BCB provides a volunteer-delivered, reactive, service-focused on individuals and families who cannot cope with life issues that arise and who do not have the capacity (financial, life skills, knowledge) to cope, usually in some kind of emergency or time-critical situation.
Over the past year, the Rothschild Foundation Grant has played a pivotal role in supporting our organisation’s strategic objectives and driving initiatives across key areas: Ukrainian refugee support, community outreach, and infrastructure/organisational improvement.
In the realm of Ukrainian refugee support, the ongoing support is for Ukrainian refugee families, mainly female parents with school-age children. Demand for this service has, thankfully, diminished, leaving a hard core of families who continue to struggle with English and who rely on continued support from BCB.
Community outreach initiatives continue. Our outreach service is available to individuals and families experiencing severe, immediate support needs. This includes providing the front-end of the OneCan food bank service in Beaconsfield and the surrounding villages, the provision of grants and, where appropriate, physical support in the form of transport, skills such as decorating, IT support, handholding for transactions with local government, as well as psychological support in the Ukrainian language.
We have upgraded our IT systems, trained volunteers, and implemented marketing initiatives to increase awareness of our services among a wider audience. We have concluded negotiations with the Beaconsfield Advisory Centre, resulting in a formal memorandum of understanding that will lead to a merger of the two organisations scheduled for 2026/7.
Three years ago, the exodus of Ukrainian refugee families to the UK was significant. Initially, we were supporting over fifty Ukrainian families within the South Bucks area. Support was provided mainly in the areas of information, cultural events, English group training, and an information service – ‘Understanding the way the UK works.’
Today, we continue to provide support to Ukrainian families, the nature of which has changed significantly from group support to tailored, one-to-one support – usually to mothers with school-aged children.
The second area of targeted support – the sudden issue requiring urgent support – has remained largely consistent over the three years. What has changed is that we have developed relationships with other charitable and state organisations, supporting a much wider ‘safety net’ of services and support. Thirdly, we have significantly improved our IT infrastructure.
This is an ongoing task, as the proposed merger with The BAC will require us to merge our physical and logical infrastructure to provide a common platform.
We have learned that any task is usually more difficult and costly than initially estimated. We have also realised that, within a National Health Service context, the recently introduced Social Prescribing model can provide a source of valid beneficiaries. We have therefore increased our focus on serving as a provider to the ARC Primary Care Network. The advantage is that we receive valid, authentic referrals that the referrer is confident fall within our service range. We have also
realised that we need to spend much more time and effort looking after our volunteers. We started the charity at the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic when volunteers were plentiful and eager to get involved. Over the years, and certainly since the epidemic ended, it has been much more difficult to attract and retain volunteers, requiring greater focus and effort.
Our activities have been focused on the following areas during the reporting year:
Beaconsfield (55%) The Farnhams & Stoke Poges (22%) Flackwell Heath & The Wooburns (7%) Penn, Tylers Green & Loudwater (6%) Burnham (10%)
Number of Service Users supported: 260 Number of Service Delivery Staff contributing to the delivery of funded activity: 0
Number of Volunteers contributing to the delivery of the funded activity: 35 Number of Schools: 1 Number of Children Under 16: 45 Number of Young People 16-24: 38
We have been particularly impressed by the ease with which the voluntary sector (in this case, BCB and other Ukrainian support Groups (The Marlow Collective specifically)) have worked with local Government officers to provide gap-free support to needy families. It is refreshing to see that the whole system works together to solve often exceedingly difficult issues.
Better Connected Beaconsfield UK Registered Chanty Mo 1185885 Statement of Assets and Llabilitios March 2025 Cash As58ts 1£) 31.3.2025 31.3.2024 Bar¢lay¥ Bank Ca¥h £31.488.50 £0.00 £31.488.$0 £24,512.10 £24.512.10 £o.c() £o.rK) N•t A558ts 1£) É31.488.50 £24.512.10 R814d Fund• and Exp•ndliure between 1st AprH 2023 And 31st March 2024 Tolal incoming Tolal outgoings Not in loutl £9.630.00 £2.653.60 £6,976.40 Bol¥n¢0 4131 March 2025 £31.488.50 Approved ondsignedon beh01f oA&ErrERCONNEcfEDBEACON5FIEID ChSt1e Adali Treasurer Paid Henry Chalr .3.i.- 11-. 29 D4te Inde endent Examlnef's certlftcatlon I hawe examined the books and re(d5 of BErrER CONP4EcfED BEACONSFIELD and (Èrtify thatthe atwJ¥e staternÈnt of assots and liabilities and the receipts and payment5 accounts are accordance iherewith.