2021-04-01-accounts

Trustees' Annual Report for the period

From

Period start date Period end date

To

02 04 2020

01 04 2021

Section A Reference and administration details

March 2012

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1

Charity name

Stevenage and North Herts Talking News

Other names charity is known by

Registered charity number (if any)

1184417

Charity's principal address

St Hilda's Church

March 2012

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9 Breakspear

Stevenage

Postcode

SG2 9SQ

Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity

Trustee name Office (if any) Dates acted if not for whole year Name of person (or body) entitled to appoint trustee (if any)

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1

Ian Hanks Chair

2

Rachael McLaughlan (formerly Baker) Secretary

3

Wendy Roskilly Treasurer Catherine Tollington

4

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Names of the trustees for the charity, if any, (for example, any custodian trustees)

Name Dates acted if not for whole year

Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)

Type of adviser Name Address

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Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)

Section B Structure, governance and management

Description of the charity’s trusts

Type of governing document

(eg. trust deed, constitution)

Constitution (dated 12 February 2020)

How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company)

CIO (Foundation)

Trustee selection methods

(eg. appointed by, elected by)

Elected by members at Annual General Meeting

Additional governance issues (Optional information)

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

• policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;

• the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;

• relationship with any related parties;

• trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.

The charity is managed by a committee which is made up of the trustees and other committee members elected at the AGM.

Stevenage and North Herts Talking News is a member of the Talking News Federation.

We have written policies on Safeguarding Policy and Procedures (reviewed May 2021), Equality (reviewed April 2021), Privacy (reviewed April 2021), and a GDPR Statement (reviewed April 2021).

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Section C Objectives and activities

Summary of the objects of the charity set out in its governing document

To provide to the blind or the partially sighted or those labouring under some temporary or permanent incapacity or disability which makes reading a strain, a weekly newspaper and magazine through a recorded device.

Summary of the main activities undertaken for the public benefit in relation to these objects (include within this section the statutory declaration that trustees have had regard to the guidance issued by the Charity Commission on public benefit)

To achieve our objects we:

• recruit, train and organise a team of volunteers as readers, article writers, editors, technicians and dispatchers;

• gather articles and items from our local papers and other sources;

• distribute these by email to the volunteer readers who record in their own homes using their own smartphones;

• obtain recordings of articles from a variety of national magazines by subscription to the RNIB;

• compile and adjust the sound on all the audio recordings to produce a master copy;

• duplicate on to the required number of memory sticks;

• distribute these to the listeners each week via the ‘Articles for the Blind’ postal service;

• upload each week’s edition to the British Wireless for the Blind Fund (BWBF)’s app;

• attract and recruit new blind and partially sighted listeners, introduce them to the service, loan them a suitable media player to listen to their recordings, and keep in touch with them to ensure the service is meeting their needs;

• maintain a confidential register of listeners, having regard to GDPR guidelines;

• seek funds as needed to pay for equipment and subscriptions required to maintain the service, through grants from funding bodies and donations.

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Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)

You may choose to include All our members are volunteers, we do not have any paid further statements, where employees. relevant, about:

• policy on grantmaking;

• policy programme related investment;

• contribution made by volunteers.

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Section D Achievements and performance

• Summary of the main  In late 2020 we had a very good response to an appeal achievements of the for volunteers via our local paper. As a result we were

• charity during the year able to more than double our number of volunteers which allowed us to divide our news readers into two teams reading on alternate weeks; introduce teams of volunteers to compile and read non-news items; recruit and train an additional volunteer for our team of technicians; and recruit a volunteer to take on the role of listener liaison.

• We had an average of 28 volunteers during the year, including trustees and committee, and distributed recordings on memory sticks to an average of between 40 and 50 listeners every week throughout the year.

• We introduced some new listeners during the year, but sadly also lost some listeners who were no longer able to take advantage of our service due to worsening health. The great majority of our listeners are older people who are losing their sight due to macular degeneration.

