2021-06-30-accounts

Annual Report of the Trustees of Chichester Area Talking News for the period from 1[st] July 2020 to 30[th] June 2021

Charity Name: Chichester Area Talking News CIO

Charity Number: 1184267

Note: The charity became a CIO at the Annual General Meeting on 24[th] October 2019. The previous charity number is 273279. This charity is now dormant.

Objects: The Objects of the CIO are to relieve visually impaired and other disabled persons by the provision of a recorded news and magazine service.

Main Activities: Every fortnight the local news, taken mainly from the three editions of the ‘Chichester Observer’ local newspaper, is recorded and sent out to our blind and visually impaired listeners on memory sticks and also online on our website and via Alexa and the British Wireless for the Blind App on smartphones. We also broadcast 4 times a year an audio magazine, ‘Insight’, which features a whole variety of items of interest to our listeners.

Public Benefit: Our whole operation has the single purpose of benefiting blind, visually impaired and other disabled people and enabling them to lead safer, more independent and enriched lives. The trustees confirm that when reviewing the charity’s activities and devising future plans they have referred to the Charity Commission’s general guidance on public benefit and complied with their duties under Section 17 of the Charities Act 2011.

Operation of the Service: Our service is provided entirely by volunteers. We have no paid staff and our volunteers do not receive any remuneration or expenses. There are no conflicts of interest and there is no relationship with any related parties.

The Main Activities of the Charity for 2020/2021:

2020/21 may well go down in history as ‘the year of the coronavirus pandemic’! This has caused difficulties for everyone including CATN and especially our visually impaired listeners who have felt increasingly isolated throughout this period. We have done our best to keep in touch with our listeners by regular telephone calls.

Very reluctantly, in accordance with national instructions and guidelines, we were forced to suspend part of our service during the pandemic as we were unable to use our office and recording studio. However we managed to keep recording programmes from our homes and placing them on our website, Alexa and the British Wireless for the Blind App. Sadly, those listeners who do not have internet connection at home have been unable to listen to our progammes for several months but our Area Helpers and others have kept in touch to maintain personal contact and reassure them they are not forgotten.

The Committee has purchased a number of Alexas which we have made available on loan to our visually impaired listeners who have internet connection. Listeners tell us how helpful Alexas are for visually impaired people as they not only allow them to listen to our programmes, but also provide the latest news, weather forecast, many radio programmes and music, and act as an encyclopedia – all controlled by simple voice commands and with no need to touch any controls. This assists some of our listeners to lead more independent lives in this way and we expect the use of Alexa and the British Wireless for the Blind App to grow gradually.

Happily, we felt it was safe to return to the office - but not the studio - on 23[rd] July 2020 to copy and distribute the recorded news programmes on memory sticks. Our listeners have told us how delighted they are to hear once again the plastic wallets with

the recordings dropping through their letterboxes! As only very few listeners were receiving CDs, we are now recording entirely on memory sticks.

As at 30[th] June 2021 we had 298 visually impaired listeners and 87 volunteers and friends of CATN, making a total of 357 CATN members altogether – a slight decrease from last year, but only to be expected due to the Covid 19 pandemic.

Despite the problems caused by the ‘lockdown’ much has happened this year: we are now a ‘CIO’ (a ‘Charitable Incorporated Organisation’), which provides important protection for our Trustees during these difficult times for charities; we have written and/or updated all our Policy Statements; carried out all the necessary DBS security checks on our volunteers and Trustees; and are issuing regularly ‘Team Talk’, our newsletter for volunteers and friends, with interesting and informative issues, often featuring our volunteers, thereby reinforcing the team ethos of CATN. We have continued to expand our publicity in the media and have given talks to organisations such as the Chichester Macular Support Group. We expect this activity to increase as restrictions are lifted. We are also reaching out to other groups for disabled people who can benefit from our recorded local news programmes, including Sage House which provides dementia support, and the local Parkinson’s support group. A particularly fruitful partnership has been developed with the West Sussex Libraries Service who have told our listeners about their support services including audio books, some of which are regularly reviewed by Caroline Aston on our programmes.

We were delighted to receive a Civic Award from Chichester City Council in recognition of the free service our volunteers have provided for 46 years to blind, visually impaired and other disabled people in the area. It was particularly appropriate, and also very moving, that the Citation was read by Councillor Debbie Carter who is herself visually impaired. Debbie has now joined us

as one of our listeners. Although the award ceremony had to be held via Zoom it was attended by one of our blind Trustees, Chris Mustchin, and his guide dog, Kenny, who featured on screen.

