2021-03-31-accounts - Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

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Charity no. 1182079

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation Receipts and Payments Accounts 31 March 2021

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Reference and administrative details

For theyear ended 31	March 2021
Charity number	1182079
Registered office and	21 Alexander Gardens
operational address	Stanley Road
	Carshalton
	Surrey
	SM5 4LJ
Trustees	The trustees who served during the year and up to the date of this report
	were as follows:
	Grace Abamba	Appointed 11 November 2021
	Kardar Challenger	Resigned 21 September 2021
	Cleo Douglas	Chair
	Veronica Fritzon
	Graham Hedley	Resigned 12 January 2021
	Mic Lord	Appointed 16 October 2020,
		resigned 1 November 2021
	Marina Pruce	Appointed 16 October 2020,
		resigned 30 July 2021
	Annisha Taylor	Appointed 11 November 2021
Bankers	HSBC Bank
	75 – 77 High Street
	Sutton
	SM1 1DU
	Metro Bank
	83 - 87 High Street
	Sutton
	SM1 1JF
Independent	Godfrey Wilson Limited
examiners	Chartered accountants and statutory auditors
	5th Floor Mariner House
	62 Prince Street
	Bristol
	BS1 4QD

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Reference and administrative information set out on page 1 forms part of this report. The financial statements comply with current statutory requirements and constitution.

Objectives and activities

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation (SACCO), Celebrating African and Caribbean Heritage in the Community , became a charity in 2019. It was formerly Sutton Black History Group. We provide educational activities, cultural events and group meetings for all the community.

We concentrate on helping children and young people, raising expectations, social isolation and culturally appropriate activities, and we seek to address health disadvantages particular to the community.

Since 2019/20, work was underway to meet the status and Governance structures of a newly formed charitable organisation.

Our objectives for 2020-21 were:

To maintain continuity of service despite the restrictions of Covid-19 by doing more online;
To allow consolidation of structural changes and maintain stability;
To recruit fresh expertise to the board of trustees in order to widen scope;
To respond to the findings of the Ubele analysis regarding capacity;
To respond to the training need audit of existing trustees and management committee;
To implement ICT training to improve communications; and
To apply for core funding in order to enhance the administrative support available to meet service demands.

Achievements and performance

The continued impact from Covid-19 and changing government guidelines created significant changes and adaptation to our working practices, but commitment from group members and volunteers allowed us to deliver outcomes and achieve our goals.

Projects undertaken were:

African Village joint project with Community Action Sutton;
Vaccine Video to encourage /reduce vaccine hesitancy;
Polka Theatre 100 selfies;
International Women's Day work with Sutton Womens centre;
Attracting a small group of students from a local school - Young Voices - which has proven beneficial as they have brought young/new ideas, particularly in terms of Social Media;
Completion of Growing Up oral project work with Sutton Heritage;
Attendance at Merton Heritage Festival;
Wellbeing food boxes to Sutton residents; and
Kaleidoscope Magazine - increased readership both digitally and hard copies. Many people have given several positive comments on both the content and layout.

Black History Month - February 2021

Due to the Covid-19 restrictions, we decided to postpone our regular Black History Month activities which would ordinarily be held in October and moved it to February. During this time, we were in partial lockdown whereby we could not meet in groups.

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2021

We decided instead of cancelling our activities to move them all online. This brought a new challenge as we had to learn how to navigate platforms such as Eventbrite, which allowed for people to book onto our events. In addition to this, we had to learn how to use Zoom for a larger number of people other than those who are within our organisation.

The online events during February’s Black History Month were a huge success. We launched the month by having an event with Patrick Hutchinson as our keynote speaker, as well as other people who delivered entertainment such as playing the violin, singing, poetry and dancing. Madam Mayoress Councillor, Trish Fivey, along with other stakeholders, were also in attendance. We held a Q&A session with Patrick, which revealed that we had people attending online from countries such as China, United States of America, Jamaica, Norway, France and Spain, as well as attendees from around the United Kingdom.

During Black History Month, we facilitated 43 online events during February with a further 18 events in March, some due to popular demand. These events were all free due to funding received from the National Lottery. We facilitated a broad range of activities from storytelling, art and comic design, for children, mixed ability chair exercise classes for our elders and those who have restricted mobility, pilates, yoga, ancestry and history talks, to mention a few. These online events allowed us to raise our profile as well as our reach. We had 797 participants in February with a further 490 in March, many of whom were repeat attendees. Events such as the mixed ability exercise class have continued throughout the year as we recognised the benefit it was having on individuals, especially for those who were isolating, and due to popular demand.