• Our ability to attract new listeners was impacted by the pandemic, as many of the groups or agencies by which listeners typically hear about us were no longer functioning.

• We continued to use our system of remote working so that readers, editors, compilers and dispatchers could work independently from home using their own smartphones and email. This means that we avoid the cost of expensive equipment or premises, and allows our volunteers to manage their own work within a set time frame.

• In addition to distributing our weekly editions to our listeners via memory sticks, we continued to publish them on the BWBF Talking News platform so that they are available publicly. This allows our volunteer readers to hear the finished product and monitor their own performance.

• We have gradually extended the content of our editions beyond the local papers and the RNIB magazine recordings, by finding, and encouraging our volunteers to find, items from other sources which will be of interest to our listeners.

• We have liaised with other talking news groups and shared material with a number of them.

• We submitted an edition of our Talking News to the Talking News Federation for review. The resulting report was very favourable and made just a couple of suggestions for improvement which we have acted on.

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Section D Achievements and performance

Section E Financial review

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Brief statement of the charity’s policy on reserves

We need to hold reserves of unrestricted available funds which are sufficient to allow us to operate for a full year without any new income. Taking into account annual fees and subscriptions currently totalling £480, and equipment and consumables for loan to up to 20 new listeners per year currently totalling around £1,280 per year, the minimum amount of unrestricted reserves we should hold at any time is £2,000, which can however include the value of equipment and consumables held in stock.

Details of any funds materially in deficit

Further financial review details (Optional information)

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

We sought and obtained grants from two local funding bodies in order to replace a key piece of equipment.

• the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);

We also sought and obtained grants from two other local sources of funds funding bodies; received four unsolicited donations from (including any listeners or their families; one donation from a local employer; fundraising); and two donations from local clubs. These have enabled us to  continue to meet our ongoing running costs. how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;

• investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.

Section G Declaration

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

Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees

Signature(s)

Document has been read and agreed by all trustees via email and at a committee meeting.

Full name(s)

March 2012

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Ian R Hanks

Wendy H Roskilly

Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Chair Treasurer

Date

07 September 2021

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Charity Name No (if any) Stevenage and North Herts Talking News 1184417 Receipts and payments accounts For the period Period start date Period end date To from 02.04.20 01.04.2021

----- 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
Grants 5,178 - - 5,178
Donations 3,656 - - 3,656
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
8,834 - - 8,834
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 8,834 - - 8,834
A3 Payments
Zip wallets and address labels 780 - - 780
24 x media players for loan to listeners
1,137 - - 1,137
Replacement USB duplicator 3,009 3,009
Memory sticks 112 - - 112
Annual subscriptions and charges 479 - - 479
Sub total [ 5,517 ] - - 5,517
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - -
Total payments 5,517 - - 5,517
Net of receipts/(payments) 3,317 - - 3,317
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 844 - - 844
Cash funds this year end 4,161 - - 4,161
----- End of picture text -----

		Unrestricted		Restricted
Categories	Details	funds		funds
B1 Cash funds	Cash Total cash funds	to nearest £ 4,161 - - 4,161		to nearest £ - - - -
	(agree balances with receipts and payments account(s))	OK	OK
		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 31 x media players in stock, available for	Unrestricted Fund to which asset belongs	Cost (optional)
charity’s own use	Media players already on loan to listeners Consumables in circulation PC and laptop Memory stick duplicator loan to listeners Consumables (memory sticks, padded wallets, labels, batteries) in stock	Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted Unrestricted		- - -
		Fund to which		Amount due
B5 Liabilities	Details	liability relates		- - - - - (optional)
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees	Signature	Print	Name
	Read and approved by all trustees via email and at a committee meeting	Ian R Hanks
		Wendy H Roskilly

----- Start of picture text -----
CC16a
----- End of picture text -----

Last year

to the nearest £

-

-

-

Endowment funds

to nearest £ - - - -

OK

Endowment funds

to nearest £

-

Current value (optional)

-

Current value (optional)

When due (optional)

Date of approval 07.09.21 07.09.21