We were also very pleased to receive a generous contribution from the Chichester branch of Waitrose, as their charity of the month. We continue to receive many cards and letters from our listeners saying how much the service means to them, which we very much appreciate. We also often find financial contributions with these notes which are a great help towards funding CATN as are the bequests and collections from funerals and other occasions which we also receive. We are very grateful indeed for this support. All this is a very clear indication that Chichester Area Talking News is ‘delivering public benefit’ as a charity and providing an important service which is both enhancing the lives of our disabled listeners and is greatly appreciated by them.

In our programmes and the Team Talk newsletter we are featuring the volunteers and friends who carry out the support work to provide the CATN service, as our listeners often ask us how we are all involved. This helps strengthen the bonds between us all which are so important.

We were all extremely sad that it was necessary, because of the coronavirus pandemic, to cancel the 2021 Team Lunch and Listeners’ Lunch. These occasions are both hugely enjoyable and very important and also constitute one of the hallmarks of CATN - the friendship we all benefit from so much. As restrictions ease we are planning a special Annual General Meeting and Entertainment this year to welcome back our listeners, volunteers and friends. As our 2021 AGM is on 21[st] October which is Trafalgar Day we are planning a special occasion with a nautical flavour, with naval flags, a sketch featuring Admiral Nelson and Captain Hardy, and a vocal quintet singing excerpts from ‘HMS Pinafore’.

We are currently developing a new website which will be more flexible and help raise the profile of the organisation, making even better known the free service we provide to disabled people and attracting more people who could benefit from it. We plan to include on the new website our regular issues of Team Talk to keep our listeners and others informed of our activities.

We express our sincere thanks to everyone in CATN - volunteers, listeners and friends - for all the help and support we receive throughout the year. It is a fine organisation of which we are all justly proud.

Review of the charity’s financial position at 30[th] June 2021: Full details are given in the attached Financial Statements. The trustees have reviewed the financial position and consider it to be satisfactory: the reserves held are sufficient to manage any change in its financial situation; they are not aware of any significant risks facing the charity; and they consider there are no uncertainties about it continuing as a ‘going concern’.

Principal sources of funds: The charity is funded by legacies and donations from individual members and from grant-making trusts, and also from fund raising. This year we received a donation from the Chichester branch of Waitrose as mentioned above.

Governing document: The charity’s governing document is its Constitution, dated 22 June 2019. The charity is a CIO – a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

Appointment of trustees and volunteers: The trustees, who form the Committee, are appointed by the Board of Trustees having regard to the needs of the charity and the attributes of the individuals. The Board includes two visually impaired trustees. Appropriate training and induction arrangements are in place and trustees and those volunteers who visit the homes of visually impaired listeners are subject to DBS checks. In accordance with

the requirements of the Constitution, the following 3 trustees retired by rotation, offered themselves for re- election, and were reappointed: Mr R Bunker, Mrs H Pinn and Mr J Holloway.

Trust Details:

Principal Office:

Chichester Area Talking News, The Studio, St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester,

West Sussex PO19 6SE

Tel: [phone] Email: [e-mail] Website: www.catn.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 1184267

Trustees:

Mr R. Bunker (Chairman)

Mrs E Bush (Secretary)

Mr G Porter (Treasurer)

Mr J Holloway

Mrs H Pinn

Mr R I Money

Mr C Jenner

Mrs J Penn

Mr C Mustchin

Mrs C Mustchin (appointed 24.10.19)

Mrs A Brearley-Smith (appointed 8.2.21)

Mr D Bathurst (appointed 8.2.21)

Bankers: Barclays Bank plc East Street, Chichester

Independent Examiner of Accounts: Evans Weir, The Victoria, 25 St Pancras, Chichester West Sussex PO19 7LT

The Trustees’ Report was approved by the Board of Trustees Signed on behalf of the Trustees

Richard Bunker (Chairman) Date…23[rd] November 2021………………

Registered Office: The Studio, St Richard’s Hospital, Chichester PO19 6SE

CATN Income and Expenditure Year Ended 30 June 2021

			Year Ended 30 June 2021
	A	B	C	D	E
1	2019-2020		INCOME		2020-202
2
3	2,520.40		Donations		618
4	1,831.34		Interest		10,413.50
5	1,063.00		Income Functions		nil
6			Hall Refunds		125
7
8	5,414.74		Total Income		11,156.50
9
10			EXPENSES
11
12	1,905.77		Equipment		825.01
13	934		Printing,Postage & Stationery		324.65
14	3,658.00		Cost of Functions		nil
15	802.78		Insurance		808.6
16	642.00		Telephone		630.2
17	670.4		Care Check		97.8
18	1,153.10		SundryExpenses		1,727.40
19
20	8,559.12		Total Expenses		4,413.66
21
22	3,144.38		Defcit/Surplus for Year		6,742.84

CATN Income and Expenditure Year Ended 30 June 2021

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