Our children and young person's events

Activities and services for children and young people are keen to highlight the contributions of people of African & Caribbean descent in Science, Technology, Engineering Arts and Maths (STEAM), and to promote diversity and inclusion in STEAM. This was done through the following projects:

Butterfly project - providing families with an all-inclusive butterfly garden that allowed children and adults alike to be transfixed by the transformation of caterpillars into beautiful Painted Lady butterflies during lockdown;
Look Up project based on Mae Jemison - with at home science experiments celebrating British Science Week during lockdown; and
Gravity & Weightlessness project - children attended an aerial workshop.

We are keen to make sure that our community has the opportunity to access, learn about, identify with, enjoy and benefit from STEAM experiences. We believe now is the perfect time and we hope to be a catalyst for real change in our locality.

Our family and community learning workshops are a multi-generational, hands-on family engagement, designed to help children and their grown ups to learn and positively experience science and technology. We do this with the principles of creativity, culture and community.

Social media

Prior to Covid-19, SACCO’s social media presence was quite small; it consisted of having a Facebook and Instagram page, and a twitter feed. We quickly recognised that in order for SACCO to remain in the public eye, we would have to increase our social media output. Many of the committee members' knowledge of working remotely and use of social media was very limited.

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2021

We invested in the use of Zoom, which allowed us to have unlimited time for meetings, but to also carry out projects online. We learned to utilise platforms such as Hootsuite, which we used to make multiple social media posts at different times and days.

As we are an intergenerational charity, we had to try and understand our audience. We concentrated on the projects that we were running and used creative content to advertise them on platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and, more recently, YouTube and Tiktok.

There have been some challenges with delivering online classes, whereby we have found that some of our elderly users find navigating Eventbrite and Zoom a little difficult. We have tried to overcome this by having some of the committee members being available on the phone to guide them through the process. We also recognise that some of these participants would not use platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, so when advertising events and classes we email participants directly if we have contact details, but also ensure we send notification of these classes to other institutions and stakeholders such as the local NHS CCG and Age Concern.

Organisational development

SACCO celebrated Veronica Fritzon, who was nominated and awarded 'Trustee of the Year' and volunteer award winner.

The operational role was extremely busy, and as trustee/operational manager they:

Undertook a skills assessment of the slimdown board of trustees, which demonstrated the need to recruit and appoint new trustees;
Produced job descriptions and personal specifications for the trustees role;
Prepared an information pack and application pack for new trustees;
Promoted vacancies by word of mouth, contacting local voluntary bureaus, and local advertising channels;
Recruited staff with other trustees, and realigned the management committee;
Appointed a new Office Manager and organised induction;
Undertook background checks, sought references and verified the accuracy of information;
Created a checklist of who to be informed of appointments and what documents required updating following appointments;
▪ Identified existing trustee development needs and urged attendance at relevant training courses; and
An assessment of group functioning and development needs was undertaken by UBELE and feedback from them was useful.

As part of the organisation's development, there were new laptops for committee use, the increase of remote working during lockdown, and exercise classes online.

We are very thankful for our volunteers who give their time freely and support SACCO in a range of roles and events throughout the year. SACCO has a proud tradition of being a wholly run, voluntary organisation for over 10 years. Therefore identifying support to develop volunteers and enable them to move up into governance roles within the organisation or for career aspirations is a key aim. We ensure they are involved in relevant strategic, operational and group development plans.

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Risk management

The board of trustees are responsible for the identification and management of the risks faced by the organisation. Risk management processes were reviewed during the year and the key areas identified were:

Governance - a number of trustees resigned in 2021 and this was addressed by the recruitment of new trustees with diverse skills and defined roles; and
Finance - to increase the diversity of income streams, and implement improved financial processes. This was mitigated by recruiting a part-time Bookkeeper, Office Manager with a financial background, and an experienced Treasurer.

As a result of our trustee recruitment and risk management processes, we are now satisfied that the major risks have been identified and have been adequately mitigated where necessary. We will continue to monitor our risks.

Financial review

For the year ended 30 April 2021, incoming resources were £34,519 (2020: £23,091) and resources expended were £27,089 (2020: £16,871), resulting in a surplus for the year of £7,430 (2020: £6,208). Total funds at 30 April 2021 were £13,975 (2020: £6,545), of which £10,042 is held in restricted funds with £3,933 in unrestricted reserves.

We obtained a number of grants, some project specific and some other small Covid-19 recovery grants, and work commenced on changes to our website, and updating of policies regarding health and safety measures, infection control equipment and notices.

We received grants from the following funders. This increased funding allowed us to provide much needed part-time administrative support, a Bookkeeper and some needed office equipment. We want to thank our funders:

Association of Study of Animal Behaviour;
British Science Association;
Clarion Housing;
Community Action Sutton;
Greater London Volunteering;
London Borough of Sutton;
Magic Little Grants;
National Lottery - Community Fund; and
Yapp Charitable Trust.

