income for the period/
Net movement in funds
Reconciliation of funds
Transfer of funds
10
Total Fund brought forward
10
Total Fund carried forward
10|Unrestricted
Funds
£
33,570
3
33,573
86,220
119,793
66,076
66,076
53,717
(315)
29,413
82,815|Restricted
Funds
£
-
-
-
111,430
111,430
154,295
154,295
(42,865)
315
63,641
21,091|Total
Funds
2021
£
33,570
3
33,573
197,650
231,223
220,371
220,371
10,852
-
93,054
103,906|Total
Funds
2020
£
13,870
-|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|||||13,870
271,130|
|||||285,000|
|||||263,776|
|||||263,776|
|||||21,224
-
71,830|
|||||93,054|
## Our Barn Community
## Balance Sheet
As at 31 March 2021
||Notes|2021|2020|
|---|---|---|---|
|||£|£|
|Current assets||||
|Debtors|8|53,000|33,292|
|Cash at bank and in hand||65,356|75,984|
|||_______|________|
|||118,356|109,276|
|Creditors||||
|Amount falling due within one year|9|(14,450)|(16,222)|
|||_______|________|
|Net current assets||103,906|93,054|
|||=======|========|
|The funds of the charity:||||
|Unrestricted funds|10|82,815|29,413|
|Restricted funds|10|21,091|63,641|
|||_______|________|
|||103,906|93,054|
|||=======|========|
The accounts were approved by the committee on 27 January 2022
J Sheppard Treasurer
Our Barn Community Notes to the Accounts For the period ended 31 March 2021
## 1. Accounting policies
## **Basis of preparation**
The financial statements have been prepared in accordance with Accounting and Reporting by Charities: Statement of Recommended Practice applicable to charities preparing their accounts in accordance with the Financial Reporting Standard applicable in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland (FRS102), and the Charities Act 2011 and applicable regulations.
## **Incoming resources**
Income has been recognised gross on the basis of entitlement, certainty and measurement.
Donations and other voluntary income are recognised as incoming resources when receivable, except insofar as they are incapable of financial measurement.
Grants are recognised in full in the Statement of Financial Activities in the period in which they are receivable or any requirement imposed on the grant is fulfilled.
Investment income is recognised on a receivable basis.
## **Resources expended**
Expenditure is recognised on an accruals basis inclusive of Value Added Tax.
Expenditures relating to supporting people with learning disabilities are those elements of expenditure directly incurred in performing these activities.
## **Tangible fixed assets and depreciation**
There has been no expenditure on fixed assets.
## **Leasing and hire purchase commitments**
Rentals payable under operating leases are charged against income on a straight line basis over the period of the lease.
Our Barn Community Notes to the Accounts For the period ended 31 March 2020
|2.
Voluntary income
2021
£
Donations and gifts
33,570
3.
Investment income
2021
£
Interest receivable
3
4.
Incoming resources from charitable activities
Unrestricted
Restricted
2021 Total
Funds
Funds
£
£
£
Supporting people with
learning disabilities (LD)
86,220
111,430
197,650|2020
£
13,870
2020
£
-
2020 Total
£
271,130|
|---|---|
Included with unrestricted income related to supporting people with learning disabilities are the following grants
|Local authority service agreement
Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport
Jack Petchey Foundation
5.
Total resources expended
Staff costs
Charitable activities –
£
Supporting people with LD
Activities undertaken directly
165,763|32,220
53,000
1,000
86,220
Other
costs
2021 Total
2020 Total
£
£
£
54,608
220,371
263,776|32,220
53,000
1,000
86,220
Other
costs
2021 Total
2020 Total
£
£
£
54,608
220,371
263,776|
|---|---|---|
||||
Our Barn Community Notes to the Accounts For the period ended 31 March 2021
## 6. Activities undertaken directly
Other costs relating to supporting people with learning disabilities comprise:
|Venue hire and rent, including virtual office
Professional fees
Independent examiner's fees
Cost of activities
Cost of goods for café
Telephone
Electricity
Printing, postage & stationery
Travel Expenses
Refreshments
Insurance
Website costs
Equipment purchases, repairs & renewals
Subscription
Cleaning
Bank charges||2021
£
21,250
400
600
7,972
775
1,688
3,830
663
-
63
2,811
3,143
10,086
487
727
113
54,608|2020
£
28,824
-
600
11,452
-
2,319
2,580
739
103
1,680
2,920
2,950
4,157
697
100
50
59,171|
|---|---|---|---|
|||||
7. Employees
The average monthly number of employees during the period was 5 full time equivalent
Supporting people with learning disabilities
|Employment costs –
Wages and salaries|2021
£
165,763|2020
£
204,605|
|---|---|---|
There were no expenses paid to the Trustees during the period.
## Our Barn Community Notes to the Accounts
For the period ended 31 March 2021
|8.|Debtors|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
||||||2021||2020|
|||||||£|£|
||Trade debtors||||53,000||-|
||Accrued income|||||-|32,500|
||Prepayments|||||-|792|
||||||53,000||33,292|
|9.|Creditors|||||||
||Amounts falling due within one year –|||||||
||||||2021||2020|
|||||||£|£|
||Trade creditors||||2,266||1,914|
||Taxes and social security|costs||||-|4,491|
||Other creditors||||11,228||5,621|
||Accruals|||||956|4,196|
||||||14,450||16,222|
|10.|Statement of funds|||||||
|||**Balance at**|**Incoming**|**Resources**|**Transfer**||**Balance at**|
|||**01/04/2020**|**Resources**|**Expended**|**of funds**||**31/03/2021**|
||**Restricted Funds**|**£**|**£**|**£**|**£**||**£**|
||Gardening|-|37,516|(37,831)||315|-|
||Multi Sports|-|1,500|(1,500)||-|-|
||Carers|-|15,000|(15,000)||-|-|
||Our Futures|62,343|56,664|(97,916)||-|21,091|
||Buddy Bicycles|1,298|750|(2,048)||-|-|
||**Total Restricted Funds**|63,641|111,430|(154,295)||315|21,091|
||**Unrestricted Funds**|29,413|119,793|(66,076)|(315)||82,815|
||Total Funds as at 31|**93,054**|**231,223**|**(220,371)**||-|**103,906**|
||March|||||||