Trustees' Annual Report for the period Period start date Period end date 02 04 2021 01 04 2022
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To
Section A Reference and administration details
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 9 Breakspear Stevenage Postcode SG2 9SQ
Names of the charity trustees who manage the charity
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Name of person (or body)
Dates acted if not for
Trustee name Office (if any) entitled to appoint trustee
whole year
(if any)
1 Ian Hanks Chair
Rachael Secretary
2
McLaughlan
3 Wendy Roskilly Treasurer
Catherine Until 07.09.21
4
Tollington
5 Neil Dodds From 20.09.21
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
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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
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Names and addresses of advisers (Optional information)
Type of adviser Name Address
Name of chief executive or names of senior staff members (Optional information)
Section B Structure, governance and management
Description of the charity’s trusts
Constitution (dated February 2020) Type of governing document
(eg. trust deed, constitution)
CIO (Foundation) How the charity is constituted (eg. trust, association, company)
Elected by members at Annual General Meeting Trustee selection methods
(eg. appointed by, elected by)
Additional governance issues (Optional information)
You may choose to include additional information, where relevant, about:
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policies and procedures adopted for the induction and training of trustees;
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the charity’s organisational structure and any wider network with which the charity works;
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 (reviewed April 2022), Policy and Procedures (reviewed April 2021), Privacy (reviewed April 2021), and a GDPR Statement (reviewed April 2021).
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relationship with any related parties;
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trustees’ consideration of major risks and the system and procedures to manage them.
Section C Objectives and activities
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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.
To achieve our objects we:
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recruit, train and organise a team of volunteers as readers, article writers, editors, technicians and dispatchers;
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gather articles and items from our local papers and other sources;
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distribute these to the volunteer readers who record in their own homes using their own smartphones;
Summary of the main obtain recordings of articles from a variety of national activities undertaken for magazines by subscription to the RNIB; the public benefit in relation to these objects compile and adjust the sound on all the audio recordings (include within this to produce a master copy; section the statutory declaration that trustees duplicate on to the required number of memory sticks; have had regard to the guidance issued by the distribute these to the listeners each week via the Charity Commission on ‘Articles for the Blind’ postal service; public benefit)
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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.
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maintain a confidential register of listeners, having regard to GDPR guidelines;
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seek funds as needed to pay for equipment needed to maintain the service, through grants from funding bodies and donations.
Additional details of objectives and activities (Optional information)
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All our members are volunteers, we do not have any paid employees.
You may choose to include further statements, where relevant, about:
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policy on grantmaking;
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policy programme related investment;
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contribution made by volunteers.
Section D Achievements and performance
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Section D Achievements and performance
Summary of the main achievements of the charity during the year
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Our established team of 26 volunteers has been consistently supportive and reliable, with many proactively helping to promote our service.
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While a number of our listeners have stopped using the service over the year, often due to worsening health, others have joined and our average number of listeners has increased slightly.
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We have developed and launched our website which we hope will allow potential new listeners and their families to learn more about the service we offer.
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We have established a dedicated phone account for our charity manned by a rota of committee members.
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The number of new listeners joining the service is slowly increasing but continues to be affected by the closure of many clubs and support groups where potential listeners might previously have heard about us.
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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. It has also allowed us to continue to produce our Talking News every week throughout the pandemic safely and without interruption.
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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.
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We have continued to extend 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.
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We have continued to liaise with other talking news groups and shared material with a number of them.
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 £558, and equipment and consumables for loan to up to 20 new listeners per year currently totalling around £1320 per year, the minimum amount of unrestricted reserves we should hold at any time is £2,500, 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:
- the charity’s principal sources of funds (including any fundraising);
We sought and obtained donations from a funding organisation, and also received a number of unsolicited donations from listeners or their families; these have enabled us to continue to meet our ongoing running costs and supply listeners with the equipment they need to listen to our Talking News.
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how expenditure has supported the key objectives of the charity;
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investment policy and objectives including any ethical investment policy adopted.
Section F Other optional information
Section G Declaration
The trustees declare that they have approved the trustees’ report above.
Signed on behalf of the charity’s trustees
| Signature(s) Full name(s) Position (eg Secretary, Chair, etc) Date |
Document has been read and agreed by all trustees via email. | Document has been read and agreed by all trustees via email. |
|---|---|---|
| Ian R Hanks | Wendy H Roskilly | |
| Chair | Treasurer | |
| 13 June 2022 |
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Stevenage and North Herts Talking News 1184417
Receipts and payments accounts For the period Period start date Period end date To from 02.04.21 01.04.22
Section A Receipts and payments
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Unrestricted Restricted Endowment
Total funds
funds funds funds
to the nearest
to the nearest £ to the nearest £ to the nearest £
£
A1 Receipts
Donations 2,590 - - 2,590
Grants - - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
2,590 - - 2,590
Sub total (Gross income for AR)
A2 Asset and investment sales,
(see table).
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total - - - -
Total receipts 2,590 - - 2,590
A3 Payments
RNIB magazine subscription x 2 320 - - 320
Royal Mail (PO Box annual fee) 284 - - 284
Website 79 - - 79
Phone 42 - - 42
Memory sticks 248 - - 248
Consumables and sundries 98 - - 98
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ 1,071 ] - - 1,071
A4 Asset and investment
purchases, (see table)
- - - -
- - - -
Sub total [ - ] - - -
Total payments 1,071 - - 1,071
Net of receipts/(payments) 1,519 - - 1,519
A5 Transfers between funds - - - -
A6 Cash funds last year end 4,161 - - 4,161
Cash funds this year end 5,680 - - 5,680
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Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period
| Unrestricted | Restricted | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Categories | Details | funds | funds | |
| B1 Cash funds | Closing balance Total cash funds |
to nearest £ 5,680 - - 5,680 |
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 14 media players in stock, available for loan |
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 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 | Name |
Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees
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CC16a
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Last year
to the nearest £
5,178 3,656 - - - - - - 8,834
8,834
5,517
5,517 3,317 - 844 4,161
Endowment funds to nearest £ - - - -
OK
Endowment funds
to nearest £
-
Current value (optional)
-
Current value (optional)
-
When due (optional)
Date of approval