We are also very appreciative for donations we received. We thank all for their generosity – Sutton High School, two local churches, and local shops Morrisons, Sainsbury, Tesco, as well as private individuals who gave us fresh produce from the allotments.

Reserves

Our reserves policy calls for unrestricted reserves to be held in the range of 3-6 months operating expenditure which is £6,772. Our unrestricted reserves currently are £3,933. We need to increase our unrestricted reserves to reach our target of 3 months but, as our second year as a charity, we are nearly there. We continue to be a going concern as we secure and apply for funding required to sustain and grow SACCO’s activities in 2021/22.

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Report of the trustees

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Public benefit

The trustees confirm that they have complied with the duty in section 4 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to the Charity Commission's general guidance on public benefit and publication by Charity Commission "Charities and Public Benefit".

SACCO charitable objectives are:

For the benefit of the public to develop the capacity and skills of the members of the Black African and Caribbean disadvantaged community of LB Sutton and the surrounding area in such a way that they are better able to identify, and help meet, their needs and to participate more fully in society;
To provide or assist in the provision of facilities in the interests of social welfare for recreation or other leisure time occupation of individuals who have need of such facilities by reason of their social circumstances, with the object of improving their conditions of life; and
For the benefit of the public, SACCO will work towards the elimination of discrimination on the grounds of race or ethnicity.

As trustees, in fulfilment of its charitable objectives, we continually seek to include feedback from those who use our services, funders, members, volunteers and staff.

We have established and maintained good relationships with other stakeholders, colleges, local hospitals, BME groups, churches and businesses, and our success in this is reflected in increased awareness of our group, and more people wanting to work in partnership with us.

SACCO delivered a wide range of projects throughout the year.

Plans for future periods

Our future plans include preparation for accreditation, completing the intergenerational project in Merton, completing Friendship Friday development, British Science Association work, conference and partnership work on mixed heritage succession planning and training.

Structure, governance and management

SACCO is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) with voting members other than its charity trustees.

There is a recruitment process for trustees including an application process, interview and references.

Our Annual General Meeting was held online on 22 October 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions.

Independent examiners

Godfrey Wilson Limited were appointed as independent examiners to the charity during the year and have expressed their willingness to continue in that capacity.

Approved by the trustees on 31 January 2022 and signed on their behalf by

Cleo Douglas

Cleo Douglas - Chair

Independent examiner's report

To the trustees of

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation (the charity) for the year ended 31 March 2021, which are set out on pages 8 to 9.

Respective responsibilities of trustees and examiner

As the trustees of the charity you are responsible for the preparation of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (‘the Act’).

I report in respect of my examination of the charity’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.

Independent examiner's statement

I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have come to my attention in connection with the examination giving me cause to believe that in any material respect:

(1) accounting records were not kept in respect of the charity as required by section 130 of the Act; or
(2) the accounts do not accord with those records.

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.

William Guy Blake

Date: 31 January 2022 William Guy Blake ACA Member of the ICAEW

For and on behalf of:

Godfrey Wilson Limited

Chartered accountants and statutory auditors 5th Floor Mariner House

62 Prince Street Bristol BS1 4QD

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Receipts and payments account

For the year ended 31 March 2021

Receipts Grants Fundraising events Donations Membership subscriptions Refunds Total receipts Payments Project costs Admin expenses Office rent Telephone and internet Insurance Printing, postage and stationery Business rates Repairs and maintenance Fundraising Purchase of assets Total payments Net receipts / (payments) Cash funds at 1 April 2020 Cash funds at 31 March 2021	Restricted Unrestricted £ £ 32,115 850 - 808 - 468 - 278 - - 32,115 2,404 19,592 - 5,379 - 1,426 - 253 122 - 232 - 85 - - - - - - - - 26,650 439 5,465 1,965 4,577 1,968 10,042 3,933	2021 Total £ 32,965 808 468 278 - 34,519 19,592 5,379 1,426 375 232 85 - - - - 27,089 7,430 6,545 13,975	Restated 2020 Total £ 16,767 3,253 500 169 2,402
			23,091
			2,548 107 3,600 293 193 876 161 251 3,904 4,950
			16,883
			6,208 337
			6,545

The prior year has been restated to correct a minor casting error on expenditure.

Sutton African & Caribbean Cultural Organisation

Statement of assets and liabilities

As at 31 March 2021

Cash funds Cash at bank and in hand Total cash funds Cash funds Restricted funds Unrestricted funds General funds Total cash funds	2021 £ 13,975 13,975 10,042 3,933 13,975	Restated 2020 £ 6,545
		6,545
		4,577 1,968
		6,545

Approved by the trustees on 31 January 2022 and signed on their behalf by

Cleo Douglas

Cleo Douglas - Chair